My book shopping list

The other day I worked out that almost a third of the books on my shelves I have yet to read. At the beginning of summer it was only a quarter and it’s not as if I’m a slow reader. Which means that I have bought A LOT of books. So I think it might be time to get my book buying addiction under control.

My answer to this, as with so many things, was to write a list. A list of books that I am allowed to buy and that I must not deviate from!

It’s still a really long list. It’s not as if I’m making myself go cold turkey or anything. And this may be my third draft because I kept thinking of more authors who needed including. But it’s a start.

This should keep me going until the end of year. Hopefully. With my insistence that all my books be second hand balancing my desire for nothing but beautiful editions on my shelves it can take me months before I purchase even a single book (or I could tick ten off my list on one day).

1. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

I’ve been hunting for a nice copy of this for a while as I hear such great things about it and I don’t read enough dystopian fiction.

2. Agnes Grey, The Professor, Villette or Shirley by Anne and Jane Bronte

Much like with Jane Austen I imagine that just because these books aren’t as famous as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights it doesn’t mean there won’t be a gem in there.

3. The Diary of a Provincial Lady by EM Delafield

I’m after this book mostly because it comes in the same series as my beloved copy of Valley of the Dolls.

4. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

This ones purely because I read it as ebook so I now must own a physical copy!

5. George Eliot

I’d like to say Middlemarch but it’s just so damn long! But I enjoyed Silas Marner so much that it seems silly I’ve never read anything else by her.

6. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

This plot of this makes it sound like my ideal book – about a woman writing her thesis on Jane Austen and George Eliot. And I very much enjoyed The Virgin Suicides.

7. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Another one that I’ve read but don’t own my own copy.

8. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

I keep seeing this book mentioned places at the moment so I’m taking it as a sign that I should be reading it.

9. The Other Queen and The Taming of the Queen by Philippa Gregory

These are the missing puzzle pieces from my complete collections of the Cousins’ War series and The Tudor Court Series. The Other Queen shouldn’t be too hard to find but The Taming of the Queen is still very new.

10. Thomas Hardy

One of my favourite authors of all time and yet I only own one of his books! This needs correcting.

11. The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein

I got a bit nosy on the train at what the man sat opposite me was reading and it turned out it was this. And a quick google told me that I desperately need to read this book. I love anything that bashes neoliberalism.

12. Phillip Larkin

I really enjoy poetry but my knowledge is limited to the classics. So I’m trying to introduce some more contemporary poets into my collection too.

13. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks by E Lockhart

This one might be a long time in the coming but I really want to read it.

14. A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin

I’m slowly building up my collection of paperback George RR Martin’s but I’ve still got a long way to go (I currently have two of the seven).

15. Moranthology by Caitlin Moran

I borrowed this off a neighbour when I read it but now must have a copy of my own.

16. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

I need this for my mission to read lots of New York based books. And although I’ve come across several copies, I’m holding out for the perfect edition.

17. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Another for the New York collection.

18. The Love Machine and Once Is Not Enough  by Jacqueline Susann

Because I loved Valley of the Dolls too much not to read more by her.

This month I’ve been…

Last month I expanded this post from just focussing on books to a more general overview of my month. Of course that worked really well in July when I’d done loads of really cool stuff. August on the other hand has been much more run of the mill. Got perhaps slightly more confident in my job and added some more homely touches to my flat (posts about that are still to come, one day, eventually) but until last weekend it had been entirely unnoteworthy.

Bank Holiday weekend got off to a very to a very rocky start. Friday afternoon found me in floods of manic tears, having my first and thankfully only panic attack of the month. By the evening I’d sorted myself out and headed out for dinner with my workmates which to begin with was a little awkward but as the alcohol flowed went perhaps too far in the other direction and made for some very uncomfortable encounters on Tuesday morning! Saturday I took a very sedate trip on a canal boat with a friend’s family before heading to London for a weekend of eating, shopping and Notting Hill Carnival. And it would have gone down as one my favourite weekends of the year (and one I was very proud of myself for coping with) if it hadn’t then taken me 8 hours to get home to Leicester. So a very fun weekend with some very miserable bookends.

