It's time for another Bookshelf Travelling for Insane Times post which is being hosted by Judith at Reader in the Wilderness.
The idea is to share your bookshelves with other bloggers. Any aspect you like:
1. Home.
2. Books in the home.
3. Touring books in the home.
4. Books organized or not organized on shelves, in bookcases, in stacks, or heaped in a helter-skelter fashion on any surface, including the floor, the top of the piano, etc.
5. Talking about books and reading experiences from the past, present, or future.
Whatever you fancy as long as you have fun.
This week I thought I would do something different and show you the part of my library that's on my Kindle Fire. During lockdown with libraries and bookshops shut if I've wanted a book I've downloaded it to Kindle, via Amazon of course. I do look at the price first and if I think it's too dear I won't buy it. Often though what I'm getting are offers or books at the cheaper end of the range or in some cases actually free.
(I've just realised that in the first two pictures you can see a reflection of my hands at the bottom of the Kindle. It looks like I'm trapped in there trying to get out...)
The first obvious thing is that I have four Maisie Dobbs books by Jacqueline Winspear. I've just finished A Lesson in Secrets (book 8), I went to check on Amazon to see how much the next book was and discovered that the next three were only £1.19 each so I grabbed them all.
Other additions were a bit more random.
A Kilo of String by Rob Johnson is a non-fiction 'moving to Greece' book which looks like fun.
The Kew Gardens Girls was bought because of one of the Amazon 'you might like this emails'. (I know...)
Aria's Travelling Book Shop by Rebecca Raisin I saw on Marg's Blog and as she reads some really good books I grabbed this one.
An Air That Kills by Andrew Taylor is the first of his Lydmouth series that I've been meaning to try for ages.
Behind the Mask by Matthew Dennis is a biography of Vita Sackville-West I downloaded after reading All Passion Spent by her.
The Things I Know by Amanda Prowse was a free book for Amazon Prime members and so was Opium and Absinthe by Lydia King. I haven't read anything by either authors so it will be interesting to do so. Amanda Prowse is especially popular I think.
Canal Pushers by Andy Griffiths is book one in the Johnson and Wilde crime crime series based on Britain's canals. I read about this series on Northern Reader's blog.
Ghost Trees by Bob Gilbert is all about trees in the London Parish of Poplar and was recommended to me by Rosemary at Scones and Chaises Longues
Books on this page include:
The Solitary Summer by Elizabeth Von Arnim who wrote The Enchanted April and Elizabeth and her German Garden of course, both gorgeous books. I think this is one of those free books from Gutenberg.
Gardens of Delight by Erica James is set in Italy and I grabbed it because I loved Summer at the Lake, also set in ITaly, so much.
Oak and Ash and Thorn by Peter Fiennes I downloaded because the author tweeted that it was cheap on Amazon at the moment, and because I loved his Footnotes so much I grabbed it quickly.
All in all I've probably downloaded about 30 books since lockdown, it could be more. It's probably a bit excessive but they were all fairly cheap and there are worse things to spend your money on. I'm sure the publishing industry appreciates all the buying people have been doing too, I gather it's one of the industries that has not suffered during the pandemic.
17 comments:
You are amazing!...
Trapped in a Kindle would make for a fun story! I know I'd read it. :D
And all those books waiting to be read...at least you know you'll never run out!
My library has all Winspear's series in both ebook and audio versions. I've been lucky enough to download all the audio versions of the Maisie Dobbs' series. Almost all audio ones were read by Orlagh Cassidy who is absolutely fabulous with the voice characterizations. Listened to them more than once...they are that good.
Like you, I've probably spent more on books than anything else during this period (a mix of regular books from a variety of sources and digital ones). Well, except for groceries. That cost is through the roof.
Well, I can think of worse places to be trapped than in a Kindle. LOL
What a great idea it is to share you e-library. I love so many things about e-books; I also hate so many things about e-books. But that really hasn't much slowed my acquisition of the darn things down very much. I have well over 300 e-books on the two devices I use now, a Fire-10 like yours and an Oasis Kindle.
