Recent Acquisitions...

Books seem to be rapidly arriving in Paperback_Reader abode despite having a book-buying ban in place. I have been good though and only purchased one of the books above myself and that was a pre-order declared in my previous related post. In the interest of full disclosure, however, there is one little book that I did splurge on, which will appear in my next acquisitions post once it arrives (although to be fair it was a) very cheap b) a collector's item c) all Verity's fault...)

So, thank you to bloggers and publishers for funding (and fueling) my seemingly at-least-four-per-week book habit! This week I received:

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood was kindly sent to me from Alice at Bloomsbury, and is my first review copy from them, which is very exciting. I am undecided whether to read Oryx and Crake first of all as they are set in the same world; I have been assured that they work independently from one another but the dilemma remains.

The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon was sent to me by the lovely Nat of In Spring it is the Dawn for successfully suggesting the name of her new Japanese-orientated project, Hello Japan (an allusion to Hello Kitty as well as embracing the concept of discovering all things Japanese each month). Nat kindly offered me a Japanese book of my choice and although tempted by many I settled on The Pillow Book, which is "one of the greatest works of Japanese literature". Aptly I learned about this book on In Spring it is the Dawn, the blog name coming from the opening lines of the classic title.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë was a fabulous surprise from Annabel of Gaskella for suggesting the name of her "Season of the Living Dead" theme (I've been lucky with suggesting names this month!) Wuthering Heights is a classic that I have never read and I have mentioned recently here and on other blogs my intent to at long last read it; this season is perfect for doing so and the edition that Annabel sent me is certainly topical. Have you seen it? If you zoom in on the cover you will see the stamp-of-approval that reads "Bella and Edward's Favourite Book", alluding to the lovers from the Twilight series. I have seen outraged posts and comments about this marketing ploy but I actually think it was a wise way for HarperCollins to use the cult vampire franchise to boost their own sales. My reasoning is that if it encourages devoted fans (especially those of the romantic teen girl variety) to pick up a classic and read it because Bella and Edward like it, then at least they are reading something well-written and less vapid (and before any of you try to stake me, this is from the mouth of a Twilight afficionado who read the books like they were oxygen).

Madensky Square by Eva Ibbotson was sent to by the lovely Julia of Lady in the Dark (do have a read of her blog; it is lovely). I took an interest in one of Julia's recent posts about Eva Ibbotson as I have been meaning to read her for some time and very kindly sent me a duplicate copy of one of her books so now I can. Madensky Square, which appears to be out-of-print, sounds enchanting and I am looking forward to reading it. Is anyone else an Eva Ibbotson fan?

Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill - which should be subtitled "beware the superfluous apostrophes when writing about this book"! Lastly we have one of the most anticipating books of this half of the year (at least across the blogosphere!) and one that I first learned about -and then a couple of times more, and once in person- from Simon T of Stuck-in-a-Book (his review of the book can be read here). I coveted this book instantly, as I do most books about books, but the premise is one that I am sure as bibliophiles with excessive amounts of books in our book-loving homes, we dream about. The actual subtitle of the book is "A Year of Reading From Home"; Susan Hill embarked -beginning one afternoon when she could not locate an elusive book on her shelves but managed to find many more that she had intended to read but hadn't yet and some she had desired to reread but hadn't done so- "on a year-long voyage through her books, forsaking new purchases in order to get to know her own collection again." Doesn't it sound delightful? Here is a wonderful quote from the inside dust-jacket that sums up my expectations for this book, "A book which is left on a shelf for a decade is a dead thing, but it is also a chrysalis, packed with the potential to burst into new life." I know that this book is going to enchant but regrettably -due to outstanding reading commitments this week- I am not going to read it yet but will hold it tight at the end of the week; my boyfriend will be away from home this weekend and I simply can't think of a better way to console myself (unless it also involves wine and chocolate).

Have you received anything as exciting over the last week?