Friday, November 13, 2009

My Last 20 Books, Volume 3

Time sure does fly, doesn't it? This shouldn't be the third time I've posted about the provenance of my books, and I won't even mention C_ _ _s t _ _ s!

When I first blogged about this, it was to please myself, but now with the FTC sticking its nose into blogging and demanding disclosure, it certainly doesn't hurt to have an additional post or two about where I obtain my books.

Without further ado, here is a list of the last 20 books I've read, and where I obtained them:

--The Tudor Rose by Margaret Campbell Barnes is an Advanced Reading Copy (ARC) that I obtained through Sourcebooks.
--Blood Safari by Deon Meyer is also an ARC. It was obtained through the Amazon Vine Program.
--Consequences of Sin by Clare Langley-Hawthorne was obtained through Paperback Swap.
--The Maze Runner by James Dashner is an ARC I obtained as a member of the Amazon Vine Program.
--Mama Does Time by Deborah Sharp was obtained through Paperback Swap.
--Fire and Ice by J.A. Jance was obtained through Paperback Swap.
--Box 21 by Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström is an ARC that I obtained as a member of the Amazon Vine Program.
--The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves was obtained through Paperback Swap.
--The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne was obtained through Paperback Swap.
--Flesh House by Stuart MacBride was purchased from Book Depository.
--The Writing Class by Jincy Willett was purchased from Bookcloseouts.
--Tilt-a-Whirl by Chris Grabenstein was obtained through Paperback Swap.
--Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko was obtained through Paperback Swap.
--Arizona Ghost Stories by Antonio R. Garcez was purchased at a local Barnes & Noble.
--The Sea Garden by Sam Llewellyn was obtained through Paperback Swap.
--A Darker Domain by Val McDermid was obtained through Paperback Swap.
--The Rule Book by Rob Kitchin was sent to me by the author.
--Them Bones by Howard Waldrop was obtained through Paperback Swap.
--Anarchy and Old Dogs by Colin Cotterill was purchased at The Poisoned Pen.
--The Bernini Bust by Iain Pears was purchased from Bookcloseouts.

The final breakdown?

--5 books reviewed were either Advanced Reading Copies or sent to me by the author.
--10 books reviewed were obtained through my membership in Paperback Swap.
--5 books reviewed were purchased by me with my hard-earned money.

25% of the last 20 books I've reviewed were freebies, which is a bit higher than I'd like but occasionally publication dates clump together on me. I only have one unreviewed ARC in my possession now, so that percentage should really drop when it's time for Volume 4!

In a perfect book blogger's world, for every 20 books that you review, how many would you prefer to be Advanced Reading Copies?

3 comments:

  1. In a perfect world, I'd be offered enough wonderful free books that I don't have to buy any. Actually, I'm in the process of trying to be more selective, just because I have a bigger TBR stack than I can read any time soon and I'm tired of reading what other folks want me to read. (but I keep perusing my sources for books I want...)

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  2. When I received an email about ARCs I didn't even know they existed. I accepted them, reviewed them, didn't feel comfortable (not that others should feel the same way, especially if they acknowledge where they came from), and have never done that again.

    I just write about the books I read in the ordinary course of my life, either ones I purchased, borrowed from a library, or got at the local used book store. That's probably why the books I write about are books other have read years ago.

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  3. RAnn-- Requesting and/or accepting ARCs has been a learning process for me. I knew I had to be selective because I don't want to read something I don't think I'll enjoy, but now I also know that I have to be careful about publishing dates. Reading too many ARCs back-to-back makes me feel as though I'm back in school with homework!

    Joe-- I didn't know anything about ARCs until I started reading some of the message boards at Library Thing. I do like ARCs, but if they were to disappear tomorrow, I wouldn't really miss them. I think it's important to let readers know about the good books that were published several years ago. It shouldn't all be about The New Stuff!

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