Book shopping today ...

Ariadne · Post by **Ariadne** » Sat November 29th, 2008, 10:00 pm

I just bought about 15 novels (mostly historical) on bookcloseouts.com - they're having a Black Friday warehouse sale, with all fiction 50% off, and they already had typical remainder prices. They have a huge historical fiction category, including many UK imports, and most novels are less than $3 apiece... I believe sales are limited to US and Canada though.

Among my take -

Two from Laura Joh Rowland's Sano Ichiro series (Red Chrysanthemum and Snow Empress)
Irene Nemirovsky's Fire in the Blood
Iris Gower's Act of Love (think I got the last copy)
Robert Goddard's Name to a Face (excellent thriller writer - not historical, not available in the US yet)

There's a ton of other novels to choose from, and I would've bought more if I didn't own so many of them already. It's a great opportunity to try new authors at a cheap price, so happy shopping everyone

Amanda · Post by **Amanda** » Sat November 29th, 2008, 10:05 pm

I was just about to post about the bookcloseouts sale. I looked through all the historical fiction and they have some great books on sale! I picked out a few, but then saw the shipping to Australia was just beyond a joke! I think I had maybe 8 books in the cart at around $3 each, but the shipping was $59!
So there is a great chance for all of you in the US to score some great deals.

ETA: I picked up The Heretic's Daughter from the library today!

Ariadne · Post by **Ariadne** » Sat November 29th, 2008, 10:13 pm

Yikes!! I just reread their website and they will ship to outside North America, but $59 is an awful lot for postage. It was their "free shipping for over $35" coupon that was limited to US and Canada. It took a while to get up to $35 worth of books, but I managed somehow...

boswellbaxter · Post by **boswellbaxter** » Tue December 2nd, 2008, 12:11 am

Finally got David Starkey's Henry: Virtuous Prince (bio of the young Henry VIII) in from the UK today. It took a little longer than what I've become accustomed to lately, so I was getting worried! Looks very good from a preliminary skim, and though it's not a large print edition, it's in nice big type, which is great!

red805 · Post by **red805** » Tue December 2nd, 2008, 1:53 am

[quote=""Ash""]Thats one of my all time favorite books on the era. I am not good at listening to audio books, esp non fiction; hopefully you come away with the same feel f that I did reading it. - I'll be curious what you think of it.[/quote]

I finished the audiotape of A World Lit Only By Fire, & am now starting to listen to it for a second time. It wasn't until the end that I realized that the book had originally been intended as a study of the world of Magellon & his times, & what led up to his great voyage. I was a little confused by the title, as I thought it was to be (more) about the middle ages. The book seemed to be divided up into three sections, but there were no "chapter" pauses or titles within those sections, so it was slightly hard to follow in audiobook form. I think I would have preferred reading this one. Manchester's descriptions were very vivid, & so much of it was facinating, like that Charlemagne was illiterate. After getting on my audiobook kick, I am finding that I prefer fiction, or nonfiction in chronological order, because without being able to refer to a table of contents, accompanying maps, etc., to say nothing of coping with Los Angeles traffic, fiction is just easier to follow while driving. I would definitely recommend this book though.

Amanda · Post by **Amanda** » Tue December 2nd, 2008, 3:51 am

I finally received an ebay purchase today!

The bidding closed on 3/11, so after 2 emails, a phone call (had to get contact details from ebay), and another email a week later. So it took 1 month. And no it didn't come from overseas. Just Newcastle! For those that don't know, Newcastle is 2 hours away, and would be next day delivery.

Anyway, the wait is well worth it.....Diana Norman's The Vizard Mask.

Ariadne · Post by **Ariadne** » Tue December 2nd, 2008, 4:05 am

What a pain you had to wait so long. Why was the seller being so difficult about it?

I have a copy but it's one of the few of hers I haven't read yet.

Telynor · Post by **Telynor** » Tue December 2nd, 2008, 4:27 am

[quote=""boswellbaxter""]Finally got David Starkey's Henry: Virtuous Prince (bio of the young Henry VIII) in from the UK today. It took a little longer than what I've become accustomed to lately, so I was getting worried! Looks very good from a preliminary skim, and though it's not a large print edition, it's in nice big type, which is great![/quote]

I'm looking forward to that one, and I've really gotten to like Starkey's work -- I hope you will let me know what you think of it when you finish it.

eclecticreader10 · Post by **eclecticreader10** » Tue December 2nd, 2008, 4:51 am

Wasn't the bookcloseouts sale great?! I spent $52 and got 21 books. What a deal! I got Mistress of the Sun (Sandra Gulland) several by Beverly Swerling, among others.

Amanda · Post by **Amanda** » Tue December 2nd, 2008, 5:01 am

[quote=""Ariadne""]What a pain you had to wait so long. Why was the seller being so difficult about it?

I have a copy but it's one of the few of hers I haven't read yet.[/quote]

Personal problems he said. I understand these things happen. But he isn't a big turnover seller, and I was keeping an eye on his listings and feedback, and a few people were leaving feedback for items that had closed after mine. Not worried now though!