No More New Books

I decided that before I started my five month stint of book buying abstinence I would have one last fabulous book splurge. Heck I’d just been paid and I had a Waterstones gift card why not go a bit purchase mad and rejuvenate the economy a tiny bit?

It might have ended up getting a bit out of hand.

In this pile you can see:

Out of the Wild – Sarah Beth Durst
Life and Other Big Fat Lies – Jil Wolfson

(a random ‘sure, you need more YA’ urge)

Dewey The Library Cat –Vicki Myron
Nature Girl – Carl Hiaasen
The Secret Cinderella Story – Carolyn Turgeon
The Fall of the West – Adrian Goldsworthy

(from my book club’s mega sale – unfortunately a £2 hardback copy of ‘the Gravedigger’s Daughter’ by Joyce Carol Oates is not longer available)

Blonde Roots – Bernadine Evaristo
Pride Prejudice and Zombies – Austen and Grahame Smith
An Elegy for Easterly – Petina Gappah

(three for two at Waterstones –let’s just say my giftcard did not go very far)

Perhaps you thinking this pile isn’t so big, well there are actually quite a few more books on their way. One package was delayed by me forgetting that my registered Amazon card was the one that got stolen in Barcelona and Amazon sending all the e-mails about that to an account I don’t check often. The other package I bought yesterday, when I suddenly twigged that no new book buying meant no new books from SnowBooks. I’m kind of regretting not getting George Mann’s ‘The Orisis Ritual’ as well.

So for the next five months I will not be buying new books, as an eco-friendly measure which is part of the Eco Reading challenge. I am allowing myself to use Bookmooch, where you can get secondhand books in return for points. I’m also allowing myself to read the new books my mum buys and brings into the house. So in theory I shouldn’t experience much book deprivation and I’ll be helping the planet. I decided I’m going to try to find my booklight as well so I can turn off the lights at night while I read.

All this book buying means that some other books are going to have to go. A few are being shipped out this weekend as prizes for various things, but at the moment I’m not sure where the rest will end up. I tried giving them away to friends but DVDs were more popular. I’ve sent an email to my local library to see if they accept donations, if they don’t I expect they’ll end up on GreenMetropolis (ugh more weekend post office visits) unless a charity bag that accepts books turns up at just the right moment. So many of them don’t take books anymore.

I Suck at Challenges - April Update

Just some quick totals this month, I need to refocuse.

So challenge books completed:

Dewey’s Books: 3/6
What’s in a Name: 3/6
9 for 09: 2/9
YA: 6/12
Once Upon a Time: 2/5 (and 1 play)
Art History: 1/6
The Year of Reading Dangerously: 2/12

Challenges completed: 2 (Victorian Challenge and Vampire Challenge)

Challenges not even begun: (A worryingly large amount) Chunkster, Science, Astronomy, Planet Earth, World Citizen

New challenges begun (yes I know, I know): The Eco Reading Challenge

I just realised I completed Maree's mini catch up on challenge reading challenge. I read four books this month that were on challenge lists with specific subjects:

Stardust - Neil Gaiman (Once Upon a Time)

Nation - Terry Pratchett (Once Upon a Time)

Ten Cents a Dance (YA)

The Virgin Blue (Dewey's Books)

So go me!

That’s not so bad, I guess…I’m starting to doubt my ability to finish them all now, even though I’m reading more this year than I usually do (I think it’s a combination of all the fast paced YA reads, having a blog and having no academic concerns for the first time since I started going to school). My aim is to complete 50% of the challenges and I’d really like to complete Reading Dewey’s Books, Once Upon a Time and The Chunkster Challenge (which is my favourite challenge ever because it involves big books). I fear for The Astronomy challenge at the moment, but the Science Challenge will be completed whatever happens. Three non-fiction books will not defeat me!