Book Haul!

Is it weird to do a blog as opposed to a video book haul? Well, whatever, I'm doing one anyway. I was just back in the UK for the weekend, and I had ordered some books to be delivered there, and I also went on a bit of a spree at my local second hand bookshop, so I have lots of lovely new books to read.

84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
I ordered this off Amazon after seeing it mentioned by WordsofaReader on YouTube. I love books about books and this seems like it'll be a pretty quick read which is good for my 100 books challenge!

PopCo by Scarlett Thomas
I read The End of Mr Y last year and absolutely loved it, but for some reason didn't pick up another Scarlett Thomas novel until about 2 weeks ago, I guess because I was slightly worried her other stuff would be a let down. Luckily the next of her books that I read (Bright Young Things) was similarly amazing so I am now determined to read all her novels. I've just started this one and it seems like it's going to be good. Also I'm a sucker for books that have coloured-edged pages (is there a term for that?) and this one blue and gorgeous.

Our Tragic Universe by Scarlett Thomas
The other Scarlett Thomas novel I bought, this one is beautiful  as well. I'm going to try and hold off on reading this one for a bit so I don't end up racing through everything by Scarlett Thomas in a month and then suffering from withdrawal.

Bagombo Snuff Box by Kurt Vonnegut
I've only read one book by Vonnegut (Breakfast of Champions), but I really liked it and have been meaning to read more of his stuff for a while. Sadly my copy of Slaughterhouse Five is AWOL (translation - I lent it to a friend who then lost it) so I was pleased to find this in the second hand book shop.

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
This one has been on my wishlist for years and I have just never gotten round to buying it because I never see it in bookshops, but I did this weekend so I had to buy it, it was fate!

Ghostwritten by David Mitchell
I read Black Swan Green last year and absolutely loved it, and I've been meaning to read Cloud Atlas for ages (I actually already own it in flipbook version), so I couldn't resist picking this up when I spotted it for only 2 pounds.

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
I've never read anything by Murakami but have been meaning too for so long. This was actually recommended to me by a friend about 5 years ago, so I hope it's worth the wait!

Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy
I barely ever read non-fiction any more, but when I do it's usually feminist stuff. I did a lot of reading on feminism over the course of my degree, but it's pretty easy to get bogged down and overwhelmed in complex literary theory about écriture féminine etc. I picked this one up because I thought it looked interesting, and also like a nice change of pace from the non-fiction I usually read.

Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
Another recommendation from WordsofaReader - apparently I am extremely susceptible to booktube videos - I am really excited to read this one, I think I'll start it after I finish PopCo. I don't know a lot about this novel or Evelyn Waugh (I thought he was a woman until about 2 years ago) but I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy this.

Japanese Fairy Tales by Juliet Piggott
I am weirdly obsessed with fairy tales (I wrote my dissertation on them), so I was pretty excited to add this to my collection. One of my favourite books that I own is a book of Norwegian Fairy Tales which was my mum's when she was a kid and I recently found it that it's part of a whole collection called the World Fairy Tale Collection. This one was one of the only ones I could find on Amazon, sadly it's not as pretty as the Norweigan one because the dust jacket is missing, but I'm looking forward to reading it.

The pile.