You know the Hoarders love their libraries! Like our book hoarding, our library usage is pretty much on par with it. We’ve been lamenting to each other recently about the amount of library reading we’re doing, which has taken over, therefore never giving us time to read the books we have on our shelves!
So does this mean it’s more library pressure? ;-)
Oh, but don’t doubt us, we’ve been steadily (and weekly! (shhhh) buying books for our shelves, but we seem be reading more library books over our own!
I currently have 17 books on hold at the library. That’s down from the 23+ originally, so hey, progress? That’s because I’ve been carefully removing some I’ve placed on hold. I’ve been looking to see if there is a long line of others waiting for the same book and if there is, I cancel the hold. This is all in an attempt to stem the flood of books arriving at the same time and relieving myself from having to read books with the restrictive one-week loan time. Since my library has this 7-day borrowing restriction on in-demand books (can I plead with them to give maybe a 12-day restriction, which is still half the normal time? 7-days for some of the more chunkier books is an impossible deadline to meet at the best of times.) (Hoarder Elizabeth’s library doesn’t levy this kind of pressure of their readers!) I currently have 3 books from the library with me now, but received notification that 3 more are on their way! Help me.
The three right now?
I’m happily reading through The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant currently (it’s going to be a touch predictable, but I’m enjoying so far). I ordered it from Audible originally, but when I was returning some books I noticed this one perched in the New Books section so had to grab it! Unfortunately, I’m now no longer able to return it to Audible so that’s sad-making there, but oh well.
House of Trelawney by Hannah Rothschild is a bit of a chunker and there are others waiting for it, so I need to get to that one SOON! Clearly, it means I’ll need to renew The Convert. ;-)
The three winging their way to me very, very soon, like in the next few days?
Great covers on them eh?! All three very different books too! Fingers crossed they are great reads.
What else is on hold? Well….the trigger finger was smoking after I went through all the books the library has On Order. So.Many.Books. Some are ones that I may just end up buying, but doesn’t that just mean they languish on there instead of me actually reading them? That’s why the library is so wonderful! ;-) (Pressure, but a good pressure?)
The Dazzling Truth by Helen Cullen was released in the UK as The Truth Must Dazzle. I saw this and was immediately sold and was THRILLED to see the library was ordering it:
One Irish family. Three decades. One dazzling story.
Ridgerunner by Gil Adamson is the follow up to her book The Outlander, so it was a no brainer to add to the list! It’s one of a few CanLit titles I’m looking forward to reading. There are a number of great sounding CanLIt titles on their way soon but surprisingly, I remained calm and only put Ridgerunner, and this next one by Itani on hold:
The fantastic Frances Itani is also releasing a new book so I quickly threw a hold on it. It’s called Good Grief and doesn’t have a cover yet and I also have no idea what it is about. But it’s Itani so I have zero doubt it won’t be this wonderful reading experience. (You’ll see 16 book covers here, but Itani’s book represents the 17 I have on hold.)
Like Frances Itani, I will read anything by Alex George. My love affair with him started with his debut A Good American. So The Paris Hours quickly went on the hold list!
And are you as disappointed as much as I am about the title change for Maggie O’Farrell’s much anticipated novel, Hamnet? For some reason Canada changed the name to Hamnet and Judith. The cover isn’t as gorgeous and glorious as the UK edition either. :-( It’s pretty, but with the title change it changes the focus of the book? And, Hamnet’s UK cover… swoon!
These three above are the wildcards in my bunch. They are all something I don’t normally reach for when choosing what to read. With a little bit of scifi and descriptions of “inventive writing” they could work out well for me or not. Another wonderful reason why we love our libraries so much! Mitchell also apparently writes his novels like they are in the Marvel universe. I say this because of seeing a comment asking if this book is situated in his “multiverse”, so we’ll see how it goes.
I have yet to read a David Mitchell – even though after much searching I luckily came across his (pretty slim for him) Black, Swan, Green. That now sits on my shelf along with both the hardcover and the Audible audio for The Bone Clocks. But I have yet to read anything by him and I’m hoping Utopia Avenue settles in with me nicely. I’m thinking/hoping actually it falls in my lap when we’re picking books for my in-person book club. I think a David Mitchell might be a great one to change things up for us!
Sisters by Daisy Johnson looks very interesting and just look at that cover!! And look at Migrations cover! Migrations looks to be quite different from what I normally read, but the premise sounds so very intriguing!
Jessie Burton and Stephen P. Kiernan’s other novels also sit on my shelf. I own both of Burton’s previous novels – haven’t read them, and I own two or three of Kiernan’s others as well – those sit unread too. I love the covers of both of these, and thanks to putting these on hold, it only ensures I finally read books by these authors! The Universe of Two looks fascinating don’t you think?
I LOVED Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg. It was such a successful book for our book club too. Such a great story- have you read it? So when I saw that Clegg had a new one coming it immediately went on hold (I may actually buy this one). The End of the Day sounds very much like it will be just as great as Did You Ever Have a Family. It’s another one that I’m hoping is available at a time when we’re choosing book club books.
The final three! The City of Tears by Kate Mosse is one I’m EAGERLY anticipating. This is #2 in the planned Burning Chambers trilogy. The Burning Chambers was one I LOVED and I’ve been on pins and needles waiting for this one. 600+ pages of Kate Mosse’s writing. Sigh. I will be out of touch that week and may take some vacation days so I can be alone with it. :-)
The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd looks quite intriguing doesn’t it? I have trepidation going in though…I truly, truly disliked Tóibín’s The Testament of Mary and The Book of Longings is about the imagined life of Ana, the wife of Jesus. I trust Monk Kidd far more than Tóibín however, so I’m looking forward to reading what I hope is an excellent piece of storytelling.
The Yellow Bird Sings is one I have originally from Netgalley. It looks like it could be a pretty special book.
So when all of these come in all at once, like they always do, it leaves me with little time to read the books I have on my own shelves. I really need to stop browsing through the library’s Bibliocommons and focus on my own shelves, but come on! LOOK at these great books?! How could I not be the power patron of the library that I am (we are, actually – Elizabeth is more often than I am under the pressure of reading all the library books instead of her own. ;-) )
Are you a power patron of your library?
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