Anyhoo, the only upside to this is that we have unearthed a few treasures! The other day my husband found a box of books which has been missing since the last move almost two years ago!!!! When I hadn't found them since the last move in 2008 I started a list of the titles I couldn't find -- about 14 books. Actual number of books in the box: forty-four. Yikes!!! Thirty books I had completely forgotten about. How embarassing.
In my defense, only about half of the books are unread. Some of them are definitely going to the Friends of the Library book sale (which is actually where I got several of them in the first place!) Here are some highlights of my newly found loot:
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Conner
John Adams by David McCullough
The Barnum Museum by Steven Millhauser
The Cook and the Gardener by Amanda Hesser
Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
Lamb by Christopher Moore
Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
The Alchemist by Paul Coelho
The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles
Snow by Orhan Pahmuk
Still missing: The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith. Of course, my library does not own a copy. Maybe it will turn up if I finally unpack every single box. Riiiiiight.
And sadly, moving means I am losing about 35 linear feet of built-in bookshelves! Tragic! I guess I'll just have to stop buying books and purchase bookshelves instead.
So which book should I read first? (After I unpack, of course.)
Ooh some of those are great books! Are the ones you mentioned ones you have or haven't read yet? If you haven't read Snow, I have that one on my shelf too! Maybe after I'm back from vacation this summer we could read it together! And if you haven't read Ella Minnow Pea yet, you're in for a treat! :)
ReplyDeleteThose are all books I haven't read yet. Some of the rest were travel books and most of my Peter Mayle books about living in Provence -- after I unpack you can read them if you like, they're fun. We might have to go out for French food to discuss afterwards.
ReplyDeleteThen I can't wait to hear your thoughts on Ella! And really if you want to read Snow together sometime, that would be fun. Whenever, I'm in no rush. :)
ReplyDeleteCorelli's Mandolin is a favorite of mine, but my book club had very mixed reactions. It's even become sort of a standing joke for our varied reading tastes. So, I always hesitate recommending CM, but I just loved it. Good luck with the move!
ReplyDeletegreat pile of books to discover! I enjoyed O'Connor's stories very much, John Adams is great, and I'm sure Amanda's convincing you to read Ella Minnow Pea (which I also enjoyed). The Alchemist was not a favorite of mine.
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, I understand how moving messes up regular stuff like blogging, so don't worry about it. I hope the move goes well. And no, it doesn't matter if it's 3 miles of 3000, it is still a pain.
Amanda -- I'd love to do another joint review. Snow might be an excellent summer read; I've decided to read lots of books about cold places to beat the heat this year.
ReplyDeleteJoAnn -- I actually started Corelli for a book group years ago and never finished it. I do remember liking the beginning, so I'll give it another shot.
Rebecca -- I was ready to donate John Adams but maybe I'll keep it after all, and EMP is moving up my to-read list.
And I think you're right, moving is stressful no matter what. When we've done long-distance moves we've had professional packers, but it was tough because of the distance. I always worry that stuff will fall off the truck or something. This time we're moving in town but I'm trying to do most of it myself -- probably a bad idea. Sigh.