Top Ten Bookish Wishes I Just Granted Myself
Officially, this week's topic at That Artsy Reader Girl is for the top 10 books you'd love to own a.k.a. Bookish Wishes, which is always fun to do, but also I have gone absolutely hog-wild in the last couple of months with the book-buying. Most recently, I was prepping for the 20% off Memorial Day sales at Half Price Books by making fantasy shopping lists on Pango and BookOutlet and running price comparisons left and right.
Eventually I decided to go ahead and order some books off the wishlist backlist on eBay, from bulk sellers who a) offer books at roughly the cost of shipping with no extra shipping cost or minimum order (not in pristine condition, but accurately graded and usually good enough to shelve), and b) offer discounts for buying multiple books at a time.
tl;dr because these splurges are still very fresh and exciting, I thought I would talk about those instead of dreaming about yet more books I don't have space for. :P
1. Save the Date - Morgan Matson: I passed up a prior opportunity to buy a clearance copy for $2 because it's massive and IDK how genuinely interested I am in owning it compared to her others, BUT...I do still want to read it, and I am always on the lookout for Barnes & Noble Exclusive Editions. So when I saw one of them online for under $4...
2. Walking With Sausage Dogs - Matt Whyman: This wasn't published in the U.S., so it's been on my TBR for TWELVE YEARS. It's literally the third book on my Goodreads TBR. At this point I almost feel like I need to reread My Life with Mini Pigs to get reoriented...but anyway, the point is I've thought for a long time about when to go ahead & buy this online, and now was finally it. Hilarious memoir of a professional author with a chaotic household made up of several kids and even more pets, courtesy of his enthusiastic wife.
3. Where the Stars Meet The Sea - Heidi Kimball: This is actually the book that kicked off my splurge, because I can't get it via Interlibrary Loan and evvvery time I look for it it's stupid expensive. It's still expensive -- I gave in and paid $7 for a "good" condition copy because all the nicer ones were over $10, even though now I wish I'd gone for the prettier version, but I just couldn't wait any more for the option to read it. I'm not in the mood right NOW, but come fall or the next time I land in a British Gentleman actor spiral, I will be.
4. Instructions For a Broken Heart - Kim Culbertson: I've wanted this sweet lil' YA romance since I read it in 2012, but it's never been at my local library and according to WorldCat, all the county libraries near enough for me to attend used book sales at have weeded it already, so the odds of my stumbling across it now after all this time are low. Plus it's a white paperback, so I'm glad I went ahead w/ a "very good" condition copy. It looks nice!
5. I Want a Dog - Dayal Kaur Khalsa: It kills me to pay almost $4 for a skinny paperback picture book...BUT picture books are very hard to find a specific one you want if it's out of print and was last published 10+ years ago. This is one of my absolute favorites from childhood that I never owned and have wanted for many years. A girl who wants a dog so badly she ties a "leash" around a roller skate and walks it/takes care of it to prove how responsible she is? My SOUL understood this book.
6. Finding Felicity - Stacey Kade: another one that's been on my TBR for a while. I still think it will serve me best if I actually watch at least a full season of WB series "Felicity" first, but I can't get this via I.L.L. and I really wanted to secure the option to read it already, maybe in fall?
7. Leap of Faith - Jamie Blair: another YA novel I've been kind of looking out for for a while. I actually meant to look Lost for Words, which I haven't read, but I blanked and put this title into search and when it turned out to be the cheapest one out of everything I bought (barely over $3), I didn't think twice.
8. A Magical New York Christmas - Anita Hughes: this is a pretty recent addition to my wishlist, buuuut I'd have to do an interlibrary loan to read it, which might be tricky around the holidays when I would plan to do so, and I feel like maybe this will really float my boat when I want a romance w/ a Charming British Gentleman? (I had about 5 minutes this year after watching Austenland for the first time to be like "JJ Feild HI" and then work started and I had no time to explore farther down that parth. And now with The Fall Guy, Peak Handsome Ryan Gosling is here so we're in that era instead. but it WILL happen someday)
9. Spellbook of the Lost and Found - Moira Fowley-Doyle: I didn't order this online, but I did let myself splurge $8 ($6.40 + tax after discount) of gift card money on this at Half Price instead of waiting for an ex-library copy, because tbh, this jacket is so beautiful I don't want a version with a near-impossible-to-remove library barcode sticker covering it. And I've been enthralled by the beautiful writing and been looking out for it since I read it 2 years ago. Might have even put it on last year's post on this topic?
10. Journey to the Last River - The Unknown Adventurer: This was on an earlier BookOutlet wishlist, but then I found a brand-new copy listed on eBay for almost the same price ($6.30 incl. shipping). It's an oversized (longer than it is tall), heavy, high-quality hardcover book that's easy to damage with age and excessive handling/shipping, so the higher price to start in perfect condition is so, so very much worth it for this masterpice. P.S. There are still 23 copies left on BookOutlet, as of June 8th, if you want one too. Go, go, go!
