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Books

Book roundup, special print edition!

Many of the blogs and Twitter feeds I follow have been abuzz with the news of Borders going bankrupt. I am of a weird mind about that since I almost never shopped there, and yet I feel like I ought to be at least a little guilty about a bookstore going under. I’d say this was a motivation for me getting print versions of books this weekend, but I’d be exaggerating–really, it ain’t like I ever need an excuse to buy books of ANY sort.

And here’s what I got!

From Third Place:

  • In the Woods, by Tana French. Mystery, recommended to me by userinfoalg (Anna Genoese). I was actually in the middle of reading this as a library checkout, but I up and decided I am enjoying it more than enough to go ahead and buy my own copy. Also: the trade paperback is lighter to carry than the hardback from the library and I want to go ahead and finish this. Bought in print because the ebook was about the same price at B&N anyway.

And from the University Bookstore, after userinfosolarbird and I went down there to get a new futon from Shiga’s Imports next door:

  • Veil of Lies, by Jeri Westerson. Mystery, but a period mystery this time, with a main character described as a “medieval Sam Spade”. I’d been toying with checking this out from the library but went ahead and decided to get it anyway.
  • The Glasswrights’ Journeyman, by Mindy Klasky. Book 3 of her old Glasswrights fantasy series. Picked up in print since I like the covers, and since it was brought back into my awareness by userinfojpsorrow (Joshua Palmatier) reviewing them. (She’s put them out in ebook form recently but I wanted the paperbacks; they have better covers.)
  • The Fall of the Kings, by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman. Fantasy, set in the same universe as Swordspoint and The Privilege of the Sword. Bought in print since that’s how I have the other two.

This puts me up at 25 for the year. Still working on reading In the Woods–and hard on its heels I’ve got Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind and Michael Koryta’s So Cold the River queued up as library checkouts. More on these as events warrant!

February 21, 2011 by
Books

Books: cure for what ails me

Since yesterday’s hardware shenanigans have settled down, howsabout another book roundup, peeps?

Purchased in a slew of buying from B&N, electronically:

  • Trick of the Mind and A Spider on the Stairs, by Cassandra Chan. Mystery. These are Books 3 and 4 of her Gibbons-Bethancourt series, which I am very much enjoying; I plowed through library checkout copies of Books 1 and 2 last weekend and went ahead and got these in ebook form. I’d already had a copy of Book 3 bought as a cheap hardback but I wanted to read it on the nook since it was available.
  • Bond With Me, by Anne Marsh. Paranormal romance, probably. It’s this week’s Friday freebie from B&N, and I grabbed it since what the hey, free book.
  • The Pretender’s Crown, by C.E. Murphy. Fantasy, the Book 2 to go with the most excellent The Queen’s Bastard. Already own a paper copy of this but this is for reading on the nook!
  • Daughter of the Forest, by Juliet Marilier. Fantasy. Re-buy of a book previously owned in print.
  • Halting State, by Charles Stross. SF. Re-buy of a book previously owned in print.
  • Acacia, by David Anthony Durham. Epic fantasy. Re-buy of a book previously owned in print, specifically because it’s a big brick of a book and those are WAY easier to read for me on the nook these days.
  • Feast of Souls, by C.S. Friedman. Fantasy. Re-buy of a book previously owned in print.
  • The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. YA SF. Because everybody on the planet but me has apparently read this, and right now B&N has the ebook marked down to five bucks.
  • Emissaries from the Dead, by Adam-Troy Castro. SF. Re-buy of a book previously owned in print.

This brings me to 21 for the year!

February 13, 2011 by
Books

2011’s first proper book roundup

I’ve already noted the two I bought this past weekend, but here are other books I’ve acquired in the last couple weeks:

First up, to touch bases on print acqusitions:

  • The signed hardback copy of Agatha H and the Airship City, by Phil and Kaja Foglio, given me for my birthday by userinfotechnoshaman! Steampunky SF goodness, the novelization of the first bits of the Girl Genius graphic novel.
  • Steam-Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories, edited by userinfoupstart_crow with a whole host of authors represented. I’ve already reviewed this, but this is me buying an ebook copy so userinfosolarbird will be able to read it too, and I should also have a print copy on the way.

From Carina Press:

  • Badlands, by Seleste deLaney. More steampunk. Pre-ordered since it looked interesting and I was there to buy a couple other titles anyway.
  • The Mysterious Lady Law, by Robert Appleton. Another steampunk title, novella length.
  • The Paris Secret, by Angela Henry. Romantic suspense.
  • 47 Echo, by Shawn Kupfer. Military SF, bought in no small part because I want to encourage Carina to publish more SF/F! userinfotechnoshaman‘s actually beaten me to reading this one and quite liked it.