I tend to forget which books I have in e-book form, however, and I have probably read a much smaller percentage of them than of the physical books that are always out there to remind me that I have them. I've even tried to buy the same book over again on several occasions, only to be kindly reminded by Amazon that I already have it.
It's really hard to resist e-book bargains, isn't it? And if you buy one book from a series, and you really love it and get excited about it, how do you not eventually buy the whole series? E-books are the best thing that ever happened to Amazon.
This was fun, Cath, and I love the 'trapped in a Kindle' scenario - ha! An author should work with that story line. Although maybe one could visit favorite books and places and escape the current world. Hmmm....have a good week!
lovely look at virtual bookshelves!
I love Elizabeth Von Arnim ..and I spotted Mr Finchley...now can I ask what the book is with the blue mountain on the cover ....gosh I'm nosey !
best wishes Valx
Pat: Thank you! I only wish I was. Struggling with this new Blogger interface thing so much this post took me *hours*. Had to go back to the old one in the end. At my wit's end over it.
Lark: You're so right, Trapped in a Kindle would be a fantastic read. LOL Noooo, there's not much chance of me running out of books just yet, :-)
Mary: Oh, another Maisie Dobbs fan! Excellent. I don't know who Orlagh Cassidy is, I'm so hopeless with famous people. Would be interesting to hear someone read Maisie though.
Yes, apart from groceries I've definitely spent more on books than anything else. Mainly ebooks but a few physical ones as well. Oh and *wool*... I've spent a bit on that too.
Sam: Yes, I can think of worse places to be trapped than a Kindle too. I have around 400 books on mine and 50 - 60 on my Nook. I mostly love them, not much hate going on.
Ebook bargains are wonderful but terrible. I'm a real sucker for them. As to buying a whole series I tend to wait for individual books to go down a bit in price. So the three Maisie Dobbs books were £1.19 each, the next book was £3.99 I think, so I left that and will wait to get it cheaper or at the library when it opens.
Kay: I started something with the whole 'trapped in a Kindle' thing. LOL Escaping into one and leaving the world behind sounds like a plan to me. I wish.
Val: Have you read Mr. Finchley? Is it any good?
The book with the mountain on the cover is Crossed Skis by Carol Carnac, a vintage crime story set in Austria. My review of it is a few posts back.
I just finished An Air That Kills. I will be interested to hear what you think. I did order the second one from the library so I suppose I liked it! Lots of complicated characters.
I meant to add that Jacqueline Winspear has a new memoir coming out:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/this-time-next-year-well-be-laughing-jacqueline-winspear/1136703964
It sounds interesting although I did find her a bit smug in person. She did a book-signing in Cambridge, MA a couple years ago. I do like Maisie Dobbs but once I had read 4-5 I decided I needed a change. However, the Iona Whishaw series I am now enjoying remind me of those books.
Thanks Cath ..Two Mr Finchley books were turned into radio a few years back with Richard Griffiths as Mr Finchley which I loved so I may not be a totally impartial reviewer as now Mr Griffiths appears in my head lol
I did not take to the Maisie Dobbs books with the first few I read. I may go back to them someday but right now I have too much else to read. I have only read one book by Andrew Taylor and it was An Air That Kills. I want to read more by him. I have several in the Dougal series.
I did get a copy of Lost Lands, Forgotten Stories by Alexandra Platt. And I am looking forward to reading it.
I have downloaded 30 kindle books in the last 45 days, so you should not feel bad. (I did not realize I had done that.) Some were novellas, I never download long books. But still... And I am sure you are actually reading more of your kindle books than I am. I have read two this year.
I am struggling a bit with the new Blogger too. I like that I can get a slight larger photo size with the new version, but hat adding labels. I also dislike that it depends on how you go into the "new post" page as to which version you get. I have not switched back and it is confusing to use two different interfaces. Oh well.
