In My Mailbox #8

This week has been my 22nd birthday week, and so naturally resulted in a lot of books and book-related presents. There's nothing quite as heart-wrenching as watching a 6"3, bearded, tattooed, sighing man traipsing round after a happy 5"4 fairy (well, the pink hair and a cream lacy dress made one little girl tell me I looked like one anyway) with a resigned expression and huge bags of books.

Anyway this is the resulting damage -

Birthday books:

 I was given Chances as one of those 'we know you read stuff, but we don't, so here's a random book' gifts. Don't get me wrong, I've had some really great books I've ended up loving... but I don't think this will be one of them. 

I've been collecting all the Agatha Christie books in these editions (I think it's called the Masterpiece edition?) for a while now, so my Mum bought me these. Nemesis is a Miss Marple, Curtain: Poirot's Last Case is a Poirot (funny that) but Passenger to Frankfurt is a stand-alone. I do prefer the Poirot books because Miss Marple has a tendency to sit around and then smile smugly at the end going "Yes dear, I knew that."

These three were part of the pre-shopping spree book buying trip on Tuesday. I've said it before, but I really do love Sheffield Waterstones. It's just so neat and big and nicely ordered... mmm. Anyway, these were on a 3 for 2 offer and I've had them all on my wishlist for a long time, especially How To Be A Woman. Bex from An Armchair By The Sea was raving about it, and I know Ellie mentioned it over at Musings of a Bookshop Girl too, so I desperately wanted it too!

It just wouldn't be a birthday without at least one edition of Pride and Prejudice. I collect them, as you can probably see from the photo in the middle. I know it's kind off odd, but there are worse habits. The edition on the left came from HMV, who actually have a massive range of cheap classics. The other is actually a graphic novel version (excitement!) which I found in one of the many comic book shops in Leeds :)

I didn't actually get the Kindle for my birthday, but I did get the case and skin. It's absolutely beautiful! I don't know if you can see it or not, but it's a really colourful bookshelf design, and every single book on there has it's own title. Gelaskins do a massive range of awesome covers, but I love this one.

Then last but not least, Musings of a Bookshop Girl sent me a £10 Amazon voucher, pretty much just because she's awesome like that. Hi Ellie! *waves*

Swapped:

 

I have to admit that this series has never really interested me much, but another user requested a swap on Read it Swap it (here's my list) for a book I've been trying to get rid of for ages, so I chose this one. I'm willing to give it a go :)

Bought:

 

I seem to be having a graphic-novel orientated week, but never mind. This is Fables: Book One. This series is absolutely huge. The book above has issues 1-10 but there are 107 to date, I think. It's lovely though, all hardback and pristine. 

The idea is that under New York has a magically camouflaged area called Fabletown where all the proper fairytale characters live - Snow White, Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks, etc - and the books chronicle how they cope with our mundane reality.

Comic book fair:

We went to a comic book fair in Leeds Town Hall on Saturday. It was pretty good actually - much cheaper than expected and each stall had tons of stuff. Halfway round though, I did realise that I was wandering innocently round in a t-shirt than said 'Read Books Instead!' Oops...

 

I adore The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - who wouldn't want to watch a bunch of classic fictional characters run round fighting a classic fictional baddie? I love the film but I wasn't even aware there was a second volume until last week. Since then, I've checked a load of places and they all had it for £15-£22 so I figured I'd wait a bit. I couldn't believe it when one of the stalls at the comic book fair had it for £6.95. The stall holder may have been slightly surprised at my horrible squeal but at least he didn't refuse purchase through fear.

The other picture is of the ten comics I bought. I think I'm going through a comic phase at the minute, but the artists of most are so talented. Three are later issues of the Fables graphic novel above and another two are an Alice in Wonderland spin-off. Then there's four issues of The Death of Spider-Man and a psuedo-newspaper (on real paper and everything!) of last year's Civil War arc.

Library:

 

  
Not only did Sheffield library actually manage to have the first in a series for a change, they also had the second and, get this... they were right next to each other. What's next? Books arranged by alphabetical order!?

For review:

 

This is Black Swan Rising. It was sent to me by Transworld Publishers who very nicely offer to send another book when you've sent a link to them with the review of this one.

So that's that. I finally finished Ill Met By Moonlight (review here) which has been taking me ages so I can't wait to get started on this lot!