If you ask me, I really can’t tell the difference between my summer reading and that of the other seasons. But, in terms of timing, I’d say the annual Book Sale at the Crossroads Market marks the kickoff… and not the summer solstice. It’s a charity book sale in support of the Servants Anonymous Society. I’ve posted my boxes of loot in the past couple of years. Here’s Arti’s annual book haul, 2011.
Again, as a picky screener, I spent hours looking through tons of books under that giant tent and picked out only those that were in mint condition… some I suspect have not even been opened. They were all $1.50 each. That’s the price if you buy in multiples of 10. Short of 10, $2 each. Best of all, it’s for a good cause… great excuse for hoarding. Well, at least I wasn’t tugging a rolling tote or luggage like some did.
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Here’s a list of my haul, in no particular order:
- Unruly Times: Wordsworth and Coleridge in Their Time by A. S. Byatt
- As We Are Now by May Sarton (love her Journal of a Solitude)
- Chocolat by Joanne Harris (film is interesting, curious about the book)
- Enduring Love by Ian McEwan (after Atonement, like to try more of McEwan’s works)
- Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami (for JLC 5)
- The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama (another one for JLC 5)
- Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer (great find, book is brand new)
- Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson (the movie is delightful)
- The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels (13 years after her Fugitive Pieces, I’m curious)
- Up In The Air by Walter Kirn (always like to read the source material of a good movie)
- The Bishop’s Man by Linden MacIntyre (winner of 2009 Giller Prize)
- The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon (finalist, 2009 Giller Prize)
- The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston (numerous Canadian literary prize winner, just can’t resist a title like that)
- The Emperor’s Children by Claire Messud (NYT Book Review Best Book of the Year 2006. I’ve wanted to read it since it first came out)
- Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann (my own copy finally)
- Everything in This Country Must: A Novella and Two Stories by Colum McCann
- The Peppered Moth by Margaret Drabble
- Larry’s Party by Carol Shields
- A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Following The Kite Runner, a movie version is coming out)
- Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (still haven’t read this classic)
Went back another day and more multiples of 10:
- Heat And Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1975 Booker Prize Winner, RPJ is the screenwriter of many Merchant Ivory productions, including “Heat And Dust” starring Julie Christie)
- Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (Pulitzer Prize winner, 2003)
- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (First the book, then the movie, and then the opera, yes, opera)
- The Hours by Michael Cunningham (Pulitzer Prize winner, 1999. After the film, I’ve wanted to read this for years. Glad I found a trade paperback edition without Streep/Moore/Kidman on the cover)
- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Pulitzer Prize winner, 2008)
- Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens (I’m partial to The Modern Library Classics, so this is a good find)
- The City of Yes by Peter Oliva (Found out from the cover that the author is owner of one of the still surviving indie bookstore in our city… a novel on Japan… interesting connections!)
- The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (Other shoppers at the Book Sale urged me to get it, or else I wouldn’t have picked it up… about 2 lbs and 973 pages. But for $1.50… alright.)
- The Illuminator by Brenda Rickman Vantrease
- The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith
- The Lost Art of Gratitude by Alexander McCall Smith
- Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner (Author of In Her Shoes, looks like a breezy summer read)
- The Shack by Wm. Paul Young (Have been avoiding this, but my $1.50 curiosity took over)
- Limitations by Scott Turow (I used to be a fan of legal thrillers, so let me indulge again… it’s summer)
- The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (Finally, after the dust has settled. The Swedish movie is good, but not sure about the Hollywood version coming out)
- The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson (That’s all, couldn’t find the third one)
- False Impression by Jeffrey Archer (Have enjoyed some of his previous books)
- The Constant Gardener by John Le Carré
- A Most Wanted Man by John Le Carré
- Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John Le Carré (The film version is coming out this year with Colin Firth. But this little old paperback is the black sheep of the lot. I found the first 18 pages missing after I came home. But hey, I’m not complaining)
How do I alleviate the burden of so many books? Well, this is how I figure. I don’t see them as a TBR list, but new inventory of my personal library. They’re at a fraction of the cost if I were to buy them new. Besides, how many people read all the books in a library?
