Stacking the Shelves: The Wonky Surprise Birthday Edition

"Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme that is hosted by Tynga's Reviews. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

It was my birthday last Saturday and my friend ordered me some books. She looked at my Amazon Wish List and then ordered the books off of the used bookstore Thrift Books. She ran into a couple of problems by doing that, some of which she doesn’t even know about. But anywho, these are the ones she got me:

A Legacy of Kings by Eleanor Herman (ARC)

Mothership by Martin Leicht, Isla Neal

So, as you can see, there’s a problem with one of these books. A Legacy of Kings is an ARC that someone sold illegally online. It’s not the pretty hardcover version my friend thought she paid for. It’s also not in “new” condition. The seller seriously lied. I’ve posted some more pics of this below, including how I know this book belonged to someone named Spencer and what date it was obtained:

Additionally, bless my poor friend’s non-bookish soul, she ordered Mothership in hardcover. Now, I don’t want to be that bookish snob, but on my wish list, it’s listed as paperback simply because I already own the book in ebook form and I’ve already read it. I just wanted the pretty paperback edition—the hardcover has a different cover than the paperback, btw. This copy also has that library plastic wrap on it. You know what I’m talking about, right? The stuff librarians wrap books with to keep them from getting damaged?

So, I’m super grateful to her for buying books for me—I can’t wait to read A Legacy of Kings—I just thought it was funny that my friend went out with the idea of saving money by buying on Thrift Books when Amazon was selling the books for probably a lot cheaper and in the correct format. Of course I didn't tell her any of that, except for the ARC thing because she didn't understand why it didn't look like the Amazon edition. But you just have to laugh at the non-bookish people in your lives who try, but just don’t understand the bookish world. :)

What books have you bought/received lately?