Books I Forgot That I Bought

Hi friends! 👋🏻 Since I started working in a library, I don’t buy a lot of books anymore. Why would I need to when I have a reasonably unlimited source of books at my workplace? An unfortunate thing that comes with this is that on those rare occasions when I do buy books, I can’t remember if I already have them at home or if I got them from the library. This doesn’t happen as often anymore, but there are still times when it does happen.

Recently, I found a couple of bags on my bedroom floor that had books in them. Books that I’d obviously bought at some point but couldn’t really remember when. Some still had price stickers on them and they clearly hadn’t been touched, but the fact that I completely forgot I had them just shows how much of my life revolves around books now.

it’s behind you by kathryn foxfield

This book wasn’t part of the bag of books I found, but it is one that I forgot I owned. When I first started working at the library, I was still a regular YA reader and would always look for books in our teen section. I saw that we had a few books by Kathryn Foxfield and I knew that I had one at home, but I couldn’t remember which one it was. I borrowed this one from the library and it turned out to be the one that I had at home, so I ended up returning it and reading my copy.

And in the end, the book was just okay.

my roommate is a vampire by jenna levine

I don’t normally gravitate towards books like this because my paranormal romance phase started and ended in my teens, but I am but a simple creature: I see the word ‘vampire’ anywhere on a book cover or back and I get tunnel vision. Before I knew it, this light-hearted paranormal romcom about a girl and her vampire roommate was in my possession. And completely forgotten about until now. Oops.

I may pick this up in the summer since I could do with something spooky that’s more on the light-hearted side.

how to sell a haunted house by grady hendrix

I’ve only read one book by Grady Hendrix so far and I do have others on my TBR that I will eventually get around to, but I seemingly forgot that I had this one too. If my memory serves me right, I only remembered that I had this one when we got a copy in the library, which is usually what happens.

Haunted houses aren’t my favourite kind of horror story, but Hendrix has tackled so many different kinds of common horror story that I’m curious to see how he tackles haunted houses.

velvet was the night by silvia moreno-garcia

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is one of my favourite authors so the fact that I forgot I bought one of her books is a crime. I have a couple of her books that I still need to read, but this is one that I completely forgot I had. Honestly, I would read anything that Silvia Moreno-Garcia writes so it doesn’t really matter if I know what this book is about.

shanghai immortal by a.y. chao

This is the only fantasy book in this haul and that likely says a lot about my reading tastes as of late. But, once again, I saw ‘vampire’ in the blurb and then the book appeared in my house, as usually happens. I’m always interested in how vampire mythology translates to other cultures, and I do know that Chinese folklore has its vampire so I’m curious to see whether this book uses that version or does its own thing. Plus, it takes place in pre-communist/post-imperial China so that’s interesting too.

I plan to read this one for Wyrd & Wonder, so I should be picking it up very soon.

burn the negative by josh winning

When I took this book out of the bag, it had a sticker on it saying that it was a signed copy, so that’s a nice surprise. And the signature is in gold ink, which is an even nicer surprise.

This book surrounds a film set for a remake of a 90’s slasher movie which is supposedly cursed, and that really interests me. I like the concept of ‘cursed’ media, especially after reading Mister Magic by Kiersten White which sort of talks about the same thing. I also like things that take place in and around Hollywood and the movie-making business so I’m looking forward to reading this one.

schrader’s chord by scott leeds

I believe I first came across this book in a blog post on Howling Libraries and found it interesting enough to put it on my TBR, then I found it in a bookshop and bought it and we know the rest of the story now.

This is another book about ‘cursed’ media, this time vinyl records, and the cover is what really attracted me to it. I like the aesthetic of ‘old’ media formats, like vinyl records and cassette tapes, since I grew up with CDs and also both videotapes and DVDs. Physical media or else is what I say.

white horse by erika t. wurth

Before going to this book’s Goodreads page, I didn’t know that the author is Indigenous American and that interests me even more now that I do know. Being British, my knowledge of Native Americans is very limited and unfortunately clouded by racist tropes so I’m always willing to learn more about First Nations people from any country.

This book appears to be focused on a family mystery and that’s something that I always like to read about, so I’m definitely interested.

just like home by sarah gailey

I remember having this book on my TBR for quite some time after looking through a then list of upcoming horror releases last year, but because UK releases are often different from US releases it wasn’t until much later that I could buy it. And now it’s been wrapped up in a plastic bag on my bedroom floor for months. We even have a copy in the library now and I haven’t picked it up because I was sure I’d bought a copy, and that hunch was correct.

Goodreads tells me that this is a Gothic book, and my knowledge of the archetypes of Gothic literature is also telling me that this is Gothic, so I’m excited to get around to this one eventually.

scarlet by genevieve cogman

This book was not in the bag that I found, but I did suddenly remember that I have a copy while scrolling through my Instagram and finding a post of a previous book haul from last year. I haven’t read any books by Genevieve Cogman before, but I was drawn to this one not just because of its cover, but because it’s about vampires. Of course. But it is also set during the French Revolution which is known for being a time when a lot of blood was spilt so that’s interesting.

Hopefully, I’ll get to this book sometime this year, but I’m not going to save it for October, since I have a special plan for then.

talk to me!

Have you ever forgotten that you bought a book?