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What’s your summer reading plan?
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(If you’re interested, here are my finds from the Book Sale of 2010 and 2009.
You may also like to explore the list of “Upcoming books into films”)
Ripple Effects 
I’m with you when it comes to books without the movie version’s actors on the cover… And I’ve often referred back to your upcoming books into film list — very handy. I see you’re going to have quite a lovely summer picking through your stash! My roomie’s mom lent me a stack of George MacDonald books and my aunt is often dropping off historical fiction books.
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nikkipolani,
I have several movie tie-in editions of books. Some are better than others. But not The Hours. Glad I found this Picador edition: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/461121.The_Hours
Arti
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Wow! There are lots of good books in that list! I’m always a bit underwhelmed by the choices at charity sales, but this was seems really worth it. “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day” is as delightful as the movie, IMHO.
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Alex,
All books in this annual charity sale are donated by us. Every year before it starts we bring all our unwanted books to the firehall nearest us for the book drive. So in a way, I’ve donated a lot and got back some new ones… recycle and reuse. I’m glad to hear about Pettigrew. Yes I look forward to reading it.
Arti
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Oh these look so gorgeous! If only we had more sales of that kind where I live, but they are practically non-existant. Shame! I’d certainly buy books for a good cause and for the betterment of my personal library.
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litlove,
All the books are donated by readers like me… this book sale is huge every year. Click on the link to the Crossroads Market I’ve in the post and you can see the phenom. We had to line up to get in. People eagerly wait for it every year.
Arti
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Wow, Arti! I’m surprised my keyboard still works with all this drool on it 😉 For the betterment of your personal library is exactly right. How true bookworm will ever have read every book in her personal library.
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Stefanie,
I hope you meant “… bookworm will never have read every book …” 😉
Arti
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heh, yup, never, not ever. Oh I should proofread my comments more carefully! 🙂
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I came here to send your link on Midnight in Paris to Rick — I think we are going tonight. Well, I am going tonight and he said he would if raining — the forecast is promising for that!
I got Chocolat at a yard sale for the same reason you did, and that’s on my pile. I hope you like the Alexander McCall Smiths — I’m very fond of them. By now I’ve read that whole series with Isabel Dalhousie and I like how the characters have developed. Some familiar names I’ve read there, The Hours, Dragon Tattoo — but I’ll be very curious to hear what you think of “Pillars.” It’s the only book I can ever remember reading where I hated the characters so much I quit after 500 pages, thinking that was a lot of hours in my life I’ll never get back. That said, I have friends who say it was one of their favorites!
My reading plans include some mysteries (Kate Atkinson, Cara Black are calling me), a bio of Cary Grant that’s huge I’ve had for quite some time, more books on Paris, just because, another Elizabeth George in the mystery pile, and a few more not coming to mind. The pile is bigger than the summer is long!
Now, off to share that link!
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Jeanie,
Actually the two Alexander McCall Smith books are for someone who is a fan of his. But of course, I can always read them after she’s done. The two Tattoo might just be for another friend too! As for Pillars, the lady standing beside me who urged me to get it at the booksale said she’d spent three days doing nothing at all, no housework, no cooking but just read it through, couldn’t put it down. Well, 3 days for her might mean 3 months for me! I think I’ll start with all the thinner ones, like May Sarton’s and Ruth PJ who had adapted all the Merchant Ivory screenplays from the classics… didn’t know she’d won a Booker Prize.
I look forward to your response to the Woody Allen movie. You’re welcome to leave your comment on that post to share with us.
Arti
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First, I had to enlarge the picture and read the spine of every single book! I loved it. Then I went through your annotated lists, muttering to myself, “Oh, excellent choice, oh, i haven’t read that one yet, either” and “oh, I read that one and Arti is going to love it.”
