A Weekend Used Book Haul

I managed to pop into a couple of charity shops on Friday and Saturday and I ended up with a small book haul that I might as well tell you about!

I will start off with the most exciting find, a 1st edition of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. I love that book! I first read it when I borrowed it from a friend. I have since seen the stage adaptation in London, which is absolutely wonderful. Earlier this year I picked up a mass market paperback copy from a charity shop, fully intending to re-read it. But on Friday, my hands found this love hardback edition for a measly €1.25, so well, what’s a girl to do? Duh, buy it of course!

I also picked up a couple of classics, a Wordworth Classics edition of Sons and Lovers by D H Lawerence and The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings by Edgar Allan Poe, who I have been keen to try for a while.

On Saturday, after doing my usual grocery shop, I decided to pop by my usual charity shop as I needed a new pair of wellies (which I found!). Sometimes they have really good stuff there and sometimes it’s a bit meh… This time, I ended up with an eclectic bunch of books…

I think this bunch of books ended up costing me somewhere in the region of €1.75. I already have another book by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala on my shelves, in the same edition, and like that one A Backward Place is set in India and these just sound like books I would like. I just need to read them! Fire on the Mountain by Anita Desai is also set in India. Elizabeth Is Missing by Emma Healey sounded like a book I would enjoy as well. I never read anything by Marian Keyes, but I liked the colour of the cover of Last Chance Saloon and figured I would give it a go. The final, absolutely random, book is Daughter of Prophecy by Anne Kelleher Bush, which as far as I can tell is a fantasy/sci-fi type of book. I love those random fantasy mass market paperbacks!

As if my shelves are not full enough already… I will try and read one of these this month or definitely in September! Which one should I read first?

 

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June 2019 Book Haul

Oh yeah, I did buy some books in June. I did not go too crazy, but my shelves did gain some inmates.

I bought a bunch of new books and just a quartet of used ones.

So, let’s do new first…

NEW BOOKS

 

• A Man Called Ove (Fredrik Backman) – I read the e-book and loved it so much I needed the physical copy in my life!
• Albert Einstein (Ned Hartley & Tom Humberstone) – A Graphic History! How cool is that!
• A Game of Thrones (George R R Martin) – A beautiful illustrated edition to replace my tatty mass paperback. I have read it before.
• Birthday (Meredith Russo) – Read this not long after it arrived, loved it!

 

• Autoboyography (Christina Lauren) – This cover has been calling my name for ages. It was on cheap and I could not resist. Now if only the content lives up to that cover!
• Down Among the Sticks and Bones (Seanan McGuire) – Now I liked Every Heart a Doorway, but did not love it like everyone else seemed to. Yet, I am curious enough to continue the series now.
• Seeker (Veronica Rossi) – Totally a cover buy – who doesn’t like a smokey horse! I have the first book on my shelves. I should read that soon!
• The Screaming Staircase (Jonathan Stroud) – I have heard such good things – I need to read it!

USED BOOKS

• The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
• Four Letter Word (anthology) – All about love 🙂
• Singletini (Amanda Trimble) – Already read it – it’s not great…
• The Balance Thing (Margaret Dumas) – Because it is always handy to have some chick lit ready to go…

I was particularly happy with the Shakespeare collection. I have been meaning to get myself one for ages. Now I have one! Those four books cost me €2,75 in total.

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So that’s 12 books in total. 4 of which I have already read and one  (the Shakespeare) that is not meant for my TBR. So, that’s ‘only’ 7 books added to my TBR pile…

 

First Book Haul of 2019

I treated myself to some new books at the start of the New Year, because… well… why not!

I am so excited to read all of these!

1. Thinking on my Feet (Kate Humble)

I read one of BBC presenter Kate Humble’s other books and really enjoyed her writing style. This one is about walking (something I should do more of in 2019!). I love these types of non-fiction books and I am looking forward to reading it.

2. Lab Girl (Hope Jahren) 

I saw Olive at abookolive talk about this book on Booktube and it sounded right up my street. It’s non-fiction to do with plantlife and a memoir – perfect!

