"as many books as you can carry for a fiver", said my local charity shop

[kaberett]

... which actually ended up only being nine, on my most recent foray, because I actually put some back on the grounds that I was picking them up as a "maybe I'll get around to them sometime" sort of deal more than "I actively want to read them" and, well, I've only just managed to start Hexarchate Stories and This Is How You Lose The Time War and The Secret Commonwealth and the new Dia Reeves I haven't got even got around to buying yet aren't even next on my list...

... and nevertheless I am now in possession of:

Beloved, Toni Morrison
Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (already read; want to have a lending copy)
Sofia Khan is Not Obliged, Ayisha Malik (skimmed first few pages, decided it was hilarious, turns out a friend also has it on their TBR and would like it once I'm done with it)
Kid, Simon Armitage
The House of Shattered Wings, Aliette de Bodard (still haven't read, delighted to have a straightforward opportunity to)
Vicious, VE Schwab (had a vague I Want To Read This Human??? flag, wasn't managing to chase it down, went "enh As Many Books As I Can Carry For A Fiver, fuckit, the blurb looks interesting")
The Dark Vault, VE Schwab
Eleanor & Park, Rainbow Rowell (are you spotting a theme? I'm pretty sure someone had a clear-out...)
Religion for Atheists, Alain de Botton (white dude, most speculative of the lot, but I skimmed a few pages and it didn't immediately annoy me so I might find it soothing at some point)

On the topic of A Theme, there was also Down Among the Sticks and Bones, which I love dearly but FRUSTRATINGLY already have a copy of. None of the cookbooks (ALAS) were of interest. And crane my neck as I might, I couldn't see what all was on the shelves in the back room except that, well, it was, and I thought it'd be rather cheeky to ask to be allowed to rummage in the back, so I'm just going to have to return once there's been some turnover and give Mind another five quid, probably. It is terrible being me.

Comments

[booksarelife]

I’m very impressed that you could carry 9 books!! And those sound great!! I’ve been meaning to read Persepolis for ages!! And Down Among the Sticks and Bones is just so good

[ofearthandstars]

I'm jealous, I want to go on a book-buying spree! (Though I just cleared our shelves to make room last month.) A lot of good looking ones on the list.

[lunabee34]

That is an awesome haul!

[sfred]

Oh, hurray!

[shewhostaples]

That sounds like an excellent fiver's worth!

[emperor]

I got House of Shattered Wings for Christmas, will hopefully start on it soon :)

[damerell]

I thought it was OK, but not brilliant; I read it on the strength of de Bodard being charming and interesting IRL.

[jedusor]

I've avoided Eleanor & Park on the grounds that my friends of color think it's racist as fuck and the only people I've heard recommending it are white. Beloved and Vicious are both on my to-read list (as is Dia Reeves on the strength of your recommendation several years ago). I just had a long not-really-interested-in-books gap during which my brain was mostly preoccupied with NRE, but I seem to have shifted back into I'm Bored Where's My Book mode this past week and I just finished digging through my Goodreads list and putting a bunch of stuff on hold at the library :)

[kaberett]

Ooh, thanks for the heads-up -- I was aware of Rowell as A Thing and it was the one that was there, for Essentially Free, so I added it to the stack, but this is good to know going in. <3

[jedusor]

I've only read Fangirl and was deeply unimpressed, not particularly by problematic elements (although framing the idea of white teenagers listening to Kanye West as Quirky and Edgy and Surprising was super fucking ridiculous) but mostly it just wasn't very good. *shrug*

[kaberett]

(also NRE! :D)

[jedusor]

yes I fell madly in love in August and a lot of my regular hobbies/timesucks got set aside in favor of constant mooning over the new shiny XD still madly in love but this month my brain seemed to have finally sorted itself out enough to let me also read books and work on my writing and stuff in between the mooning.