Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Marg and myself that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!
Please note: the button redesign contest is now closed. Marg and I will unveil the winning design next week. Thanks to all who submitted designs!
My recent restraint at the library is quite shocking. Usually, I’m the girl who wanders the aisles pulling books of shelves until I physically can’t carry any more and then, and only then, to I make my way to the checkout. But lately I’ve only been checking out a few books a week and I find myself reading much more from my own shelves. Not a bad thing, of course, but very out of character for me.
Still, this changes means I’m more deliberate in my choices and instead of returning half my books untouched after picking them up on a whim, I find myself usually reading (or at least starting) them all. It’s certainly making the half-hour walk home from the library more pleasant than when I’m weighed down by a dozen hardcovers!
How do you use the library? Do you grab anything and everything that might interest you? Or are you more selective?
One Day by David Nicholls
I waited so patiently for this to come in. While all the other bloggers have been raving about it, I refrained from reading their reviews and contented myself with checking the library website to see where I stood in line. But finally it came! And, I must admit, I read it as soon as I got my hands on it – in one day, in fact. It was a wonderful, entertaining and surprisingly emotional reading experience. I’ll hopefully be posting my review later this week.
The Russian Dreambook of Colour and Flight by Gina Ochsner
The Guardian described this as “one part post-Soviet insanity to three parts magical realism.” How to resist? I’m not sure I’ve read any modern novels set in Russia, certainly not post-Soviet Russia, but the fantastic A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True by Brigid Pasulka has me yearning to indulge my Slavic side.
The Coasts of Bohemia: A Czech History by Derek Sayer
Speaking of Slavs, we come now to a book that’s been on my TBR list for years. There are so few English-language books about the Czechs that it’s a wonder I haven’t read this already. This particular volume is pricelessly entertaining as a previous rather ignorant reader has gone through with a red pencil, marking down his/her reactions and opinions with vivid exclamation points and spirited, if ill-informed, comments.
The Captive Reader 
Wow, The Russian Dreambook of Colour and Flight sounds really good!
I think so! I’m really looking forward to it and hopefully will have positive things to report back!
I only checked out 3 as well, for reasons explained in my post.
I don’t even have a weather-related excuse for my small haul!
They all sound really good. Enjoy!
Thanks Linda!
One Day looks interesting. I think I’ve seen some buzz about that around the blog o sphere! Enjoy your loot!
It definitely deserves all the buzz it’s got!
I confess that I tend to think like a grabber – if it’s there take it or I might not see it again. Gets me into serious overload trouble.
One Day sounds good – another I must look out for.
Happy reading!
See, I am naturally a grabber too. This change in approach is troubling me (though I admit that I don’t miss being chronically overloaded upon departure).
Definitely keep your eye out for One Day. It’s excellent!
True confession is good for the soul I suppose. I haven’t been a library user in a good 25 years (college days – and that was only for research – all my “fun” reading I bought). So, I was going to turn over a new leaf and do the Dewey Decimal Challenge as a way to force myself to the library more often, but I only lasted until March because I realized that by reading library books I wasn’t getting to the unread books on the TBR shelf. (gasp) I have now given the library up again temporarily until I make the TBR mountain smaller. Then the plan is to buy less, and use the library more.
About the only thing I can say in my defense is that we have a really pitiful library (I know, I know, there’s always inter-library loan). What’s even worse? My mother was a librarian!
Hello, my name is Susan and I am a bookaholic… 🙂
Susan! I am shocked but happy to hear that further library use is planned once you, very responsibly, make a dent in Mount TBR.
I used to be a grabber and probably still would if I got to actually visit the library with time for a leisurely browse of the shelves. But a visual impairment make it difficult to get to the library on my own and my ride (read husband) is always impatient. So I usually order from the catalog online and sometimes get to go with him to pick them up but usually not. This week I did tho and I did grab several off the new books shelf after picking up my reserves.
Right now I’m on a fiction binge but often I’ll have 10 to 1 NF having developed a love of research in college, even tho my first love and still my strongest passion is fiction. I’ll often have both my husband’s and my own cards tapped out and am juggling due dates as tho somethings on fire. But yesterday was the first library visit after being out of town for 2 months so I am starting with a fresh card. I think I would like to try moderation for a while. 🙂 And give some attention to the books I own or had loaned to me.
BTW I liked the look of The Russian Dreambook of Colour and Flight so checked my library catalog and lo they had it and it’s available so I ordered it.
I’m giving moderation a try for the first time since…well, ever, I suppose. But it’s definitely giving me a chance to catch up with some of my own books, though I’m mostly just rereading old favourites.
Hope you enjoy The Russian Dreambook of Colour and Flight! I’m looking forward to it!
One reason I always show restraint is that I sometimes don’t turn my books in on time (shocking, I know), and I always judge to myself – is this book worth paying for a little bit if I forget??
I live in terror of accruing fines at the library. I was in hospital last fall and so couldn’t return my books on time and ended up with a bill for $1.05. The shame! For me, it’s not the amount that I end up having to pay but the fact that I so forgot myself as to have accumulated it in the first place. I think this is the result of having been such good friends with all my librarians since primary school: I always adored them and still feel that if I get any fines I am disappointing them personally. Plus, I’m incredibly cheap.
I put a lot of books on “hold” at my library, so I often end up just picking up those. Other times, though, I like to browse and usually end up “grabbing” quite a few things that look interesting. This week I did a little of both!
I’m going to check out One Day. A book that one just can’t put down always sounds great to me!
Happy reading!
Your library habits sound very similar to mine! The librar closest to me, where I pick up my holds, doesn’t have the best selection and so I’m usually content just to pick up my holds. But on the weekends I usually take a walk to a library a little farther away and browse to my hearts content. Indeed, that’s just what I did yesterday! But it’s definitely dependent on my whims.
I hope you’re able to track down a copy of One Day! I really enjoyed it.