Book club, trade paperbacks and choosing what to read next...

I am not too sure what I am buying when I go to Galaxy's book club tonight. I have a number of books that I want to buy, but they are all trade paperbacks, and retailing for $30 at the moment. I technically have a budget of $30 a fortnight, I don't always stick to it, but I have my car rego due, as well as medical expenses and my phone bill (I am not even thinking of the electricity bill that arrived yesterday!). So I should probably be a good little girl and not go too far over my limit *sigh* So that just makes it harder for me! I can't by the new Sherrilyn Kenyon book about Nick, I can't buy Erica Hayes' Shadowglass, I can't buy Carrie Ryan’s Dead-Tossed Waves and so many more that I really really want! God I hate trades! I wish they were the same price as “A” format paperbacks… I can pick them up for between $12-$20 at Galaxy, plus my 10% discount on book club night.

Recent authors that have been recommended to me are Ilona Andrews – Dan Dan lent me her first book on the weekend – definitely a lot of fun! FangBooks on twitter recommended Gail Carriger, and I have been intrigued by the synopsis of that series before. I am obsessed with steampunk, and it is reputed to be steamy, so it has been on my To Buy list for some time. I would love to get some more Lora Leigh (suggested by Theresa), however Galaxy hardly ever stocks her books, and I may have to consider buying them elsewhere. I thought Lora Leigh only had 5 books in the Breed series – turns out she is up to 21! Pretty big lapse… I am starting to get antsy LOL I love that series! I think Maria had picked up a new Gena Showalter book last week as well, and if so I want it LOL I need to get Kylie Chan’s second book Dark Heavens novel, Red Phoenix (series also suggested by Dan Dan). It is crazy, most of the books I read these days are suggested to my by my friends at Galaxy’s book club! I just can’t get enough! I am already spending too much money there because of that book club LOL And I know the other girls are the same. Not all of them used to make regular visits to Galaxy, so they are spending so much more money there. I spend more money there and less at Abbeys, Dymocks, and I hardly ever go to second hand stores anymore. Galaxy is very bad for my budget!! ;D I kind of wish I could buy from book depository etc but as long as there is a book club I will be spending my book budget there – simply because the girls are always herding me towards new titles and I pick them up before I can even think about heading online to the Book Depository. Plus, there is also the instant gratification thing LOL

So I am stuck. I have NO idea what I am buying tonight! Although, I think I will definitely get the Kylie Chan book…. Unless something else comes up LOL

I also found a blog that links you to books that authors have offered for free. It is found here: http://online-novels.blogspot.com and through it I found a Charles de Lint novel on the Tor site. I want to get some sort of ereader on my phone for when I am on the train and don't have enough room to hold up my novel. That and those occasions I finish my books during my lunch break at work LOL

Do you attend a book club? Or perhaps a book forum (I used to run one, same principles, I always found too many books I wanted to read LOL) or online book club? Or do you get recommendations tweeted to you on twitter? (If you are on twitter and I don't already follow you, can you leave me a link?) How do you choose what books to read? Is it marketing in the bookstore and online, or through word of mouth? I would be interested to hear how you deal with choosing your To Be Read list! :)

Book Survey III

1. What author do you own the most books by?

Nora Roberts. I buy her books at second hand stores and chain stores. I can't get my books from normal stores.... I am too much of a nerd. Which is why I love speciality stores. I own over 100 NR books, and buy a new one every month or so. I also have about 30-50 Dick Francis books.

2. What book do you own the most copies of?

Pride & Prejudice. I own the vintage one I had as a kid, I used it for uni, so it is full of pencil marks. But that is okay because it is my own old copy, I am never gibing it away, and it is comparable in this instance to a text book. I got 100% on my major essay for P&P. John Gray was going to give me 99.5% for an incorrect quote until I showed him my copy. I am keeping it for prosperity only. Hideous cover by some random low-end publisher. Stephanie at work gave me a complete Jane Austen collection, which is terrific, but it is really heavy and it hurts my hands to read. So I bought a Vintage Classic edition of all her books for ease of access. I am keeping the complete works for when I travel overseas. I've had more in the past. But I think 3 is enough LOL

3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?

