January Ins and Outs

The New Year is in, and so are new books. I know I said I was trying to cut back on buying/acquiring books, so it's understandable that some eyebrows might be raised at the sheer amounts of books on the INS side. But in my defence, this year I have only bought 2 books, and those were at a book fair, because a) they were cheap, b) they were pretty, and c) they were books.

On the reading side there was not as much movement as in the INS side, but still some reading done, and mostly books that I really liked. I am also participating in 4 different challenges and a book bingo with some friends. You can always check my progress here (or somewhere in the sidebar).

On other news, I am moving (again), but this time not so far away as Barcelona or Edinburgh. I'm going to work in Lisbon, starting tomorrow (in fact, when this post goes live, I'll be in Lisbon, hopefully with a place to live). The working might mean less reading, the coming home on weekends by train means a total of 6 hours that have nothing to do but read (or sleep, or write, or draw, or listen to music, but mostly read).

And now, for the gigantic list of books:

INS

Bought - new 

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett
Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett
Jingo by Terry Pratchett
Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett
Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
Thud! by Terry Pratchett

The Folk Keeper by Franny Billingsley

I know I said I had just bought 2 books. What are these, then? Well, I bought them last year, it just took them a while to get here. the first bunch was a order that I did with a friend at Amazon, just so we could use the Free Delivery. I made a super-secret post to document its arrival here (now not so secret).

The Folk Keeper has been bought in September, but it was returned to Book Depository, and when I complained, they sent it again.

Bought - at a book fair 

The Secret by Charlotte Brontë
The Spell by Charlotte Brontë

Look at them! Aren't they pretty? I had to bring them home


Swap sites
*WinkingBooks*

The Forest House by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Gone by Michael Grant
Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières
The Diaries of Adam and Eve by Mark Twain

I had points, so I used them. I think I am finally going to read the Mists of Avalon, book 1 is on its way, and I already have book 2. With Gone, the name rang a bell, of a dystopian book, so I asked for it. Only later did I realize that a friend of mine had already read it (she was not impressed). As for the Louis de Bernières book, after I read Red Dog, I want to read something lengthier of this author. I have never read anything of Mark Twain, and I liked the tittle of this one (besides being available to mooch, of course).

Freebies
*Won a Giveaway*
2012 is proving to be a good year. New job and already 4 books from giveaways.

I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

Thanks to Jen @ Cuidado com o Dálmata for this book!

Age of Giants - awakening by Rob Reaser
Songs for the New Depression by Kergan Edwards-Stout

Thanks to Bonnie @ Bookish Ardour and the authors for these books!

My Life Undecided by Jessica Brody

Thanks to Emily @ What Book is That? for this book!

*Gifts (Christmas Gifts!)*

Fullmetal Alchemist, Volume 7 by Hiromu Arakawa
Geist by Philippa Ballantine
The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Troll: A Love Story by Johanna Sinisalo
I Am Mordred: A Tale of Camelot by Nancy Springer

Finally! My Christmas gifts arrived almost a month after Christmas!

OUTS

Physical books
House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones [Review]
Restoration by Carol Berg [Review]

The Folk Keeper by Franny Billingsley
A short, and sweet, book about a little girl that poses as boy to do what she feels is her calling - to be a Folk Keeper, and also to get away from doing hard work. But when she moves to bigger house, she discovers the Folk there are more vicious and a lot more about herself.

Rating: 4 out of 5


The Eye of the Heron by Ursula K. Le Guin
Science Fiction, and by an author I really like, this book has been on my TBR for ages, and for some reason I never got around to read it until now. It's more philosophical than science fiction, about non-violence in the face of violence, tyranny and slavery. I did like most of it, but towards the end I started to feel that the story had stretched a little too much (strange, since it's such a tiny book).