What fun! and what a glorious haul. So glad to see Le Carre in your stacks. And Carol Shields – excellent. I loved her Stone Diaries. And Dickens!!!! Yes, I enjoyed Miss Pettigrew’s Day Out as a film, too and it was just a lucky find, really. So many here; I could ramble on and on.
I’m gonna go look at my “personal library” and see what’s there.
As for my summer reading plan, I was thinking I would spurn all novels and etceteras in my TBR stack and read every GRANTA that I’ve rec’d, saved and kept. And that’s a fair share right there. But that’s my momentary plan.
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oh,
Since you mentioned Granta, I saw a few Granta collections there at the book sale too, and stories compilations like the Journey Prize, or Best American Short Stories…etc. But hey, my hands were all full holding on to a couple of large plastic bags provided there for us. That was my weight work out! I also saw a few I just purchased online too… like The History of Love by Nicole Krauss in mint condition and The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor. Oh well…
Arti
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Amazing prices!
I need to get a book of May Sarton. I love her poems.
I loved Saturday by McEwan, I recommend it.
I keep trying to get through The Winter Vault and then have to put it away. Inge liked it better than Fugitive Pieces, which is my favorite book ever. I’ve heard great things about Middlesex. <The Hours is wonderful.
I applaud your newly purchased library, and I look forward to reviews!
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Ruth,
I’d love to have Inge’s opinion of Winter Vault… and of all these books too. Yes, I look forward to Middlesex, I’d seen quite a few copies of it at the sale. Hopefully that isn’t an indication of anything. And for McEwan’s Saturday and Amsterdam, I have them both from previous years’ book sales. They’re in my ‘library’ yet TBR. 😉
BTW, Jeanie has left a note to you on my Midnight In Paris post. She’d seen the movie and would like to read your review too.
Arti
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Ooh, those books look nice! I would have bought something like that number on my travels if I hadn’t had to worry about suitcases and airline rules. We should be getting to some good library book sales soon, and I’m looking forward to it!
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Dorothy,
I await your bargain book list!
Arti
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My goodness. That’s one high-class book sale. Even the library sales around here tend to be heavy on well-used paperbacks with tattered covers and lousy writing. 😉
Every time I see you mention Things Fall Apart I just smile and think, “At least there’s one book I’ve read that Arti hasn’t!” Of course, by the end of the summer that may not be true any longer!
And May Sarton – I can’t get enough of her writing. Of course, when you’re 65 a book titled At Seventy probably has more appeal than it would for a 30 year old!
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Linda,
LOL… you’re just too kind with your comment about Things Fall Apart. As a slow reader, I always regret my inability to expand my ‘repertoire’ without much time-drained laboring. And for May Sarton, age is not a factor, I don’t think, but maybe personality. About the book sale, you’re right… it’s ‘high class’ indeed. In the past and now, I’ve found numerous works that are literary winners. There was even a section cordoned off for rare books, or sets of books. I just browsed through the fiction tables only.
Arti
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My summer reading plan? To finish the books I began last winter! (I am a slow reader). Among them would be ‘The Guns of August’ by Barbara Tuchman, a mammoth book on Victorian jewelry, one other on illuminated manuscripts (almost done), and two whims: a photography book on birds’ nests and another by a contemporary illuminator. I wasn’t sure about that one, but the cover was embossed with gold and black, and inside the decorated margins were magical. How could I resist?
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What a haul … I’ve read several and would like to read several others but my TBR pile (yes, I still call it that) glares accusingly at me as if to say “what’s wrong with us?”. Nothing really, I want to read them all, but there are so many others out there I want to read too. Wah?
As for summer reading plans, I haven’t formulated them yet and that’s too far off!
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whisperinggums,
Yes of course, you’re having winter Down Under. Keep warm and enjoy your winter reads!
Arti
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