In My Mailbox #17

These two piles make me ridiculously happy, especially the one on the left (on my Iron Man blanket, cause I'm clearly a cool kid). It's a slight over-reaction as you'd think I'd won the lottery instead of buying books, but hey ho. I haven't had any money for the longest, longest time though - I had to leave work for health reasons and the council dragged its feet about my disability benefits claim... but finally, here we are!

I've spent the last four months living off hand-outs from my parents and partner, so I've gotten used to not spending a whole lot of money. That in mind, I didn't really feel the need to splurge massively but I still couldn't resist buying books. I limited myself to £20, so I don't think the pile on the left is such a bad deal.

I was nearly sick with excitement when they came though. Literally. I wish the Book Depository sent them all in one big box like Amazon does, but I do like the varied, informative bookmarks that accompany them. Hakuna Matata!

Just in case you can't see, I ordered The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan. It's the second book in the new Percy Jackson Roman mythology series. I don't like them as much as the previous set, but I'm sure it's still worth reading.

The other four are a nice set of reds and pinks and look lovely all nicely lined up (I did tell you I was over excited). Northanger Abbey was the only Jane Austen book I hadn't read and now I have the correct edition to match my others. I'm obsessive like that. I've read some awful reviews of Bumped but I love the premise too much to not buy it. I think it was £3 or so anyway, so I'd have felt like I was rudely slighting it if I didn't cave in. I've wanted to read Rivers of London for what feels like forever - I noticed it right after I left my job so I couldn't justify the purchase, but it's been calling to me ever since. Then the last book I bought is Positively by Courtner Sheinmel. It's quite an obscure one, I think, but it's about a little girl dealing with the stigma of being HIV positive with her father's new family.

The pile on the right consists of three library books and one swap. After a gruelling hour in physiotherapy, naturally you visit the library to collapse on a sofa and wait for your bus, but is it quite so natural to pick up the heaviest three books to take home with you? Moron. Those three are Retromancer by Robert Rankin, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot and The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan.

I'm not really sure why I picked that last one up - I already have it on my Kindle! Moron strike #2. I'd just finished my current book so I needed something to read on the way home, but did it really have to be a hardback version of a book I already had? I've wanted to read Henrietta Lacks for forever and a day though and it's been out of stock every previous visit so I don't regret that too much.

I couldn't get along with Retromancer though - I loved the premise but loathed the writing style and dialogue. I'm not going to review it because I didn't get far enough in to make it worthwhile but I won't be finishing it.

Finally, I swapped an old book for Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin on ReaditSwapit. God I love that website. As far as I can remember without (God forbid) actually leaning across the bed to pick it up, it involves a girl who dies in an accident and is sent to the afterlife where people get younger? Sounds about right.

Anyway, so those are my books! What did you get this week? Were you as hysterically over-excited as I was?