Sunday Salon: November's final tally

I have been resisting doing this because I figure it will be eye-opening in a bad way but I finally gave in. (I hate showcasing my lack of restraint around books.) In the spirit of Nick Hornby's former Polysyllabic Spree columns (but with a tweak or two), here's the final tally on my November, give or take the last two days of the month:

Books bought:
Passions of a Wicked Earl by Lorraine Heath
Lady Isabella's Scandalous Marriage by Jennifer Ashley
A Groom of One's Own by Maya Rodale
Never Less Than a Lady by Mary Jo Putney
Rushed to the Altar by Jane Feather
A Gentleman Always Remembers by Candace Camp
Remember You by Harriet Evans
The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance by Elna Baker
The Phone Book by Ammon Shea
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Drawing in the Dust by Zoe Klein
July and August by Nancy Clark
The Fox in the Cupboard by Jane Shilling
Passion on the Vine by Sergio Esposito
The Wild Places by Robert MacFarlane
At Home on Ladybug Farm by Donna Ball
Fetching Dylan by Stephen Foster
Silence and Noise by Ivan Richmond
How I Learned to Cook edited by Kimberly Witherspoon and Peter Meehan
Under the Table by Katherine Darling
Deaf Sentence by David Lodge
Questions to Ask Before Marrying by Melissa Senate
Bloody Confused by Chuck Culpepper
A Supremely Bad Idea by Luke Dempsey
In an Antique Land by Amitav Ghosh
Paris Times Eight by Deirdre Kelly
Darcy's Voyage by Kara Louise
Catch of the Day by Whitney Lyles, et al.
Journey of the Pink Dolphins by Sy Montgomery
Civil and Strange by Clair Ni Aonghusa
Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me? by Louise Rennison
The Craggy Hole in My Heart and the Cat Who Fixed It by Geneen Roth
I Am a Cat by Soseki Natsume
Hungry for Happiness by James Villas
Come Back, Como by Steven Winn

Books otherwise acquired:
Lipstick in Afghanistan by Roberta Gately
Stay With Me by Sandra Rodriguez Barron
Salting Roses by Lorelle Marinello
Blood, Bones, and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton
The Pursuit of Happiness by Douglas Kennedy
The Dressmaker by Posie Graeme-Evans
The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
Shoes Hair Nails by Deborah Batterman

Books actually read:
Corked by Kathryn Borel
Falling in Love Again by Cathy Maxwell
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
Lipstick in Afghanistan by Roberta Gately
Semper Cool by Barry Fixler
The Naked Gardener by L.B. Gschwandtner
City of Tranquil Light by Bo Caldwell
The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak
The Tapestry of Love by Rosy Thornton
A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer
The Little Giant of Aberdeen by Tiffany Baker

I don't always keep such good track of the differences between what I buy and acquire and what I actually read but I suspect that it's fair to say that I almost never manage to read the things I bring into the house the same month they arrive. But I always have a stash for whatever mood I might find myself in on any given day. For instance, I clearly had a romance craving this month, even if I didn't end up reading these particular titles. And I am fairly partial to a good Regency-set romance so they tend to be the bulk of what I buy in that genre. One of the other books I bought was a book club selection and I wasn't terribly psyched about it. Of course, our November book club never occurs in November since it always conflicts with Thanksgiving so I have leeway on when to actually get that one finished although usually bookclub books hold the distinction of being the only books to *always* get read the month I buy them (unless I already own them). As for the other books I picked up this month, they were purely on a whim. Very few of them were on my (obscenely large) wish list and I can't recall having read any reviews of any of them either (which doesn't necessarily mean I didn't what with this fading memory of mine!). They just piqued my interest the day I was in the bookstore. I do have to defend myself here with the appalling list of books I bought by saying that one of the local bookstores is going out of business and when I popped in there to do some early Christmas shopping, they were having massive sales. I did buy for others but my own stash grew enormously as well. Shame they won't be around to continue to benefit from my complete lack of restraint around books!