A Bunch of Free Books- Again!

I'm a voracious reader. Reading is one of my favorite things to do. Growing up I'd go to the library every week or two, getting a huge stack of book, and then after I'd devour them, I'd replace them with an all new stack.  

Living in a non English speaking country, where we don't have the same expansive public library system as I had growing up in the US (interlibrary loans, how I love and miss thee!), I used to periodically go to the second hand book store, buy some books, and then sell them back after... but it was an expensive "library" since I was only getting a fraction of the money I was spending back each time I sold them. 

I was so thrilled when I found out about our "little free libraries" locally. Not so little, though. There are more and more locations, many of them in old bus stops, which were converted into libraries with shelves and shelves of overflowing books and referred to as bus stop book stops. The ones I tend to go to are in neighborhoods with lots of American expats, so a large majority of the books there are in English. And they've become some of my favorite places to visit.

While I absolutely have my favorite authors and genres to read, fantasy and science fiction, I enjoy most genres as long as the books are readable and at least somewhat interesting. I don't particularly want to spend money on books of all genres- these days I tend to only spend money on very specific fantasy authors (Brandon Sanderson is my all time favorite) and some self help books (Brene Brown is a favorite there). But if I don't have to pay for it? Sure, I'll give it a chance to read it.

So on Friday, I was in the area of the bus stop book stop with the largest amount of English books, so I brought with me my massive stack of books I had at home that I'd already read, and I "exchanged them at the library" and brought home another large pile. If I lived near the bus stop book stop I'd probably just get take and return a few books at a time, but since my visits are only once every 6 months or so, I bring and return a large quantity at a time.

I'm really excited about these.

If I had to rate my favorite genres in order, they'd be fantasy then science fiction, followed by action/thriller/mystery and then a tie between historical fiction and chic lit.

Unfortunately, there was no fantasy, and only one science fiction book, Flash Forward, which was made into a TV series that I really enjoyed (but, unfortunately, was canceled after only one season), so I'm looking forward to that.

There are so many great looking action/thriller/mysteries, some from authors I've already read and loved such as Tom Clancy and Daniel Silva, but I'm looking forward to reading books from and discovering authors like Tess Gerritsen, Michael Crichton (I think I might have read something from him), Mary Willis Walker, Val McDermid, Philip Friedman, John Abbott, Vince Flynn, John Burdett, Brian Haig, Joy Fielding, Peter Niesewand, and Tilly Bagshawe.

As an adult, I started loving to learn history (hated it as a kid) so I now enjoy reading historical novels, especially ones based on true stories, especially ones that teach me some of what living in that time was like. I'd heard of two of these, the Book Thief, and Beekeeper of Aleppo, and Ark sounds interesting as well.

I have a little less "hopes" for these two books, one is a historical mystery- The Hippopotamus Pool, and one seems more historical romance, The Storm Sister, but we'll see what they're like.

The last of my new fiction books I put in the "unsorted" pile... I hadn't heard of any of those other than the Rosie project, but Chuck Klosterman apparently is a bestselling author that I'd never heard of. Arabella by Gerogette Heyer apparently is a historical romance, Rosie Project seems totally chick lit/romance. Google tells me We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves is a coming of age story, and the Visible Man is psychological fiction... not sure exactly what that means. This shall be interesting. 

Lastly is my non fiction pile. Another Chuck Klosterman book which I also hadn't heard of, Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs which explores the not so great parts of American society. I have heard of Born to Run, about what makes a certain tribe such great runners and Year of Yes, what happened to the author when she started saying yes more often, and I had wanted to read them. Geography of Bliss is about what makes people happy around the world, and Me Talk Pretty One Day is a humorous memoir.

I am really excited to read all these books. And in some ways, that's the nice thing about not having access to a library- I get to explore authors and genres that I might otherwise have not picked up, and discover some read new reads.

Are you also a big reader? Do you usually buy books or borrow them? What are your favorite genres and authors? Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them?