November '13 Book Haul!

Aloha! We're on the end of November, so it's time for Page by Page November BOOK HAUL. For this month, I must say, I kind of mad at myself but proud at the same time. I think I've never before, added such amount of new books in my shelf in only a period of one month. How many books you ask? I have... 34 new books in this November! It's a huge number for me. But really, I didn't spend money more than I did last month, when I bought only ten books. YEAH BABY! How did I do that? Let's start this book haul.

When November started, I told myself, for this month I will only buy books that are in my wishlist. I have SO many lists of books I wish to have. The lists scatter everywhere. In my Goodreads wishlist shelf, my notes app in phone, my post-it on the wall, shredded old paper in my wallet, in a folder in my computer... it's literally everywhere. I even actually forgot the reason I want to have most of books in my wishlist, it's already too long being ignored. I have so many choices really, but I decided to buy these guys in the first week of November. Koin Terakhir by Yogie Nugraha, A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, and The Man who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett. After that, I succeed to hold myself for not buying another books for two weeks ahead. Pat my own shoulder.

I did succeed to restrain myself so I didn't visit book stores in the first half of the month, but who am I kidding? That couldn't stop me buying books. I visited tons of online book stores and stumbled into parcelbuku.net. Apparently they held bargain books and I found two books that are in my wishlist. I instantly put those in the cart. They are The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz and The Girl who Kicked the Hornets' Nest by Stieg Larsson. And, for some odd reason that I can't recall right now, I also picked The Digital God by Greg Iles and Sweet Misfortune by Kevin Alan Milne. The sweet thing about this is, they also sent many bookmarks along with the books. Nice touch!

And then, it happened. Rumah Buku (book stores near my house) is holding book sale (until December 5th!). Not just another book sale, but this book sale provides so many Bentang books (an Indonesian publisher I prefer than others) and I couldn't erase the creepy grin on my face while I picked up these pile of books. None of them are in my wishlist, but who cares? I only spent Rp 100.000 (something like $8!) for these seven books! Unbelievable. They are I shall Not Hate by Izzeldin Abuelaish, Starters by Lissa Price, Jermal by Yokie Adityo, The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown, When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman, We are All Weird by Seth Godin, and Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. Freaking fantastic.

Exactly a day after that, I revisited Rumah Buku and intended to buy some more books. I am planning to hold giveaways in near future (I'm still not sure though, but we'll see), so I thought there wouldn't be better time to buy the books other than that time. I also have some books that I won't read anymore, so I'm planning to give those away along with one or two new books. Because giving away only used books sounds... uninteresting? Anyway, for that intention, I bought Misteri di Gunung Teulabonari by Michael Hoeye, Anak Rembulan by Djokolelono, One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Mantra by Azisa Noor & R. Amdani, Hanya Salju dan Pisau Batu by Happy Salma & Pidi Baiq, and Itik Bali by Dyah Ayu. There are also three books (book #2-#4) from How to Train Your Dragon series by Cressida Cowell that I forgot to photograph. For all of those books, I even didn't spend more than Rp 80.000. A-ma-zing.

A couple days later, I couldn't resist the temptation longer, and I went AGAIN to Rumah Buku. This time, I saw Saudagar Buku dari Kabul by Asne Seierstad that somehow I didn't notice it's there before. This book had been in my wishlist since forever, and of course now I also can't remember why I want to have it. It's been a long time. But I'm glad I visited Rumah Buku again and finally bought this. For no particular reason, I also bought Age of the Five Trilogy by Trudi Canavan (three books in the top picture), Burning Sea by John Shors, and A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah.

This is the last, finally! I'm so happy because this November I got five, yes five, free books. Awesome. First, I won a giveaway and got the e-book copies of The Demdike Legacy by Barry Durham and Familiar Territory also by him. This will be my first giveaway that I won. Then my junior in uni sent me her self-published book, Kata Kita by Romian Tambun Saribu. I'm happy for her, and envy her too for publishing a book (me want!). And, the most exciting moment for me in this month is when a package from Alvabet (Indonesian publisher) arrived and it contained two free books for me! I totally freaked my head out. I know I shouldn't be so surprised because I actually asked for it. A week before that, I sent them an e-mail and asked them to send me exactly those two books (they're in my wishlist, yes!) in exchange for honest reviews. I never do that before, you know, ask a publisher to send me free books. Plus, they didn't reply my e-mail, so for sure I expected nothing. But, they did send the books, I LOVE YOU, ALVABET! They are Taman Api by Yonathan Rahardjo and The Husband by Dean Koontz.

So, I kind of succeed to scratch some books in my wishlist, I feel wonderful. Not really actually, I got a fever now. Anyway, see you on the next post! HAKUNA MATATA!