I have since started on a new novel, so I may have passed that unusual phase. But really, I have all the intention to get to them in near future. My libraries don’t stock any of this books, which is one requirement I imposed on myself for book buying. The books above:

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks
Eva’s Assembling My Atheneum series on Oliver Sacks intrigued me enough to convince me to get a copy. It’s a collection of essays about fascinating neurological case studies, which I promise would seem a lot more interesting if you can see the table of content.

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach
First heard of Bonk from Jackie, but later on read more about Mary Roach and her other books from other bloggers. Funny non-fiction? I’m on it! I got it second in good condition from Better World Books.

Little Princes by Conor Grennan
Subtitled One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal, I was offered this book by Harper Collins (US) and could not resist. Nepal is a country and culture I’d love to know more about and a couple of reviews confirmed that I’m in for a good read ahead. Also, what an stunning cover, don’t you think? It’s in hardcover too! (see below)

Starting Point 1979-1996 by Hayao Miyazaki
Another hardcover but I have no one to blame for this one. Starting Point came to my notice when I read Sydney Japanese Foundation new catalogue. It is a collection of essays, interviews, memoirs that go back to Miyazaki’s childhood roots, animation theories, and the founding of Studio Ghibli, covering the first half of Miyazaki’s legendary career. Squee! It seems to be the quintessential book for Ghibli and animated film fans. I cannot wait to dig into this. Currently waiting for a good time in which I can dedicate my whole self to the book. There said to be the sequel Turning Point 1997-2008 yet to be translated to English and I’m already looking forward to that.

This last book is not on my physical pile as it just came to my attention last week, thanks to my good friend (who happened to fly to Tokyo for holiday only hours after the tsunami happened. What a bad timing to visit Japan. It’s very sad to see the massive disaster that happened. Hope things will get better and they will be able to rebuild soon.)

Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein is written by the first gaijin to work for a Japanese newspaper as Japanese crime reporter. He spent 12 years covering vice and organized crimes. Tokyo Vice is about his years in Japan and Japan underworld. Sounds fantastic!

Have you read any of these books? Read any great non-fiction lately?

Well it’s time to face reality and do a head-count. Even though I had it coming I still had the shock of my life. 50 books! Yes, 50! All I have NOT read, apart from a couple! (not all pictured below as I couldn’t bother to keep taking photos of the forgotten ones)

But first, I’d love to show you a couple of highlights. I got The Changeling by Nobel Laurette Kenzaburo Oe in gorgeous hardcover complete with what looks like semi-transparent Japanese rice paper for dust jacket from my book fairy Jess of friendly Allen and Unwin. It is so pretty it literally took my breath away. Gasp!

Moreover it came with The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, which I have wanted to read since… forever. Jess described it as “pitch-perfect”. Mmm.. delicious!

To top it off, she sent me this spectacular looking graphic novel, also in hardcover, which is a retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet by Nicki Greenberg. It came close to my birthday, after I came back from my holiday. A nice coincidence! :)

There’s just something about hardcover that excites me so much, because we rarely have hardcovers in Australia. Most books are published in trade-paperback format. Nicki Greenberg first graphic novel was a retelling of The Great Gatsby, which I’ve seen several times at our library, but I never pick up, because I’m not fond of Gatsby (school read and all). But I’ve never read Hamlet, and in all honesty I don’t think I’ll ever read Shakespeare, so I so look forward to dip into this one!

It’s fully colored too!

So here are the 50 books in no particular order:

Books received from Publishers:
1 Hamlet by Nicki Greenberg
2 The Changeling by Kenzaburo Oe
3 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
4 Room by Emma Donoghue

Books bought from Basement Books (all new):
5 Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry ($2.95)
6 When We Were Very Young by A. A. Milne ($4.95)
7 Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ($4.95)
8 Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris ($5.95)
9 Man Walks into a Room by Nicole Krauss ($2.00)

Books bought from book depo:
10 Hunger by Knut Hamsun
11 Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
12 The Complete Polysillabic Spree by Nick Hornby
13 The Arrival by Shaun Tan (I’ve read this but would like to own it!)
14 The Red Tree by Shaun Tan (I’m on Shaun Tan’s spree since I met him a couple of weeks ago)
15 The Lost Thing by Shaun Tan (Spree!)
16 Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth
17 American Gods by Neil Gaiman (bought because he visited us in Sydney a couple of weeks ago too)
18 Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea by Guy Delisle

Books bought from charity shop:
19 Echoes of an Autobiography by Naguib Mahfouz ($1) (would like to read Palace Walk first)

