This week on The Broke and the Bookish, it’s all about the whimsy. Last minute reads or books picked up on the fly without even so much as a glance at the summary. I’ve certainly read my share of these, but here are some of the memorable mentions:

Browsing the Shelves:

I spent a lot of time at my hometown library as a teenager…I wasn’t really one for the mall since I didn’t have any money to spend, so the it was the library was the next best thing. I would spend hours just browsing the shelves, from fiction to non-fiction, I’d leave no shelf unturned. So there were plenty of covers that caught my eye while passing by.

• The Man of My Dreams by Curtis Sittenfeld

• The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

  (Actually, this title happened to be on my class reading list when I found it at the library. Say a stroke of fate, considering it’s still one of my favorites!)

• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

  (Eventually I had to buy my own copy, I read it so many times. Hardly suitable content for an 8th grader but I couldn’t get enough of it! I was completely mesmerized by Savannah and its quirky natives.)

• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

The New Shelf:

Every time I go to the library it’s for one thing only: to pick -up the week’s holds. It’s my Thursday afternoon ritual, and I typically have 4 to 6 books to check out…and yet, I can’t seem to leave without a few stowaways from the New Shelf. It’s not my fault, they put it RIGHT NEXT to the hold shelves!

• Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke (Review)

• Above the Waterfall by Ron Rash (Review)

• All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders (Review)

• A Bright Man For Fools by Jasper Gibson

Man, I am such a sucker for book cover art. Looking back on this list, I’m pretty sure it was the cover that drew me to each of these picks – especially All the Birds!

On A Whim:

• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

  This novel took several tries before I actually decided to finish it once and for all, on a whim. I’d been browsing Overdrive for what seemed like an hour when I happened upon it. And yes, I finally finished it!

• Wayward Pines by Blake Crouch

  I read this series on a whim when my boyfriend started reading it. He’s not much of a reader, so if a series has him captivated – I have to check it out! I’m glad I didn’t read a summary or any reviews beforehand, because this series has a crazy twist you’ll never see coming. The show is good too, but the books are much, much better.

What books have you read on a whim?

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