On Friday evening I received a welcome and wonderful surprise in my e-mail inbox. An exceptionally generous friend had sent me an Amazon gift voucher as a belated birthday gift with apologies for forgetting. I jumped up and down in glee. Large Amazon purchases of books used to be a regular feature in my life but it's been over a year since I'd placed an order of more than one book at a time that was for myself. I've been trying not to buy as many books and, to be quite honest, my current economic situation doesn't allow me to, so you can imagine how ecstatic I was to be able to SPLURGE (guilt-free) on books. Even though Amazon sells more than just books it was only for a fleeting moment that I considered buying anything other than them. I also decided to buy items from my wish-list that I had been coveting for a while, books that I had never read before, and ones that would be a welcome addition to my library.
For most of Saturday I added and removed and added again and amended and evaluated my Amazon basket until finalising upon these (collectively photographed above):
Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
Couples by John Updike
The Trial by Franz Kafka
Therese Raquin by Emile Zola
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Of Human Bondage by William Somerset Maugham
The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr.
So, one writing handbook, one Finnish Children's book, two English classics, one French classic, one Russian classic, one German classic, and one American classic. Those six classic novels are all ones that the Guardian recommend that I must read. Cumulatively I have 2882 pages to read. Have you read any of these? Are you wanting to read any of them?
I have overdone it with the photographs a little but in my enthusiasm I wanted to show you some of the lovely covers; my particular favourite is the Penguin edition of The Day of the Triffids to the right. The cover art is by Brian Cronin and I covet the entire set. I already have the similarly striking copy of The Midwich Cuckoos, which was a novel I enjoyed earlier this year.
Now I am off to admire my books for a while.
6 comments:
What a beautiful stack of books! I loved both Therese Raquin and Anna Karenina, and have Of Human Bondage in my tbr pile (but I like your cover better!). I've had ups and down with Updike, but haven't read Couples. He was definitely an incredibly talented writer.
Belated Happy Birthday!
Lucky you!
I love Anna Karenina, so am glad to see it in your pile.
I've never read John Wyndham, but those covers make me want to.
Ooh, lovely new books!
I've only read Couples and the Moomin book...I didn't like the first I'm afraid, but the latter is lovely :)
Thank you all; they do make a pretty pile.
Guilt-free book shopping! Gotta love it. I hope you enjoy all your new acquisitions :) And happy belated birthday!
Happy Belated Birthday. I bet those put a smile on your face! Lucky you
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