Hi all! Going on a book-buying rampage at the fairgrounds later today and therefore am regaling you with the titles of last time’s book haul to get you as hyped as I am…a list which hasn’t been posted earlier because bookmarkedone has been attending conventions and faceplanting into a pillow a lot.

As always, if you know a title on the list and a) love it or b) are super curious about it and want to see it reviewed on the blog, sharpen your quill and leave me a comment!

Without further ado! Prepare yourself to witness the glory of the latest additions to my book hoard:

• Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer, because despite the hype I still haven’t read it, but after reading Colfer’s Airman I really want to,
• Knight Prisoner: The Tale of Sir Thomas Malory and his King Arthur by Margaret Hodges because I am a King Arthur Nerd and please look at the cover:

• Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend because if one more person has to tell me that I absolutely must read Morrigan Crow…it’s happened kind of a lot, okay?
• Lintang and the Pirate Queen by Tamara Moss. Asian-inspired MG fantasy in hardcover with dragons, serpents, fireflies, and pirates. I am on the brink of forgetting how to English and just making inarticulate noises to express how excited I am about this book.
• The Hatmakers by Tamzin Merchant and illustrated by Paola Escobar. It’s a family that does magic via hatmaking. Sophie Hatter and Howl Pendragon vibes, anyone?
• The Unexpected Life of Oliver Cromwell Pitts by Avi. It’s a historical fiction by Avi that I haven’t read? Coming home with me.
• The Flying Sorcerers, edited by Peter Haining and including stories from Roald Dahl, C.S. Lewis, Terry Pratchett, and a bunch of other lovelies,
• The Gnomewrench in the Peopleworks by Nick O’Donohoe. I had to get this one just because of the title. And by the way, the cover features this gorgeous background of golden clouds and blue sky–and a WWII fighter plane featuring two silver dragons along the wings. I really hope this one lives up to its name.
• The Thousand Names by Django Wexler. From the cover, I’m guessing it’s a cheap, fast and dirty fantasy–think The Crown Tower and you’ve got the idea–but sometimes I’m in the mood for angsty little friends with swords and hoods (spoilers…this one has already been moved to the Probably Not For Me pile…yes, that is the sound of bookmarkedone sighing and looking plaintively out the window).
• Storm Front by Jim Butcher–because again, if I hear about this before I’ve read it again, it’s almost embarrassing. I’ve heard about it a lot in the SF/F world and had it recommended personally after I casually used the word “weregild” in regular conversation–anyway. I think it will probably be grittier than my normal taste, but we’ll see. It’s hard to resist a hard-boiled detective who’s also a wizard. The premise, at least, is gorgeous.
• The Sacrifice by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. I’m trying to remember if I’ve read anything by Rusch before, and I honestly can’t say without digging through my stacks…which I confess, it being a late afternoon and sitting in the sun with my pile of new books and a glass of lemonade as I write the first draft of this post, I am too lazy to do. Anyway, I don’t know anything else about it except that it’s the first book in “The Fey” series and I wanted it so here we are.
• Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne. Would you believe I’ve never read it? Around the World in Eighty Days I read ages and ages ago, so I’m more than willing to give Verne another go. It’s about the ugliest supermarket paperback edition you can imagine. And it’s mine.
• The Dreamer’s Dictionary by Lady Stearn Robinson & Tom Corbett. This one was just for fun. How much stock do I put in the interpretations? After skimming through a few entries, very, very little. But here we are. Should be amusing, anyway.
• Storm Bringer by Michael Moorcock. You might remember my adventures tracking down most of the rest of the Elric saga, sitting cozily on my bookshelf until I can get up the courage to see if they’re as delicious as I think they are (brace yourselves. Book review is coming). But I didn’t have book six, so obviously it needed to come home with me. It’s a lot more worn than its companions–line down the paperback spine, little tear in the cover–but Elric looks as bored on the cover as he does on all the others.
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo, translated by J.R.R. Tolkien. If you’ve read my blog for any time at all, this shouldn’t need an explanation. You know I’m very, very pleased.
• A Storm Upon Ulster by Kenneth C. Flint. Irish myths retold? Yup. Yes. Please. It’s got the Hound of Culain and Queen Meave. And the cover, despite being from the era of fantasy pulp fiction that never got good illustrations, is actually kind of pretty. There’s a lot of blue, and the images flow into one another, spears and shields and seas and people…
• A Celtic Miscellany, edited by Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson. Guys, it’s hardcover and it’s so new it doesn’t even want to open all the way. And it has all the stories. (cue muffled bookmarkedone screaming).
• Heidi by Johanna Spyri, because you’ve got to love Heidi and I have a friend who hasn’t read it. It’s old, really old, with a blue cover and tinted illustrations.
• Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by K.G. Campbell, another one nabbed for a friend. If you haven’t read Flora & Ulysses, please do. It’s so charming. I must have read it around when it came out in 2013, and I have not shut up about it since.

I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but my book sale buddy is usually my dad. He’s not–the biggest reader in the world? But he reads my stuff (and likes it and compares all the books I recommend for him to my said stuff in very sweet ways), and he reads James Riley, Joel Ross, the occasional book with time travel. And when I hatch a plot to sneak off to some adventure, well, he’s usually willing to at least listen to my elaborate schemes. He couldn’t go with me to the sale this time (crushing, I know), so when I got back with my haul, he asked “Did you get a book for me?”

At first, I was stumped. I hadn’t known what to look for while at the sale because he usually buys a lot of oldies/nonfiction. But then I dug through my stack and found Flora. He’s the only one in the family I have not foisted it on, and as soon as I saw it, I confirmed that yes, I did indeed have the perfect book for him.

But we both agreed he has to come to the next sale with me because it isn’t nearly as much fun without him.

Carrying on:

• The Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus, translated, edited and interpreted by Henry C. Roberts. Well, Machiavelli was last time, so it only seemed fair to add Nostradamus to the stack…I confess I’ve already started reading this one (around the time I may have been down with The Plague? That was…an experience), although I can tell it’s going to take a long time to finish.
• The Other Wind by Ursula K. LeGuin. (inarticulate bookmarkedone screams for Earthsea).
• It’s here, The Phntom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux! Argh, it’s so pretty. The cover looks like a playing card design with the red and black. And it’s hardcover. And it’s mine.
• …and a blue and green journal because I couldn’t resist. It’s not like I don’t use them.
• The Works of Rudyard Kipling, in hardcover with silver edging in the blue an gilded pages. You know, the type of collector’s edition gorgeousness that I would never buy firsthand.
• Calligraphic Lettering with Wide Pen & Brush by Ralph Douglass. Girl’s got to feed her hobbies, right? Yes, I dabble in calligraphy too.

And finally, we have one last title. After stumbling into The Kalevala, I think I’ve started to consider after each haul which book would be the “crown jewel” of the new additions. It’s not always as easy to pick as it was with The Kalevala. But I think this one’s is clear enough.

Presenting:

• Ivanhoe, by Sir Walter Scott, hardbound, with illustrations, and a cover depicting four knights in all their glory, the volume just comfortably worn and with full-color illustrations.

(screams)

I started reading Ivanhoe ages and ages ago and absolutely fell in love with it–with Tuck and Robin, Richard, and of course Ivanhoe himself. It has its flaws, as every book does, but I have been wanting ever since to finish it.

It’s hard to say quite what Ivanhoe means to me. I’ll save it for another day, I guess. For now you should only know that the half I have read of it I keep very close to my heart.

So…that’s it! Now I just have to find bookshelf space between these and my old tomes for the ones I’m inevitably bringing home with me tomorrow! Wish me luck, right?