Might end up doing the real topic in July for Throwback Freebie week, we'll see if my book hunger is back by that point. :P
(who am I kidding. Look at my giant cart on BookOutlet right now. That I'm NOT going to buy because a) expensive, and b) I DO NOT NEED MORE BOOKS. But the $6-or-less fiction sale is on right now until June 25th and it is soooo tempting that I almost chucked out this whole post and wrote it fresh.
Eventually I decided to go ahead and order some books off the wishlist backlist on eBay, from bulk sellers who a) offer books at roughly the cost of shipping with no extra shipping cost or minimum order (not in pristine condition, but accurately graded and usually good enough to shelve), and b) offer discounts for buying multiple books at a time.
tl;dr because these splurges are still very fresh and exciting, I thought I would talk about those instead of dreaming about yet more books I don't have space for. :P
1. Save the Date - Morgan Matson: I passed up a prior opportunity to buy a clearance copy for $2 because it's massive and IDK how genuinely interested I am in owning it compared to her others, BUT...I do still want to read it, and I am always on the lookout for Barnes & Noble Exclusive Editions. So when I saw one of them online for under $4...
2. Walking With Sausage Dogs - Matt Whyman: This wasn't published in the U.S., so it's been on my TBR for TWELVE YEARS. It's literally the third book on my Goodreads TBR. At this point I almost feel like I need to reread My Life with Mini Pigs to get reoriented...but anyway, the point is I've thought for a long time about when to go ahead & buy this online, and now was finally it. Hilarious memoir of a professional author with a chaotic household made up of several kids and even more pets, courtesy of his enthusiastic wife.
3. Where the Stars Meet The Sea - Heidi Kimball: This is actually the book that kicked off my splurge, because I can't get it via Interlibrary Loan and evvvery time I look for it it's stupid expensive. It's still expensive -- I gave in and paid $7 for a "good" condition copy because all the nicer ones were over $10, even though now I wish I'd gone for the prettier version, but I just couldn't wait any more for the option to read it. I'm not in the mood right NOW, but come fall or the next time I land in a British Gentleman actor spiral, I will be.
4. Instructions For a Broken Heart - Kim Culbertson: I've wanted this sweet lil' YA romance since I read it in 2012, but it's never been at my local library and according to WorldCat, all the county libraries near enough for me to attend used book sales at have weeded it already, so the odds of my stumbling across it now after all this time are low. Plus it's a white paperback, so I'm glad I went ahead w/ a "very good" condition copy. It looks nice!
5. I Want a Dog - Dayal Kaur Khalsa: It kills me to pay almost $4 for a skinny paperback picture book...BUT picture books are very hard to find a specific one you want if it's out of print and was last published 10+ years ago. This is one of my absolute favorites from childhood that I never owned and have wanted for many years. A girl who wants a dog so badly she ties a "leash" around a roller skate and walks it/takes care of it to prove how responsible she is? My SOUL understood this book.
6. Finding Felicity - Stacey Kade: another one that's been on my TBR for a while. I still think it will serve me best if I actually watch at least a full season of WB series "Felicity" first, but I can't get this via I.L.L. and I really wanted to secure the option to read it already, maybe in fall?
7. Leap of Faith - Jamie Blair: another YA novel I've been kind of looking out for for a while. I actually meant to look Lost for Words, which I haven't read, but I blanked and put this title into search and when it turned out to be the cheapest one out of everything I bought (barely over $3), I didn't think twice.
8. A Magical New York Christmas - Anita Hughes: this is a pretty recent addition to my wishlist, buuuut I'd have to do an interlibrary loan to read it, which might be tricky around the holidays when I would plan to do so, and I feel like maybe this will really float my boat when I want a romance w/ a Charming British Gentleman? (I had about 5 minutes this year after watching Austenland for the first time to be like "JJ Feild HI" and then work started and I had no time to explore farther down that parth. And now with The Fall Guy, Peak Handsome Ryan Gosling is here so we're in that era instead. but it WILL happen someday)
9. Spellbook of the Lost and Found - Moira Fowley-Doyle: I didn't order this online, but I did let myself splurge $8 ($6.40 + tax after discount) of gift card money on this at Half Price instead of waiting for an ex-library copy, because tbh, this jacket is so beautiful I don't want a version with a near-impossible-to-remove library barcode sticker covering it. And I've been enthralled by the beautiful writing and been looking out for it since I read it 2 years ago. Might have even put it on last year's post on this topic?
10. Journey to the Last River - The Unknown Adventurer: This was on an earlier BookOutlet wishlist, but then I found a brand-new copy listed on eBay for almost the same price ($6.30 incl. shipping). It's an oversized (longer than it is tall), heavy, high-quality hardcover book that's easy to damage with age and excessive handling/shipping, so the higher price to start in perfect condition is so, so very much worth it for this masterpice. P.S. There are still 23 copies left on BookOutlet, as of June 8th, if you want one too. Go, go, go!
Might end up doing the real topic in July for Throwback Freebie week, we'll see if my book hunger is back by that point. :P
(who am I kidding. Look at my giant cart on BookOutlet right now. That I'm NOT going to buy because a) expensive, and b) I DO NOT NEED MORE BOOKS. But the $6-or-less fiction sale is on right now until June 25th and it is soooo tempting that I almost chucked out this whole post and wrote it fresh.