'Back to School' Book Haul

So for the first September in about seventeen years, I haven't had to endure my mother singing this to me before I headed off to school/uni. That's because I'm finally out of education! I don't really feel old enough to be in the big bad world just yet so in order to get me through this strange change, I went on a mini book haul in the last week of August to collect some books for my 'Back to School' reading list - because if I pretend I'm not an adult, it won't happen.

Throughout August, I got through a staggering amount of books, thanks mostly to my unemployment and copious amounts of free time. Despite buying lots of books for my kindle, including the eagerly awaited Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins (which I devoured), I did decide to treat myself to a few paperbacks. A couple of weekends ago, I headed to London for the day with one of my uni friends, who came to visit me. We had a lovely time wandering along the Southbank of London (one of my favourite areas!), eating frozen yoghurt and, to my absolute elation, we found the Southbank Book Market.

Paradise!

 Cue me, dragging my lovely friend along every single row of books.

There was such a brilliant range of genres on offer, I even found a particularly brilliant little book, solely about cats (see above). Which I almost bought. I've never felt such a deep connection to a book in my life. However, it was quite expensive considering a lot of the books were priced around the £2 mark and so couldn't justify spending too much on a book I probably wouldn't read...


It was touch and go for a while but I managed to leave with only one book. Love Story by Erich Segal caught my eye quite early on. I'd heard of the film, starring Ryan O'Neil and Ally McGraw as two lovestruck college students whose relationship is headed for tragedy. I think I'd even seen the end of the film on one of the Sky Movies channels and had heard the iconic song from its soundtrack.

When buying secondhand, I usually try to look for something specific. Maybe a classic book I've been wanting to read or something by an author I really love. But I really can't tell you what drew me to this one having never read anything by this author. It smells like old library books and it's cover is slightly bruised and battered so maybe that was the reason.

First page, including price!

The following week, I found myself , again, perusing the book section of a local shop. There was a pretty decent offer going on paperbacks and, before I knew it, these next two were mine.

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North and Panic by Lauren Oliver

Let me talk about Lauren Oliver for one second...  I've passed her books around a lot of my friends and fangirled about her for so long now that she's fast become one of my favourite writers. I was absolutely gutted when I found out the TV adaptation for Delirium was being abandoned (although secretly glad when I saw the pilot that was released... it was seriously disappointing). However, I'm incredibly excited to read Panic, I'm not entirely sure I get what it's about yet!

As a writer, I just love Oliver's ability to build these worlds. Her stories are very situational as she plays with some really interesting scenarios. What if love was a disease? What if you could relive your final day? Over summer, I read Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft and in it he speaks a lot about how ideas combining various situations would often yield some of the most interesting storylines for him, most notably his novel, Carrie. What would happen if a bullied teenager discovered she had supernatural powers?
As I've not started reading it yet, I don't want to look for any spoilers, so here's the link to the blurb as found on Goodreads.

I also got The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North. Again, I wasn't sure what drew me to the book but it was probably the front cover. I know what they say: "Don't judge a book by its cover!" but in a lot of cases, I do. If the design looks appealing, I'm more likely to get it. I've never read anything by Claire North before so I don't know what to expect but if this beautiful and mysterious cover is anything to go by, I'm sure I'll enjoy it. Again, you can find the blurb on Goodreads if you're interested.

So those are the few books I found on my mini book haul to start my first year without school! What are your September reads?

xo