Book Loot: Week Ending June 20th, 2010

My shelves, floor, bedside table & desk can let out a sigh of relief, there were no new book acquisitions this week.

I did, when digging through our review proof corner during a quiet moment at work, find a copy of Jonathan Franzen’s upcoming Freedom and took it home with me. I was only flicking through it – I’m a pretty strict one book at a time kind of woman – and ending up reading the first 30 pages. And those 30 pages were really good. Have I told you the story about how I found a torn ten dollar note in a $3 copy of The Corrections at Clunes this year? Everyone laughed when I told them you could take fragments of notes to the bank and they would exchange it for the equivalent amount of cash, but I was right. So really, I bought The Corrections and made a profit. And I’m very much looking forward to reading Freedom.

The reading monkey to the left there is a present my Dad bought for me a few weeks ago because it reminded him of me (!). Look at how into his book he is.

This week’s Book Loot links would be a lot longer if I hadn’t been so distracted by vuvuzelas and vuvuzela internet memes during the week:

• I’m not a fan of that sparkly vampire series, but this piece on how Forks, Washington is using the series to capitalize on the newfound tourist trade is interesting. Erm, a Bella burger? No thanks. I hope it’s cooked rare.
• If that gets you in the mood for travelling to literary locations, you could always have a browse through the 100 Most Celebrated Travel Books.
• On the addictive nature of buying First Editions.
• Or, you could always spend your spare change on one of these literary letters up for auction.
• A new way to randomly browse the Millions archives of book reviews was launched this week.