Books! Books!

[stoney321]

I went on a book spree for my night out Friday, and to my most favorite bookstore: the "original" Half Price Books store. I say original in quotes because they had to move across the street when they couldn't fit any more books onto the burgeoning shelves any longer. Ahhh, that's music to my ears. A coffee shop/German bakery, reading nooks every few feet, a vinyl section, and a massage table. All under an acre roof. BLISS.

• Watership Down by Richard Adams. ONE. DOLLAR. And I'm ashamed to say I've not read it before, so I'm making up for it now. A buck! \o/
• Howards End by EM Forster. Have only seen the movie, not read the book, so am remedying. A dollar-fifty, I thank you. Excellent condition.
• The Stars' Tennis Balls
• The Hippopotamus and


• The Liar, all by Stephen Fry who is becoming one of my favorite storytellers EVER. The Liar is a repurchase as I loaned out my original copy and didn't get it back.
• The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer, in dual languages (left side original, right side modern English), because I don't have my original copy from high school anymore, and it's time for a revisit
• Lullaby by Palahniuk, I loved Fight Club and enjoyed Haunted, so when a book is two dollars, and is HARDOVER and in pristine condition? Cha-ching!
• *cough* Petals on the Wind by VC Andrews because I want to read about incestuous albino siblings who will dance and doctor their way into success and happiness! OR WILL THEY? Bum bum BUUUUUM!
• The Complete Garden Guide by Time/Life books - SIX BUCKS!! Again, another repurchase from a neighbor borrowing my original copy and never returning it. Ahem. I would like to say that this is an EXCELLENT book for anyone that wants to learn how to garden anything and everything. It's excellent - 991 pages - and has loads of pictures for inspiration. Plus, it gives very basic ideas behind garden design, including blue prints for how to recreate the pictures inside. It's not definitive, as it doesn't really give a lot of information about which plants work best in acid vs. alkaline soil for me, but it's a wonderful guide. That and a local gardening plant list will be almost everything you'd need.

All purchased for less than thirty bucks. NICE. Most of these books didn't even have the spine cracked on them, which is crazy! But to my benefit, so huzzah!

And while I didn't get Thai like I planned for dinner, I did get some grits with blue cheese and bacon and OH. MY. GOD. That is my new favorite comfort food, right there. MMmmmm, cheesy grits. And these was fancy! [/Flo]

I'm going to curl up with a book, a blanket, a hot mug of cocoa, and a derg. I'm on a Wisconsin kick. Herliday. Herible. Hahaha. Let the bad weather come, for I have provisions!!

Comments

[sweetumms33.livejournal.com]

I still remember the first time I read the whole "Flowers in the Attic" series. Honestly, I was way to young to be reading them, but I still find them so creepy/intriguing. I'm envious of all the reading, that's all I want to do anymore

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

*cough* Petals on the Wind by VC Andrews because I want to read about incestuous albino siblings who will dance and doctor their way into success and happiness! OR WILL THEY? Bum bum BUUUUUM!
Ack! Sprays you with Lysol for that one.

And have to seen the postings yet for the Plant of the Year (http://petzipellepingo.livejournal.com/1286612.html#cutid1)?

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I hadn't seen that, so thanks! As for Lemon Balm.... Sheesh - catch that before it seeds. It's as bad as mint for taking over a garden down here in Texas. However, it smells WONDERFUL, and you can literally use the leaves to polish wood!! How cool is that?

I have a different cultivar of catmint than the one you listed, but that's just beacuse I'm in Zone 7b - 8. It burns up if not hybridized. It's such a lovely plant... the cats nibble on it, but not enough to keep it from blooming. So pretty!

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, and the second one (chronologically written, that is) "Petals on the Wind" is WAAAAAAY more incesty than Flowers In The Attic.

... I can't believe I just wrote that as a SELLING POINT! *headdesk*

[beanbeans.livejournal.com]

Oh. Em. Gee! You got deals, yo. Wow. And your taste in books is bowling me over. *adoreface* Man, I haven't re-read any of my EM Forester books over there (*points at bookcase*) in an age. I think I know what I'll be doing tonight. :D You brilliant lady, you. *smooshes you*

[violethamster.livejournal.com]

I loved Lullaby. One of my favorite books. I need to hunt down something by Stephen Fry, I've never read any of his books. I am filled with so much envy - that bookstore sounds amazing, the bookstores here are lame.

I remember reading Petals on the Wind when I was probably 10 or so, and being so mad when what's her face (Catherine?), the older sister, got involved with the doctor guy instead of her brother. I was all squicked because the guy was older (and in retrospect, he must have been kind of a pedo), but apparently the incest was hunky-dory because I thought the brother was probably cuter.

I had Thai last night, I made pad thai and it actually turned out pretty good. I used the sauce in a jar from the supermarket, though, and I'm going to get more authentic stuff from an Asian market next time because it didn't taste exactly right. I made Thai iced tea too, which is oh so good and better than the restaurant stuff because they tend to use more sugar than I care for.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

*cries for Maurice* I feel shame that I haven't read any other of his books, either. I'm woefully behind on my reading (my "what i should have read by now" list) and am trying to remedy that this year. *g*

Ooooh, go read! Go cuddle and snuggle and fall into a good book, yes! *squish*

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Ahahaha, I'm at that part RIGHT NOW. And the doctor TEWTALLY is a pedophile, because he was all into her when she was his ward and Under Aged. But then, this is a book about fucking your brother, so that's a mere trifling. Bwah. I love how often they mention the blonde cascading hair and blue, blue eyes of the brother.

