Library Troubles and I'm Here Again!

I hesitate to say "I'm back" because who knows when I'll post next, but I'm here to celebrate my library visit.  I had a fun and restrained time at the library, which is good because a few weeks ago I had to kill time waiting for kids at two different places, and I slaughtered the minutes both times at libraries with alluring shelves that left me with many tempting pages at hand.

Today I only picked up one extra book to go with the four books on my hold shelf, and two holds are really for my kids, not me. So I shouldn't really count them. And it was time to refresh my Reading My Library options, so that was another six books. Hmm. Well, it could been worse -- it could have been raining!

From my hold shelf and the new arrivals I picked up:

• Clementine and the Spring Trip, Sara Pennypacker. I just saw this on the book store and put it on my TBR list, and there it was in New Arrivals! My library rocks.
• Endgame, Ann Aguirre. The last in the Sarantha Jax series, which for some reason my library does not have in its e-book collection, so I'm switching formats here.
• Where'd You Go, Bernadette?, Maria Semple. Our next book club book (not this one, but the next one.)
• One Dead Spy, Nathan Hale. My eighth grader just read a Nathan Hale book from the Cybils list and he requested any others, so I got this for him.
• The Dark Tide, Stephen Puleo. My sixth grader is doing a disaster report so we got this, although it came one day too late as he is now at his dad's place writing the report.

In my Reading My Library Quest I have entered the last block of Juvenile shelves. I tend to try to fill in holes in my 50-states challenge with these books so I'm swimming against my natural preference for fantasy and picking more realistic fiction, especially if the description tells me the country or state. From the six shelves housing authors from Ru - Sh I selected:

• Ordinary Magic, Caitlen Rubino-Bradley. I've seen this talked about a few times.
• The Dreamer, Pam Munoz Ryan. I think this is on my TBR list, so bonus. Also, South America.
• The White Giraffe, Lauren St. John. I need more Africa books.
• Night of the Howling Dogs, Graham Salisbury. I like this author, and his books are set in Hawaii.
• Smells Like Dog, Suzanne Selfors. Cute dog picture, and it's a farm boy so I'm hoping Midwest.
• Blue Jasmine, Kashmira Sheth. Iowa City is Iowa, right?

I have a total of 56 things out on my library cards, which is a bit excessive, especially since only a few are CDs (4)  or short books (about 6) or things I got for my kids (about 3). So I forbade myself from buying any books, and I was really strict too. Sometimes I really hate me because I'm so mean.

I'll go share my Library Loot at the event co-hosted by Claire from the Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader, where all the library addicts compare their treasures. And I think I'll sign up at Tynga's Stacking the Shelves, which asks for all the books acquired, which this week is just the library stuff.