It's Monday. What are you Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Book Journey to outline what you have been reading and what you plan to read this week.
Last week I went up to Auckland for a few days to visit my sister and made a guest appearance at my old book club and luckily for me my favorite second hand book shop in Ngatea was open on my way through. This turned out to be incredibly great timing because they were in desperate need to make some space for some new books and so they were giving away a bunch of hardback books for free because they are the slowest type to move in a second hand book shop. I grabbed a stack load thinking even the ones I don't read I would give away to those who do. And so it was that I ended up with a box full of hardback books.
Now of course I can't walk out of a bookshop with just a stack of free books so I also had a great time sifting through the bargain books looking for some great finds. I got 6 books for $4 which were
31 Songs (Nick Hornby)
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (Marina Lewycka)
Two Caravans (Marina Lewycka)
Slam (Nick Hornby)
Five Quarters of the Orange (Joanne Harris)
Man and Boy (Tony Parsons)
And although not on the cheap list but so worth it I also picked up.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (James Joyce)
Ulysses (James Joyce) - The one I have was borrowed off a friend so I'll be glad to be able to give it back, I've had it awhile!
Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy)
Travels with Charley in Search of America (John Steinbeck)
The Language of Flowers (Vanessa Diffenbaugh)
Smoke and Mirrors (Neil Gaiman)
I also just received in the mail two books for review
Sin (Zakhar Prilepin) and
Christened with Crosses (Eduard Kochergin). As most of you know my taste in books is rather broad and I love exploring new things so when an opportunity to try some modern Russian literature came up I was really excited. These were sent to me by Glagoslav Publications, an independent British-Dutch press that specialises in publishing English translations of works by Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian authors.
And finally this week I made a guest appearance at my old book club. Luckily for me they are still quite happy for me to borrow books so I picked up
Notes from an Exhibition (Patrick Gale),
American Gods (Neil Gaiman) and that nice big hunk of a book
Les Miserables (Victor Hugo). I am going to have a lot of spare time on my hands soon so I thought it was right time to try and tackle Les Mis.
Phew that's a lot of books to acquire in one week! So what am I actually reading? Well I just finished
The Scarlet Cloak (Jean Plaidy),
Always Looking Up (Michael J. Fox) and yes I did manage to finally get my way through
Fifty Shades of Grey. This week I have picked up
Book of Lost Threads (Tess Evans) as I needed a nice light read and it's exactly what I need right now. Next I'll pick up one of the translated Russian novels.
In NZ and want a free book? If you're in NZ and keen for a free copy of Bryce Courtenay's - Sylvia, Whitethorn or Jessica or Wilburn Smith's Monsoon then get in touch and I'll try and get it to you.