3. Rain (Melissa Harrison)

I have been wanting to read something by Melissa Harrison for a while and this has been sitting in my basket for ages. I finally bought this little non-fiction book, which is also about walking…. but in the rain 🙂

4. A Black Fox Running (Brian Carter)

This one was originally published in the 1980s I believe, but I have never read it. I was simply attracted to the synopsis and this beautiful new edition. It’s written from a fox’s point of view, which is something I love. What can I say, I love foxes!

4. Picnic at Hanging Rock (Joan Lindsay)

I have been wanting to read this one for ages. I love Australia as a setting and this one is a mystery, historical fiction and a classic… and not very long. I am so looking forward to reading it, but it is set in summer, so I may wait till summer to read it. I love these Vintage red spine editions as well.

5. Tower of Thorns & Den of Wolves (Juliet Marillier)

I read the first book in the Blackthorn & Grim series sometime last year and enjoyed it. I would like to read more by this author, but would like to finish this series first. I do love these little mass market paperbacks!

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So that was my little treat of a haul 🙂 Have you read any of these? Let me know!

L. xx

 

 

 

November 2018 Book Haul (part 1?)

I allowed myself a small haul this month as I felt I deserved it!

So I got a load of non-fiction with a couple of fiction books thrown in for good measure:

1. Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City 2001-2011 (Lizzy Goodman)

There are a few bands from this period that I really love and I love the idea of this book, so wanted to check it out. It’s huge!

2. The Light in the Dark: A Winter Journal (Horatio Clare)

This book just spoke to me. I may read it later this month. Perfect for this time of year.

3. The Seabird’s Cry (Adam Nicolson)

I read someone’s review on this and was sold!

4. Wonderland (Brett Westwood & Stephen Moss)

I bought this one on a whim. I loved the cover and it sounded a bit different. A day by day look at nature in Britain as far as I can tell.

5. The Raven Boys (Maggie Stiefvater)

I finally caved! I keep hearing glorious things and I liked the only book I have read by Maggie Stiefvater (The Scorpio Races), so…

6. Midwinter (Fiona Melrose)

I have been eyeing up this novel for ages and with winter coming and the book being on offer, I just had to get it! May well get read next month for my ‘Winter Project’.

7. Winter: an Anthology of the Changing Seasons (editor: Melissa Harrison)

I fully intend to get the other seasons as well, but let’s start with this one. Also for my ‘Winter Project’ that I will be doing for December/January.

Not sure whether I will be getting any more books this month… I am trying to restrain myself! 🙂

December 2017 Book Haul

I think this will be the last post about 2017. I am completely in 2018 mode now – bring it on! 🙂

I thought I would to a monthly haul, even if I already did a post on the books I got in the charity shop and I only got a few more. I did order some more books at the end of December, but only one has arrived so far (today), so I will consider them a January haul!

I won’t elaborate on the six used books I got from the charity shop beyond their titles, as I did a post on them earlier this month.

Op de Fiets
Till We Have Faces (C S Lewis)
Magenta (Geert Jan Janssen)
The Grass Widow’s Tale (Ellis Peters)
For One More Day (Mitch Albom)
De Lessen van Mevrouw Lohmark (Judith Schalansky ) (ENG: The Giraffe’s Neck)

Now, as for the new books, all but one are nature related non-fiction.

The Bee Book (DK – various authors)
I have been interested in bees for a long time. Not necessarily bee-keeping, but I think they are fascinating creatures that hold so much of our existence in their tiny little hands (?). I heard really good things about this book and found in on offer, so treated myself.

Foxes Unearthed (Lucy Jones)
I have talked about this book a few times and it will probably be the first of these I will pick up to read. I love foxes and have had the pleasure of meeting some urban foxes up close and personal when I lived in London. I love them and this book should be right up my street!

A Sweet, Wild Note (Richard Smyth)
From the same publisher as the previous book I found this one. As far as I can tell it is a celebration of birdsong and the effects it has on us, maybe also taking into account a dwindling bird population and loss of habitat. It sounded really interesting and different.

Meadowland (John Lewis-Stempel)
The blurp tells me this is an account of life in an English meadow throughout the year, documenting the animals that live there and all that happens in a meadow through the seasons. It sounds absolutely beautiful!

