Addicted to Books

Does that describe you?  How do you become aware of interesting books?  Do you get emails from Amazon or Barnes & Noble because they are tracking your reading habits?  Do you rely on recommendations from friends? Did you sign up for BookBub after reading about it in my recent blog post?

I do all of these things and more. I regularly read book reviews in the Saturday WSJ and the local Sunday paper and keep a running list of titles.  I like to read a series from the beginning, so when I read a review, I research the author to find the titles and sequence of earlier books. That’s how I stumbled across Anne Zouroudi’s Seven Deadly Sins series.  The second book was reviewed in the WSJ, and I located the first one on sale at Barnes & Noble.  These books are a bonus for me because they’re not only mysteries but also set in Greece--you may have guessed from my name that I’m Greek.

For an author I find intriguing, I look online to see if used or eBook versions of earlier selections are available.   I’ve also discovered that when Amazon notifies me that a paperback is being issued, I can find the hardback version used, often for a penny, in the Amazon or Barnes & Noble marketplace.  Yes, I pay $3.99 to have it shipped, but it’s still a steal.  I guess it’s a bit of a treasure hunt, and I do consider good books treasures.

Writing this makes me realize that I’ve set my price point for books at about $5 or less. If I don’t find them online for that price, then I look at library sales and on the sale tables at bookstores.  There are so many good books out there that I don’t have to read one as soon as I hear about it.  I can enjoy the hunt for a bit.  I will eventually pay more money if the book is part of a series I know and l love like Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache books.  I rarely find her books on sale, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen one at a library sale. 

Not long ago, my sister, who is a mystery fanatic like I am, told me about Shelfari.  Check out the bookshelf at the bottom of my blog to see what it looks like. I haven’t fully explored it yet, but I have created my own online bookshelf and am populating it with books I’ve read, want to read, and consider favorites.  Now, I get emails about books similar to my selections, and so I have yet another source of recommendations. 

If you could see my filled to the gills bookcases, I’m sure you’d agree with my husband that I could have done just fine without another source.  He might even go so far as to call me a “book drunkard” as Lucy Maud Montgomery , author of Anne of Green Gables, dubbed herself.

“I am simply a 'book drunkard.' Books have the same irresistible temptation for me that liquor has for its devotee. I cannot withstand them.”