Second-hand Book Haul

Over the past few months I have visited quite a few second-hand bookshops in my city and, of course, no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t possibly leave empty-handed. Since my bought-but-still-unread books have reached a triple digit number now, I promised to myself that I will restrain my (impulsive) book-buying as much as possible.

I have done fairly well, I daresay. So today, I have a list of 9 books to show you.

• The Heaven Tree by Edith Pargeter
• Selected Short Stories by Knut Hansson (translated in Greek)
• Blonde Roots by Bernardine Evaristo
• An Empire of the East by Norman Lewis
• The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
• Maurice, or The Fisher’s Cot by Mary Shelley
• Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult & Samantha Van Leer
• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• The Rights of the Reader by Daniel Pennac (also translated in Greek)

The Heaven Tree is a historical/fantasy novel, the first of a trilogy, and even though I bought it without knowing absolutely anything about it, I saw some very positive reviews on the internet later. I may have to hurry and go pick up the other two novels pretty soon. Knut Hansson’s collection of short stories came in a pretty battered hardcover copy, but I love it nonetheless. Blonde Roots seems insanely interesting, as it tackles the historical incident of slavery but reversed – white people are the ones being enslaved and transported from their home countries to the thriving African land.

An Empire of the East is actually an account of the author’s travels to Indonesia. As I have read very few travel writings, I’m actually excited to delve into this one. Carol Shields is growing to be one of my favourite authors, and I’ve been wanting to get my hands on her Stone Diaries since I discovered her last year. Mary Shelley’s Maurice was such a surprising find for me as I didn’t know it even existed – the actual story takes up very few pages of the book and the rest is full of notes and an analysis of it.

I hold a very special place in my heart for Jodi Picoult and this book is a collaboration between her and her daughter. It’s a YA novel, and even though YA doesn’t interest me that much anymore, I couldn’t not buy it since I remember wanting to read it like crazy when it first came out. Toni Morrison is one of those authors I really want to read but haven’t had the chance to do so yet, so I guess Beloved is the best place to start. Lastly, Daniel Pennac’s essay about reading and how to make people (and especially kids and teenagers) love reading and not see it as a mere obligation, was a book that piqued my interest immediately, as I love books about bookish topics.

Have you read or do you plan to read any of these books? I’d love to hear your opinions on them 🙂