This past month, I actually sought to avoid buying any books, if possible. Things are hardly dire, but I’m trying to cut down on spending all the same—a not-uncommon feeling, I’m sure. Nevertheless, I couldn’t resist the siren’s song of a book here and there, though I’m happy to report that I at least picked up everything secondhand, so they still don’t even amount to the cost of a single brand-new book.

Let’s see what I wound up picking up.

New Books

First and foremost, I picked up yet another copy of Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. The funny thing with this book is it has the exact same cover as the mass market paperback copy I already own, it’s just sized up, this being precisely the reason I picked it up. You see, I’ve started picking up more of Vonnegut’s work, and they’re of regular paperback size. In an effort to avoid inconsistency on my shelf, I’ve been wanting a copy of this size. As luck would have it, I came across two recently at a thrift store and picked up the one in better shape.

I also picked up All Systems Red by Martha Wells, the first book in the Murderbot Diaries series. I’ve been meaning to check this series out for quite a while. I’d actually been planning to pick up a copy of the volume that includes the first two books in this series, as they’re more of novella length, but finding a secondhand copy in good condition was too good to pass up. Goodness knows when I’ll actually start it, considering there are other series I’ve started that I need to finish, but at least I’m a little closer than I was before.

Novel Discoveries

This is the only book I learned about over the past month, but it feels more significant than what is typical for me. It’s abuzz at least in certain bookish spaces online that this horror novel won the Pulitzer prize this year, something a horror novel hasn’t done since The Road by Cormac McCarthy in 2007. That was enough to have my interest thoroughly piqued, but on top of that it is written in one continuous sentence (which may turn you off, but I’ve heard it works well), and it is set during one of the biggest battles of World War One, following a troop of American soldiers who accidentally shoot an angel out of the sky. I’ve already got a copy reserved at the library, but I’m honestly so interested in this book I may just buy it before then.

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Until next time, thank you for reading!