Today I visited the bookstore again. I can’t help it. If I go anywhere near a bookshop, I feel compelled to step inside, even just for a couple of minutes and soak in the atmosphere. There is no feeling quite like that of standing in the middle of a shop filled with nothing but books, knowing you’re surrounded by people who love books. There’s always this feeling of anticipation that maybe today might be the day that I find my next favourite book. You never know what you’re going to discover when you step through the doors of the bookstore.
It’s even better if you take the trip with a friend who loves books as much as you do. Wandering through the shelves, pointing out the beautiful covers, and the best authors, sharing your favourite books, and tempting each other to buy more books than the budget actually allows. Not that I usually need any help with that. Today alone I found six new books I desperately wanted to buy without even trying. If I stayed another ten minutes, I might have ended up with fifty or so to choose from. But that’s half the fun, finding too many books, and having to whittle them back to a reasonable amount.
Today’s tough decision came between Brandon Sanderson’s Steelheart, or The Other Side of the Sky by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner. I could easily have taken a dozen books with me, but these were the books of my heart. I’ve read only a couple of Brandon Sanderson books so far. His The Way Of Kings is sitting on my shelf waiting for the right time to read it. He obviously has an enormous reputation as an amazing fantasy author, and I feel that as a fantasy author myself, I should probably have read more of his books by now, but apparently I have not. Steelheart is more of a superhero book than a fantasy one, at least according to the back cover blurb. In a lot of ways, the description reminds me of Marissa Meyer’s Renegades books, which I thoroughly enjoyed. So of course I definitely want to get my hands on this book sometime very soon.
However, in the end, The Other Side of the Sky won out. I’ve read quite a few of the books Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner have written together. I read and loved their Starbound trilogy. I think I inhaled all three books within the space of a couple of days, followed up closely by their Unearthed duology. They’re all awesome sci-fi reads with compelling characters, lots of space travel, adventure and action. The description for The Other Side of the Sky reminds me very much of the Starbound trilogy, but apparently it’s an epic fantasy rather than a sci-fi, which has me all intrigued. Plus, just look at this cover, and that blurb. Doesn’t that make you want to devour it in a single sitting?
Prince North’s home is in the sky, in a gleaming city held aloft by intricate engines, powered by technology. Nimh is the living goddess of her people on the Surface, responsible for providing answers, direction—hope.
North’s and Nimh’s lives are entwined—though their hearts can never be. Linked by a terrifying prophecy and caught between duty and fate, they must choose between saving their people or succumbing to the bond that is forbidden between them.
Perhaps I didn’t need another book when I already have a stack of them waiting for me at home, but you’ll never hear me admitting that I have enough books. I’m building my own personal library, rather than adding books to my TBR. There is no investment quite like that of buying books. They’re the best room decorations, they’re a travel ticket to imaginary worlds packed with adventure, and they’re the best of friends, who you can spend hours in the company of and never get bored. I can never pass up the chance to browse the nearest bookshop. Who knows when you’re going to stumble across your next great read and make a firm friend in a new favourite book?
What was the last book you bought? Who are your instant buy authors?
Before I close out, I wanted to remind you that my upcoming YA sci-fi Frost Hands comes out September 30th! Preorder your copy today, or add it to your Goodreads list now.
Photo by Marco Chilese on Unsplash
