That Time I Got Over 100 Books in Two Weeks

So things happened in April. Delightful things. And by that I mean BOOKISH things. (What else would be delightful? Books = Life. Duh.)

You see, our library had a sale to which I obviously had to attend. . .three times. It took place for the whole second week in April, and each day the price on the books got lower and lower to the point that they were practically giving them away.

As my dad said, I was worse than a kid at a candy store.

Our library is pretty small, so I honestly wasn’t expecting much. But then I walked in there. The first thing Mom said when we stepped foot inside was, “Heavens, we’re going to be here all day.”

Mom was right (as moms always are, of course). But it went further than a day. We visited the sale three times that week and stayed until closing every single one of those days. My family maaay have had to drag me out each time. (And I had to drag out my boxes and boxes of books. . .)

So. Many. Books.

Dad’s kid-in-a-candy-store analogy was right. I was grabbing anything and everything that looked even remotely interesting. And I may or may not have ended the week with 74 new books.

I did mention they were practically giving them away, right?

Yeah.

I bought so many books I still can’t remember everything I got. It’s a surprise every time I go through them. Which is a lot of fun. Having a memory the size of a peanut has its perks!

Well, obviously I was on a book high after that escapade. But it doesn’t end there.

The very next week we went out of town for the weekend and ended up visiting a. . .you guessed it. . .bookstore! A bookstore that just happened to be enormous with a bunch of used books for cheap. Because I obviously didn’t have enough books. Never.

To make a long story short, I ended that weekend with 29 new books.

103 books. All of which I got for insanely good prices.

Saying I was happy is the understatement of the year. I’ve been on a book high ever since. The funny thing is, I haven’t had time to read any of these beautimous new things. I’ve been too busy finding room for them instead. Eheh. I literally had to buy myself a new bookshelf, which turned into a huge rearranging of my room adventure. All because of a library sale.

Lotsa books

And the others

Also 3 new Alice in Wonderland books because I collect those. *grins*

When I said I grabbed anything and everything, I meant it. I honestly have no idea what over half of this stuff is. It’s bad. If you guys recognize any, give a shout out. Actually, tell me what to read next! Do you have any favorite books amongst all this? Any least favorites? I’d love to know peoples opinions on some of these. On the flipside, if you see any you’ve been interested in but haven’t read, speak up and I may do a book review of it or something. Because having this many books and being as indecisive as I am is a PROBLEM. I need help, guys!

Another problem is the actual cleaning and cataloging and organizing of said new 100+ books. I can be quite OCD over things. I do not want stickers and library binding on my books. Unfortunately, almost all the books I got from the library have either or both, some stickers to which have been on there probably since the beginning of time. Turns out peeling off these stickers and then cleaning the goop leftover from them takes a looooong time. So the poor books haven’t found permanent homes on my shelves yet as I very, very, very slooowly work on de-librarying them. I’ve decided I’m going to become queen of the world for the sole purpose of banning stickers and tape from books forever. (And possibly just banning stickers in general.) Just wait, it’s happening. But until then, if you have any suggestions on how to easily get 20 year old stickers and goop off of books, do share!

Once the books have been properly cleaned, I’ve been adding them to my GoodReads so I can actually keep up with what books I own. (Again, memory like a peanut.) Then I shall do the great rearranging of my bookshelves escapade. I currently have three bookshelves and I’m not sad about it one bit. I may even buy a fourth, because I have a book addiction and have absolutely no intention of being cured from it. #bookaddictandproud

Anyways, between all the book cleaning and life deciding to be crazier than Alice’s trip to Wonderland, I haven’t had a chance to actually read all my new goodness! *pouts* I feel like I’m going to die before I read all the books I own. And I have no plans to stop buying more. I’ll just have to find a time machine. Problem solved. *nods*

Speaking of buying more, I finally got Bryan Davis’s Omega Dragon, the last book in the Children of the Bard series. Why is this significant? Well, it’s the last book in the whole Dragons in Our Midst collection. The end of what has been my favorite books since I was a pre-teen. Rather bittersweet. But what’s more is by receiving that book, I succeeded in making a goal I’ve wanted to since I was a young teen.

You see, when I first discovered Bryan Davis’s amazing books and had acquired a fair amount, a thought popped in my head: “Wouldn’t it be funny if I one day filled an entire shelf of my bookshelves with his books?” Well, amidst moving my books and putting Omega Dragon on the shelf, I realized. . .I had done it. The entire top shelf of one of my bookshelves is officially filled up with Bryan Davis books. My young teen self would be so proud.

A shelf devoted to Bryan Davis

Hey, what’s life without some silly goals to work toward?

But wait, there’s more! (You just thought of your least favorite commercial, didn’t you? You’re welcome.) With all this glorious bookishness going on and a fairly recent purchase of a new smartphone that has a really good camera (unlike my old phone. . .), I’ve discovered a new love of book photography. I’ve been having fun taking pictures for each of my blog posts, and a few weeks ago an idea popped in my head. Why not make a book photography Instagram account? I’m no photographer, but I’m learning, and I adore drooling over admiring pictures of books. What bookworm doesn’t it? We’re a strange species. With my nice camera on my new phone and my love for books, I decided an IG account to combine these things would be loads of fun. It’s been a while since I’ve let myself have a little creative outlet that doesn’t entirely involve staring at a computer screen (i.e. writing/blogging/emailing/etc.). Taking pictures of my books will be just like a mother photographing her children. (We’re pretending that’s not a creepy comparison, okay?) So this week I took the plunge!

You can find me at thebookishchristine if you’d like. I plan to use it as a reading/blogging/writing outlet. So while mostly it’ll be book photography, I might do updates on my writing and when I put up a new blogpost as well. I’m also thinking it’d be fun to occasionally do mini reviews for the books I’m reading at the time. I don’t know how it’ll all go down, we’ll just have to see. But I’m excited!

Now I have a question for you. Do you follow any prettyful bookish IG accounts? I’ve always just used Instagram for personal use to follow friends and family. The book community there is new to me. So do point me to any accounts you love! And YOUR accounts, too. I’d love to follow all my blogging buddies. ^_^

To sum this rambly post up, April and on through May have been like one amazing pool party in which the pool is entirely filled with books. (What do you mean that’s a lame analogy? Don’t be silly. I’m brilliant.)

Now if you’ll excuse me I’ll be cleaning, organizing, photographing, and reading books. (Or petting and sniffing them. Shhh.)

So who loves library sales? (The answer is: We all do.) Have you
ever hit gold at a library or bookstore sale? What’s your favorite
Instagram bookish account? And TELL ME WHAT TO READ NEXT.
Decisions and I do not go hand-in-hand. So many books, so much decision making! D:

(P.S. Have any of you had trouble seeing the images on my posts these past few weeks? Someone has said she hasn’t been able to see them and I’m trying to figure out if it’s her end or mine. Google recently switched which servers they use to upload photos (*grumble, grumble*) and I’m wondering if that’s the problem. Figures I get into book photography right when I’m having image trouble. >.>)