Books bought from the library sale ($1 each):
20 Middlemarch by George Eliot
21 The Thousand Nights and One Night Volume I (translated from French of Mardrus by Mathers)
22 The Thousand Nights and One Night Volume II
23 The Thousand Nights and One Night Volume III
24 The Thousand Nights and One Night Volume IV
(I’m quite excited to find these four volumes of The Thousand Nights and One Night. I remember devouring it hungrily as a kid, though it was the simplified possibly watered down version of 1001 Nights. But then I found out these series are not exactly the translation that’s recommended by the people of Arab Lit Challenge. What to do? Should I go ahead and read these ones?)
25 No Shitting in the Toilet by Peter Moore

Books received FREE from the library:
26 The World is the Home of Love and Death by Harold Brodkey
27 Animation: From Script to Screen by Shamus Culhane
28 Tales from the Perilous Realm by J.R.R. Tolkien
29 Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide
30 Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl

Books received FREE from the Japanese Foundation Library:
30 San’ya Blues: Laboring Life in Contemporary Tokyo by Edward Fowler
31 The Mother of Dreams and Other Short Stories: Portrayals of Women in Modern Japanese Fiction, edited by Makoto Ueda
32 And Then (Sore Kara) by Natsume Soseki
33 The Incident at Sakai and Other Stories: Volume I of the Historical Literature of Mori Ogai
34 Love and Other Stories of Yokomitsu Riichi
(I had never heard of all these books here, apart from Natsume Soseki. From flipping through the introductions, they seem to be quite popular and influential in Japan, probably just not overseas.)

Books brought back from Indonesia: (most of these I bought when I was in Singapore a couple of years ago)
35 The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
36 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
37 Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions by Ben Mezrich
38 Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
39 The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
40 Brick Lane by Monica Ali
41 A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
42 The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe
43 Losing my Virginity: The Autobiography by Richard Branson
44 The Cave of the Yellow Dog by Byambasuren Davaa & Lisa Reisch
45 When Madeline was Young by Jane Hamilton
46 First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung
47 Sex Slaves: The Trafficking of Women in Asia by Louise Brown
(The two books above I bought when I visited Cambodia. Being quite cheap I took the chance. After browsing around, the first one should be good as it gets lots of praise, but the second one seems to be very flawed.)
48 Laskar Pelangi by Andrea Hirata (In Indonesian. This is a bestseller in the country!)

Bookcrossing books from lovely azuki (who I met once in Hong Kong):
49 Golden Boy (also known as Gweilo) by Martin Booth (very fitting as this is a book set in Hong Kong)
50 After Quake by Haruki Murakami

If you’re still reading, is there any book that caught your eyes? Any that I need to bump up my to-be-read-immediately pile?

Books bought:
East of Eden by John Steinbeck (ripped deckled edge! weee!)
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (read-along next year anyone?)
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth (because it’s the thickest novel ever?)

And not shown on the pictures: Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsk, a science fiction book which was recently made into a video game. I gave hubby one book to choose and I don’t know how on earth he could pick that one.

Not long after I realized that the books here were so expensive that $100 really doesn’t mean much at all compared to overseas online stores. I’m all for local bookstores, but when the price is NOTHING near competitive, it puts me in a tough position (with a very clear winner in my opinion). But this time I got my gift card so I was happy and tried to maximize my $100 as much as possible. My priority was books that I couldn’t get at my libraries.

Here’s what I got:

Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne (colored an all, aaww)

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera (what’s with the white dog on the cover?)

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter (which was the thinnest of the bunch and cost 1/4 of that $100… Already read and reviewed.)

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (talking about Markus Zusak, check out the last video from First Tuesday Book Club with him as the guest with Sarah Waters, discussing Solar – McEwan and Strange case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde — picked by Sarah Waters. I never thought Zusak could be sooo cutely Australian!)

Oh and I let hubby chose one book and he got Sherlock Holmes in hardcover. A nice pick!

Apart from those, I got these three books from lovely fellow bloggers:

I received not one, but TWO Angela Carter’s books from our generous Angela Carter Month host Claire! The Magic Toyshop and Nights at the Circus.

And After Dark by Haruki Murakami from my best blogging buddy Michelle!

Thanks you two! I’m excited about these books! <3

THEN, did you get your free comics on Saturday? I got two! (I queued another time after loosing my sweater and hair, because they limited one comic per customer. Hope it’s not too big of a crime.)

Wish I could keep coming back for more, because there were a few that I wanted! But I was running out of disguise.

