UK Book Club discussion

I thought it might be fun to have a thread for posting about our latest acquisitions, mainly as for me buying books is as much fun as reading them! I used to post in another group full of book-buying addicts, but left that group as I felt it was somewhat enabling my over-indulgence!

I bought a few books this week; today I found a copy of the BBC book of Planet Earth (from the David Attenborough tv series) in a charity shop for 50p, and yesterday I picked up an art book I'd ordered from Waterstones, about the linocuts by Robert Gillmor; Cutting Away: The Linocuts of Robert Gillmor - I'd visited his local gallery at Cley in Norfolk in May and came 'very' close to buying one of his prints. He does the cover artwork for the New Naturalist books I collect and I love those so really nice to have a book with some of his other work in it, and a little about how he creates them.

At the start of the week I bought two plant books which are partly replacements for books I already have:

Plant And Planet by Anthony Huxley I already owned but a hardback without a dust jacket, which for some reason really irked me. I found a copy with a jacket fairly cheap in my local Oxfam but nearly put it back, thinking it might be silly to rebuy just for the jacket… then realised it was actually a first edition signed by the author and felt that made more sense (well, a little!) so bought it.

I also bought a copy of Richard Mabey's Flora Britannica, replacing the concise version I bought years ago - the full version looks much better and was quite cheap for such a good condition copy. Fits very nicely next to my copy of Bugs Britannica. :-)

I bought today while in Waterstones. It's a fabulous book, literally does what it says on the cover. There's 642 writing suggestions inside to get the creative juices flowing. It's not just a book though, it's a writing journal with space - mostly lined like a proper journal - below each suggestion for your writing.

I'm going to start off with 'Write a letter to go into a time capsule you are burying in your back garden, to be opened in 500 years time'...

Make sure you use good paper if it has to last 500 years!

Good thinking, hadn't thought about that!

I just picked up a copy of paper towns and city of bones almost finished paper towns

I just received a couple of books I ordered online; the first in the Modesty Blaise series by Peter O'Donnell, oddly enough called and the second book in the Katy Klein trilogy, (a signed edition). I also bought a couple of books at the local book store, The Laughing Oyster, by D.A. Mishani and by TaraShea Nesbit.

Well I just purchased and

I have finished City of Ashes and I am now reading City of Glass. Tomorrow I am buying , and . This series is really good and I recommend it to all!

I took a trip on the train to Colchester this morning (in the process getting soaked in a thundery downpour!) and it looked like all I was going to come home with was a single book but then I found three more including one I'd been hoping to find for a while but was usually a bit outside my price range. I spent about £25 in all and I bought these:


An Eye For A Bird: The Autobiography Of A Bird Photographer by Eric Hosking


The Salmon by J.W. Jones


King Solomon's Ring by Konrad Lorenz


The Common Lands of England and Wales by W.G. Hoskins and L. Dudley Stamp

Greyfriars bookshop had a copy of Insect Migration, which I rather wanted, but it was a heavily stamped ex-library copy and they wanted £20 for it, which isn't expensive for that book (it's not a cheap volume!) but was a bit much in my opinion given its condition so I reluctantly left it.

On my last day off, I traded in some of the books I'd finished to my local used book store, Nearly New Books in Comox and managed to find a few replacements; by Simon Brett, by M.C. Beaton, by Ann Cleeves, by Louise Penny, by Kate Atkinson, by Virginia Woolf and by Boris Starling. Made my day.. :0)

Ooh, good acquisitions, Bill.

I'm trying to curb my habits a bit so I haven't got any at the moment to share -- but I can ogle them vicariously through you all

Thanks, Robyn. I feel it's sometimes my chore in life to try and help the local book stores stay in business... and there is nothing wrong with ogling vicariously.. :0)

I use that same excuse Bill. ;-)

I went mad yesterday and bought loads! I mainly went out to see if the bookshop still had their ex-library copy of Insect Migration, which I saw a few weeks ago, but I ended up buying a couple of others from the same series and then found the rest of the books in some charity shops nearby.



The World of the Soil and The Snow Geese were actually books I already own in paperback/book club editions, but both were so cheap that I felt collector mania strike and couldn't resist the hardback of Snow Geese (my paperback copy was a very cheap but rather brown and smelly secondhand one, which I wasn't looking forward to reading!) or the original Collins edition of the World of the Soil.

Way to go Paul! I visited my other used book store today, found three books that interested me; , an early Heinlein, , a Vampire Files mystery by PN Elrod and , the 2nd Inspector Gamache mystery by Louise Penny

Thanks Bill - feeling a bit embarrassed about buying so many, but I did avoid going to investigate the Bury St. Edmonds or London bookshops today and didn't buy any more in town either, though I saw a couple I was interested in when I took two big bags of books to the charity shop.

