Shopping Trip!!

I took a mini-vacation this Labor Day weekend that left me exhausted.  Seriously, I slept over 14 hours total yesterday.  But we're home now, the puppy is happily hanging out in her house and all is well.

Doug and I flew out to Arizona for his cousin's wedding.  When we had our bag weighed at the ticket counter, we were 7 pounds underweight, so the very helpful ticket-counter-guy told me that I could buy something pretty while we were away.  Why, thank you, ticket-counter-guy!  Don't mind if I do!

So, the other night Doug, my sis-in-law Kristen (of Pub n' Putt fame) and my mom-in-law, Nancy, hit up the local mall.  While we stopped at a bunch of stores, nothing was worth my seven pounds of luggage space.  Until I heard the siren song of Barnes and Noble.

Disclaimer:  I know all about buying from Indies.  I loved the Indie in Naperville, IL, Anderson's, but I don't live there anymore, and sadly my local Indie only sells books about local bootlegging and bodice-rippers, so forgive my patronage of a soul-sucking massive chain bookstore.  I also shop at Walmart, so feel free to hate me.

My hubby set me lose in Barnes and Noble with seven pounds of luggage space and a platinum credit card!  Oh the possibilities!  Of course, I went straight for the Children's and YA books.  My first pick was Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs.

I've been super excited to read this book for a while, so this felt like the perfect opportunity to grab it.  But, then I flipped the book over and thought that those images might give me nightmares.  Look how freaky that pic on the upper left looks!  If you don't know, the author found all of these freaky pictures of children, and they inspired him to write the book.  So, I hesitantly decided on this book.


Then I hit the kid's section and picked up two great (and non-creepy) books:  Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead and Splendor and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz.

 
Let's see what these two Newbery authors have in store!  Stead won for When You Reach Me, which you know, I love, and so does my book club.   Schlitz won for Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!, which I did not read, but I did like A Drowned Maiden's Hair, and and the cover had me thinking of The Night Circus somehow.  Both books were on my to-read list, so win!

I did pick up Wonder by R. J. Palacio for a second.  The book sounds great (a child born with a deformity doesn't attend public school until middle school) but since this is a new author to me, I couldn't justify the hardcover price, so it went back on the shelf, but stays on my to-read list.

 

With two great, non-creepy hardbacks in hand, I put Miss Peregrine's Home back.  I just couldn't really deal with having that creepy cover in my home.  I think I'll get that book from the library that way I can give it back once I'm finished.

After I'd picked my books, I giddily browsed the picture books to see what I'd missed.  I honestly told my hubby that I was as happy as a librarian in a bookstore!  

Just before Doug dragged me out of the place, I picked up Blink by Malcolm Gladwell for him.  I knew after reading Outliers this summer that he would really enjoy Gladwell's writing, and so far so good.  Doug started it on the plane and has enjoyed it so far.

 

Here's the irony though.  I had seven pounds of luggage space, but I put all of my books in my backpack to carry-on.  But, when we weighed out luggage to return, it weighed 34.5 pounds.  Somehow we picked up an extra 1.5 pounds.  Must have been those hotel shampoos I stole.  

After this little shopping trip, I realize that maybe I need to have a monthly book budget.  I'm quite the Kindle addict and those daily deals just call my name, especially now that they offer one adult title and one YA or children's title per day.  Evil geniuses!  So, I might start a monthly book wishlist as inspired by J's Everyday Fashion and her monthly wardrobe wishlist.  I'll let you know what I come up with.

So, there you have it.  I'm one busy reader!  I still have three more books to read for a slightly (very) overdue review packet, maybe 7 unread books on my Kindle that I actually paid for, more like 10 unread Kindle titles from NetGalley, and all of my Illinois award books.  Maybe I should have bought clothes!

Happy Reading!