What books did you get for Christmas?

Will you tell us about The Good Beer Guide? mmm... brewskis.

I received:

Words that Work - Dr. Frank Luntz
&
Rivers of a Wounded Heart - Michael Wilbur

I got:

Captain's Fury by Jim Butcher
The Art of A Song of Ice and Fire

Whee!

I got:

The Pacific Between by Raymond Wong

I recieved:

Self editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne
A Knitter's Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmerman
and The Lost Colony by John Scalzi.

My sister gave me Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk. My favorite author. Wish I could pronounce his last name, though...

I didn't get any books.

Ironically, books were the only thing I actually asked for.

Not one! But I admit that I buy books constantly, so maybe everyone thought I'd just get them myself.

My birthday is coming up in a few days, so maybe then.

I am super excited about all of these:

Atonement - Ian McEwan
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz
Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You - Peter Cameron
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie
The Best American Non-Required Reading of 2007

And two 1950s editions of my favorite Faulkner books: The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom! My mom-in-law found 'em while scouring an estate sale.

Oh, and a cookbook.

And a copy of (sigh) Writing Down the Bones from a friend who had recently received my rant about how I was pretty much done with reading most writing books, especially the hippie-dippy ones. Apparently she interpreted that to mean "please buy me the most hippie-dippy writing book on the market." I think I may re-gift it to another friend of mine who's just started writing fiction.

Man. I got a lot of books.

I got Libba Bray's trilogy - A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing - I'm excited

Since there seems to be quite a range, I'll chime in with mine. lol.

I got The Dark-Hunter Companion by Sherrilyn Kenyon & Alethea Kontis and The House on the Point by Benjamin something-or-other (the guy who wrote The Tao of Pooh). I'm feeling rather lazy and don't want to go to the other room to get it. Plus, I promised myself I'd do some real writing before I get to watch Project Runway tonight and I haven't done that yet.

OOOO, is there a new Project Runway on tonight!? Or reruns? Heck even those are fun to watch

I received Lottery by Patricia Wood (Orion)
AND
Look Me in the Eye by John Elder Robison (yanno who I mean)

I also bought Alex and the Ironic Gentleman by Adrienne Kress (Toothpaste) for my niece and read it first.

It's an AW book party in my house!

A collection of 5 novels by Dashiell Hammett.

1000Events That Shape the World by National Geographic

Then I got some stupid silly nonsense called The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. Why my mom thinks I'm into sillyness like that is beyond me.

And then the books I'm most excited about:
Tales of Suspense #63, 90, 93, 95, and 97.
Captain America #105.

Yeah!

Sadly, not one. But I ordered myself a bunch, and they should be arriving in the new year. Yay, they're kinda like extra Christmas presents.

To Kill A Mockingbird. I have a friend who was appalled to find out I've never read it, so she bought it for me.

I can't believe now that I never read it...it's excellent.

I got one of the Dark Tower books by Steven King, awesome, since I haven't read him in years. Good looking out there mother-in-law. Why not just an Amazon gift card, oh yeah, that would take some effort.

I gave 10 books to different people. I only give books that spoke to me and I think would broaden someone's reading. I gave my sister-in-law Choke by Chuck P., she called me the next day and said she stayed up all night reading it and was going to start it again after breakfast. I gave her one of my copies with all my favorite quotes highlighted and notes in the margins.

I got money. With which I bought:

Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller
Bright Lights, Big City, by Jay McInerney
The Complet Uncle Remus, by Joel Chandler Harris
Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy

So far, so good.

Strangely, not one book this year. BUT my husband did get me a Barnes & Noble gift card.

One year my sister got me a new thesaurus and dictionary, since mine were so beat up. I was thrilled. Now who but a writer would love receiving something like that?!

My favorite present from this christmas

The Hemingway Cookbook

Let's see:

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pirates - Selinger & Smith
The Sea Rover's Practice - Benerson Little
Pirates - John Matthews
The History of Pirates - Angus Konstam
Empire of Ivory - Naomi Novik
Neversfall - Ed Gentry
Nightwatch and Daywatch - Sergei Lukyanenko
Urban Shaman - CE Murphy

I think that's it. Should carry me through February, hopefully.

I got a lovely one-volume edition of the His Dark Materials trilogy by Pullman, and a copy of Alice in Wonderland that my mom got me to replace my old copy (which is falling apart). Those are the only books I got this year, but they were ones I really wanted.

I asked for (and received ) The Ghost by Robert Harris. Devoured it in two days and it's in my top ... 3 for this year. Loved it. Am going to cosy up with John Connolly's The Unquiet from tomorrow.

Weird. This is the first year in a LONG time that I didn't receive any books at all. My universe feels off kilter now that I've realized this . . . *sighs*

I got a BOX of my own books from the UK (sent by the publisher so that counts!).
Zen in the art of writing by Ray Bradbury
The Art of Fiction by John Gardner
Both were from my cat LOL