Friday Finds

This is a weekly meme from MizB at Should be Reading. Anyone can play along! FRIDAY FINDS showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list… whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased).

 So before I talk about my finds, I want to talk about a bookstore! As many of you know, I spent Thanksgiving weekend in Paris. One of the things I wanted to do while there is go to the Shakespeare and Company bookstore! This is such an old bookstore that dates back to the early 1900's. Only true book nerds (such as myself) can appreciate the history and the writers who have gathered there: Henry Miller, James Baldwin, and Ernest Hemingway, just to name a few. Here is an interesting history tidbit: James Joyce was having a lot of trouble getting his book Ulysses published. I guess some people thought it was obscene. But Sylvia Beach, who was the owner of the bookstore ended up publishing the book.

Now of course I have told you guys before that I prefer Kindle to paper books, but I still can't resist a bookstore. Or books period, regardless of the format. It was such a pretty bookstore and I could have spent hours there. If it weren't for my husband, I probably would have. Here's the funny thing: my husband accidentally left his credit card there. We went back later that same night to pick it up and of course I had to buy more! Ha. I have a problem. I am not ashamed. But because I spent so much money there, I got free tote bags. And I got some free bookmarks. Totally worth it.

So here is my haul:

1. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell - one of my favorite movies, but I have never read the book!
2. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Great Gatsby - Love these Penguin classic book covers. 
3. If I Knew You Were Going to be This Beautiful, I Never Would Have Let You Go - I pretty much bought this based on the title and the cover alone. 
4. Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald - For some reason The Great Gatsby is the only book I have read by him. I loved that book so I have high hoped for this one. I read the first paragraph and thought it was beautiful so I figured the rest of the book would be just as good.
5. More weird things customers say in bookstores - I didn't even know there was a first version of this book. But I read some of it and it is hilarious. 
6. Shakespeare for Grown-Ups: A Bluffer's Guide to the Bard - I really do love Shakespeare and I like how in detail the book gets about his plays. Let's face it: Shakespeare isn't the easiest writer to understand. 
7. Shakespeare and Company - This was a small book about the bookstore itself. It has beautiful photos and gives a history of the store.

I am so excited about all of these books!

Finally, I want to leave you with a quote that was on the cover of the Shakespeare and Company book.

"All the characters in this bookstore are fictitious so please leave your everyday self outside the door when you enter the place Henry Miller calls a wonderland of books"

Love that!

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Anyone have any book finds this week?