Update // Book Haul

I have found in recent months that my motivation to write blog posts has been extremely low. If you care, I'm sorry! Since January I have been devoting a lot of time to writing my novel and drawing more (note my resolutions for this year!) leaving me with little time to get my head around writing some of the blog posts I have wanted to write. Do you ever feel like you can't get your thoughts onto paper fast enough? Because I do. My head's been aching with ideas for months now.
Other than that I've also been able to do lots of lovely things with friends, For example, myself and a few friends have started a monthly book club, something I have always wanted to do! We've had two meetings so far and will be having our third one to discuss our March book: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. I've also been to see two West End musicals, a ballet, went ziplining through the trees and had a brief* stint as a vegetarian, so it's been a busy few months for me. (*By brief, by God I mean brief. I lasted about two days and got so close to ordering a veggie burger before my mouth slipped and I asked for the cajun chicken burger. No regrets, it was possibly one of the best burgers of  my life.)

Since Christmas, I've also been a busy book worm, chomping my way through anything and everything I can get my hands on. I thought I would share some of the brilliant books I've collected over the last few months in a December - March book haul summary! I will only be focusing on the physical copies, if I went into eBooks we'd be here all night...

DECEMBER

As I have had a kindle for the last few years, my mother and I have an unspoken agreement that I won't ask for fiction books for Christmas as she'll always suggest I get it in eBook form instead. I don't mind this but it is always preferable to have the physical feel and smell of a book in your hands. I did, however, ask for a few books by some of my favourite female role models. With these kinds of autobiographical books, I always feel its more important to have a copy that you can flick through and get the full quality effect of the images also.

  These books were: Yes Please by Amy Poehler, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me by Mindy Kaling and It by Alexa Chung. I've only read Kaling's book so far but I loved it. It was a really comforting read for me to see someone with such an enviable career break down the experiences and situations she had to overcome before landing her dream job as a writer on The US Office. Also, I love her style. I can't wait to read the others, I've dipped into It a few times but am not very far yet. However, the quality of images and the book in general (I got the newly released paperback copy) is really great!

For my birthday (30th Dec), I was also given various books from friends including a really cute cupcake recipe book with space to write notes about my favourite cakes as well as a doodle book called 642 Places To Draw. If you have any friends with an artistic flair, I highly recommend that as a gift, its brimming with drawing prompts and just generally very nice to work through. My older brother, who is always really good at getting me gifts, got me Ayoade on Ayoade: A Cinematic Odyssey by Richard Ayoade, Crap CVS by Jenny Crompton as well as a really gorgeous tote bag with the Penguin Gatsby cover printed on it! Ayoade on Ayoade is weird and wonderful so far and Crap CVs is very useful for me as I start the job hunt again!

 

JANUARY/FEBRUARY

The only way I can explain the purchase of The Humans by Matt Haig and The Last Girlfriend on Earth by Simon Rich is that they were both on sale in Sainsbury's for a ridiculously cheap price. The Humans was also recommended to me by one of my best friends from uni who said that the book really made her think about life in a different way. From that, my curiosity was really piqued. With The Last Girlfriend on Earth, is it bad that I totally judged a book by it's cover, which I am prone to do, and thought it looked cool? So far it's an enjoyable read, too, opening with a hilarious short story from the perspective of a condom in a teenaged boy's wallet. Yep, you read that correctly...

When it comes to I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, I have far better reasons why I bought it. Firstly, I feel like the novel has been mentioned in the acknowledgement section of too many of my favourite author's books that I couldn't ignore it any longer. I've been meaning to read it since I was maybe thirteen years old and I plucked a copy off my friend's mum's bookcase and thought it sounded interesting. I read that first line about the girl writing from inside the sink and was hooked back then, only to resume reading nearly ten years later.

Also, I never knew Dodie Smith wrote 101 Dalmatians, which was adapted into  one of my favourite Disney films, so I feel like I owe it to Smith to read this one...

MARCH

The following three books I acquired for free on World Book Day at the primary school I currently work at. There was a book exchange for the kids and Mister God This Is Anna by Fynn, Lily and the Lost Boy by Paula Fox and The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien were among the leftovers. The children I work with are aged between 3-7 so I think it's safe to say these books were a little too long for some of them to read just yet! I jumped at the chance to take them home and have read a bit of Lily, which is a really nicely written story set in Greece,  so far. I've never heard of Mister God though and am very curious to start reading when I have time! 

I'd previously read a fair bit of The Hobbit on my Kindle but a lot of my Tolkien loving friends really suggested I get a physical copy which is proving to be useful, especially when I want to check back on what's happened or look at the map!

This book has been on my to-read list for years now. A lot of my friends have warned me against American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis but how can I resist a story so intriguing. Again, I'm only a couple of pages in as my book club commitments have been distracting me, but so far I have no idea what's going on, that's always fun.

My final purchase of the last few months came this past weekend when I went up to Lincoln to visit one of my old housemates for a night out and to plan our oncoming trip to Europe (!!!!). 

We mooched around Waterstones for a bit whilst we waited for our table at Nandos to be ready and of course, being the English graduates we are, we both ended up spending money.

In honour of Penguin's 80th anniversary, the publishers have released a collection of 80 classic titles to celebrate, all only 80p each! Ever since I found out about this I've been itching to get my hands on some of them. The simplicity of the cover design is so eye catching and classic which I really like. The nightingales are drunk by Hafez really caught my attention most of all.
I also found myself walking away with Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, a book I've been interested in for a while. I've only flicked through a few pages so far but it is already very different to what I normally read. First example being that I don't usually read graphic novels, although my passion for art means that I really would like to. The subject matter of the book also touches on a lot of things I'm not familiar with so I'm very excited and nervous to start this one!

As you can see I've got a lot of work to do if I want to read all of these books! Maybe it'd be best if I steer clear of bookshops for a while...

BONUS 

eBook purchases:

• The Savages by Matt Whyman
• The Guestbook by Holly Martin (read)
• My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick (read)
• We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
• The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R Carey (read)
• Lobsters by Tom Ellen & Lucy Ivison (read)
• To All The Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han (read)
• The Summer I Turned Pretty series by Jenny Han (read)
• The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins