April 9, 2014

What If (A Bookish Game)

Quirky Bookworm // A bookish game - If you had 10 minutes to spend $50 on books, what books would you choose?

When Noel and I are on a long car trip, or waiting for a table at a restaurant, we play the "What if" game. What if...you won a million dollars?* What if...we could make 2x what we currently do, but we had to live in small town North Dakota?** What if...someone gave you $5000, but you had to spend it in 3 hours or give it back?***

 But somehow it had never occurred to me to play the bookish edition of this game until I saw this post from Anne at Modern Mrs. Darcy. She shared her "bookworm's pipe dream" -- the way she'd spend a $50 Amazon giftcard if she had a chance.

 I love the idea, so much! So without overthinking it (because that ruins the "What if" game), I'm going to pretend I have $50 to spend on Amazon. Starting my 10 minute timer now...
  1. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater $5.78
  2. The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater $8.99 (paperback pre-order)
  3. Delancey by Molly Wizenberg $18.15 (pre-order)
  4. Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo $12.01 (pre-order)
  5. Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild $4.22
Total - $49.15! Plus tax, it'll be about $53.13, but I don't mind paying a little tax on top of a gift card.

I picked the two Stiefvaters because I know I want to re-read them before book 3 comes out in the fall. (I would've pre-ordered that one if it was available yet.) And I know that I want to own and re-read that whole series. As for the Wizenberg, I loved A Homemade Life, so I'm sure I'll like Delancey too.

 Ruin and Rising is a bit of an outlier; I don't own the first two books yet. But I think that probably (depending on how it ends), the Grisha trilogy will be an own-and-reread sort of series. And I'm just too impatient for the library to get a copy! As for Ballet Shoes - I did own a copy at one point. But I think maybe I gave it to my cousin? Anyway, it vanished. And Theatre Shoes and Dancing Shoes need their pal back.

What would YOU buy if you had $50 for books?

 *For the record: tithe, buy us a new house, pay off our parents' mortgages, buy cars for our siblings, take an extravagant European vacation, and then sock any remainder into college funds for the girls.
**That is a tough sell. I think I could do it for a year. And we could save a lot of money, and then move somewhere we liked better.
*** I'd hit the mall, and spend $500 on clothes (probably Old Navy, Banana Republic, NY&Co...) and then spend the rest on new appliances at Sears!

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