Do you buy from book catalogs? Like Bas Bleu or Daedalus? I love those but I confess I don’t buy from them often because inevitably I end up buying from Amazon instead. Why? The shipping charges and the fact that most of the times the books are cheaper. I feel kind of bad but how else to support the book buying habit?

Today I received another catalog, The Readers’ Subscription, and this is really more of a book club. Like the Quality Paperback Book club or Doubleday Book Club. They lure you in with a sale of three books for $1.99 or something like that and then you buy a couple of more during the year. I have a hard time resisting these too.

What I really like about these catalogs is that sometimes a book you wouldn’t have picked up all of a sudden sounds too good to pass up. For example, The Readers’ Subscription picks feature, The Book of Lost Books by Stuart Kelly. Or how about, Word Fugitives by Barbara Wallraff. They sound good don’t they?

I still mourn the demise of The Common Reader catalog. It was so much fun to look through its pages and discover books. So, readers, any catalogs you can’t live without?

I participate in several book groups here and there and as much as I’d like to participate in all, well, there’s not enough time. Not to mention, that I also have my own selections to read.

So for September/October I’m participating in the Our Coffee Rings group, Slaves of Golconda and my foreign authors book group (in person). And, of course I’m trying to do the R.I.P. Challenge.

So far I’ve only really made a dent into the selection for Our Coffee Rings. I’m reading Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and it’s a delightful read. I know I read this as a child but it’s truly like reading a new book as I don’t remember much of the story.

My other two selections I can’t even comment on. Saturday for Foreign Authors book group I’ve barely started and Indiana for Slaves of Golconda just arrived in my mailbox this weekend.

Let’s hope I don’t get too distracted by other books and can make some progress in these. I know that in itself is a challenge.