I've been writing this post for a few days already!!! I keep starting it and then, I end up doing something else ^_^; Sigh, things have just been... not hectic, but how to say... out of order. My routine is all messed up by lack of sleep, watching Bones and stuff. I hate it when my routine is disrupted, grrr. If at least, it was because I was reading... sigh.
Let see if we can get it done today...
So last week, I posted pictures of the trip and more specifically, of the books I got LOL :) I'm pretty happy with what I got, especially with my UBS finds. I love going to new UBS. Personally, I think there is more chance for you to find treasures in UBS that you've never been to or that you don't frequently go to. The logic behind it is once you've visited a UBS, you need to wait till someone brings something new/interesting. That's okay if you're looking for newest releases, but old ones - well you need to wait till someone does a purge and that's rare. When you go to a new UBS, then you don't know what they have and that makes it exciting and more likely that you find treasures :)
Let see... I mentioned two of my finds in a previous post: Calder's Rose by Kate Angell and Deadline by Metsy Hingle. I've been looking for Kate Angell's backlist for a while and the only one still missing was Calder's Rose. So I'm really glad I found it :)
Other good finds were the Suzann Ledbetter's books. It's a series and the first 4 books are based on the directions: West, East, South and North. I had South in my TBR pile and was considering giving it away, just because I couldn't find the other 3 books and make sense of it. Now I have them :D
The Jane Goodger were also good finds! I really enjoyed When There is Hope and her most recent book, Marry Christmas. I really wanted to read more of her, but most of her backlist is out of print... so to find 3 books?!? Major score!! It was actually funny. I found one at the first UBS near Kristie's place... and then, at the second UBS, the books were shelved by genres... I was in the contemporary section and I reminded myself to look up for Jane Goodger's books. Then, when I was in the historical section, I was like: "Kristie!! Who am I supposed to look up for in the historical section!!" LOL :P
I was glad to find Years by Lavyrle Spencer because I remembered Jill liked it :) Stardust of Yesterday by Lynn Kurland was a good find also, especially since I've recently read Till There Was You and the characters of Stardust of Yesterday are mentioned in that book... Before my trip to Toronto, I've decided to finally cave and give a try to Suzanne Enoch's new historical series. I blame Rowena for that! LOL :) She kept saying in her reviews how she loved them... I almost bought them at the bookstore, but then, decided to be a good girl and wait till I hit the UBS... because perhaps, just perhaps I would find them... and I did!! During my trip, I discovered Carolyn Jewel and Rosie kept praising the author... I was actually looking for The Spare which Rosie has recently reviewed... but found Lord Ruin instead. Oh well, beggers can't be choosers, right? So Lord Ruin it is :) One of the books I was on the look-out for was Night in Eden by Candice Proctor because my dear host, Kristie, had just made an author spotlight and said that was her favorite.
Oh and one of the best find was... Down by the River by Robyn Carr. See, two years ago when we had our first Canadian Blogger Meet, Down by the River is one of the book I was looking for... In all the bookstores we went to, I would look for that book... and I didn't find it. And sure, the whole trilogy was re-printed back in October 2008... but to find an original copy! Yeah, I wasn't going to pass over that book! and it just brought memories... so I bought it :)
LOL, do you see how blogland has influenced me? :P See, most of my purchases were all justified!! I have to say, there's only one or two books I actually picked up because of the cover and blurb... Otherwise, most of them were all books that I've heard through blogland, authors that I've read and enjoyed and wanted to read more... or recommendations from Kristie (Jill Marie Landis, Lucky's Lady by Tami Hoag, etc.) :D And of course, there are the books I got from Kristie and Cindy or the books I bought new :) Lots of good stuff among them as well :) I mean, Yay for duplicate!! That's how I got Connor's Way by Laura Lee Guhrke from Kristie... Again, this book is really hard to find and is Kristie's favorite by Ms Guhrke, so I wanted to give it a try. I was going to borrow it only, but Kristie had a duplicate... so Yay!! :) I also bought another copy of The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner... I was looking for the mass market copy so it would fit with my copies of The Thief and The Queen of Attolia... but the hardcover was on sale... 2$!!! Forget the mass market copy then!
So how is it that after coming back home with 58 books... I want to buy more? My TBB list has actually grown, especially jotting down the books I have to be on the look-out next time I go to a UBS... The Lynn Michaels, When She's Bad by Leanne Banks, Kathleen Kane - a new author I've discovered through Cindy, etc. The list is just growing... Then add in the specials that the bookstores are having: Buy 3, get the 4th free, 5$ off on a purchase over 35$, 20% off a book on a purchase over 35$... I mean, these are just too tempting!! Want to hear some of my recent adventures? On Monday, I went to two bookstores to buy Hot in Here by Sophie Renwick and couldn't find it... Two!! So what did I do? I went to another bookstore at 9am the next day LOL :) Bought 4 trade-size - Buy 3, get the 4th free, gotta love this special :P In the afternoon, I went to another bookstore and got my hand on the new Julia Quinn, Susan Mallery, Susan Andersen and Larger than Life by Kay Hooper. I almost went to the bookstore again today... but decided against it. The Buy 3, get the 4th free promotion is still going on... so I think I'll be doing a nice booking adventure this week-end... There's the bookstore that is on the opposite side of Montreal and it has a good UBS close-by. Do it around 10am on Sunday when there's no traffic and only Chapters is open :)
Am I crazy buying so many books?!? Tracy had a post yesterday about TBR pile. After reading her post... I started wondering, does it matter how many books there is in the pile? :P I mean, that hasn't stopped me from buying books in the past... As long as I have the room and the money, right?
Ouf, so I think I've talked enough about books :D Onto blogs now :) If you look on my sidebar, I've added a couple of new links :) I've decided to de-lurk... or is it un-lurk? In the past few months, I've seen a lot of names I wasn't familiar with... and they kept showing up in other blogs that I visited... Barbara from Happily Ever After, Leontine, VampFanGirl to name a few. It just seemed like a good time to open my horizon, start making new friends, update my sidebar :)
It's strange how I resisted branching out ^_^; Again, I don't know how this will reflect my personality... but for a while, I resisted because... I felt a sense of proprietary. You know how you have these friends and they are YOUR friends... you want them to only be yours... and when newcomers come and befriended them, you feel left out a little :( You feel like you're losing them... or that they like the newcomers more than you... I guess that deep down, even on the net, I feel a little bit unsecured ^_^; Anyway, the best way in that case is not to cling and close down, but to befriend the new ones and be part of the group... So there, I'm making the big step. I realized that many are not newcomers... that they've been blogging for a while, but I've just never visited their blogs routinely... I'd dropped by every couple of weeks or months. Well not anymore... Of course, that means my blog-hopping will take more time, but hey, that's okay :P
Okie dokie... that's it for tonight :) I'll try to have a review up for tomorrow :D Slowly getting back in my routine... Yay :P
