On Today’s Bookshelf (VIII)

It seems as if it was only yesterday when I published On Today’s Bookshelf (VII), but there has been no stopping my book acquisitions. My recent acquisitions include:

Hardcover —

• Moral Combat: Good and Evil in World War II by Michael Burleigh
• Hearts Touched by Fire: The Best of Battles and Leaders of the Civil War edited by Harold Holzer
• Death and a Maiden: Infanticide and the Tragical History of Grethe Schmidt by William David Myers
• Eichmann’s Jews by Doron Rabinovici (preorder)

Hardcover (Preorder) —

• Scholar: A Novel in the Imager Portfolio by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. (fiction)
• A Beautiful Friendship by David Weber (fiction)

eBooks (Nonfiction)

• Secret Holocaust Diaries by Nonna Bannister

eBooks (Fiction)

• Shtetl Days by Harry Turtledove (short story)
• The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
• The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet: A Novel by David Mitchell
• Bad Faith by Mike O’Connor
• Jack’s School of Shines by Jack Sorenson
• Secrets of the Tudor Court by D.L. Bogdan
• The Miracle Inspector by Helen Smith
• Soft Apocalypse by Will McIntosh
• The Meteoric Rise of Simon Burchwood by Scott Semegran
• Still Life with Murder by P.B. Ryan
• Hide in Plain Sight by Marta Perry
• Clever is as Clever Does,  The West Wind Blows, Careful What You Wish For, and The Clever Detective by Linsey Lanier (4 individual books)
• Fair Price by Laura Lond
• The Taking of FLOTUS by Clayton Spann
• The Blood-stained Belt by Brian H. Jones
• The Dogs of Rome by Conor Fitzgerald
• Soldier of God by David Hagberg
• The Lost Fleet Series: Victorious, Relentless, Valiant, Courageous, Dauntless, and Dreadnaught by Jack Campbell (7 individual books)
• Work of Art, Bethel Merriday, World So Wide, The Prodigal Parents, Kingsblood Royal, Gideon Planish, Dodsworth, and Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (8 individual books)
• A Vote of Confidence by Robin Lee Hatcher
• Too Close to Home by Lynette Eason
• Torch, Driftnet, and Deadly Code by Lin Anderson (3 individual books)

As you can see, the TBR (To Be Read) pile keeps growing. Worth noting, however, is that at least 20 of the listed ebooks were gotten free, either via discount coupon or because the author set the price at free. Needless to say, all of the hardcover books required payment. Finally, the list of ebooks is incomplete. It is just a sampling of the ebooks I have “purchased” in recent months, with 90% of them being free.

I admit that owning an ereader has seriously affected my reading habits. I am reading more than ever before (and I always was a voracious reader) and in a greater variety of genres. Before my ereader days, I generally read nonfiction and then the genre of the year (i.e., serially — I would read mysteries for a couple of years then switch to fantasy for a while, and then move to another genre, but each genre was exclusive). Since acquiring my first ereader 3.5 years ago, I now read multiple genres concurrently. I like to read several books simultaneously, so now I may read a mystery, a fantasy, and something in nonfiction concurrently. But whereas previously the genres I read were few, I now am reading in many more genres, including historical fiction, historical romance, science fiction, “chick lit,” classics, and so on.

Every time I look at my TBR pile, I think that I need to take a vacation from acquiring new ebooks, but I have found that impossible — too many are being produced that have enticing descriptions. Hopefully, when I retire, I will be able to get through the TBR pile more quickly.