From B&N, mostly spending the $15 gift card kindly given me by userinfojennygriffee:

  • Fraterfamilias, by Judith Doloughan and Paula R. Stiles. Fantasy/Thriller from Innsmouth Free Press, recommended on the Outer Alliance mailing list. If you want to check it out, the publisher has a page up for it here.
  • Clementine, by userinfocmpriest. I already have a hardback copy of this, but this is for reading on the nook! (And I can’t believe I somehow didn’t have the hardback of Clementine noted on last year’s list of purchases, but!)
  • Dreadnought, also by Cherie Priest, and again I’m re-buying electronically even though I have a trade paperback copy. This would be me prepping for a Cherie Priest marathon, yep yep yep.

That’ll do me for now. That’s nine on this list, plus the other two bought in print, bringing me to 11 books acquired thus far for the year.

February 1, 2011 by
Book Log

I got paid!

And I still have room on the nook (although I’m getting close to needing a memory card for the thing)! So y’all should be able to guess what that means. Yes, that’s right: another book roundup!

Purchased electronically recently (and most of these were last night):

  • Rebel, by Zoe Archer. Paranormal romance, Book #3 of her Blades of the Rose series. Review is forthcoming!
  • Pegasus, by Robin McKinley. Fantasy, and I believe this also counts as YA? Bought because, well, Robin McKinley.
  • Half Past Dead, by Zoe Archer and Bianca D’Arc. Paranormal romance. Got this as a freebie from B&N, mostly because of the tie-in with Archer’s aforementioned Blades of the Rose novels.
  • The Secret Sister, by Elizabeth Lowell. Romantic suspense; this is a re-buy of a book previously owned in print.
  • Whirlpool, by Elizabeth Lowell. Same.
  • Dragonhaven, by Robin McKinley. Fantasy/YA. See previous commentary re: Robin McKinley! I actually already own this in hardcover as well, but wanted the e-copy so I can actually get the darned thing read, since I’m not likely to carry the hardback around.
  • A Kiss Before the Apocalypse, by Thomas E. Sniegoski. Urban fantasy; incarnated angel of war as a PI. Not sure of the angel aspect, but I did like this guy’s piece in the Mean Streets anthology, so I thought I’d give his series’ Book 1 a shot. (This is also actually a re-buy of a book previously owned in print, though I haven’t read this one yet.)
  • Touched by an Alien, by Gini Koch. Urban fantasy/paranormal romance (not sure which yet). Bought mostly because it got a lot of lulz when it came out and I’ll want this when I’m in the mood for something light and fluffy.

And, bought this morning in print, just because I can still walk into a physical bookstore and find something I’ll want to buy if I pay attention to the wishlist:

  • The Ivy Tree, by Mary Stewart. Because you don’t get much more awesome than Mary Stewart when it comes to old-school Gothic romance.

Total for the year: 343!

November 20, 2010 by
Books

Fictionwise ain’t quite dead to me yet

It seems Fictionwise is still capable of grabbing my attention, even if a lot of their inventory vanished once the agency model of ebook pricing took effect this past April. This weekend, though, they’re having a big ol’ 50 percent off sale, in effect through Sunday. (Use the coupon ‘spooky2010′.)

Turns out several of the titles on my ebook wishlist were still in their database, so I’ve nabbed ’em. To wit:

  • A Far and Deadly Cry, by Teri Holbrook. Mystery, re-buy to replace previously owned print copy.
  • Recursion, by Tony Ballantyne
  • Measuring the World, by Daniel Kehlmann. General fiction, was recommended by userinfojanne.
  • Blue Moon, by Cindy Lynn Speer. Ebook re-buy of a print copy I already own, since the print copy is large and unwieldy and I can read the ebook better.
  • Morevi: The Chronicles of Rafe and Askana, by Tee Morris & Lisa Lee. Another ebook re-buy of a print copy I still own, again because large and unwieldy print book I don’t want to carry around.
  • Blood Engines, by T.A. Pratt. Actual purchase of a free PDF I’d gotten before from when Tor.com came online; decided to go ahead and buy this copy since the PDF is 5 MB in size.
  • Mob Rules, by Cameron Haley. Urban fantasy, a recent release from Luna.
  • The Mysteries, by Lisa Tuttle. Fantasy. Picked it up due to a review by Jo Walton on Tor.com.
  • Spellbent, by Lucy A. Snyder. Urban fantasy. Picked up because of her participation in the CoyoteCon panels run by Drollerie Press earlier this year!
  • Total Oblivion, More or Less: A Novel, by Alan DeNiro. This one got a good amount of buzz a while back so I’m finally checking it out.
  • The Tomb of Zeus, by Barbara Cleverly. Re-buy of a book I’d previously owned. Mystery.
  • Deadly Slipper, by Michelle Wan. Mystery.
  • Black and White, by Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittredge. Because SUPERHEROES, and because I’ve been meaning to read this one for a while now!

