Keeping Books I (Probably) Have No Use For, Just Because...

I'm not a total book hoarder. I mean, I do cull my shelves now and then. But because I have (occasionally) donated a book and then later regretted it (where are you now, A Field Guide to America Houses?) I tend to think twice (or three times or four times or...) before I remove a book from the shelf.

For that reason, right now I have a whole bunch of books on the French language. Yes, I took four years of French in high school and a semester in college, but I really don't speak the language, I haven't visited France, and during my few trips to Quebec, my high school French proved to be horribly inadequate and I had to revert to English (much to the relief of the people I was speaking to). A need to know French is probably not in my immediate future. And yet...I have those books. (Note: knowing a smattering of French does come in handy when doing crossword puzzles. Thank goodness I devoted four and a half years of my life to delving into the language. Smile). (Also Note: I have no regrets about those four and a half years. It's a beautiful language, I was--weirdly enough, given my present inability to speak it or understand it other than in written form)--good at it, I learned a few things about French history and culture, and I enjoyed it.

And then--getting back to my eclectic bookshelves--there are the books on gardening (I have more than what's pictured below) even though I'm a horrid gardener and always have been (clearly the books aren't paying off).

Of course, there are other books I have just because I like having them there (lots of history books) and I always hope that maybe someday I'll use them for writing a historical, even though it's been years since I stopped fiddling with writing historical romance and moved to contemporary romance. Speaking of which, why did I give away my copy of Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey? I loved that book!

In short, I hope that you too have books on your shelf that you love even if you never put them to use in your day-to-day life!

Best Wishes and Happy Reading,

Myrna

Where to Find eBook Bargains

Years ago I had a professor who told me that he and his wife were book poor. No need to explain that to anyone who has been in love with books all their lives. We tend to be obsessed with acquiring books. There are many reasons for that and they're probably different for each person, but my personal reasons for being a mad book buyer have to do with the fact that every book contains stories, secrets, possibilities, the answers to questions, hours of entertainment and more. I take one look at a book, and I just can't help looking inside...and often, buying.

In fact, I can't remember a time when I wasn't a bit obsessed with books and reading. When I was a girl in school I loved the days when we could order Scholastic Books and I eagerly awaited each shipment. When I became a teacher, I was just as entranced, and I always ordered extra books for my classroom. Bookstores call out to me (at least it seems that way). At garage and estate sales, I always gravitate to the book shelves. Library book sales suck me in every time, so I understood when, visibly six months pregnant and waiting in line at a huge library book sale, I was nearly knocked flying by eager book buyers trying to get in the door to access all those books!

But here's the thing. Even though I buy a lot of books and even though I'm a writer who totally understands that writers need to eat (i.e., make money), I'm also still a fan of bargains. Don't get me wrong. I buy a lot of books at full price, but now and then a discount comes my way, and I'm happy to be able to save a dollar or two.

So without further ado, here are some of my favorite ways to save on books (note: these are all for ebooks, so feel free to mention places to save on print books in the comments section).

eReaderIQ - You sign in with an email address, indicate the books and/or authors you want to keep watch on, indicate what price you want to pay or how much of a discount you're looking for, and when the books go on sale, the site sends you a notice. I have a tendency to forget and just buy the book without waiting, but now and then I've gotten some great bargains.

BookBub Daily Deals - You can access the site to look for deals and/or sign up for alerts, indicating your preferences, and every day you'll receive an email with a bunch of bargains in it. I love it!

Bargain eBook Hunter - I haven't used this one much at all (although there are lots of free books here. I used to get their emails--like BookBub, you can get a daily email with bargains), but some time has passed, so I'm no expert on this one.

Kindle Daily Deals - you may need to go to a different Amazon address if you're in a different country (just google Amazon daily Kindle deals and add your country name at the end), but every day Kindle has daily deals which can be accessed via the site or--again, as above--via a daily email. I get the daily emails, but I also visit the site, because there are also monthly deals and other short-term deals.

Nook Daily Find - If you're a Nook reader, there's a daily deal, try this. Also, once you're there, look in the sidebar for other deals.

Kobo Deals - If you have a Kobo, you might try here.

Bargain Booksy - You have to look at the details of individual books. Some are only offered as Kindles. Others are offered on other sites, include Apple.

If you have other favorite places to find books (ebook or print), share it in the comments. I'd love to hear from you.