Rating: 3.5 out of 5


Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas
Borrowed from a friend who asked me if she could chose the book I would read for the Romance category in the book bingo. I said yes, and she chose this Historical Romance. Not my normal genre, and not one that I really like. It was an amusing read for most part (and maybe not the best one to read on train). There were parts of it that bored me, but I liked the interactions between Evie and Sebastian (yes, those other kind of interactions as well). I might have understood the world of the Wallflowers a little better had I read the previous 2 books. 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5


Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories edited by John Joseph Adams
A very good anthology of dystopian short stories and novellas. It's a really big book, and the theme is mostly dark, so it took a while to get through it. But most of the stories are good, some really good, and some not so much. Overall, I liked it and found that it was very well edited.

Rating: 4 out of 5


Ebooks
Entwined by Heather Dixon [Review]


Audiobooks
The Sign of Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The book bingo I am doing called for an audiobook, and since I had some stuff to do that required my hands and eyes, but not my ears or attention, I decided it would be the perfect occasion to listen to one. I choose The Sign of the Four, to continue with the Shelock Holmes series, and because it is short. I sort of liked it. It's gripping, and you keep guessing the how and the why, until you know. The last (really long) chapter that serves as an explanation to everything, seemed unnecessary or at least unnecessarily long.

Rating: 3 out 4



TBR Variation: +19 (From 201 to 220) Shame!

January Ins And Outs

Since there have been so few updates on this blog (so few that you can hear the owls hooting and the crickets chirping uncomfortably), I've decided to post about the books I've bought/bookmooched/received in any other way and the ones I've read.

Here are the ones for January

Ins

Books bought:

On January I bought 6 books.
Two graphic novels: Volume 1 of Rurouni Kenshin and Volume 4 of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (I loved the anime, and I'm slowly completing the manga collection).

Three books were bought on the Festa do Livro [Book Fest] that happened in Porto during January. I went there with my good friend from Cuidado com o Dálmata, choosing the only day in the week that was rainy, and went on to look at old books (and not so old), hoping to find some treasure hidden there. The books where:

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka, which I discovered as a recommendation for Everything is Illuminated
Choke by Chuck Palahniuk, which I've been meaning to read for a while
Varjak Paw by SF Said, mostly because there is a black cat on the cover

After arriving in Spain I bought one book (because honestly I couldn't help myself, seeing so many beautiful editions of books, I had to bring at least one with me!). It is El menor espectáculo del mundo [The smallest show in the world] by Felix J. Palma. After reading The Map of Time, I've wanted more books by this author, so at my first chance I bought this one!

Bookmooched:
I love Bookmooch, and usually most of my books come through it. But this year, with the uncertainty of dwellings and of reading time, I tried to refrain from mooching (and of course failed). In January 3 books came via Bookmooch:

Life, The Universe and Everything, and So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish by Douglas Adams, so I can continue reading this awesome series.

Nights of Villjamur by Mark Charan Newton, that has been on my wishlist for a while.

Won (Hurray!):
2011 started well, with me winning a giveway on the Booksnob blog. I won The Cigar Maker by Mark Carlos McGinty, signed by the author. Thanks to Laura for the giveaway and to the author for sending this book!

Outs

Books read:
This part is a bit humiliating, because it will be very small. January was not very good in terms of reading, I only managed to finish two books:

A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
I read this one in eBook form. I've wanted to read some of the Sherlock Holmes novels for awhile, and after the BBC series and reading A Sabedoria dos Mortos, it seemed that it was about time I got on to it.

I liked this book, especially Part 1. Part 2 leaves you a bit WTH? at the beginning, due to the complete shift in location (and plot), so much that it feels like there was another book being inserted there. Still, the connection to Part 1 eventually becomes clear, and by the end of the book that sense of two separate books disappears.

Rurouni Kenshin, Volume 1 by Nobuhiro Watsuki
What can I say, I adore Kenshin. I've seen the anime countless times, and read the manga before in scanlation form. It was about time I read it again, this time in a proper book.


And that's it! A lot of books acquired, very little read. My TBR pile gained 9 more books in January (10, but one was read right away) and I'm quite sure it will keep on growing. Of the two books that I started reading in January, one was finished today (*does happy dance*),  the other will probably take a bit more time.