Subconsciously.

4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with?

Secretly? I never keep it secret. If I like a character, the world (even if it is just my little slice of it) will know about it.

5. What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; i.e., Goodnight Moon does not count)?

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
Madeline Brent’s Merlin’s Keep
Raymond E Fiest’s Magician
JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings
David Gemmell’s Waylander and Iron Hand’s Daughter
Charles de Lint’s Ivory and the Horn, Mulengro, Someplace to be Flying, Yarrow.

6. What was your favourite book when you were ten years old?

Either something by Enid Blyton, Tamora Pierce or Isabelle Carmody, or a book in the Dragon Lance or Magic: The Gathering franchises.

7. What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?

I started reading The Gone-Away world, but ended up giving it to my brother. He loved it, so it wasn’t a waste. It was a freebie from the publisher.

8. What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?

The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins.

9. If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.


10. What book would you most like to see made into a movie?

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

11. What book would you least like to see made into a movie?

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - because they could get it SO wrong...

12. Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.

There have been some crazy ones… But I can't remember them. I rarely do.

13. What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult?

Are you serious? Have you seen some of the trashy paperbacks I read these days? Some of them are quite lowbrow LOL

14. What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?

The Sacrifice as Terror - it is a book about the sociology of the Rwandan genocide. Fascinating but brutal.

15. What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you’ve seen?

I've only seen Macbeth, but that was in a warehouse. The witches were made up of 2 people each - the second was on the shoulders of the other. These came apart and cavorted as demons, covered in red body paint, and one kept pawing my leg. It was fabulous, as it was very informal, as in we were in and part of the set. I had a place at court LOL Lady MacBeth had this gorgeous red dress that had laces on the back, sort of a cross between an evening dress, a sundress and a medieval gown.

16. Do you prefer the French or the Russians?

I haven't read any Russian authors.

17. Roth or Updike?

I've not read either author.

18. David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?

I've not read either author.


19. Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?

Hard one!! I love Shakespeare, Milton is fascinating, but I have to say Chaucer has a place in my heart. I love Middle English. I still need to refer back to a ME dictionary for some words though, so it isn't the sort of thing I can read on the train unless I take a bag of references with me LOL

20. Austen or Eliot?

Austen. I have an obsession. However, I just bought Middlemarch, so I will finally start reading Eliot.

21. What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?

1984.

22. What is your favourite novel?

Just one? Refer above to question 5.

23. Play?

Macbeth, Peer Gynt or Doll's House.

24. Poem?

Oh, hard question! Either Henry Kendall's Bell Birds or Last of his Tribe, most by William Blake, La Belle Dame Sans Merci by John Keats or Robert Browning's My Last Duchess. There are just so many! I also have a fascination with haiku and eastern poetry.

25. Essay?

Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal.

26. Work of nonfiction?

Anything on archaeology which was written by an academic author (i.e. not the mush published by non-academic publishers)

27. Who is your favourite writer?

Charles de Lint, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Jane Austen, Raymond E Fiest, David Gemmell, Dick Francis, Charlotte Bronte, Madeline Brent, Victoria Holt, etc


28. Who is the most overrated writer alive today?

Dan Brown.

29. What is your desert island book?

Complete Works of Shakespeare or Chaucer's Canterbury Tales or Langland's Piers Plowman. They are the sort of books I can mull over for years.

30. And… what are you reading right now?

Way too many books!!!!!! About ten, including books by Lillith Saintcrow, Lora Leigh, Susanna Clarke, Rachel Caine, Amber Benson, JRR Tolkien, Simon R Green, Anne Rice, and Emily Bronte.

Jacq's books of 2010 (Part 2)

9. Hunter's Prayer - Lillith Saintcrow
10. Coyote's Mate - Lora Leigh
11. Bengal's Heart - Lora Leigh
12. Dragon Actually - G.A. Aiken
13. Street Machine - Christine Feehan

^There are one or two more, but they were stolen by the monster under my bed, and I can't be bothered searching for them right this second.

The list so far...