Happy Reading!

Myrna

Some of My Favorite Quotes About Books and Reading

As noted in an earlier post back in October, I've been posting various book quotes on my social media sites. Since many of you don't see those or may have missed them, here are some of them. More to come.

 

I hope you find a great book to read today!

Myrna

Yes, Book Catalogs Still Exist

Years ago, I used to get a lot of book catalogs (and I loved receiving them). That was before the days of online shopping. It was even before the days of big box book stores. And while the independent and chain book stores where I made most of my purchases were...not exactly abundant but easily accessible, the problem was that they weren't big enough to carry every book, and there were lots of books that I never would have even known about had it not been for book catalogs.

For the most part, I had forgotten about those catalogs until Christmas when I received a Bas Bleu mailer (I think I may have posted about it). If you haven't looked at their catalog, I encourage you to do so. They have some wonderful and interesting titles, as well as other book-related products.

Then today I received a catalog from a company I was unfamiliar with although it's probably been around for awhile (maybe a long time. I don't know). Here's the link to Daedalus Books.

That sent me scurrying to find more book catalogs, and right off the bat I realized that I had forgotten about Hamilton Books. How could I have forgotten? I used to savor those catalogs, and I ordered quite a few reference books from them back in the day.

Dover Books also seems to still offer paper catalogs (such fun and interesting titles).

I'm sure there are more out there, and...while I totally understand the reason for having fewer book catalogs than in the past, I do miss settling down with a great book catalog (I used to love the day the Barnes & Noble catalog arrived, but it has to be enormously expensive to mail catalogs out now and probably not all that productive).

Of course, all of these stores and many others offer online shopping as well, so we have options. 

Where do you obtain most of your books these days? Brick and mortar stores, online shops, the library, garage/rummage sales, trading among friends and family or some other method?  (I do love a good library).

Have a fantastic day!

Myrna

Hay-on-Wye, Town of Books

In the way these things tend to happen around here, I was browsing through some books on Amazon the other day and came across Sixpence House, which I purchased.

I haven't started reading the book yet, but the topic fascinates me. The setting is Hay-on-Wye, a town in Wales. Hay-on-Wye has a population of only 1,500, but the town has 40 bookstores. The Boston Globe calls Sixpence House, "the bookworm's answer to A Year in Provence." How could I resist?

And, of course, I had to find more about the town. Some images. 

Source

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And a video.

Looks like I'll have to put another place on my "I want to go there" list. (And I'm looking forward to reading the book). 

Book Sorting: One of My Favorite Tasks - Part 1

My closets and bookshelves have started to look a bit crowded of late. The shelves have books on top of books, to the point where I can't really even see what's there. My closet...ugh, my closet is even worse.

One of the delightful things about being a writer is that every so often your publisher sends you a few books (if a foreign or special edition is coming out) or an entire box of books if your new book is hitting the shelves. Of course, there's a downside to that, too. You soon have too many books for one closet to hold.  

So, I began by trying to restore order to my closet, but quickly moved on to the much more fun task of redoing my shelves. That means assessing every book I own and deciding what stays and what goes. It's not an easy task. Here are some of the books that I'm mulling over:

(This one I'll probably keep. I love Elizabeth Berg's books)

(This one's easy. It's an interesting and useful book, especially if you write about ranch life. I've read it cover to cover and then gone back to it for research many times, but I have two copies).

Seaward

(This was a good book and I love Susan Cooper's work. I've had her The Dark is Rising series on my shelves since I first read it more than 30 years ago, and I reread it every so often. It's a great series and winner of several awards. This book isn't part of that series, though, and I'll probably pass it along for someone else to enjoy).

The Classic Encyclopedia of the Horse

(I'm a bit conflicted about this one. I've had it on my shelves since I first started publishing back in the early nineties and it's been a great research tool. That said, I haven't delved into it in a long time, and it's taking up too much shelf space. It's probably time to say goodbye).

In addition, I have a number of favorite novels that I've repurchased as ebooks because they're the books I reread time and again, so I'm getting rid of my paper copies. Replacing old favorites is a slow process. I can't afford to replace all my keepers, but a few special ones go on my Kindle so that I have them at hand on those days when I just can't decide on something new to read. 

So how about you? Have you cleaned your shelves lately? Gotten rid of books you no longer want? Discovered books you've forgotten you owned? Found some old favorites you want to revisit?