a passel of books

And to think I thought I was actually cutting down.

Anyway, the siren call of the printed word, as always, proved beyond my capacity to withstand. Here are the new denizens of my bookshelf (I'm actually looking forward to the holiday next Friday plus my days off next month to actually hunker down and get reading), all new to me (though a number of them are not new at all):

Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke - from which, incidentally, my December copy of F&SF reprinted the Raven King story "John Uskglass and the Cumbrian Charcoal Burner"
Dreamsong by George R.R. Martin - a thick harcover you could kill someone with but happily contains some his best short fiction in various genres
The End by Lemony Snickett - because I need to know, after having began at beginning. But I prefer the short fiction of the guy behind Lemony.
The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard
The Collected Stories of Vernon Vinge edited by Jim Frenkel
The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm
The Languages of Pao by Jack Vance
Brightness Falls from the Air by James Tiptree, Jr.
Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner
Parable of the Sower by Octavio E. Butler
Nightfall and Other Stories by Isaac Asimov
Godbody by Theodore Sturgeon
Iron Sunrise by Charless Stross
Skylark Three by E.E. "Doc" Smith
Second Stage Lensman by E.E. "Doc" Smith

This should last me for some time. With the LitCritters, my reading has to be more expansive, and this time I looked mostly to the past.