And from bookends I can make a very smooth segue into books. And oh my goodness have I been busy buying books this month. When I look at the number listed below in cold hard print I’m actually a little ashamed of myself. But only a very little. Almost all of these were bought on the same day and when you buy so many books the carrier bag they’re in actually rips on your way home you know you’ve gone too far. Fortunately six of the books on this list I’ve already read so it’s not quite as overwhelming as it might seem. And another five of them are packed snugly in my suitcase ready for a week of lying on the beach doing nothing but reading which should might a sizeable dent in my TBR list.

1. We Were Liars by E Lockhart

I am really excited to read this book as The Boyfriend List by E Lockhart was one of my absolute favourites as a teenager but slipped somewhat under the radar. We Were Liars has certainly not slipped under the radar, in January you could hardly move for reviews, but as always I was holding out for a second hand copy. And finally that day came.

2. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

When shopping for books one of the most frequently asked questions in my head is ‘would Rory Gilmore read it?’ And this one I’m fairly certain she does. I bought Valley of the Dolls on the same principle and loved it so I have high expectations.

3. Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham

I had been eschewing Lena Dunham (nice use of the word eschewing, Lizzy), considering her a poor man’s Caitlin Moran but since gritty, sexually explicit, slightly feminist literature seems to be my new favourite genre I did a 180 and not only bought this book, but bought it at full price! Even if I don’t enjoy this book I love love love the neon pink spine so it can’t be all bad.

4. The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford

I know next to nothing about the Mitford sisters other than that they were famous and my granma met one of them occasionally for reasons I keep forgetting to ask my dad about (I’m not misspelling grandma by the way, my granma insisted that she wasn’t ‘grand’). But I was stressing in Waterstones about what to buy as I had £7 left to spend and only 5 minutes to spend it in. The quote on the back cover completely sold it to me though as it fits very well with my current favourite genre (see above). It’s now been read, reviewed and filed away.

5. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

I actually bought this book twice. The first time was on that ill-fated trip to Waterstones. I’d been looking for it in every charity book shop for the past 6 months and never found it so I was forced to admit that maybe it’s just not the kind of book that people donate, bit the bullet and paid full price. Well Murphy’s Law and all that, three days later I find it in a charity book shop for £2. So I bought it and returned the new copy to Waterstones in exchange for…

6. Dear Daughter by Elizabeth Little

I spend an inordinate amount of time sat at Nuneaton train station with nothing to do. And on one such occasion I was opposite a poster advertising this book which caught my attention enough to add it to my list of books to look out for. It sounds really gripping in a Gone Girl kind of way (not that I’ve got round to reading Gone Girl) but I refused to take it on holiday because it looked a bit too generic holiday read for my liking.

7. Paper Towns by John Green

I think this may be my favourite John Green (of the ones I’ve read). I remember actual hysterical laughter reading about their dash around the service station. And I was really lucky to find a copy as I imagine with the film coming out soon (or it’s already out? I’m not sure) lots of people are hunting for it. But I’m the lucky one who managed to snag a copy for £1.50.

8. Will Grayson Will Grayson by John Green

Leicester was having some kind of John Green donating frenzy this month as on the same day I bought An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns and Will Grayson Will Grayson second hand. All books I’d been hunting for for months and never found before. When it rains etc. Just from flicking through this book though I can say with certainty that the use of the lower case ‘i’ is going to drive me insane and has already put me off reading this for some time.

9. The Secret History by Donna Tartt

I came across this book once and decided not to buy it which I regretted as soon as I got home when I checked my phone and realised it was on my ‘if you see this book for £2.50 or less you absolutely must buy it’ list. But that’s the price you pay for having a dead phone battery while shopping. Fortunately when I went back a few days later it was still there. I’m a little overwhelmed by the size of this book but the blurb intrigues me so maybe when I’m feeling particularly motivated I’ll pick this up.

10. The Help by Kathryn Stockett

At this point on my trip I’d already bought four books so I adopted an in for a penny, in for a pound approach (I seem to be on some kind of cliché hype at the moment. Let’s see how many more I can squeeze in) and just starting buying books like crazy. I read this book last summer and loved it and for 99p couldn’t resist buying my own copy.