Hubby picked Iron Man/Thor. He’s really into any kind of super-heroes. I’m into anything cute.

Kinokuniya was jam-packed with people on Saturday! Apart from people hunting free comics, there were a lot that actually bought some (since graphic novels and comics were on 20% sale too on the day). Then there was also Cosplay going on. What a weird day. We saw lots of people dressing up as Star Wars characters at the book aisles, and some other fantasy characters. I took photo with a giant R2D2 Dalek (with a man inside). If a random non-reader visited Kino that day she must have thought there were SO MANY READERS in the world!

It was my first time getting the free comics on Free Comic Book Day. I’ll look out for the day again next year. Too fun!

The card on the left there was from hubby :)

My book fairy was Jessica from Allen and Unwin. Thank you Jessica! When Jessica told me she was going to send me Tender Morsels with the cover illustrated by Shaun Tan, I was so over the moon! Regular readers would know that I adore Shaun Tan. No, I worship him! I had been waiting for this edition since last year when Margo Lanagan announced it on her blog. Not only that, she also sent me Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine, a graphic novel that I’d been coveting, because my libraries don’t stock it!

If there’s such a thing as blogging career, this must be my highlight!

But apparently a girl can’t have enough books, so I’ll have to share the books I brought back from Indonesia. I bought them when I was in Singapore years ago and for some reason that seemed reasonable at that time they got transferred to my parents’ second house in Jakarta, so I hadn’t seen them for more than a year since I went back to Australia because I got too much stuff and they were left behind. It’s so good to be able to bring my babies back with me to Sydney! (Note: these piles are only less than half of what is still left there. I’m gonna need another around to bring everything back..)

So starting from the left pile:

Bumi Manusia (The Earth of Mankind) by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
A Japanese learning book (wasn’t meant to be displayed, and I brought more too but not shown)
Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
2 comic books (Smurf and Police Agent 212 — my childhood comics that just got republished)

The right pile:

The Trial by Franz Kafka (got in the mail from a bookcrosser a day after I arrived)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Wild Swans by Jung Chang
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
The Good Women of China by Xin Ran
3 Cinta 1 Pria (3 Loves 1 Man) by Arswendo Atmowiloto (an Indonesian book)

I was excited to find Pramoedya Ananta Toer‘s books (a whole shelf of them at the bookshop). I first heard of him from people around the net (who do NOT even live close to Indonesia) just in recent years. Apparently he was one of the most prolific Indonesian authors, even nominated for Nobel Prize. But for a while my reaction was “Who?” What a shame. How could you not know one of the most prolific authors from your own birth country? And it’s not like there are many of them. He’s probably the only one so far.

Further investigation led me to find that his books had been banned since the 60s in Indonesia, even though they were still translated all around the world into many languages, and have only been republished in Indonesia back in the past couple of years. He had a hard life for criticizing the government with his works and was imprisoned many times. He passed away in 2006. His most famous books are The Buru Quartet (first published in the 80s). The book I have above is the first in the series: Bumi Manusia (The Earth of Mankind). I thought it would be nice if I could read them in their original language.

Now if only I could find more shelf space to put them in…

Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off: Love Quarrels from Anton Chekhov to ZZ Packer, Selected by Kasia Boddy, Ali Smith, and Sarah Wood — from Basement Books for $9.95. Isn’t the cover the cutest?! I first saw it at Paperback Reader, and Claire later reminded me again about it, so I was so happy to see it with slashed price!

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa – from Basement Books for $4.95! Another amazing finding! I can’t believe they sold the new ones for $4.95 ea when the RRP in Australia is about $25.

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel — mooched from bookmooch.com. This book is not available at my libraries, so I’m so happy to be able to mooch it!

I got the next 3 books from last year! I feel bad that I have not acknowledged them!

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick — won from Dewey’s 24 hour read-a-thon. No, not the October one. The April one! Kathrin had been very nice to send it all the way from Germany. But it was sea-mail, so it took about 4 months to arrive to Australia. It was an interesting wait :)

Alfred Nobel: The Man Behind the Peace Prize by Kathy by Jo Wargin and Zachary Pullen – won from Dawn @ 5 Minutes for Books, it is a hardcover large picture book. It would be nice to learn about Alfred Nobel from a picture book!

I Am a Cat by Soseki Natsume — bought from bookdepository.co.uk, which I have started reading for tanabata’s read-along, but it lays dormant after the first part (out of three).

