Building on the Book Heap

I never borrow books, when I can avoid it - but I'm certainly very pro-libraries of course! - because I believe that books should be owned, definitely scribbled in, devoured, fondled, have an admirable retirement in the bookshelf and if you're not borderline obsessed with new favourite literary findings, be close at hand and re-read whenever you feel like it.

Recently I made some new acquirements to the ever growing heap of books - yes, making my 13 and a bit more bookshelves less messy is also on my to-do-list, my goal is to fit all (most) of the beloved books in the shelves in a not too far future... - and some of them I'm more than thrilled about. Others have been on my to-read-list for ages and I thought it was about time they moved in. I'm of course looking forward to read them too one day, albeit maybe with less of a thrill factor involved.

The above heap is from when I last shopped around for the best book deal - I find it really amazing how cheap full-price books can be these days, the annual Swedish February book sale is just very uninteresting and obsolete as far as I'm concerned. Me I like making book bargains all year round - all glorious ten of them. What can I say, I'm only one woman, the books worth reading are just too too many, but I'll certainly do my best and proudly present;

* Fredric Bedoir - Svenska slott och herrgårdar, en historisk reseguide / Swedish castles and mansions, a historic travel guide (perfect for some more castle spotting)
* Nancy Drew Horan - Loving Frank (interesting semi-fiction about architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Cheney, a love story, a Swedish connection, feminism)
* Adam Gopnik - Paris to the Moon
* Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (finally)
* Samuel P. Huntington - The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (read an article about this book and its author, intriguing to say the least)
* Lloyd Jones - Mr Pip (finally)
* Haruki Murakami - The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (Murakami, need I say more, can't wait to begin reading!)
* Murakami - Norwegian Wood (see above)
* Bengt Ohlsson - Gregorius (finally. Award winning Swedish novel)
* Lisen Sundgren - Lisens Örtspa / Lisen's herbal spa (remember the Rosendal ethereal pottering? Now I've got the book too, more than foot salt here I come. Also jam packed with gorgeous photos)

I swear my firm intention when I dropped off some stuff at the charity shop last weekend was to look for a perfect sideboard and nothing else. Definitely not books. I totally blame M for getting me to once again browse through the boxes of 10 books for 10 SEK ~ 1 USD (who needs booksales.) I alas didn't find the perfect sideboard, however I did find some pretty nifty books, one of which I've had on my to-get list for a long time. Huzzah. Meet the tensome;

* Jeffrey Eugenides - Middlesex (liked the movie "The Virgin Suicides", same author, why not)
* Robert Fulghum - All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things (sounded fun)
* Marian Keyes - Anybody Out There? (I know, I know, I did say I'd never read anything more by Keyes, but come on, 1 SEK...?)
* Barbara Kingsolver - The Poisonwood Bible (yes! Gosh, to find this thrown in those boxes, waiting for me just me and for 1 SEK was amazing, simply amazing)
* Björn Kumm - Terrorismens historia / The History of terrorism
* Toni Morrison - Love (I faintly recall I might have one or two of her old books, unread, in the shelves. Despite being - or perhaps because... - she is a Nobel Prize winner I somehow get the impression her work isn't that commonly known in Sweden. The size of this book looks like it should be a good one to begin with)
* Johanna Nilsson - Hon går ut genom tavlan, ut ur bilden / She walks out of the painting, out of the picture (finally. Acclaimed Swedish debut novel)
* Orhan Pamuk - Snow (this will be the first book I'll read by this Nobel Prize winner)
* Philip Roth - The Human Stain (I really liked the sad movie based on this book)
* Patricia Tudor-Sandahl - Tid att vara ensam / Time to be alone (written by a well-renowned Swedish psychologist who seems to be a very interesting woman indeed, though I think I'll just give this book to someone who needs it more than me, since I have no troubles in spending time on my own and by myself. Rather the contrary.)

Now, where to begin...

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Bonus information for the club of interest - my currently reading books together form this poem-like sentence; "Loving Frank, the Historian, Hurry, come and see, Her softest voice, the Passion."