To The Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf)
My only fiction book of this haul. I have never read anything by Virginia Woolf and I think it is about time. I found this one cheaply when I was buying the other books. It sounds like a pretty intriguing story.

 

I am really pleased with the books I got this month.

Let me know if you have read any of these books or whether they are on your TBR? Maybe you had never heard of them and there is one that you are putting on your TBR.

Which one should I read first?

Charity Shop Book Haul #4

Yes, yes, the last thing I need is more books. I started a few months ago with a managable TBR-pile, but it’s getting out of control, mainly courtesy of charity shops and Abebooks.co.uk, though I have been buying some new books as well.

I have been to my local charity shop twice in the last couple of weeks and there was also a second hand charity sale in my local village hall last weekend, so my book numbers rapidly increased. Whether that is a good thing is something I have been arguing with myself about…

I will do a separate post on the new books (unusual for me) and the books I got off Abe. I am still waiting for some of those to arrive, so will probably do that post some time next week.

Meanwhile, in the charity shops…

I have been wanting to re-read the Harry Potter books for a while. I have never owned them, I always borrowed them, but thought it was time to get my own set to re-read them at my leisure. When I was at my local village hall sale I spotted two Harry Potter books in English (!!!), so I brought them home with me. They are both the same (adult) editions. Of course I was aware that I would now have to find all the others to go with them, but I decided that was ok (more on that in next week’s post on my Abe haul).

So my village hall sale haul is four books:

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (J K Rowling)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (J K Rowling)
A Tiny Bit Marvellous (Dawn French)
Strictly Between Us (Jane Fallon)

They were €0.50 a piece.

I could have picked up so many more books, but I really (honestly) restrained myself. I did not even look in the Dutch section – there were too many options!

I had a couple of trips to my usual charity shop and had picked up two books one time and a slightly bigger stack another time.

The books I picked up on those two visits are:

Lotusvoeten (Pang-Mei N Chang) in Dutch,  Eng. Bound Feet & Western Dress
According To Yes (Dawn French)
Tasting Salt (Stephanie Dowrick)
Maria Fitzherbert: The Secret Wife of George IV (James Munson)
The Undomestic Goddess (Sophie Kinsella)
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage (Haruki Murakami)
The Perfume Collector (Kathleen Tessaro)
Peace Flows from the Sky (Susan Polis Schutz) poetry
Collected Poems by Helen B Cruickshank

Somehow I ended up with two Dawn French books. When I checked Goodreads none of her books have very good reviews. Oh dear. I will read them anyway and make up my own mind.

I am especially looking forward to reading the Murakami book and also The Perfume Collector sounds like a good read. I love the eclectic books you find in a foreign book shop’s small English section!

I picked up two poetry books, which I am very pleased about. They also had a Burns collection that I was tempted by. If no one has picked that one up by next time I go and have a browse, I may take it away. Books in this shop are so so cheap! None are more than €1, most are between €0.30 and €0.80, which makes it sooooo easy to pick up books. Too easy one might say. If you wanted to read Dutch books, especially, which I do pick up sometimes, they have an enormous selection!

Anyway, better get reading now!

Have a marvellous day!

Charity Shop Haul #2

I really did not need more books, after coming back from England with over twenty books, but I could not help myself popping into my local charity shop. I came out with seven books, so I did not go too crazy. I spent a grand total of €4.50, which is hardly a fortune.

In the English language section I found a beautiful compilation of Jane Austen‘s novels, so the other compilation I picked up there last time has been relegated to the Guest House library, as it’s nowhere near as nice! It looks brand new and was only €1!

I also picked up what appears to be a 1917 edition of H G Wells’ The Soul of a Bishop. An absolute steal again at €1!

I picked up a few throwaway books, by which I mean just easy reads, probably destined for the Guest House library.

I got Golden Lion by Wilbur Smith. I read a couple of Wilbur Smith books in my teens. I think those were set in Egypt. I remember enjoying them, so I figured I would pick this one up.

