Wow, I haven’t had a chance to do one of these in ages! (And if I don’t type fast, I still won’t get it in on Tuesday.) From Wendi’s Book Corner, here’s this week’s Tuesday Thinger question:

Today’s question: How do you get your books for reviewing? Do you track them somehow (excel, database, etc), or just put them in a tbr (To Be Read for anyone that doesn’t know) pile?

I get my books from everywhere! I request them through Shelf Awareness, I get books from the library, as gifts or by swapping with friends, I’ve even gotten unsolicited review copies.

LibraryThing was my first supplier – I’ve gotten some great books through their Early Reviewer program. I started posting on some of the message boards at LibraryThing and that prompted me to start the blog. Boy, all these years I thought I had to buy books – turns out, you just have to ask for them! As long as you promise to talk about them, publishers and authors are willing to share.

I have made a couple of cold requests to authors. I received one terrific book that way, some poite responses, and only one or two requests were ignored altogether.

I have a couple of shelves of one bookcase devoted to review books. I try to balance them with books I’ve selected for myself, outside of reviewing, so I suppose I don’t always review them by their release date, but I don’t really worry about that. Nothing wrong with spreading the publicity out, I think. Or at least, that’s what I hope.

I haven’t done one of these in while! Today’s Tuesday Thingers question comes from Wendi’s Book Corner:

Have you ever used the Swap This Book function which can be found on the main page of any book? If so, what do you think about it? If not, are there any other swap sites you utilize to exchange books once you are done? What do you do with your books if you no longer want them anymore?

I have not used the Swap This Book function. I have swapped some books with other LTers through some of the Groups, but not all that often. I like to keep my books; I have always liked the idea of having a library and being able to surround myself with books, but it’s just not practical – at least until I finally buy my palatial estate where I have room for a big library. Usually, if I’m getting rid of a book, I hand it off to a friend. I know lots of people who are avid readers and not all of them have big book-shopping budgets. It’s nice to be able to give someone a book I really think they’ll enjoy. Anything that I didn’t enjoy and wouldn’t give to a friend, I generally donate to my local library or drop off at Goodwill.

It’s Tuesday! And it’s almost Christmas! And I’m on vacation! What could be better? I get to spend the day on the couch (a new one – a little Christmas gift to myself) with a pot of tea and a good book. I couldn’t be happier.

This week, I am reading The Spanish Bow by Andromeda Romano-Lax. This is an Early Reviewer book from LibraryThing, and so far it has been fascinating. It is the story of poor Feliu Delargo in turn of the century Spain, and how his father’s gift of a cello bow changes his life. A little something (racy) from one of Feliu’s music lessons:

“And with her sighs, squirms, and my own fingers guiding me, I switched hands and traveled as far as I dared, under layers of silk and cotton, into places I hadn’t known existed. At one point, she began to moan instructions, but I didn’t comprehend – I didn’t want to comprehend – until finally, she switched to musical Italian and barked a command I knew better than to ignore: Adagio!”

Today’s question: Today’s question: LT Things- t-shirts, bags,cue cats- are you into the “stuff”? Do you use a cuecat to enter your books, or do you enter them manually? What do you think of the stuff?

Sad to say, I do not have any LT stuff. A bag would be handy. And I still need to pick up a few Christmas presents….

I enter my books manually. One of the great joys for me in setting up my library on LT in the first place was the opportunity to handle each of my books individually to enter them in the system. It was like a big ol’ reuninon, getting reacquainted with old friends.

I do like book-related stuff, though. I love my signed books, my Banned Books bracelet, my bag that says “So Many Books, So Little Time”. I have a jewelry box that looks like a a copy of Great Expectations. I have little stuffed characters from Where the Wild Things Are and a stuffed dragon with a pillow and pajamas that comes from a children’s book, although I can’t remember the title offhand. I have a great collection of bookmarks and I am hoping to add to it and find some lace bookmarks when I visit Belgium this weekend.

In other news, I promise that I will be posting some reviews and getting caught up very soon. Business travel is rough – it sucks up all of your time and makes you a zombie. On top of that, I have a terrible cold that I can’t seem to shake (perhaps it’s the travel, the lack of sleep, the lousy weather?). That has made me not only a zombie, but a slow-moving zombie, dragging broken limbs behind me. Not any fun at all. It will be good to be back among the living.

I haven’t done one of these posts in a while, but I promise not to drown you in the deluge of new books this fall has brought to my door. It mainly came to mind because, as so often happens, when it rains, it pours. I have had a number of audiobooks on hold at the library and since they were newer releases, nothing was immediately available. I happened upon a copy of The Book Thief – 11 cds long! – so I started that one on Monday. Tuesday morning, I got an email that one of my library holds was in. Of course. Tuesday afternoon I got another email; a second book had come in. By the time I made it to the library, 3 audiobooks were waiting for me! I can do a lot of listening while I knit this weekend!

Some of these books are from the library, as explained above, and some have been added to the permanent collection. But here’s some of what I’ve amassed in the last 2 weeks:

• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• The Glimmer Palace by Beatrice Colin
• Hollywood Crows: A Novel by Joseph Wambaugh
• The Lace Reader: A Novel by Bruonia Barry
• Badlands: A Novel of Suspense by Richard Montanari
• Peaceful Endings: The NOPOSAM Project by Michael K. Tucker
• American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon by Steven Rinella
• To Catch the Lightning: A Novel of American Dreaming by Alan Cheuse
• Ambrosia: About a Culture – An Investigation of Electronica Music and Party Culture by James Cummins
• Where am I Wearing: A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories, and People that Make Our Clothes by Kelsey Tinnerman
• The Spanish Bow by Andromeda Romano-Lax

That’s quite a haul, don’t you think? That should also give you an idea about the reviews to be looking for over the next couple of months. I am especially looking forward to reading Badlands, because Richard Montanari is a local author and I met him at a book club a couple of years ago – I have enjoyed his books very much. Also Ambrosia is my first book for the Mini Book Expo, and I’m always excited about a new source of books. Likewise, The Spanish Bow is my most recent Early Reviewer title and the author has a fabulous name!

I can hardly wait to get started!

Today’s question, from The Boston Bibliophile: This week’s question: Legacy libraries. With which legacy libraries do you share books? Tell us a little about a couple of them and what you share.

What an interesting question! I’m not sure this is a complete answer, since there doesn’t seem to be a quick and easy way to compare my library to the Legacy Libraries. But from my quick glances through the profile pages, I share a lot of books with interesting dead people!

I share books with , in no particular order: e.e. cummings (2), John F. Kennedy (1- Lolita, of all things), Sylvia Plath (2), Marilyn Monroe (1), F. Scott Fitzgerald (3), Samuel Roth (2) and Walker Percy (3). It’s very interesting that I share 4 books with Ernest Hemmingway, an author I don’t particularly care for. We share The Gentleman’s Companion (my favorite of my antique books), The Great Gatsby, Lolita, and The Three Musketeers.

The biggest surprise – I share 7 books with Carl Sandberg, who was apparently a Nero Wolfe fan! We have 5 Rex Stout titles in common (The Case of the Black Orchids, Champagne for One, The Golden Spiders, In the Best Families and Prisoner’s Base), as well as Lolita and Orlando by Virginia Woolf.

Also interesting is that I share the same books/authors with several people – various titles by Virginia Woolf, obviously Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. A great question and a great way to learn more about my own library!