It happened again. I was innocently visiting the library in order to return one book and pick up another, and it happened to be library book sale weekend again, so I wandered into the sale room . . . and came out with six lovely books.
They are:
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott – I enjoyed Scott’s The Talisman, and Ivanhoe is on my Classics Club list so this was an especially great find.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern – I was a little surprised to see this one at the sale – it’s so popular that I thought someone would have nabbed it way before me, especially those who buy books in order to resell them. But then I saw that the front cover was bent at the corner. The novel has such a famously pretty cover that I can see that its mussed state may have turned away other prospective buyers.
Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl – I’ve heard really great things about this food memoir.
Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande – I’ve been meaning to read one of Gawande’s medical nonfiction books for a while.
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann – this is the find I am most excited about. I had told my cousin about reading Brazilian Adventure by Peter Fleming, a 1933 travel memoir about Fleming’s participation in a search for the missing explorer Percy Fawcett. My cousin reminded me that The Lost City of Z by David Grann is also about Percy Fawcett’s disappearance and Grann’s own retracing of Fawcett’s expedition. Perfect companion reads!
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan – I’ve been meaning to read one of Egan’s books since I saw him speak at the National Book Festival three years ago. So here it is!
With these additions to my book collection, I think that I am going to commit to the TBR Triple Dog Dare (hosted by Ready When You Are, C.B.), which challenges readers/book bloggers to only read books we already own for the months of January, February and March of 2013. I adore using the public library, but I tend to check so many books out from the library that I push aside the books I want to read that are already in my home. That said, if a friend, relative or co-worker suggests reading a book together during those three months, I will absolutely break the Triple Dog Dare rules in order to participate. Building my bookish relationships totally trumps getting to my TBR. Other than that categorical exception, however, I will be cozying up with my own books this winter.
As other bloggers have noted, the TBR Triple Dog Challenge works well with simultaneous participation in Long-Awaited Reads month (January 2014), hosted by Ana (Things Mean A Lot) and Iris (Iris on Books). A few of the books I have in mind are:
Love Lessons and Love is Blue by Joan Wyndham (a couple of years ago, Jenny suggested reading Wyndham after I thoroughly enjoyed The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy.)
Giants of the Frost by Kim Wilkins (I loved Wilkins’ books Veil of Gold and The Autumn Castle, and this one is the remaining book from Wilkins’ Europa Cycle.)
Bab: A Sub-Deb by Mary Roberts Rinehart (Aarti had an enthusiastic review of this book last year, and I’ve been meaning to get to it.)
We Were An Island: The Maine Life of Art and Nan Kellam by Peter P. Blanchard III (I found a signed copy of this beautiful book last year at a bookstore in Maine. It’s a nonfiction book about a couple that lived isolated on an island for forty years. The island where they lived is off the shore of the larger Mount Desert Island, which is where I was born, so I feel a real personal tug to read this book.)
A Good Stopping Point 
What an interesting selection of books. I’ve just finished The Talisman and will be reading Ivanhoe in January, the first one for Peggy’s Read Scotland 2014 challenge.
I have read all your new acquisitions except for Night Vircus and I liked all of them with the exception of Ivanhoe. However I was recently thinking of rereading Ivanhoe since I read it 25 years ago in high school. I think I might like it better now.
I’m embarrassed about how excited I am at the possibility that someone else might finally read Joan Wyndham. Her two books of biography aren’t the greatest books I’ve ever read, certainly, but their delightfulness is wildly disproportionate to their popularity. I hope you’re able to find Love Lessons for reading in January!
Also excited to hear about Atul Gawande, sometime in the near(ish) future. His books have been on my list for ages too. (Actually they’d be great for Long Awaited Reads Month!)
What a great stack of books! I love library book sales. I’ve read Ruth Reichel’s book about working as a food critic at the NY Times, and I meant to look for her other books. I have the same experiences with library books. I’ll miss them during the TBR Dare – the fun of wandering the stacks & finding new authors – but I really want to cut down some of the TBR pile. Good luck with your challenges.
Oh, I hope you DO read and love Bab: A Sub-Deb. It’s such a fun, frothy book and I probably feel about that book the way Jenny does about Love Lessons.
pining – I look forward to your Talisman review!
Carin – Yeah, I’ve learned that high-school me and current me often have very different tastes. There were some books that I needed more life under my belt to truly appreciate.
Jenny – ha ha, don’t be embarrassed. There are certain books that I’ve recommended that if someone actually picked them up, I’d be very excited. And I do own both Love Lessons and Love is Blue now (ordered used copies online) so they are at hand!
Lisa – Exactly – I love using my library, but cutting myself off from it temporarily will enable me to enjoy the other great pleasure of reading my own books. Good luck to you too in the TBR challenge!
Aarti – Re-reading your review as I was creating this post reminded me again of how fun this book sounds. As with Wyndham’s books, I recently ordered a used copy of Bab: A Sub-Deb, so come January, it will be ready to go!
You got some great books! The Night Circus is lovely, Better is a great read, and I loved The Lost City of Z. Enjoy!
Thanks! I was especially pleased by the great nonfiction finds – somehow I expected that the library sale’s nonfiction selection would be dominated by much older books, and by celebrity autobiographies. (The celebrity autobiographies are amusing to peruse in their own way – did you know Clay Aiken had a memoir?)
I loved that Ruth Reichl. I’d been meaning to read all her books but forgot about that promise to myself (as I so often do!). I must read her again.
I am usually terrible at following up with authors I like. I mean to, and then get distracted by a new author – Tender at the Bone will be my first Reichl. 🙂
I love Ruth Reichl’s books and this one is a delight. Well, they all are.
Glad to have you join us for the TBR Triple Dog Dare even if you do take a few breaks for library books now and then. 😉 Dakota used to eat library books on a regular basis. She especially enjoyed Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood.