Thank you Eva and Alessandra for encouraging us to visit the library. You know, I love libraries but I’m trying to stay away a bit as my unread books are threatening to take over the whole place, but I had put a book on hold and you know how that goes. One stop in a library and you are powerless to resist the lure of the new books shelf and before you know it you are roaming around in the different sections.

So, today I stopped in and came away with these books. Let me know if you’ve read any of these and what you thought:

• The Portable Sixties Reader, edited by Ann Charters. I had seen this book at a B&N a while back and was intrigued, okay, I liked the cover. But the copy they had was kind of beat up so I left it behind. I wanted to read a bit into this and see what I thought. The book has writings from Bob Dylan, Malcolm X, Susan Sontag, William S. Burroughs, and many others. I get the feeling this is a book that I will have to order and add to my personal library.
• The Best American Short Stories 2008, edited by Salman Rushdie. What can I say, I’m suddenly on a “must read short stories” kick. I’m particularly looking forward to the stories by Nicole Krauss, Alice Munro and A.M. Homes. Thank you to Lexi for reminding me to look for this book!
• The Water’s Lovely by Ruth Rendell. It’s been a while since I’ve read anything by Rendell and I do love her suspenseful novels.
• What It Is by Lynda Barry. I was so moved by her book One Hundred Demons that when I saw this one on the shelf I had to snatch it up. I’ve already taken a few quick peeks and it’s so vivid and eye-catching. In this book Barry charts her own beginnings as an artist and encourages the reader to make art. It has an activity book! Ok, I get the feeling this is another book I must have.

I’m off to enjoy my library loot.

I’ve been running around all day doing errands so tonight I’ve just got a bunch of cool links for you to check out.

• Love a good book cover? I do. Check out the Book Cover Archive. You can sort covers by designers, genre, etc. And, you can even submit a cover you think is worthy of the archive.
• I’m a bit late mentioning this but remember that Estella’s Revenge is out. This month the theme is “Firsts” and there’s also a giveaway, so stop in.
• Need more book reviews on new books? The latest Borzoi Reader is also out with reviews and you can see what new books are hitting the shelves in February.
• Think you can judge a book by its cover? See how your score matches the Amazon rating.

Enjoy the links and more book talk next post!