Somehow, I went absolutely ham with buying books last month. I don’t think it’s an egregiously high number, all things considered, but it was enough to make me procrastinate writing this post. I didn’t mean to indulge myself this much, I just wound up having too many opportunities to pick up new books at decent prices. I’m once again concerned I forgot one or two, but I do believe all of the are presented below.

Let’s see the damage, shall we? I’m seriously running out of places to put these things.

New Books

I bought these two books brand new after I had some spending money left over from attending a local Comic-Con. Return of the Trickster by Eden Robinson is the third volume in a trilogy I started in 2022 and plan on finishing this year.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius I picked up because it’s ancient literature with philosophy that resonates with me. I understand that there are some people who co-opt its ideas in apparently unsavory ways, but what I’ve heard of the text itself is what matters to me. I just hope this more affordable copy still has a decent translator. I fear it will make for dusty reading, if you know what I mean.

These two books have been on my TBR for a few years now, and while I’d like to say something about their contents that pushed me to pick them up, I’d be lying. I was at a thrift store with my friends that was selling most of its books for $1.50 a piece. So, when I came across books I recognized in good condition, it was an easy choice to make. If some wanton book hater took my copies and tossed them into the lake before I could read them, I would be aggrieved by the destruction of literature, but I wouldn’t regret the $3 that was spent getting them.

These three books I picked up at one of my old bookstore haunts in Toronto. Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel is the book I set out to purchase there after regrettably leaving it behind when I bought Waking Gods; I was very pleased to find there was still a copy left. I am now in the process of reading it, as I’d like to finish the Themis Files this year.

I picked up this copy of The High Window by Raymond Chandler because I’ve been needing the third book for a while now and I’ve pretty much given up on finding a matching cover to the previous two books in the series I own. The publisher simply doesn’t have it in print anymore and I’m tired of trying to track it down. This is at least the same size (as it’s the same publisher), so they’ll coincide fine on the shelf.

Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman is a book of his I’ve actually owned for many years, though as an ebook. I like this look of this copy much better, however, and it was only $5, so I was happy to have this supplant the digital copy. I believe this is the one Gaiman short story collection of note that I haven’t gotten around to. Having something tactile will perhaps push me to finally read it.

The funny thing about this book is I actually read it pretty recently after finding it at the library. However, I loved Colleen Doran’s illustrations so much that I really wanted my own, and a $9 copy was too good to pass up. I love comics, but full-priced physical volumes really can be too much sometimes.

These two digital comics are the last volumes I needed from the series The Immortal Hulk, which I regret to say I still haven’t finished reading. I believe the first one, Apocrypha, collections one-shots directly connected to the main series, and Great Power contains one-shot extras more tangentially connected through other Marvel characters.

Novel Discoveries

Goodness, despite the number of new books, I really didn’t come across much new to add to my TBR pile. I must admit, I can’t recall a whole lot about the actual premise of this book, but it came highly recommended as a great standalone novel from someone I spoke to at length at a monthly book discussion group meeting, so I’d like to remember to check it out. It can be hard to get invested in a series, so I relish the promise of a good standalone novel.

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Until next time, thank you for reading!