So I was looking through my shelves and receipts and I noticed that I had a lot of new books. Like, A LOT. Like, I-bought-over-30-books-in-3-months A LOT.
The upside: I'm supporting booksellers and authors and I get lots of shiny new books.
The downside: An empty wallet. And a TBR pile that is taller than me.
Anyway. I've been caught up in editing and haven't been blogging much (or reading much *guilty face*), but I thought it would be interesting to figure out what made me buy all these books. What specifically was it that compelled me to hand over the money for each individual book?
The Recommendations - These are books that I bought based on recommendation. Something that normally might not catch my eye, but a trusted book blogger/friend loved it, so I thought I'd check it out.
Read a great blogger review about it, and then the next day my crit partner recommended it to me.
I'd heard so many great things about the romance in this one, I wanted to check it out.
Strangely enough, the whole Speak Loudly event brought this book back on my radar (it was an 09 debut) and some recent reviews convinced me to buy it.
The Sequels - Sequel or series or companion books! Also, the three books at the end, which aren't sequels, but were bought because I loved the author's previous books.
I would have picked this up eventually, but the reason I bought it NOW was because it was released on the same day as two other books I wanted right away (Liar Society + Clarity) so I bought them all together.
I bought this with Cryers Cross. Also, I'd been waiting for the paperback version so my trilogy would match.
I knew I wanted to get this one at some point, but the reason I bought it NOW was to fill out the subtotal requirement for free shipping.
I received a finished copy of Body Finder from the publisher, so I wanted to purchase the second book right when it came out.
White Cat was one of my favorite books of 2010, so I am very eagerly awaiting this one.
Hardcover was on sale and I know I'll want to complete the trio so I bought it.
I'll probably buy any novel Libba Bray puts out.
Read a great blogger review about this one, and I loved the Wake trilogy. Lisa does third-person present tense so well.
Before I Fall was another one of my favorite 2010 reads, so of course I had to get this one.
The Others - Books I bought because of a mix of price, impulse, and interest in seeing how the author handled certain elements in the book.
Heard a lot of mixed reviews on this one, so when the price dropped I decided to buy it to check out.
Box set of PLL. I've heard these books are addicting, and I'm really into mysteries/thrillers these days.
Heard good things about this one, wanted to check out another YA book from a male pov.
I haven't read Break, but I like Hannah on twitter and her blog, and I've heard good things about IS. I like that it has a male pov, and the family dynamics sound interesting.
This one was marked down to bargain price and I remembered reading some good reviews about it.
This one is sorta funny: I read an interview with Leila Sales and she mentioned this song I'd never heard before so I clicked through to check it out. It became my new favorite song and Leila became my new favorite person for introducing me to it. Then I decided that anyone with that great of taste in music must write an awesome book. So I bought it.
Contemporary Craze - Last month, I was looking at my bookshelves and was suddenly dismayed by the lack of contemporary novels I had. So I got a few contemp recs from Jade (who came through on twitter like a BOSS) and bought a few other contemps I'd come close to buying before but hadn't.
A rec from Jade. Also, it won the Printz and has a ton of good reviews.
I've seen good reviews about Echols' work, and I remembered reading the first chapter of Going Too Far and enjoying it before.
Another Jade rec! Though I loved the Boyfriend List, so I probably should have checked this one out sooner.
I'd thought about buying this before and I remembered an author I liked saying good things about it.
I'd heard great things about Susane Colastani and some of her books were on sale so I picked this one up.
Trusted book bloggers/friends can easily convince me to hand over the cash for recommended books.
Often I buy books that have stayed in the back of my mind when they go on sale or I need to make a subtotal requirement to get free shipping or something. My "impulse buys" are all books I've actually considered buying before but held off.
Even if I didn't LOVE the first book, as long as I liked it there's a good chance I'll pick up the sequel. It fills out my collection and I know I'll read it eventually.
And finally, I've learned that I should probably start reading all these books before the TBR pile tips over and crushes me to death.