Ungh, I LOVE Thai tea!! Did you have the gelatin bubbles in it? I like that with certain flavors, like green tea (with milk) hemp tea (holy shit, is that good) and... one made with ginger? I had one with the flavor of "rainbow" o_0 and I did NOT care for that. Too sweet, like you said you don't like, either.

I've never made pad Thai from scratch. That's one thing I'd like to learn how to cook more of - Thai food. Mmmmm. It's all the flavor of Chinese with the freshness of Japanese.

[chrisleeoctaves.livejournal.com]

I have Flowers in the Attic and its subsequent sequels to thank me for my whole incest kink. I am not ashamed.

[thepiratequeen.livejournal.com]

One of my last days at B&N was spent trying to straighten up the first few bays of fiction books. I got completely stuck when I reached the VC Andrews novels because I had to stop, read the backs of all of them and laugh at how I read most of them as a preteen.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Heeee!! I completely blame George Lucas for my incest kink, personally, but VC Andrews gave me a bit more detail to... think about. Hahaha.

What's great is how SOAPY this series is. So pearl cluthing, overwrought descriptions and wooden dialogue AND YET.

I'm on book 3. Hee!

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

And here I am, in my early thirties and READING THEM AGAIN.

Clearly my brain has atrophied. :D

[chrisleeoctaves.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's totally cheesy- but the good kind of "I can't stop eating this" cheese!

[southernbangel.livejournal.com]

VC Andrews captivated me when I was younger because it was OH SO WRONG AND BAD. I agree that Dr. Paul (yes, I can pretty much recite the entire first series book by book) was pedo-creepy (wasn't he like, 60, and she was aboutg 18?) while the incest was TOTALLY HAWT. And wrong and bad and oh so scandalous. Then Catherine's seduction of the mother's second husband, fathering his child, eventually marrying her brother. . . good stuff, man. GOOD STUFF.

[darlas-mom.livejournal.com]

Dude, can I come over and read at your house? Your collection sounds so much better than mine! (I admit, 98% of what I've read in recent years has been fanfic)

I fully recommend that you read the modern English version of "Canterbury Tales" first, unless you're much better than I am at deciphering Middle English. I struggled badly with "The Tragedye of Troilus and Cressidye." I had to keep bugging katers007 every two seconds with, "What's this word supposed to be?" (The word that finally did me in so that I gave up was "sorwe," which I'm told is "sorrow." I fail English Poetry. ::shame:: )

[thepiratequeen.livejournal.com]

It could be worse. Last time I went to visit my parents I spent a day reading my old Sweet Valley High books. At least the VC Andrews have a sliver of literary merit.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

*burns all of my Shakespeare and Salinger*

VC ANDREWS IS THE DEVIL. And Dr/ Paul is 40, Catherine is 15, but clearly went to the Erica Cane school of seductive speak, heeee!

And PotW is like NON-STOP INCEST. With the floweriest prose, hahahaha.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I'm doing okay with ye Olde English, but when I was in school, my professor read it aloud to us in the original text, with the proper accents and so forth, and I LOVED IT.

My house is seriously bursting at the seams with books and yarn right now. In other words, PARADISE. If I could grow two extra hands so I could crochet while I read??? :D

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! I mean... there's a reason people buy COke and Doritoes, and it ain't for the nutrition label.

*g*

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

...



Are you forgetting that I bought CAITLIN and re-read them?? BOUGHT. I bought them.

I have NO SHAME. Oh, Francine Pascal... how you made me cry when you fooled me in #6 with Elizabeth's "death." Oooh, or the Special Edition ones where they went away to France on a school trip!!

[darlas-mom.livejournal.com]

If I could grow two extra hands so I could crochet while I read???

You'd almost be Shiva, and I'd have to make you an icon that says, "Do you know what it's like to be karmically bitch-slapped by a six-armed goddess?"

That sounds cool about your professor, though. Damn.

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

I read the original Flowers in the Attic trilogy way back when I was about 10. I'd blame it for warping me, but I was already way gone by then. :D

I also read Watership Down round about the same time. I think that book actually got to me more than the atticbound sibcest. Damn, I love those rabbits. I have the animated movie on vhs and watch it every so often, when I have some spare tissues lying around.

Enjoy your bumper haul!

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Heh, I called my BFF to tell her about my book deals, and she asked me (after hearing about Watership DOwn) if I also got Old Yeller, Sounder, and The Red Pony to round out my animal trauma books.

I have bought many boxes of Kleenex, so I'm ready, Cap'n!

YAY BOOKS! *squish*

[gillo]

I am UNSAFE in bookshops like that. You have some real fun ahead of you!

[thepiratequeen.livejournal.com]

One of these days I'm going to use my trusty friend Ebay to help me complete my Babysitters Club collection. I'm only missing about 20 of them.

I totally don't remember the Special Edition where they went to France! Now I need to find that. I remember the one where they worked at some newspaper over the summer and solved a murder mystery and the one where they went to England and Elizabeth fell in love with a werewolf. And I remember how I always thought the whole series should have been about Lila cause Elizabeth and Jessica tended to get on my last nerve.