I think the only Robert Heinlein I ever read was The Puppet Masters (I liked the slightly clunky film version with Donald Sutherland). I used to read quite a bit of some of the other classic sci-fi authors though (however they all blur together now so I find it hard to remember which ones I did actually read!).

The Puppet Masters is one of my favourite Heinlein novels, Paul, he's such a great story teller. I took a Science Fiction novel course at university, got to read so many great authors. I got away from SciFi in recent years, but I've been slowly getting back into it and rediscovering the joy I used to feel at reading such imaginative stories. I just finished one called Wool Omnibus (Silo, #1) by Hugh Howey that was fantastic..

I went into Tescos to check out a new phone yesterday and came out with four books - they sell a limited range but at 2 for £7 it is difficult to go wrong

Catton - The luminaries
Jonasson - the girl who saved the king of sweden
Tartt - the goldfinch
Nesbo - cockroaches

I appreciate that I am now solely responsible for killing off independent bookshops

Darn you, Ray!! How dare you.. ;0) I'm currently reading Nemesis by Nesbo, btw.. I like his stuff.

Only if you would have bought those from an independent if you'd not bought from Tesco though. I've bought plenty of books from there that I'd never have bought if I had to pay full price for them.

I thought my secrets were safe but damn you Paul. Actually been v.good and only bought a few since the start of July.

Rosa and The Second Son both by Jonathan Rabb, plus Lost City Radio which sounds great..........and then I went and spoiled it all by doing something stupid like I love etc....buying the Band of Brothers DVD box set.

Hi guys just come back from a school trip 4 the last two weeks been deprived of my kindle I'm sorting out my Goodreads stuff now so basically I have bought soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many books I can't even hold them all

City of bones
City of ashes
City of glass
City of fallen angels
City of lost souls
City of heavenly fire
Uglies
How I live now
The raven boys
The dream thieves
Small steps
We where liars
Paper towns
and much more that I don't know the names of and don't have with me now

I went a bit crazy but I've already read 4 of them plus I had some money to spend so yeah plus there was a half price book sale in my local market the other day so yay

Bill wrote: "Darn you, Ray!! How dare you.. ;0) I'm currently reading Nemesis by Nesbo, btw.. I like his stuff."

read one so far and enjoyed immensely so I thought why not try another

Paulfozz wrote: "Thanks Bill - feeling a bit embarrassed about buying so many, but I did avoid going to investigate the Bury St. Edmonds or London bookshops today and didn't buy any more in town either, though I sa..."

Bury St Edmunds has lost most of its bookshops I thought - not lived there for 30 years now but last time I went in it had Waterstones only?

Just arrived.
The Complete Chronicles of Conan

as recommended by several group members and price recently dropped to 99p for the kindle........and just now by Alberto Méndez which sounds brill.

Ray wrote: "Paulfozz wrote: "Thanks Bill - feeling a bit embarrassed about buying so many, but I did avoid going to investigate the Bury St. Edmonds or London bookshops today and didn't buy any more in town ei..."

Luckily for me, in the Comox Valley, I've still got two used book stores and two new books stores (not incl the chain stores) and I do try to give them all a bit of regular business. Yesterday I bought Cockroaches, The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, And The Greatest Treasure Hunt In History, Frost At Christmas: and The Fall.

Lunchtime wander around charity shops ended up with 60p for my gay month read all library copies not there! and at the works £1 and £2.99 hardback, earlier this week in oxfam picked up and

Nicola wrote: "Andrew wrote: " and at the works.."

I used to enjoy hunting for obscure bargains in The Works until I reached the last quarter of a book and found that the end was missing. I still look, but in a..."

That's not good at all! Must say I've never found anything missing from books I've bought but I've seen a lot of badly ravaged books in there at times! It's quite rare that I find anything interesting in The Works these days; they seem to be going through another 'tat' phase too, plus I'm also 'trying' to be a bit more discerning about what I buy as well.

I did make it to Bury St. Edmunds in the end and it was really nice there (though the 'Arc' shopping centre was a rather depressing array of chain clothes stores and food outlets). I already mentioned these in the non-fiction thread but I bought these in a little secondhand bookshop near the Abbey (Churchgate Books):


Carthage: A History by Serge Lancel


Empires of the Nile by Derek Welsby and David Phillipson


The Rivers Chelmer and Blackwater by Stan Jarvis

I can't remember the last time I parted with money for a book, they either come from the library, loaned from someone after being rejected for bookclub, or free on the kindle.

I know quite a few people who do the same Louise. I can't say I'm much of a support to the new book industry as the vast majority of my books are secondhand! I do get a buzz from supporting nice secondhand bookshops though. I can't imagine not buying books as I find I get as much enjoyment from hunting around in lovely old bookshops as I do reading the books themselves.

