Books from Blossoms, others

Thanks to some accumulated winnings from KQA quizzes (one of them in a book quiz won thanks to my super team-mate) over the past few months, I managed to buy the following from Blossoms today. Unlike my past few visits to bookshops, wherein I have floundered around, this time I enjoyed myself (also because I had more of budget than I have had on my previous visits!) thanks in part to two serendipitous buys.

The Men Who United the States by Simon Winchester*
Bamboo Goalposts by Rowan Simons**
The Child in Time by Ian McEwan
Calcio by John Foot
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

* I can't believe I didn't know about the existence of this book. Everything I have read by Simon Winchester has delighted me. This general holiday sort of reading despite its historical nature should be fun too.

** Disbelief redux! The book documents the author's experience about trying to teach football to the Chinese. Considering I love the game, I should have at least known something like this existed. Anyways, never too late to learn. With this, I seem to have built a decent collection of books on Asian countries - Korea, Japan, China and on topics ranging from football to history and cultural obsessions. A book on running in Japan will soon join this collection!

The McEwan buy was largely due to a continuation of my monomania for McEwan's writing. I did find an expensive hardbound version of his latest book but passed it for now.

Foot's book (what a name for an author on football!) is just closure on a long pending wishlist. I had recommended the book to a friend a few years ago and have wanted to read it. Now is the time.

Duhigg's book is something I have contemplated buying for a while, but kept away due to lack of funds. However some recent conversations with some friends who spoke persuasively about it, drove home the purchase.

In other book-related news, a running buddy gifted 2 other books by Ken Follett - The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End a few weeks ago. I have begun reading the former, which is the 1st in a trilogy. Has been very interesting so far.

I have also managed to get Gandhi Before India by Ramachandra Guha thru an opportunistic buy on Amazon Kindle.

As always, next to fresh coffee and new shoes, I guess nothing quite makes me quite as excited as new books :)

Have fun, reading!