Hey, remember how when I was setting Resolutions for this year, I mentioned how badly I wanted to downsize my TBR? How I said that I was committed to adding only one book to my shelves, with every two that vacated it? How this was going to give me an opportunity to re-evaluate my shopping habits, and actually get around to reading the books on my shelves? Remember that?
Yeah, me neither. Especially when, you know, I got it into my head that I wanted to pull together a Book Outlet order. And, you know, that other time when I was at Goodwill, and got a little overwhelmed by the amount of buzzy almost-new books that were on their shelves. So, yeah.
(And we're not even going to talk about how when I took my brother to Barnes and Noble to pick up Leigh Bardugo's King of Scars on its release day, I almost walked out with three other full price books. Clearly I cannot trust my own grabby hands, which think on their own.)
In total, between these two shopping binges, I bought 9 books for myself in January and February (and yes, I'm deliberately choosing to overlook the books included in these purchases that were made for other people). This is a bit of a personal problem, because in just January, I only read 6 books, and only 4 of them were off of my TBR shelves. Now, I've added back more than double that total.
And yet, absolutely no part of this contradicts the amount of excitement I feel about each of these book purchases. You know, it's important to be self-aware, for growth's sake, but it's also important to feel joy, for living's sake.
So, which titles were so important that I broke one of my most important book goals for this year, in the first two months of the year?
BOOK OUTLET
Originally, I made this order in order to pick up a couple of birthday presents for my Dad. And I did: both the Sopranos Family Cookbook and Phil Doran's The Reluctant Tuscan were for him! Plus Anne Fadiman's The Wine Lover's Daughter, which was a present for my mom, too. The rest, though... those are my bad.
The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry, Kathleen Flinn
One of the first books off of my TBR shelves in January, was Flinn's Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good, in which the author uses family recipes to tell her history, from her grandparents through to her own childhood. In this bestselling memoir, she discusses how getting fired from her Microsoft job, lead her to learn from Le Cordon Bleu.
Trials of the Earth: The True Story of a Pioneer Woman, Mary Mann Hamilton
Recording her life experiences in the backwoods of the Mississippi Delta, Hamilton gives a first-person account of the tragedies and triumphs that come from the backbreaking labor of making your own land in the early American South. I'm already looking forward to picking this up this summer (aka, the best season to read American Fiction and History).
Vanity Fair's Writers on Writers, edited by Graydon Carter
What can I say, I'm an absolute sucker for this kind of stuff. From Didion to Parker, to e. e. cummings and Capote, I absolutely live for people hyping up other people in their industry.
Strange the Dreamer, Laini Taylor
This has been hyped so often by various friends of mine, that I couldn't resist the temptation to finally pick up this Fantasy story of a junior librarian, driven to discover a lost city, cut off from the world by the gods. Unfortunately for me, Book Outlet doesn't always note what edition of a particular book you'll be sent... and being that this one, for me, is a Large Print edition, I don't think I'll be hanging onto it for very long after reading!
(Oh yeah, and I also bought a cookbook. But I'm not counting that one... it goes on my other shelves!)
GOODWILL
Ignore the price tags on here: being that I went during a special sale day, each of these bad boys were only $2, despite each of their almost-new condition. And, plus the six items of clothing I picked up, too, my total purchase price ended up being only around $40! Score!
Less, Andrew Sean Greer
This Pulitzer winner follows a failed writer about to turn 50, as he adventures through various places abroad, and finds love along the way. Despite its significant award status, I've heard mostly mixed reviews about this one, which is probably why I'm so excited to pick it up! I love when people can't make up their minds about a book... it gives me a little more freedom to decide what I think, without all the hype!
Everything I Never Told You, Celeste Ng
Full disclosure: as a general rule, I avoid contemporary stories about dead girls. But this one has not only been loved by close friends of mine, but also just by Bookstagram at large, and I feel like if I'm going to dip my toes into any modern-day lit anytime soon, this would be a pretty safe choice.
Beartown, Frederik Backman
Okay, here's the thing. Originally, this book was sold to me as "Friday Night Lights, but for Hockey," and there's really nothing about that sentence that drives me to want to pick up this book... especially when I read the summary, to see that the catalytic moment of all the action, is the rape of a 15 year old girl by one of the team's players. But what can I say? Out of over 121,000 ratings on Goodreads, it has 4.29 stars. To be clear, that's absolutely insane.
When Life Gives You Lululemons, Lauren Weisberger
I swear I didn't know this was a Devil Wears Prada follow up when I picked it up in the store. I didn't even glance at what the inside flap said. I just liked the cover, and the clever title, and I figured it would make for a fun read during Spring Break. And like I said before, it was $2. Sometimes it's fun to pick things up for no reason at all! (But dammit, that's why I'm in this mess in the first place, isn't it?)
Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel
Highlighting Thomas Cromwell's impact at the moment in British history where Henry VIII is choosing to leave Catherine of Aragon for Anne Boleyn, this historical fiction is probably one of the most consistently recommended reads for fans of the genre I've seen in the past decade. And being that I haven't been able to get the Six: The Musical soundtrack out of my head for the past few months, I'm very receptive to Tudors at the moment.
Well, that's that then... let's hope I can make it through March unscathed, right? Either that, or hope that I just start reading prodigious amounts of my TBR shelves on my own.
Believe it or not, in the middle of this month, I even made a trip to Portland, which included a stopover in Powell's Books... and I didn't pick up anything! This is what character growth feels like, I guess?
What books have you picked up recently? Have you broken any of your Resolutions yet? Let me know, in the comments below!
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