I thought I’d take a moment today to talk about my books.  More specifically, where the books I review on this blog come from.

There are several sources to draw from:

• Personal books I’ve bought (this category does include ebooks).  This is how I acquire most of the books I read and review here.
• Personal books that have been bought for me.
• Library books.  Although, thanks to a little tiff with the library and its amazing ability to constantly misplace books and sometimes misplace them permanently so as to make them lost, I haven’t taken any books out in a while but it might be time to get over it on my part.
• I do also, from time to time but not on a regular basis, request advanced review copies of books I’d like to read.  These books, for the most part, make up a relatively small portion of my reading since I don’t ask for many.
• I’m also a reviewer for The BookReporter website.  I reviewed books for this website before starting my own blog and usually read two or three books for the group every two months.  I do include some of these reviews here and tag them as BookReporter reviews.
• Finally, NetGalley.  I joined a while back and then did nothing with it.  I decided to take another look and have downloaded about four books.  Not many I know.  It’s not that the book selections aren’t interesting, they are, but considering the stack of books already leaning precariously to the right on the small table I consider my TBR pile, I’m trying not to add a virtual stack as well.
• Books that authors and publicists pitch me.  I get these emails every once in a while and in most cases, I do not accept the books mostly because the books are not the type I read and I don’t feel I can do them justice.  In some cases, I have accepted the books.  It’s rare but it happens.

Why bring this up?  A person who sees me often, and almost always with a book, asked me where I get my books from.  If he wondered, then maybe some of the people reading my ramblings here might also wonder and I thought it might be a good time to mention it.  So there you have it.

Some links this week —

Bookshelf Porn has this lovely beauty to share this week.

On Flavorwire, you can learn how to drink like a famous author.

The Los Angeles Times Book Blog, Jacket Copy, has some French reading for the summer.

The Guardian has a list of the best 100 non-fiction books.  I’ve read about five books on the list.

Happy Sunday.