11. Wild by Cheryl Strayed

I own the film of this but have yet to watch it but I’m on some kind of motivational, feminist, independence hype at the moment and from everything I know about this book I imagine it will fit right in. It pains me that it’s a movie tie in edition but it was 50p, how do you say no to a 50p book?

12. The Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Now this I imagine I will never read. Well not never but not for a long long time. Although the last time I said that about a book I ended up reading it the very next week. I remember picking up this book about 5 years ago and being vaguely interested in it and then forgetting all about it until seeing the movie trailed and thinking it looked ridiculous. But Wild was buy one get one free and this was the only other book that evenly remotely interested me.

13. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

My last pit stop on Leicester Charity Shop Crawl 2015 was Sue Ryder on London Road. I have been looking forward to going into this shop since it opened earlier this year as it looked like it should have a massive book section. And I finally got my chance this month. Unfortunately it in no way lived up to my expectations but they actually stayed open late so that I could come in which meant I felt obligated to buy something. And as much as I’ve been wanting a copy of Brideshead Revisited for ages (brilliant book, but oh so depressing) I’d been holding out for a truly beautiful edition. This one’s ok – the cover is much nicer than the spine – but it wasn’t really all that I’d wanted. But guilt led me to buy it and an impossible looking jigsaw of the San Francisco skyline.

14. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

I read this about five years ago and was hugely underwhelmed but it was bright green so what can you do?

15. Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery

I love love love love love the heroine of this book and can’t believe I never read it when I was younger. I read it electronically earlier this year and then came across this beautiful, battered, vintage looking edition.

16. The Best of Dorothy Parker

This book jumped out at me because, well, it’s sparkly. And who can say no to a sparkly book? What I do know of Dorothy Parker (which is very little) I like so I’m intrigued to flesh it out a bit.

17. Breakfast at Tiffanys by Truman Capote

It had never occurred to me to read this book until I started on my little New York book project. But now I absolutely can’t wait as a both love the film and love that this is so much shorter than I expected! Win win.

This wouldn’t happen in Oxfam

For my birthday I was given a £20 Waterstone’s voucher. And I was hugely excited by this. I literally never get to buy new books – the sheer quantity of books I buy means I would be bankrupt in a matter of weeks if I paid full price for them all. So I limit myself to second hand and charity book shops and the restrictions that come with that. You really can’t go into a second hand book shop with a set list of what you want to buy. It’s complete pot luck what you’ll find on any given day. Sometimes it will be a £1 copy of a book you’ve wanted to read for ages and sometimes you’ll go empty handed. But that’s part of the fun of it. That rush of excitement when the name of the author you’re looking for jumps out at you. If you get anywhere near as invested in books as I do then you’ll understand what I mean when I compare it to rush you get from gambling. And I could very well be addicted to charity book shop shopping.

There’s also the fact that I kind of prefer second hand books. I like when a book has a history, has lived a life without me. By the time I get it I want it to have cracks in the spine and marks on the pages. I want it to look, well, read. As Helene Hanff says ‘I love inscriptions on fly leaves and notes in margins, I like the comradely sense of turning pages someone else turned, and reading passages someone long gone has called my attention to.’ I counted and over half of the books I own are second hand (69% to be precise. Working that out was not an easy task). And there’s a good reason for that. They’re just better.

But it turns out that not only do I prefer second hand books, I actively dislike new books. It took me over an hour to choose which books to spend my money. I just couldn’t find any that seemed worth the price to me. New releases were out because they tend to turn up in charity shops quite quickly; classics were out because they all came in those generic Penguin Classics covers which are just too mainstream for me (book snob, party of one). I looked at Philippa Gregory and George RR Martin. LM Montgomery and Sylvia Plath. Philipp Larkin and Caitlin Moran. And with every book I came to the conclusion that it was ok, but I’d rather find it second hand.

But this snobbishness goes one step further – I dislike new books and the people who buy them. Actually that’s not true. I dislike some of the people who buy new books. And by people I mostly mean teenage girls. Let me explain.