Apart from these, I went to Sydney Japanese Foundation last Tuesday to find that they withdrew some book from the library and gave them away for free! I weeded through the pile pretty quickly and went back to the office with 2 bags of books. Oops! A lot of them I had never heard before and many are short stories collection. But who knows, I might be able to find some gems. I left the books at the office and will only bring them back home slowly, so more details will be on my next Mailbox Monday post (whenever that is).

From Dymocks

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (which I bought before The Classics Circuit even started). Check out the tour dates for Wilkie Collins.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I absolutely love the cover of this Jane Eyre! I love all Vintage Classics covers!

From Chris @ Stuff as Dreams are Made on:

The Screwed Up Life of Charlie the Second by Drew Ferguson was the runner-up of Nerds Hearts YA project that put some spotlight on the less well-known YA books. I don’t read much YA, but I’ve been interested in the project and people’s reviews, and Chris has been very nice to send me this book a few weeks back. Check out Nymeth and Chris collaboration review on the finalists!

From Lifeline charity book fair 24 Oct 09

True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carrey (Booker Prize winner and because I’ve never read anything by the Australian author)

UFO in Her Eyes by Xiaolu Guo (cute title by Chinese author. I read her A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers.)

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Cabon (2001 Pulitzer Prize winner)

Secret Son by Laila Lalami (Morrocan author)

The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani (Iranian author. Longlisted for 2008 Orange Prize.)

Have you read any of these books? Any that I immediately HAVE to read?

First is the result of Books Alive campaign in Australia. They compiled a list of 50 Books You Can’t Put Down (check out the list from the website if you incline) and offer a free book for whichever book you buy out of the ones in the list. There are 2 options of free book and I picked the 10 Short Stories You Must Read This Year (the other one is a kid book, though cute, is very short). And the book that I bought from the list: The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas. Can it be more Aussie?!

I used the $10 gift card I got from nuffnang. It’s not the most creative way to spend it, I know. But really, a chance to spend it on book? How could I resist? It’s just humanly impossible for book bloggers…

The second batch is one that I’m very excited about. It’s Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan. When I stumbled upon the website I thought it would be great if I could review the book so I shot Kathleen the publicist an email and she was happy to send me a copy. Erick Setiawan has very similar background as mine. We’re both born in Indonesia to Chinese parents. He left the country when he was 16 and I was 17. He went to USA and I went to Australia. He took Computer Science degree and I took Software Engineering. He’s 6 years older than me. I guess if I’m ever to write a book, it’s reasonable to set a goal to publish it 6 years from now ;)

I got the next two from Vinnies the charity/thrift store for 40 cents each or something: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s role author, and Swahili for the Brokenhearted by Peter Moore. Last is UTS Writers Anthology 2007: What you do and don’t want. $2 from Basement Books. I heart Basement Books.

Have you read any of these books before? Are you interested to? Did you get any books last week?

Mailbox Monday is hosted by The Printed Page.

I did get myself a book. It’s Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier. I already had a copy — a gently used one from a secondhand bookshop, but still I couldn’t resist the new one I saw. It’s hardcover, special edition, with colored paintings in between the pages. It is so pretty! And it’s only $6.95. Can you believe it?! They’re evil, I’m telling you.

On top of that, since it’s the shop’s birthday, everybody gets a free book for every purchase. If I knew that I would’ve come earlier. The table with free books were almost empty by the time I came. I picked one book that caught my eyes: To Love, Honour and Betray by Kathy Lette. To be honest, I don’t think I would ever read it because I can’t generally stand chicklit. But the cover is quite interesting, so who knows. If you have read it, please let me know if I should.

Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia @ the Printed Page.

A hardcover Brick Lane by Monica Ali and a tomb of a book: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke.

I met Monica Ali during the 2009 Sydney Writers’ Festival earlier this year and have been contemplating to read one of her book. So I was so happy to see Brick Lane on the table for a buck!

While I have read about Jonathan Strange for a few times, I never really intend to read it because of the thickness (my gosh, the thickness!) But I kinda flipped through the book and it has a couple of illustrations that caught my interest. So I bought it for $3 and thought, it would be good to have the option to read this book when I want to.

Another book that I received last week was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone! I know, how random is that?

I actually won it from a website which I can’t remember now. I entered the competition for my husband many months ago, since he hasn’t read any Harry Potter books (I’ve finished the series of course, but I only own book 5 as a birthday gift from a friend). I almost forgot about it until it came with a 10 years commemorative pin and a poster. Quite a treat I say!

Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia @ the Printed Page. Drop by her place to see what books people were getting last week!