Books and Coffee

I'll do the bad news first as it is only eleven o'clock in the morning and I'd like to think the rest of the day will be fail free.

I had a terrible cup of coffee at the used bookstore coffee house that shall not be named.  It was watered down crap with my own measures of cream and sugar.  I don't like weak coffee, but even the insubstantial flavor that was there wasn't good.  I'm a snob when it comes to drinking anything, and I'm aware, but don't we expect a little bit more from small independent 'craft' baristas?

It was only two dollars but I should have known something was wrong when the size options given were 16oz and 22oz.  When does anyone ever need 16oz of coffee?  If it's gonna be any good; they aren't gonna give you that much of it...  

Okay, I'm done.  I got that out of my system.

The last book buying binge of the foreseeable future just happened.  I could have waited till Sunday when everything was a dollar, but I don't feel like going back out there and dealing with the crowd.  80% isn't quite as nice as 'All books $1' but, I held nothing back.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel and Great House by Nicole Krauss were staring me down as I entered Borders.  Both of those have made a lot of noise in recent days.  I'm really excited about Krauss, and surprised I picked up Mantel.  Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin and Glass Room by Simon Mawer round out what the bookstore dictated as my 'literary fiction' purchases.  I haven't read much Le Guin but I love every word I have read and there was no reservation in picking Lavinia up.  Mawer was on the Man Booker Prize list a few years ago and caught my attention there.

The other five books I bought were fantasy-ish, or at least that is the shelf they were placed on.  The Company by K.J. Parker; Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor; Lonely Werewolf Girl by Martin Millar; Warriors edited by George Martin and Gardner Dozois; and Dust of Dreams by Steven Erikson.

Parker I'm familiar and comfortable with.  I'm already planning to start the Millar soon as I've wanted to get around to him for a very long time.  Warriors was the only, 'why not?' purchase.  I'd planned on not getting this but the good press keeps coming and it all came to the front of my mind when I saw it on the shelf.  I've talked about Okorafor earlier and eagerly await getting to that book as well.

I guess I'm off the fence with Malazan Book of the Fallen.  Erikson has been in my mind, if not my TBR list, for awhile.  I am terrified to think that I bought book-God-knows-what in a series of heaven-only-knows-how-many.  Although I think I've read somewhere that the series has ended.

Not too bad for $47.42.  Only three of the ten actually count as doorstoppers by my reckoning but a few are some really long four-hundred pagers...

This most recent haul really made me think about book stores.  I like 'em.  I like browsing shelves and flipping books over to read about 'em.  eReaders just ain't ever gonna work for me.  I think an eReader would save me serious money as I can't imagine a shopping binge on such a device being any fun... I don't even see my buying one.

I don't know if anyone can sympathize but I literally want to read about fifty books at once.  Alas, I can only manage one at a time.