It turns out reading has got cool. Sometime while I was busy solving cryptic crosswords and sewing for pleasure this monumental shift happened in the world of the teenager. A world I am plainly no longer a part of. Sob. I suppose I really I should have noticed sooner – the number of book blogs out there and the whole craziness surrounding John Green were pretty obvious signs. And don’t get me wrong, I’m really pleased about this. Crop tops and underage drinking may have passed me by but this was the kind of trend I could have got on board with at 15 years old.

Unfortunately as with all trends there comes the hanger ons. The ones who don’t read because they love reading but because they want to be seen to be reading.  Occasionally I suppose I could be criticised of doing this myself. I do feel quite smug when I’m sat on the train with my dog-eared copy of Mansfield Park or Valley of the Dolls, looking all cultured and edgy but tend to think twice before reading Philippa Gregory in a public place. But I draw the line at ever buying a book with no intention of reading it. Surely someone doing that would be certifiably crazy? That’s like buying a TV but never watching it. Or buying a cake and leaving it go mouldy on the side.

But turns out that that’s what the youths of today are doing. Case in point was the girl who picked up a copy of Brideshead Revisited, gushed over the cover, exclaimed over how long it was, questioned why anyone would read a book with that small a print and then bought it anyway! She also mispronounced Evelyn Waugh but I can’t really hold that against her – it’s a hard name and I’m still not sure I say it right. The final straw was the overheard comment of ‘oh I love classics, I own loads of them. I don’t ever read them, I just like the idea.’ I was so angry I had to sit down with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for ten minutes while my heart rate returned to normal. What’s the point of buying a book if you’re not going to read it? I felt like Phoebe in that episode of Friends  (I have this theory that everything in life can be compared to a Friends episode) where she gets all upset about Christmas trees that don’t get to fulfil their Christmas destiny of decorating someone’s house and instead get condemned to the chipper. If a Christmas tree’s destiny is to be decorated then a book’s destiny is to be read. And anyone who denies it of that is cruel.

So is this what Book Tube has done to the book industry? Maybe I misunderstood what Book Tube was all about. I mean I’m not so behind the times that it had passed me by completely – I know about channels and book hauls and book tags,  I’m down with the kids – but I always kind of assumed it was much like what all those other book bloggers (me included) are doing, just on video. And mostly limited to YA fiction. And I never really got into it because a) it seemed a little redundant to me to mix mediums – books are written word, therefore you should review them with written word and b) I don’t really have enough data allowance to watch a lot YouTube videos. But is it actually people talking about the pretty designs on covers and the feel of the pages? Is it producing this monster teenager who goes about buying copies of Anna Karenina and Jane Eyre with no intention of ever reading it, just so they can review the cover and model it for Instagram? Oh my god, am I part of the problem?! I model loads of books for Instagram and as far as anyone knows I might not have read them. I talk about how pretty the covers are of the books I own without making one mention of the content.

So I think I might come up with an entry requirement to be a book blogger. Before you’re allowed to set up a website or YouTube channel you have to prove that you have read 84 Charing Cross Road (because there is no other book that better describes someone’s love of reading) and Pride and Prejudice (just because everyone should). I’m open for suggestions about any others that should be included. And this way we can weed out the imposters who don’t really know what they’re talking about. Those posers with shelves of Penguin Classics doomed to remain unread and unloved.

The point of this post was just to get this rant off my chest but it does leave the burning question of what did I eventually buy on this ill-fated trip to Waterstones? As much as the experience might have been more stress than it was worth I’m not about to turn down £20 of free books on principle. I finally settled on Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham, An Abundance of Katherines by John Green and The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford, which came to the astronomical fee of £21.97, even with a buy one get one half price offer, and I’ll have to crack the spines myself. In Oxfam I could have got all that for £4.50, with the cracks thrown in.

Reading back through this post and I realise just how old I sound. Old and miserable. Like a modern day Silas Marner. Or oh my god I’m turning into my dad (just kidding, dad. That happened years ago! I’ve been a lost cause since I first laughed at one of your jokes).

This month I’ve been buying….

This has been a bad month for book buying in that it’s been a really good month for book buying. I really need a bookshelf extension. Ufortunately mine are built into my room so it’s not really possible. I’m thinking about just throwing away all my DVDs to make more room. Everything’s online now anyway.

