Tag: Books

Updates

October 2012 Recap – Part 2

Geoff W

As promised here is Part 2! I’m seriously facing a book buying ban after this last stint! Almost all of those below were purchased in the last 10 days! (The top left photo was purchased at the end of September just after I finished writing my recap. Needless to say I’m excited about the purchases and still have money to spend at a couple of local bookstores!

Recent Acquisitions (Don’t I sound like a library?)

Well there goes, saving any money – but I will say I was really good about not spending too much…I was going to list all the books out, but decided not to. You can click on the pictures to see what they are. I did get two in the top left photo for October and November book group (The Talented Mr. Ripley and Get Shorty) and a Pulitzer Prize Winner (The Stone Diaries) and the top right photo has one book on my Classics Club list (Down and Out in Paris and London) and one Booker Prize Winner (Midnight’s Children). The bottom left photo has this year’s Orange Prize Winner (The Song of Achilles). And in the bottom right I picked up both the Edith Wharton books I want to read from the festival (Ethan Frome and The Age of Innocence), another Pulitzer Prize Winner (Middlesex), a book that’ll make Alie happy (Twilight) and I got 1Q84 for helping out (I wanted to pay for it but they wouldn’t let me).

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Updates

October 2012 Recap – Part 1

Geoff W

I apologize in advance, this is a doozy! So much happened in October.  I planned on it being one really long post, but after my weekend book purchases, I finally decided to break it into two posts, but there are LOTS of pictures! The five parts of the two posts are: personal update, quick Boston Book Festival recap, Literary Others recap, new books purchased (entirely way too many), and last but not least my regular monthly challenge recap.The first three are in this post and the last two are in the post tomorrow.

But first check out this awesome tweet:

Yes – that is ‘the’ Michael Scott, author of The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series. Someone tweeted my review to him and he apparently read it and tweeted me. You have to LOVE social media, sometimes. I’m still grinning about this.

Personal Update
As said above, it’s been a hell of a month. First with the happy news, I’m midway through my third week at my new job and I love it. Not only is it in a beautiful part of Boston/Brookline (left), but I’ve been given a lot of freedom and independence to build a student giving and young alumni program and to offer input for other things as well. I’m excited about the next few months and am really looking forward to the future!

I’ve also spent some time volunteering and supporting my local library! We went to a benefit at a local restaurant and I won a $50 LLBean gift card! (Bought a new belt and someone a present with it.) I also volunteered to help set up the book sale (schlepping lots and lots of boxes full of books) and I helped break it down as well. It was great because I got to peruse a lot of the books and I had my eye on a few, but showed some restraint 😀

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Updates

September 2012 Recap

Geoff W

Where to begin?!? Let’s start with the big news! If all of a sudden I go missing in October, don’t worry – I will be starting a NEW JOB on the 15th! I’m sad about leaving my current workplace, but excited and ready for my next adventure. I will be joining an amazing fundraising team at an amazing school and am really looking forward to it! (A lot of my posts throughout October will be scheduled at least a week, if not more, in advance so I can focus on work.)

The same week I found out for certain I got my new job, I also won a book from Robert over at 101books.net and it arrived this past week. Check it out to the right. I got to select it and I’m REALLY excited about reading it and hopefully it won’t be on my TBR shelf for too long. In addition you should check out Robert’s hilarious post on How to carry an embarrassing book in public. It was one of the first posts I read over on his site and I truly enjoyed it!

In addition to the above book, I picked up a copy of Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger from the remainders tables at Harvard Book Store. It was only $3.99 (or so) and it’s on my list as it won the Man Booker Prize in 2008. But more interesting the printing at the bottom of my Harvard Book Store receipt. Now, I fully understand and support why it is there, but it made me feel guilty and I don’t like that.

It says “How much money stays in your community when you spend $100?” It then breaks it down based on a locally owned store, a chain store and Amazon. I get why they do this, drawing an emphasis to the fact that they are a locally owned independent store, but it still got to me. I think they forgot that they just happen to have one of the most successful brands of all time behind their store name (Harvard University) even though they’re not affiliated with the University, and I think they also forgot about the overwhelming number of young people and students in the Boston/Cambridge/Somerville area. I know I can rarely afford to buy a newly released book at cost from a local bookstore or even a chain bookstore. But I DO, however, go out of my way to make sure I get all of my used books from smaller independent stores and when I order from Amazon (again, used more often than not), I try to order from sellers within Massachusetts and New England to support the local economy. It’s not a lot, but it’s the bit I can do until I CAN afford to only shop at little local stores.

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Books

Mount TBR: Climbing Mt. Vancouver (Checkpoint 3)

Geoff W

Bev of My Reader’s Block has called for the third check in of the 2012 Mount TBR (To Be Read) Reading Challenge and I’m quite pleased with my progress this quarter!  With the recent completion of Kafka on the Shore I have read 22 of 25 books—an astounding 88%!

In addition to our basic check in – Bev has asked us to do a couple of things.  The first is determine how far we’ve made it up the mountain (that’s above) and if possible convert it into actual distance.  As of the last check in, I was 10,735ft or 3,272m up Mount Vancouver (Mount Vancouver is 15,787 ft/4,812m tall according to Google). This check in I am 13,893ft or 4,235m up Mount Vancouver! I’m defintiely entering that final stretch and am very excited as I’ve already completed one challenge for 2012.

The second thing she asked us, is to do one of the following 1) compose a poem (with extra words if needed), 2) Make a suggestion for a new level of Mount TBR (with a corresponding mountain suggestion) or 3) Share a book which has surprised us.

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2012 Challenges, Books, Quotes

Book 140: Kafka on the Shore – Haruki Murakami

Geoff W

You’ll have to excuse the language, but this book was a mind f*ck. Now, don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t mean it was bad, it is actually one of the best written books I’ve read this year, but my brain hurts trying to process the novel.

A friend in the UK recommended this book to me and I only just now got around to reading it and thus it counts for my Mount TBR Challenge (22 of 25).

I did a brief cursory search to see if I should save this novel for the Literary Others event in September and I should have with the amazing character Oshima, but I’m glad I didn’t. At one point he says this and it boggled my mind at how awesome he is. I mean there were a lot more awesome things, especially as to the reveal which happens pretty late in the book, but still definitely a great character. Click here to continue reading.