It seems like a long time since Christmas now, but I realised recently that I hadn’t hauled any of the books I got as presents. I don’t know how I managed to miss doing this, since the veritable mountain sitting on my bedside table includes a lot of the books I got for Christmas, but somehow I did. So here are the books I got over the holidays and in January.
My auntie was kind enough to give me a literal box of books, which was a joy to unwrap. The box contained Strange The Dreamer, Bad Feminist, and Pachinko. She also gave me her second-hand copy of The Power by Naomi Alderman because she knew I’d been desperate to read it for ages.
Funnily enough, my boyfriend also got me a copy of The Power for Christmas. So now I have two. Giveaway, anyone?
My parents got me Vicious (PRAISE, BLESS) and The Demon King, while my sister – who is currently on her year abroad in France – picked me up the French edition of A Darker Shade of Magic. (I’m not crying, you’re crying.)
One of my other aunts got me the US Collector’s edition of A Darker Shade of Magic too, and I spent the next hour pouring over the beautiful artwork. I still can’t believe I got three V. E. Schwab books in the space of a week, WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE.
My wonderful Twitter wifey @hollieblog sent me the hardback of Carry On, because she knew I’d borrowed it from the library, read it, and loved it so much that I wanted to get my own copy.
Then in January, I visited one of my best pals, and she got me these two beautiful volumes of No.6. No.6 is an LGBTQIA+ dystopian manga and we both watched the anime together and loved it. She remembered that I’d been wanting to read the manga for a while and bought me the first two volumes as a present.
I ended up with 12 books overall for Christmas and New Year, and I’m thrilled with every single one of them. I’ve already read Vicious and the two volumes of No.6, and I’m hoping to get to some of the others next month.
Did you get any books for Christmas? Which of these do you think I should pick up next? In general, do you prefer getting physical books or gift cards so you can then go and choose the books?
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I would love to get my hands on a French copy of A Darker Shade of Magic! That would be one book I certainly wouldn’t put off reading!
I got 6 books for Christmas – The Handmaid’s Tale, Hagseed, A Study in Scarlet, The Pickwick Papers, The Old Curiosity Shop and The Red Queen. My family are never sure what books to get me and they always forget that I have a wide reading taste so I give them a list of ones I want. It’s easier.
In terms of book gift cards, I tend to get them for my birthday instead of Christmas. I don’t see my extended family around then as they are mainly scattered in the south, so gift cards are easier to send in the post.
The French copy is stunning, I’m honestly a little bit in love with it. The French edition of A Gathering of Shadows has just been released too, so I’m hoping that my sister might get me that for my birthday before she comes home from her year abroad in France! 😉 Have you read The Handmaid’s Tale yet? I just read it a couple of months back and thought it was so good. It’s definitely one of the prototypical/original dystopian novels. I’ve owned Red Queen for ages but still haven’t picked it up yet, whoops. I’m the same with books – I usually give my family a longer list than they need so that they can pick from it and I’ll still be surprised by what I get. 😀 It’s really nice that your family send you gift cards – they’re so much lighter to post than books 🙂
I bet it would be great if she does!! I’m planning on reading The Handmaid’s Tale in March for a Goodreads challenge but I don’t quite know where it is on my March list.
Oh, which GR challenge are you reading it for? Let me know what you think once you finish it! 🙂
I’m doing a quarterly challenge that’s part of the general Reading Challenge and for Jan to March it is for “must-read” books.
Oh that sounds really good! Hope you’re having fun with it 🙂
I was until I got to my second book (North and South) which I DNFed. Hopefully I’ll be able to get around to picking up Handmaid’s Tale because I’ve given myself a bit of a YA Lit Fest tbr to complete beforehand.
Ah, I don’t blame you with North and South, from why I’ve heard it’s quite…dry? Can’t wait to hear what you think of The Handmaid’s Tale 🙂
I found the heroine quite annoying and from what I twigged of the plot, it also felt like it was trying to hard to be a Manchester version of Pride and Prejudice. I didn’t like it.
Ah that’s a shame, but I can’t say I’m too surprised. It doesn’t strike me as a particularly exciting read, and I can see why the similarities to Pride and Prejudice would detract from the story!
Definitely, even though I love Pride and Prejudice!
Great selection! I’m really eager to read The Power too. Hope you enjoy it!
Thanks so much! It sounds like something I’ll love, so I hope we both have fun with it 🙂