Gentle SPECTRUMS discussion

The beauty of the blogosphere, challenges, and Goodreads is that I at last met my match: others who pre-collect a huge abundance of books! It is really special to find supporters of print but I invite everyone to answer this collection query.

"I own 5+ books by these authors but have never cracked a spine!"

I could do this all day. I hope everybody is sitting down for this: one short brainstorming wave.

MARGERY ALLINGHAM, RUTH RENDELL, EDITH NGAIO MARCH, ELLERY ADAMS, MARTHA GRIMES, LAWRENCE SANDERS, BETH GUTCHEON, BARBARA TAYLOR BRADFORD

MARY HIGGINS CLARK, CAROLYN HAINES, KATE COLLINS, ELLEN CROSBY, LYDIA ADAMSON, SUE GRAFTON, ELLIS PETERS, PAUL DOHERTY, ALICE HOFFMAN, FERN MICHAELS, KRISTIN HANNAH, NOREEN WALD, P.D. JAMES, CHARLAINE HARRIS, LAUREN HANEY, ELIZABETH GEORGE, RITA MAE BROWN, PATRICIA CORNWALL, NORA ROBERTS, JOY FIELDING, DEAN KOONTZ, SUSAN CONANT

KATHY REICHS, VICTORIA HOLT, TAMI HOAG, LORNA BARRETT, ISABELLE ALLENDE, NEVADA BARR, CAROL SHIELDS, GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ, MARGARET FRAZER, SIMON BRETT, MINETTE WALTERS, L.M. MONTGOMERY, C.S. LEWIS, NERO BLANC.

Margaret F, who I had in mind, has yet to take up this thread but it's open to everyone! Which authors do you have in abudance at home, that you have not read yet? Here is who I can cross off the list; some only as of this week. I am commencing 2015 blowing through a lot of newbies.

Caroline Roe, Barbara Michaels, Anne Perry, Lilian Jackson Braun, Allison Kingsley, Heather Blake, Sister Carol Anne O'Marie, Madeleine L'Engle, Ellen Crosby, M.C. Beaton, Joan Lowrey Nixon, Carolyn Hart, Susanna Kearsley, Yasmine Galenorn, Annette Blair, Leann Sweeney, Paulo Coelho, Gillian Roberts.

Wow, 18 authors! I have done well since I created this post in April 2014! The only ones I disliked, upon first book thus far, are: M.C. Beaton, Gillian Roberts, and Allison Kingsley. The latter is odd because I love her like mad as Kate Kingsbury. I have done well and perhaps these folks' second books and onward are better. Also in this pile are newly-adored favourite authors and journeys for which I gave five-stars, which is extremely special and a boon to my collection.

Hm. Authors I own multiple books by but haven't read any by?

*checking bookshelves on Goodreads*

Lisa Gardner, Stuart Woods, Josephine Angelini, Kelley Armstrong, David Baldacci, Gerry Bartlet, Maeve Binchy, Juliet Blackwell, Lilian Jackson Braun (have tons of those cat mysteries), Allison Brennan, Heather Brewer, Suzanne Brockman, Dan Brown, Rita Mae Brown (Again lots of cat things...), Nancy Bush

Those are the A's and B's anyway...*Facepalm* Apparently the list could get quite long.

And Carolyn, you really HAVE to read Barbara Michaels soon. She's one of my favorites. Let me know if you want good recs on starting lines for her.

Hi Erin!!!! :) Edit that to CAROLYN, will you? Rhymes with "gin", not "wine". Story of my life, *without* getting into the tiny little last name. LOL Wonderful to see your input, including MANY I too would drool for you to get going on. I haven't updated this and am thrilled to see you kick it into life. See my highly-recommended reviews on Juliet Blackwell, MaeveBinchy and you bet, Barbara Michaels. Finally, non-humorous ghost stories for grown-ups!

Lilian Jackson Braun is WAY better than you think too. See those reviews as well. They link to Amazon Canada, where 'helpful votes' really help me build a good reviewer rank. That's what we have, instead of a 'like' button. Funny about Juliet: I loathed her first witch novel, found her first ghost one so-so. Gave her a try because like many of us junkies, I already bought the set. A good thing: she is one of my two favourite US authors! Nancy Atherton is the other. http://cmriedel.wordpress.com/reviews...

Fixed the name edit =)

Must have been my laziness when typing that.

Thanks for the recs - at least I know I have good reading ahead of me.

It is my pleasure to recommend. When you get a chance to browse my reviews, don't worry. They are careful to never be spoilers. That's a no-no to me. Congratulations on remodelling your home, Erin! Inconvenient but must be rewarding later. I'm busy too, by my non-whirlwind standards. I will be giving my groups due attention with discussions, if not mystery clues and prize events very shortly. Ethereal is merely transfering anything you've read that's spiritual, paranormal, fantasy, or witchy. Talking or very intelligent animals count. Gentle Spectrums is just matching 10 broad subject or broad colours (or both). You can even glance at them right here in the group to ponder what reading you've already done that fits.