When we bought my MIL a Kindle for her 80th birthday, nearly 10 years ago now, hubbie linked hers and mine together and put his credit card details down, so that we could both order and we could share one another's books... BIG MISTAKE!
She spends the first hour of every day, going through the freebie and cheap offer list, to see if there is anything she fancies, although in all fairness, she never goes over the top and there are days at a time when she doesn't see anything she likes the look of.
I tend to get most of my freebies through NetGalley, probably more than I shall ever get round to reading, so MIL has now worked out that she can trawl through those too and read them before I ever get the chance.
Now all I need to do is get her into the swing of writing a few reviews and I've got it made!!
I would read just about all of the books you feature this week, so I'm not even going to start going through them all. I have no idea how may books I have on my Kindle between us, nor indeed, at what stage it is going to be overloaded and give up the ghost. I really need to go through and delete a few of those we have both finished with.
Thanks for sharing and Good Luck with working out your new Blogger :)
Yvonne
xx
Constance: Look forward to your review of An Air that Kills. Taylor has a couple of series going I think and I'm not sure this was the one I meant to start. LOL
Interesting that you found Jacqueline Winspear a big smug. I'm sure you have a few tales to tell. I haven't met many authors but I suspect many disappoint. One 'very' famous author used to come into the library where my daughter worked. Let's just say that Daughter was not impressed.
Val: Oh, I didn't know Mr Finchley had been made into a Radio series. I'm trying to decide which fictional book to start next so maybe it will be that as it looks like it might be fun.
Tracy: Maisie Dobbs is not for everyone, I didn't like the books at first. And let's face it, there are plenty of other series to concentrate on if you're a bit lukewarm about something... life's too short.
I really hope you enjoy Lost Lands, Forgotten people. I liked the fact that it's about a part of Canada you hardly ever read about.
I think quite a few of us have downloaded numerous books to our Kindles! LOL Yes, I am reading them... about 10 since lockdown I think, possibly more.
My problem with the new interface is photos. It's not as user friendly as it doesn't give you options about where to put the photo. Left, right in the middle... though it probably does, I just haven't found it yet. I need to play more with it. But the big issue is I put the photo in, try to get the cursor back to the left to write something about it but it won't go. The cursor stays in the middle of the page. That drove me crazy. All I can think to do is write the post and put the photos in at the end, which is crazy! This is supposed to be progress. Apparently the new interface is to make it easier for people with phones and tablets. Young people in other words, older people using pcs and laptops for blogging can apparently go hang.
Yvonne: Oh gosh, that was brave of your husband! Your story made me laugh but I'm sure you're very ambivilent about the whole thing.
I'm so pleased that you too have no idea how many books you have on your Kindle. I'm sure I must have between 300 and 400. I don't think you can overload them, they're print files and don't take up nearly as much room as loads of photos. And it wouldn't be economic for them to put a limit on how many books you can put on your Kindle because then you would stop spending. :-)
Thanks, I'm definitely suffering. LOL!
What a good idea, Cath! I had a quick look at my Kindle additions from the end of March - there are 38! But some are samples and some are free books and it looks too complicated to work out how many I've bought - most I think are 99p or anything under £4. So that's not too bad.
The only one of yours that I've bought during the lockdown is An Air That Kills which I bought on 28 April this year.
Ha ha. I think I'd like to be stuck in my Kindle, too :) I'm with you on finding cheap Kindle books. I love finding a deal!
I've only read the first Maisie Dobbs book, but I definitely plan on continuing with the series at some point. It's my mother-in-law's favorite series of all time. She loves it!
Margaret: I'm so glad it's not just me who has loaded up their Kindle during lockdown. In my defense I have actually already read a few of them. And like you I don't tend to go over £4 unless I really want the book. Mostly they're 99p books.
Susan: A couple of times I've looked books up on the off chance and been delighted to find them really cheap for Kindle due to having been around for a few years.
Your m-i-l has good taste. :-)
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