Random Chatter

Last night's post was originally scheduled for Saturday night, but I had a sick child on my hands so I took thirty seconds to change the date so it went live last night. My daughter wanted to go to bed at 6:30, but then I wanted to stay in the family room where I could hear her, rather than here in our cave, as we so fondly call our computer room. She slept all night long and woke up perfectly healthy. I wish I could get over fevers like that!

I've been accumulating books at bookstores and various other sources, most of them not debuts. Here are my recent acquisitions:

• Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of the Wind
  
• Cam Banks - The Sellsword (courtesy of the author)
  
• J. V. Jones - Fortress of Grey Ice (an incredible bargain in hardcover)
  
• Jennifer Estep - Jynx (courtesy of the author)
  
• Khaled Hosseini - A Thousand Splendid Suns
• Anne Rice - Christ the Lord (not a debut but a significant genre-leap for her)

I'll try to keep the non-genre and the non-debuts confined to Saturday posts, which is when I usually go off-topic around here.

I also--unfortunately--have a few novels that were provided to me, but which I have been utterly unable to get into. I gave another one of them another shot last night, but the dialog just felt so icky to me that I again set it aside in favor of Sandra McDonald's The Stars Down Under (also provided by the author).

Among the novels I still want to get my greedy hands on:

• Jo Graham's Black Ships (interview forthcoming!)
• Elizabeth C. Bunce's A Curse as Dark as Gold (interview forthcoming!)
• Jennifer Rardin's Once Bitten, Twice Shy
• Naomi Novik's His Majesty's Dragon (yeah I know--I've been meaning to get this one since forever.)

I've moved away from ARCs in recent months. The last one that I sought for myself was for The Book of Joby. I've asked for a few on behalf of guest reviewers, and when someone offers and if I'm really hooked by the premise, I'll accept. But for the most part, I actually prefer to purchase my own novels.

I keep costs down by buying used whenever possible. I know that the author doesn't make any money off of it when I buy used, but they don't make any money off me anyway when they send me books (and they actually invest a bit), so I figure its OK. I put up a post on every novel I read, regardless of genre, so maybe I can make up for buying used by generating a bit of publicity.

Why do I prefer to purchase my own novels? Well, for one, it acts as a nice filter for the stuff I cover here, since I have to be willing to plunk down money for it. Also, I get more excited about the book if I've paid for it. I was super-excited about Bewitching Season, plus now that I've contributed to Patrick Rothfuss's bestseller-ness, I'm eager to see if the book lives up to its hype. When I do accept a review copy, I first ask myself, "Is it something I might have purchased on my own?" For the author-provided copies above, the answer was yes.

Which novel do you think I should read next?