Lazy days

I've had a long lazy spell - just lazed about reading and finishing my growing pile of books. Last week was the Big Bad Wolf Sale and as usual I over spent. But I'm quite satisfied with my haul - I got a total of 60 books for a total of RM333! If that is not cheap I dont know what is. Most of the books were romance - tried a few other writers besides my usual Nora Roberts.  I also went in for a number of fantasy stuff by R. A Salvatore and a few others. There were two good finds among the lot - Shadow of the Wind and The Angel's Game, both by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I also managed to bag a few books by A. S. Bayatt, who was ranked No 2 in last year's Booker. I finished reading Shadow of the Wind and completely fell in love with it. I love the way the writer described books - he's a book lover's writer:

"This is a place of mystery Daniel, a sanctuary.Every book, every volume you see here has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived it and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens."

These words were told to Daniel, a 10 year old boy by his bookseller father. That day Daniel was taken to this secret place - the cemetry of books, where books which were forgotten or which were obsolete were sent to. Daniel was asked to choose one book and it would be his forever. And the book he chose was called  The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax.

But there is something fishy about this book because the moment people know that he has it, there are offers from strangers who want to buy it. Daniel is pulled into the mystery and is even threatened if he did not give up the book. Daniel becomes piqued by this interest in his book and intends to find out more about Julian carax. But as he grows older he realises there is more to the mystery than meets the eye and what begins as mere literary curiosity becomes a life and death search for the truth behind the writer's death (or life?)

I found this book tremendously enjoyable - there's mystery, humour, horror and romance and for the book lover, beautifully written.

Other gems I unearthed at the sale were Emma by Jane Austen (beautiful cover), Alice in Wonderland (hard cover edition with illustrations by Sir John Tenniel) , Mansfield Park (my old one is really really old and shows it) and lots of chick lit stuff. I also got a few young adult fiction which I had wanted to read before but didn't get because of other priorities but were now being sold for a mere RM8/-. I was in book heaven! And the R.A Salvatore were also hard back editions, books worth keeping! My husband too got what he wanted - lots of books on travel as well as some on colonial life in Malaya. He loves books like that so the ones that I bought for him kept him really happy. I think this lot will keep me happily occupied - at least for now.