I randomly picked up Patricia Cornwell’s All That Remains. I have never read any of her books before. I presume it’s your regular crime mystery type of thingy.

I also picked up Making Your Mind Up by Jill Mansell, which looks to be simple chick lit, which I don’t read much of, but I kind of like from time to time. It does have a pretty sort of cover.

I also picked up a couple of Dutch language books as well.

Paleis van Sterren (Beneath A Marble Sky) by John Shors sounded like an interesting read with a story based around the Taj Mahal in India.

The second Dutch book I picked up is De Zaak Toetanchamon by Herman van Campenhout. It’s a Dutch book, it’s title translates as The Case Tutanchamon and is historical fiction as far as I can tell. It’s a tiny book!

My TBR list is growing ever larger, but I will get round to reading all these books. I promise!

 

 

Charity Shop Book Haul

This morning after the usual supermarket shop I popped into our local charity shop to look at the books there. I am quite pleased with the stuff I managed to find. Not all the books are my cup of tea, but I am building a small library in the guest house next door, so some I bought for there (though I will probably read them anyway, as I hate unread books!).

The charity shop have a small section of English books, but of course most are in Dutch. I prefer to read books originally written in English in English, so I headed to the English section first.

This is what I found there:

• A beautiful Collector’s Library edition of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. Charles Dickens has never been my favourite writer and I only ever tried and failed to read A Tale of Two Cities, but this is just such a beautiful book. It is small with gold edging and a ribbon page marker. I just had to pick it up. €1!
• A hardback copy of Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D H Lawrence. I am sure I have read this book before, but I do not own a copy. €0,80!
• A collection of Jane Austen stories published by Claremont Books. It has Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma. I am not sure whether this will go in my own library or into the guest house… €1!
• A Winter Flame by Milly Johnson – definitely one for the guest house library, but for the price it is probably a nice easy read for holiday goers! €0.50!
• Can You Keep A Secret? by Sophie Kinsella – I have several friends who love her books, though I have never read any. Might read this one before putting it in the guest house library… €0.30
• Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong. I want to read more Asian fiction, so this fits nicely in that category. Not sure what to expect from this one, but I will definitely read it! €0.30

Not bad for a shop with a tiny English books section!

As for the Dutch books… I usually only read in Dutch if the book was originally written in Dutch or translated from a foreign language I cannot read anyway. I also don’t tend to mind if it is a thriller or such genre, as not much is usually lost in translation!

These are the Dutch books I bought:

• De Boekhandelaar van Kaboel (The Bookseller of Kabul) by Asne Seierstad – orginally written in Norwegian, so happy to read in Dutch. It’s non-fiction and it should be interesting! €0.30!
• De Pegasus-Connectie ( The Pegasus Secret) by Gregg Loomis. A thriller, so perfectly fine to read in Dutch. It is destined for the guest library for sure. Not my cup of tea, but it sounded interesting enough to chance a read sometime. €1
• Hoe de Soldaat de Grammofoon Repareert (How The Soldier Repairs The Gramophone) by Saša Stanišic. Orginally in German, so perfectly fine to read in Dutch! The title intrigued me and sometimes it’s good to not know that much about a book. Looking forward to reading it. €0.80!
• Schaduwhart (Ghost Heart) by Cecilia Samartin. This is set in Cuba and it sounded like I would enjoy it, so in my basket it went. €1!
• Het Gemene Gewas (Monk’s Hood) by Ellis Peters. This one I hesitated to pick up, because this one may be a bit lost in translation, but for the price I wanted to give it a go anyway. I never read any of the Brother Cadfael novels, but I have wanted to, as I like Candace Robb’s books. I will give this one a go. It can always go into the guest house. €0.60!

Total spent: €7.60 – not bad for 11 books, right? 🙂

I am especially pleased with David Copperfield and Lady Chatterley’s Lover, both very pretty books. They will look great on my shelves and I wanted to get my hands on a few more classics anyway.

The guest house library was quite heavy on the John Grisham type of book, so having a couple of fluffy romance novels to add to that is perfect, so I am quite pleased with those. We will see what else will end up there.

All in all, a successful trip to the local charity shop I would say! Have you checked yours?