And meanwhile, because it was Absolutely Necessary, I picked up userinfojimbutcher‘s shiny new Dresden Files anthology, Side Jobs, from Barnes and Noble! I bought it in both ebook and hardback, actually–ebook for me, and hardback to give as a present to userinfokathrynt, who will need it to occupy herself before her baby boy makes his arrival in the world Any Day Now, and hopefully as she’s resting after as well. So I get to count that one twice! 😀

And OH OH OH I must also add this, since it showed up in my mailbox today: Writing Out the Notes, the new book by Bob Hallett, is another acquisition! That would be the Bob Hallett of my very own beloved Great Big Sea, who’s written himself a combination memoir and musical portrait of St. John’s. I’m quite looking forward to reading it, as Mr. Hallett’s always been the most thoughtful and introspective of the B’ys, based on what they’ve all posted in their various posts on their site.

Grand total for the year: 334!

October 29, 2010 by
Books

How much does my To Read list weigh?

I was saying something on the MurkMUSH about how I had 690 things on my To Read list, like I do, and to my amusement said that I’d have to look out–or else my To Read list was going to eventually weigh more than I do. I told him I thought it probably already did, given that physical books are quite heavy!

Therefore, being geeks and interested in actually finding these things out, we determined that clearly, I’d have to work this through. Therefore I present for you the following amusing facts about my To Read list!

I have a total of 689 titles on the list, as demonstrated on my To Read list on Goodreads. (Note that you don’t have to have a Goodreads account to see user data there, so anybody can look at my list!)

Of these, here’s the count of books I actually own out of this list:

271 ebooks. For purposes of this exercise, I will take their contribution to the tally as the combined weights of my nook (roughly 12 ounces although let’s call it 13 because it’s in its case) and my iPhone (roughly 5 ounces, in its case). This makes for 18 ounces, or about 1.1 pounds.

12 hardcovers. Taking Robin McKinley’s Dragonhaven as a representative sample, Amazon lists its shipping weight as 1.2 pounds. Times 12, that’s 14.4 pounds.

114 mass market paperbacks. Taking ‘s An Artificial Night as my sample, I get an Amazon shipping weight of 6.4 ounces. Working that out, it comes out to about 45.6 pounds.

65 trade paperbacks of various sizes. This time I shall use the anthology Fast Ships, Black Sails, with an Amazon shipping weight of 11.2 ounces. This works out to about 45.5 pounds.

This gives me a subtotal of 106.6 pounds.

But wait, the math is not yet done! The numbers I’ve quoted above are only for the books on my To Read list that I do in fact actually own. 227 titles are ones I do not actually possess yet. Here, though, we get into the realm of the theoretical. On one hand, we have the scenario of “I buy all of these remaining titles electronically”, in which case my tally above remains constant. However, if I apply a little thought to this based on my likely near-future book buying habits, I’m going to roughly estimate that 70 percent of these will be purchased electronically. To make the numbers easy, let’s say 160 of these will be ebooks.

This leaves me with 67 titles that I would hypothetically buy in print. Of these, I’d say that at most 5 of them would be hardcovers, 20 of them would be trades, and the remaining 42 would be mass market. Therefore to my previous tally, I should add another 6 pounds for hardcovers, 14 for the trades, and 16.8 for the mass market books. That gives me another rough estimate of 36.8 pounds for the books I don’t own yet!

Which makes my grand total (drum roll, if you please): 143.4.

I therefore still outweigh my To Read list! But only by roughly 20 pounds! Anybody want to place bets on whether it’ll surpass me by the end of the year? ;>

October 13, 2010 by
Books

Book buying catchup

Purchased or acquired electronically:

  • Unlocked, a freebie anthology available over here
  • Enchanting the Lady, by Kathryne Kennedy. Freebie historical/paranormal romance from B&N.
  • Warrior, by Zoe Archer. Historical/paranormal romance, previously mentioned as the book with the cover hero who mugged Indiana Jones for his clothes. 😉
  • Scoundrel, also by Zoe Archer, book 2 of the same series as Warrior.

And this puts me at 318 for the year.

I must add that I blazed through Warrior last night, and yeah, it was about what I expected, which is to say, Big Silly Fun. I noted that Books 3 and 4 of the series are about to drop very soon; apparently Zoe Archer must have had them all ready when she got her publishing contract, or something. And I mention this mostly because Book 4 apparently is going to have a black hero who is a scientific and magical genius. This is, in a word, Cool. I really rather like its cover, as much as I liked the ones for Warrior and Scoundrel. For a romance novel, that’s an almost SFnal cover. 🙂

October 9, 2010 by