Mini April Fool's book haul

Hi friends :) Sorry for the (not so) brief absence. I can assure you, it was entirely unintentional... Though I am not allowing myself to feel too bad about it. I am in the home stretch of my degree after all! And I've now submitted my LAST EVER ESSAY!! :D (yay me!)

So anyway, now that we're safely into the Easter holidays, I thought I would ease you all (and myself) back into this whole blog malarkey with a mini book haul. I've entitled it 'April Fool's', but to be honest, there's nothing really April-Fool's-y about it apart from the fact that it's 1st April today... Oh well! (Plus, it's really annoying me that I can't work out where the apostrophe goes in 'April Fool's'.. I've made my choice and stuck by it, but I can't help doubting myself! :P)

Due to my severe shortage of funds, I was not intending on buying any books until after graduation when I can start earning money again, but, alas, the Oxfam bookshop summoned me with its Oxfam-bookshop-y wiles and I succumbed to the lure of cheap books. But they were extremely cheap, and I had just submitted my final essay, so I'm going to give myself a break on this one.

Anyhoo, here's what I bought:

Aren't they great!? I am super excited to start reading them (and to have more time to do so...!)

The first one I picked up was Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson, as it's a Persephone Books edition, and I'm always attracted to those! Just look at these beautiful endpapers!

The next one I picked up was The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. I'd come across this author when searching the internet for women writers from South America (they're surprisingly difficult to find! Most of the recommendations I found for that continent were for male authors), and this seemed to be her most popular book. I hear it's sort of like One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in that it's a magical-realism family drama spanning many generations, but with more of a focus on the women of the family. But I shall wait and see!

And, finally, I couldn't resist picking up a copy of Northern Lights by Philip Pullman (known as The Golden Compass in the US I believe). This is a firm favourite of mine, but until now I only personally owned the other two books in the trilogy, and had to borrow my sister's copy of the first one. Slight impulse buy, but one that I definitely don't regret!

So there you have it! A short but sweet book haul to get me back into the blogging spirit. I hope you enjoyed it, and please let me know what you think of these books, or what books you've bought lately, in the comments below. I'd love to hear from you!

A Back-to-Bristol Book Haul

As I indicated in a recent post, autumn has well and truly arrived, which means I'm now back in beautiful Bristol! This is the city where I study (though not last year as I went abroad), and I have to say, I've really really missed it here!

I love this city so much; it's such a great mix of art, culture, student life, shopping, history, and so much more!

I've moved to a new area this year, so I'm still discovering new things every day. But of course I still go back to my favourite old haunts, and one of these is definitely the brilliant Oxfam bookshop at the top of Park Street. I love this place. It's such a gem! You can often find second-hand course books here too, since it's so near the uni. But of course I mostly just go there for fun!

Not only do they sell books (and music) very cheaply, but they also have a selection of DVDs and games, as well as some fairtrade products (chocolate, honey and coffee are my faves).

Of course, since the books are so cheap, you can buy twice as many! (Let's just not look too closely at my bank statements from now on...)

After popping into this Oxfam bookshop on my lunch break at uni, I then discovered ANOTHER ONE on my way home! Isn't this one so stylish?

So, of course, I had to pop in there too. (Don't judge me...)

Now I should probably seriously re-evaluate my spending habits, but in the meantime, let's look at the fabulous books I bought!

In the first bookshop, I went for old classics. 

These are:

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Lady Susan/The Watsons/Sanditon by Jane Austen (so excited to read this!!!)

and The Newcomes by William Makepeace Thackeray

This beautiful old copy of The Newcomes is probably the best looking of these books. I especially love the spine on this! And I'm definitely excited to read a lesser known book by the writer famous for Vanity Fair.

So pretty!

As you can see, I went a bit more modern in the next bookshop...

These are:

A Mere Interlude by Thomas Hardy

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allen Poe

A Room of One's Own and Three Guineas by Virginia Woolf

Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

and White Teeth by Zadie Smith.

Not gonna lie, I definitely chose some of these purely on the cover...

But I've heard great things about every one of these authors (though I've never read any of their work before, apart from Edgar Allen Poe).

This cover is probably my favourite:

Isn't it glorious???

But the other covers are great too!

So there you have it, my back-to-bristol book haul! And the money went to a good cause!

What do you think of my choice of books? Have you done a book haul recently? Do you have a book-buying problem? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!