Book notes

I now have seven points over at Book Mooch. That means seven free books, if I choose to mooch them. But, like Danielle, I'm trying not to mooch too many more books than I mail out, so I'll let those points sit around for a while and I'll wait for a book that I just can't resist to appear.

That doesn't mean I haven't made requests over the last couple weeks, however. That's just a resolution to take effect starting now. I just received Penelope Fitzgerald's The Blue Flower, a book I've heard about from Ex Libris, and I've got Peter Ackroyd's The Lambs of London on the way, which I remember hearing about on Book World. And the wonderful Victoria just sent me A Gentle Madness by Nicholas Basbanes.

Also, W.G. Sebald's The Emigrants will also be arriving shortly, as will De Quincy's Confessions of an English Opium Eater, a book on my list of classics for next year.

And then there's Mariama Ba's So Long a Letter, which it turns out the Hobgoblin had and I didn't realize it until recently, so now I've claimed it for my TBR shelves. That one I read about at Around the World in 100 Books.

What Kate said about blogs enriching our reading is absolutely true, isn't it?

But when will I have time to read all this? I'm about to finish Indiana, and then I'll get to choose what's next. I'm considering the Fitzgerald book, or perhaps a Nancy Mitford novel, or perhaps The Time Traveler's Wife, which has been sitting around for a little while. I've got lots of choices. Take a look at the latest version of my TBR shelves: