May 2012 Update

All sorts of exciting stuff happened this past month and so far this month.  Not really, but it’s a great way to start a blog post right?!  However, that’s an awesome photo to the left isn’t it? Last week, Tom and I took a day off in the middle of the week to see Anderson Cooper speak at Tom’s alma mater, Salem State University, but AC cancelled at the last-minute. And all I have to say to that is, DAMN YOU WORLD EVENTS!

However, when trying to decide what to do with our time I asked the best question any good bibliophile can ask, ‘Are there any good used book stores around?’ Well, after a quick search I found Derby Square Books and that’s where these AWESOME photos took place. Photo 1 (above is the view when you walk in the door) and Photo 2 is me so overwhelmed I didn’t even know where to start!

Once I had a few moments to take it all in Tom took the photo to the left.  I’m pointing at the Science Fiction/Fantasy sign even though I was looking mostly at classics.  IF you look closely you can already see I have one book in hand.  As an aside, Tom didn’t spend a lot of time reading before he met me, however, slowly but surely I’m turning him into a reader!  He is currently reading The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, and just finished Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho and has quite a few others lined up for this summer.

While I was wandering around overwhelmed, Tom asked how many books there were in this little shop and the proprietor said about 70,000.  They purchase books wholesale from stores that are going out of business and sell them half the cover price. So although it wasn’t the best deals ever for books, it was an awesome place to visit. I was VERY good and only bought four books (three for me and one for Alie – a hopefully cheaper to post copy of Gone with the Wind). For myself, and not for any challenges that I can remember specifically, I bought John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany and The World According to Garp and Arundhati Roy’s Man-Booker prize-winning novel The God of Small Things.

Other than that not much has happened on the book front.  I’m enjoying finishing up The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and am looking forward to taking a break from my challenges in the next 2-3 books I read.  Thanks to some great early progress in my challenges I feel I can actually take the break.  Here’s my current progress:

• Mount TBR – 13/25 (53%)
• Back to the Classics – 2/9 (22%)
• Tea and Books – 6/8 (75%) – upgraded from 6 to 8
• The Classics Club – 3/85 (4%) – over 5 years

And I’m looking forward to the books I know I’ll read this month.  I plan on reading The Color Purple as a group read hosted by Bettina at Liburuak and Dances with Wolves for Books into Films book group.  I’ve also just received notice that Howard’s End is on the Landing and The Book Thief have come in at my local library so I’ll pick them up and read them this month too!