Picked up another Folio Society book today from a local charity shop; I couldn't resist a lovely copy of Celtic Myths and Legends, quarter bound in leather. It's lacking the slipcase but it was only £5!

I have just purchased all 14 wizard of Oz novels written by L Frank Baum (for kindle) for 77p!

Louise wrote: "I can't remember the last time I parted with money for a book, they either come from the library, loaned from someone after being rejected for bookclub, or free on the kindle."

I was like that for years, don't know what's changed this past 12 months, but I need to stop, I've now got over 100 unread paperbacks, and 28 on the kindle I've paid for. Plus 3.5 that I've borrowed

Been good.....nothing for a week.

Visited Bury St Edmunds yesterday and picked up two Jack Higgins, early books and a Tom Grace from my Want to read list from the charity shops. Well worth the £5 I spent.

Had a wander round Snooper's Paradise in Brighton and picked up Frog Music by Emma Donoghue for £2.75.

James wrote: "Visited Bury St Edmunds yesterday and picked up two Jack Higgins, early books and a Tom Grace from my Want to read list from the charity shops. Well worth the £5 I spent."

I didn't really explore the charity shops when I visited last weekend, though I had a quick look in the Oxfam shop. Being weighed down with two large tomes rather blunted my desire to look for more books, but I also didn't want to drag my poor brother into lots of charity shops. What a lovely town Bury is though, I certainly will be making more trips there in future!

I bought another weighty tome today; I went back to the charity shop where I bought Celtic Myths and Legends earlier in the week and took another look at Legends of The Grail, which was part of the same series but I hadn't been sure last time. My will crumbled and I bought it. No slipcase, so wouldn't have been worth much to a collector (I don't really see Folio books without slipcases in proper bookshops) but £5 was still pretty cheap for a beautiful book quarter-bound in leather. I've got quite a few of the Folio Society myths and legends books now… but typically for me I've hardly made a start on reading them!

I spent a whole quid on this .
Hope it's worth it.

Louise wrote: "I spent a whole quid on this .
Hope it's worth it."

liked look of this so ordered second hand copy for £3 straight away

Just got and . Have been wanting to read a Bill Bryson book.

Collusion by Stuart Neville.

Ian wrote: "Been good.....nothing for a week."

Believe it or not I haven't bought a book since Mr. Mercedes came out!

I have now got both SK's latest novels to read now.

I have just borrowed The Darkest Heart by Dan Smith from the library to read - so far it is great as always!

Today's kindle deal has a load of Peter Robinson books for 99p. Trying to resist the urge

Nothing for over 2 weeks and then 5 in one go:

- 3 set in Africa and 2 in Central America.

Among others I got this one the other day. There's plenty on my Kindle to keep me going for the time being :)

I ordered a few books online from The Book Depository, books that I couldn't find at my local bookstores, the other day. Looking forward to receiving them..

by Victoria Thompson, by James Kennaway, by Grace Metalious, and by Shirley Jackson

I am so out of touch - I recognise hardly any of these books you've all been buying!

I've splashed out in a big way over the last week and bought loads! I found a few in the local charity shops and also picked up some from amazon, which has become a real rarity for me as I don't particularly like the company but I needed something else that they were the easiest source for so added a few used books to the order:


A Thousand Geese by Peter Scott and James Fisher
(very excited to find a first edition of this today - looks really interesting and has lots of sketches by Peter)


Woodlands by Oliver Rackham
(I have a copy of a reprint - Woodlands - but many explanatory pictures are missing, the ones that are included are moved to a few pages in the middle and the charts and tables are all stuck in at the end… it's a bit of a mess and flipping back and forth is very distracting. Plus I want the lovely original with the fantastic cover and high quality paper!).


Seabirds: A Natural History by Anthony Gaston


The Kestrel by Andrew Village


The Classical World: An Epic History of Greece and Rome by Robin Lane Fox


Travels with a Tangerine: A Journey in the Footnotes of Ibn Battutah by Tim Mackintosh-Smith

I went into foyles today...which was nice...and added about five books to wishlist (usually so small) then bought We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves on kindle for £1.99..... And got a jodi picoult free.
I shouldn't have..... My friends already make fun of my picoult reading.

Oh and then I bought The Golem and the Jinni and The Girl with All the Gifts...because I worked way too many hours last week and deserved a treat. :)

I've been good this month... well reasonably. I got a wee book of WWI poetry, a book about Elizabeth of York and the box set of the Tripods.

Louise wrote: "I spent a whole quid on this .
Hope it's worth it."

Louise. Have you read this yet. Loved it! Ordered the follow on. Really original book. Thanks for bringing to my attention