LONDON BOOK HAUL
If you’ve been following my adventures on Instagram, you probably know that I recently spent four days in beautiful London town.
There’s just something about this city that makes me feel like I’m home. You know that feeling of belonging that you find in one specific place? I get that when I’m in London. In fact, I don’t ever feel like a tourist when I’m there.
So, during my very short trip, I had two lists on my phone: the first was of food places I wanted to try and the second was a list of books I wanted to get. Naturally, I ended up going completely off course and buying way more than planned. This did not bode well for my suitcase nor my checked baggage allowance! But, I decided to worry about that later.
I absolutely delight in the book shopping experience. Walking around the bookstore systematically, with the delicious sight of all the books and their gorgeous covers, wonderfully displayed, tempting you to pick them up. You usually have bestsellers, new releases and the store’s special picks at the forefront of the store. I start picking random ones to read the synopsis and flip through them, before finally making a decision. I’m carrying one book in my arms now, I walk to the next shelf, and then add two more, great, still manageable. Moving on…and I’m adding one more…oh, and this sounds interesting. Of course, I have to get this one…oh! I was looking for that one! And so it goes. Before I know it, I have a whole stack in my arms and I have to put them down before they topple over.
Buying books makes me happy. Like truly happy. I felt like I accomplished so much on my trip just by unpacking all the books - fourteen in total - and that is not including the books I bought my children.
So, let’s get straight into it. Here’s my London book haul:
Art Matters - Neil Gaiman ****
The Rules Do Not Apply - Ariel Levy *****
We Come Apart - Sarah Crossan and Brian Conaghan **
Moonrise - Sarah Crossan *****
The Tao of Pooh - Benjamin Hoff *****
The End We Start From - Megan Hunter ***
All the Beautiful Strangers - Elizabeth Klehfoth
The Poet X - Elizabeth Acevedo
Natives - Akala
The Princess Saves Herself in This One - Amanda Lovelace ***
Are You My Mother? - Alison Bechdel ***
Early Riser - Jasper Fforde
The Wizards of Once - Cressida Cowell
Us Against You - Fredrik Backman
Out of this list, I have already read eight (rated above), which is more than half, but I’m still going through them. You can check out my reviews to all the books I read on my Goodreads page, but I also like to highlight specific books that left an impact on me (whether positive or negative) on my blog here.
If you’ve read any of these books or are familiar with them, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the Comments section.