Of the 15 books I’ve bought I have started two and finished none (and two I’d already read). I need to get a move on!

1. The Fault in our Stars – John Green

I’d read this as an eBook and I just can’t deal with not owning every book I’ve read, especially ones I enjoyed as much as The Fault in the Stars. It took me a while to track down a non-movie-tie-in edition. I just can’t stand movie-tie-in editions. I like my books as books and films as films.

2. The Undercover Economist – Tim Hartford

It’s been almost two years since I graduated and my economics definitely needs polishing up. So I thought a book like this would be a good way to ease myself back in again.

3. The Hive – Gill Hornby

I admit it; I judged this by its cover. It’s just such a pretty pattern it caught my eye. But it has good reviews on the cover and an interesting sounding blurb. The kind of book I can just get sucked into for a few days without having to think too much. But to be honest, I probably would have bought it whatever the blurb said purely to brighten up my bookshelves.

4. The Thirty-Nine Steps – John Buchan

I’m on a mission to own every edition of these lurid bright green Penguin classics. They’re out of print now so lots of trawling through charity bookshops. Although this hasn’t brought me much success so far. I could buy them on eBay but I resent paying more for it now than it cost new. So when I came across this one I bought it without even reading the blurb. I have to admit I started it and abandoned it but only because something better came along. I’ll definitely read it. It’s so short there’s no excuse not to.

5. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves – Karen Joy Fowler

I read The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Fowler and really enjoyed it for its light-heartedness so I was pretty surprised when I saw she’d written another book which was Booker Prize nominated. They’re not keen on light-hearted. But the blurb definitely intrigued me so I splashed out on it full priced.

6. Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie

Ok, I know I said mere days ago that I am not an Agatha Christie fan but this book is just such a classic and the cover so attractive that I couldn’t say no. Unfortunately this does mean I’ll actually have to read it.

7. I Capture the Castle – Dodie Smith

I assume everyone reads over other people’s shoulders on the train? Please tell me it’s not just me who’s that nosy? Anyway, in this month’s Good Housekeeping being read by the woman said next to me on the 14.15 to London Euston there was a list of books that people can just read over and over again. And I Capture the Castle featured. Which was a book I read as a teenager and have absolutely no recollection of at all apart from the opening line. So I bought it again and will see if now I’m older I can take something more from it.

8. The Widow’s Secret – Brian Thompson

I walked all the way into town and hadn’t found a single book I wanted so I just picked an author initial at random (T) and a colour (yellow) and this was the closest book I could find. Let’s hope it’s not a huge let down.

9. Moranthology – Caitlin Moran

I didn’t actually buy this. I had decided I wasn’t allowed to buy any more books that week. But turns out I can’t even leave the house without returning with a book. I went to borrow some butter off a neighbour and came back with this. She hadn’t enjoyed it but I love everything Caitlin Moran and am loving this book so far. And it’s actually the only book on this list that I’ve even started.

10. The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald

Again, it’s bright green, I couldn’t say no. I’ve already read this and didn’t really get what all the fuss was about so I think I’ll try again now I’ve got my own copy and hopefully enjoy it more.

11. Dandelion Clock – Rebecca Westcott

A quote from Jacqueline Wilson on the cover of a book is a sure fire way of getting me to buy it. I hadn’t actually realised it was a YA novel when I bought but I’m sure this won’t stop me enjoying it.

12. Selected Stories – Thomas Hardy

I am loving Thomas Hardy at the moment. The only problem is his books in general are very long which makes them very heavy which makes them less convenient for taking to work with me. So this little paperback of his selected short stories was a winner for me.

13. Brooklyn – Colm Toibin

After buying both Girl Reading and The London Train on whims and enjoying both of them I’m being more adventurous with my book buying. Not going into bookshops with a set list but just picking up the ones that catch my eye. Which means I’m buying a lot more books (not good) and eventually it’s going to backfire and I’ll get stuck reading something I hate. Hopefully not yet though.

14. Life of Pi – Yann Martel

I’ve already seen the film version of this (I know, watching the film before reading the book, blasphemy) but I really like the concept of the film so have been on the lookout for a nice copy (with more well-known books like this I can afford to be picky about looks) and this one fit the bill perfectly.