I’m finally caught up on book reviews again. I spent the weekend away from home, which gave me little time for reading and even less for blogging, and then I’ve had long days at work (yesterday I worked from eight in the morning until half seven in the evening. Let me assure you that blogging was not the first thing on my agenda when I finally did get home!) . Apart from work, though, I really can’t complain about the things that kept me from my books. You see, I spent the weekend visiting Banquo. We had a lovely time and spent a lot of it watching The Lakes on DVD. In a quiet moment, left to my own devices, I ransacked her bookshelf and sat myself down with a book. When Banquo returned, she claimed that she had to take a picture to show the world that “[I’m] always reading.” (She has graciously allowed me to pilfer said photo to post here.)

On Saturday, we met up with a few other really good friends of mine (Mikey being one of them) for coffee (well, we all had tea…), tea shopping and a visit to The Uppsala English Bookshop. At the bookshop, I bought two books and we were all witness to an intriguing tale of a book going missing. You see, Woman with Dog came in to pick up a book she’d ordered and that she’d been told had arrived, but when the woman behind the counter went to get it for her, she couldn’t find it. Eventually she asked her colleague, who then said that someone had come in earlier in the day, stated the woman’s full name, the exact title and author of the book she’d ordered and told him that she was there to pick it up for her. Needless to say, Woman with Dog was exceedingly displeased and couldn’t for the life of her think of anyone who would’ve come to get the book for her. Also needless to say, we were all dying to find out the end to the story, but I don’t suppose we ever shall.

While I only got two books at UEB, I came home with five new books at the end of the weekend. On the way back, I had some time to kill at Stockholm Central Station, where they happen to have a Pocket Shop (a “pocket”, or “pocketbok”, is the Swedish word for a paperback), so by the time I boarded the train there, I had three more books in my bag. All five from the weekend are: Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl, The World According to Clarkson: And Another Thing by Jeremy Clarkson, Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik, Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb (as a thanks-for-cat-sitting gift for my brother) and The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl.

My TBR-pile now constitutes about a fifth of my book collection, which is a little scary. This is why I have decided that I am not allowed to buy any books at all during March and April. It will be interesting to see if I manage and, if not, how long it takes before I break down and buy another one.

Both photos in this post will lead you to larger versions when clicked on.