Oops...

I was killing time before meeting a friend for dinner last night and accidentally ended up in a bookstore. Knowing how many unread books I already have and my financial situation being what it is, I am not allowed to go into those institutions. But it felt so nature that it never crossed my mind as wrong.

I escaped with three books. They were all from the bargain bins and I put back four others at that. I fought the urge of A. S. Byatt's The Children's Book for the umpteenth time and only spent twelve dollars. (Yes, I am justifying my purchase.)

Joe Hill's short story collection 20th Century Ghosts will be my introduction to horror fiction. Joshilyn Jackson is one of the most delightful authors I've had the pleasure of meeting and The Girl who Stopped Swimming will not be a book languishing, unread on my shelves for long. The final purchase was a hard one for me: A Betrayal in Winter by Daniel Abraham. It is everything I regularly swear off and rail against: epic fantasy and a story that needs more than one book to tell it's tale. It would seem I'm a junky who keeps coming back…

Quartet's have been all the rage in my reading and ever-growing TBR pile as of late: The Jerusalem Quartet, The Long Price Quartet, The Kingdom of Thorn and Bone, and The Alexandria Quartet. Thus far I feel only one of those series has needed four books, but then again I've only read one and a half of the four quartets mentioned.

It's too bad Jackson's book didn't come out today and could possibly capitalize on a currently series of books starting with "The Girl who…" Perhaps it would boost sales? Perhaps she doesn't need boosted sales? Either way, regardless of how I feel about the book, as a southerner I will read Jackson's other novel Gods of Alabama because of the awesomeness of the title alone.

The Awesome and the Less Awesome

While scanning Amazon and drooling over books I can't afford, I was surprised to see that the pre-order mention for Arturo Pérez-Reverte's new book are up. (It's actually a few years old; only the English translation is new.)

The first thing that caught me as the badass title. (I'm currently swayed by the Levant's badassery due to reading Edward Whittemore's Jeruseleam Quartet at the moment.) After the title and thinking how awesome the story would be in the hands of the most capable author I noticed the font of the title and the author's name and placement--and loved them both. The above has me super stoked for this book.

Then I looked at the cover itself-from a distance if you will. I hate that dumb-ass picture; and the series had just recovered from travesty of blandness in, The King's Gold to the uber-awesome, The Caballero in the Yellow Doublet.

(Boring.)

(Said transitory awesome.)

Artwork aside--and no, I don't plan on a regular commentary on book covers--the king of all awesome was the only 'blurb' I could find about the book, Pirates of the Levant. Having read much of Pérez-Reverte's work before, I can't help but think this comes directly from the author himself:

This was a time when Spain was revered, feared, and hated in the easterly seas; when the devil had no color, no name, and no flag; and when the only thing needed to summon hell on earth (or sea) was a Spaniard and his sword.

September second is my new Christmas.