Right now is central Canada's gardening season! If you look up 'hardiness zone 3', you'll see we ain't Florida! LOL! We have a short time before we get to a period, in September, that it is possible for overnight frost to ruin plants. This is after waiting for the previous frost dates to end: early May. EVERYTHING comes alive and bursts into colour here and I prefer growing absolutely everything right from its seeds. Flowers and as vegetarians: almost all of our food. :-)

I edited messages #2, 3, 4 to remove authors I have read since posting these lists. It's fun and rewarding to see that they have whittled down nicely!

I need to go over some more I haven't read, I'm sure there are many more. I agree it gives a sense of accommplishment to mark them off.

I've gathered so far, you're a Floridian who enjoys a good garden or landscape and loves physical books. I also gather you siphen out deals and have a healthy sturdy stock of unread material? I hope there's no moisture issue where you live. Manitoba is nice and dry, be it heat or cold.

Other than Florida and moisture, this describes me; past a modest point that astonishes everyone. Both our book gathering and how much we garden. :) I really have to get back to chatting with my groups (at the blog): initiating conversations and activities because.... there are pictures of some of our books.

Wow you are completely right. I have a horribly large TBR pile that may topple over and crush me someday :) But I wouldn't want it any other way.

Humidity doesn't hurt the books indoors - we do have high humidity in Florida though. Honestly I dislike heat in this state.

No? Good. I've been to a few humid places, like Cornwall, England and couldn't believe it. Great for the skin, hair, and nails I'm sure. I have to work at having sandal-presentable feet. Hahaha. I do! A little more cream for a day or so and I'm good. Florida is fairly high on my list of places to visit. My first brother (I have two) has been there recently: this time by car (I'd rather fly!), the previous time to board a ship.

Gosh. You live where there are ships. And sunken treasure. And alligators. How surreal is that?

Sorry I didn't see this update before. I never noticed any sunken treasures sadly :( I wish I lived closer to the ocean to stare at ships all day

I suppose this is as good a thread as any for what I propose: TRADES! I know others are similar to me; there are books we don't keep. Sometimes we aren't collecting, reading was good enough. We can pre-buy so far ahead of reading our wondrous bulk, we pick up duplicates. I for one, love replacing my treasures with a hardcover, or better conditioned copy. Presently, I have four stuffed boxes of books I'm not keeping. Now you know why I love to give prizes. :)

Something I do with a friend all the way in England and propose with anyone, is to compare lists! Do you have something you need, that I have and vice versa? I like to begin with what I am seeking; then the person who has my titles can choose whatever they like from my give away list. For instance, Erin once needed Shirley Damsgaard and I have all of them. I need early Kate Kingsbury and the first novel by Sarah Rayne, "Property Of A Lady". I would love anything by Rebecca Patrick-Howard and the ghost ones by Ronald Malfi.

Let's list books we would like to find. Anyone who can fulfill those requests can exchange lists by e-mail and trade. It's nice not to worry about currency, postage, or purchase price. Trading with stores is never advantageous to we sellers; it's a store owner's gain. Exchanging amongst ourselves gives us full value, of things we want to whisk away anyhow: a book for a book. If there is anything you seek, or you have what I need, please post away or contact me directly. :-) My e-address is AlyshaeB@hotmail.com. Yours Sincerely, Carolyn.

Erin, it sounds funny to a prairie girl, to hear a Floridian say she wished she lived "closer" to the ocean. Hehehehe! Drive five minute, then you'll see ships I'll bet. Me? Have you *seen* Manitoba on a Canadian or North American map? Exact middle of the continent, furthest you can get from all four coasts. There are lakes at a one-hour proximity but let's just say it was a life long thrill, when I finally set eyes on a lighthouse. Whales? Still hoping to see them. I have gotten closer to the COUNTRY, Wales, than seeing this beautiful animal.

C. wrote: "Erin, it sounds funny to a prairie girl, to hear a Floridian say she wished she lived "closer" to the ocean. Hehehehe! Drive five minute, then you'll see ships I'll bet. Me? Have you *seen* Manitob..."

I have to drive like an hour away at least, but you're right that's not too bad. We have plenty of lakes here though.

C. wrote: "I suppose this is as good a thread as any for what I propose: TRADES! I know others are similar to me; there are books we don't keep. Sometimes we aren't collecting, reading was good enough. We can..."

Sounds like a great idea! :)
I'm not looking for anything right now I don't think, but will keep this thread in mind if it comes up.

Good. You might have items *I* need. I am taking action on first or next volumes of series, so they get read. For the first time: a few titles are on my giveaway list that I have not read! I have looked them up. If they aren't first in a series and don't interest me enough to queue all of their missing volumes too.... I have enough to read. I might as well trade them, or grant them as prizes.

I guess you don't have the requests I made above and you have found all of the Shirley Damsgaards?

I did, ended up ordering them online. The series was cute overall; not perfect, but it was worth reading.

And I'm sorry, but no, I don't have the ones mentioned above :(

Regarding Ronald Malfi, looks like I have some of his stuff on my wishlist though.