Taking a cue from Laura at Reading in Bed, I’ve listed the last 30 books I’ve read and have included how I got them.

Putting this list together reminded me about a post I wrote a while back titled How did your bookshelves get so full? In that post, I selected a few books from my shelves that I thought had some interesting stories tied to how I acquired them. This, however, is a straight-up list of the last 30 books I’ve read.

All of the books I review on this blog are books I’ve acquired personally; I don’t receive copies from publishers in exchange for reviews. If you’ve noticed that my reviews seem unusually positive (except for one that I wrote early on), it’s because I’ve decided to only write about books I really enjoyed–the ones I want to rave about to other readers. That being said, there are books on this list that I have not reviewed but have still enjoyed immensely. What can I say? I guess sometimes I’d just rather be reading than reviewing.

The last 30 books I’ve read

1. Smile by Roddy Doyle — borrowed from library
2. Brother by David Chariandy –borrowed from library
3. Marlena by Julie Buntin — borrowed from library
4. The Clay Girl by Heather Tucker — purchased from publisher (ECW Press) at Word on the Street Toronto
5. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng — purchased from Book City (Bloor West Village location)
6. Words on Bathroom Walls by Julia Walton –borrowed from library
7. The Burning Girl by Claire Messud — borrowed from library
8. Things that Happened Before the Earthquake by Chiara Barzini — purchased from Queen Books
9. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto — purchased at used book sale in Toronto Reference Library
10. All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai –borrowed from library
11. Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese — purchased from Queen Books
12. Strange Light Afar by Rui Umezawa –borrowed from library
13. Slow Boat by Hideo Furukawa — purchased from Book City (Danforth location)
14. Be Ready for the Lightning by Grace O’Connell — purchased from Book City (Danforth location)
15. Flâneuse by Lauren Elkin — purchased from Queen Books
16. Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash — borrowed from library
17. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel — borrowed from library
18. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami — purchased (secondhand) from Eliot’s Book Shop
19. Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez — borrowed from library
20. For All the Men (and Some of the Women) I’ve Known by Danila Botha — purchased from Ben McNally Books at the Trillium Book Award readings at Toronto Reference Library
21. Pedal by Chelsea Rooney — borrowed from library
22. The Nix by Nathan Hill — purchased from Ben McNally Books
23. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid — borrowed from library
24. Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller — purchased from Ben McNally Books
25. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami — given a secondhand copy from an acquaintance who was getting rid of some books
26. Rain: Four Walks in English Weather by Melissa Harrison — purchased from Ben McNally Books
27. It Happens All the Time by Amy Hatvany — borrowed from library
28. So Much Love by Rebecca Rosenblum — purchased from Ben McNally Books
29. Clothes, Clothes, Clothes; Music, Music, Music; Boys, Boys, Boys by Viv Albertine — borrowed from library
30. I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid — borrowed from my mom

Looks like I’m pretty evenly split between the books I purchase and the books I borrow. It feels like I buy more secondhand books than is reflected in this list, and also that I buy more books at events than is shown here. I do admit to having several books on my bookshelves that I haven’t read yet (don’t we all?), so that might be why. But I can’t say that acknowledging this is going to put a pause on my trips to the bookstore or library.