In My Mailbox #36 - BIRTHDAY EDITION!!!

 So last week featured the very important event of my 23rd birthday - that funny age where I seem to be a few years younger than a lot of you, but then a few years older than the rest of you! We need more 23 year old book bloggers people!

Anyway, the photo on the left contains my bookish birthday presents. I swear, I got so many lovely things through the post from Charlotte, Bex, Ellie and Hannah that I couldn't believe it. To have so many people not only remember my birthday, but send cards, texts and presents too? I feel so lucky.

So, Charlotte from Lit Addicted Brit sent me the lovely pink card on the left, the awesome mug it's standing on, the Penguin clothbound edition of Dracula at the back and then a copy of Attachments by Rainbow Rowell. Just look at the mug though - click on it to make it better. A Pride and Prejudice mug! 

I read her review of Attachments and instantly wanted to read it. Now I can :)

Ellie of Musings of a Bookshop Girl sent me a Penguin clothbound classics book too - Emma, the green book at the back with the chairs. I love those books more than anything. I have... six, I think, so far but I'm definitely going to build up my collection. The super-bright and happy card on the right is from Ellie too.

Bex from An Armchair by the Sea plundered my wishlist and picked The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland and the prettiest edition of Howard's End by E.M Forster I've ever seen. It was published by Penguin English Library and has little umbrellas on it.  

Last but not least (for bloggers, anyway), Hannah (HANNA- *pauses, thinks* -H) from Once Upon A Time surprised me with a copy of Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. We were texting about it months ago and I'd completely forgotten about it until a shiny new copy turned up for me :)

Can you believe that I got such special presents?

I also got a new copy of Pride and Prejudice from my parents - this makes 45 now! It's a really pretty and stiff one too, with a holographic gold cover that shines in the light. 

Just in case you're wondering what the white stick hanging out of Dracula is in the top photo (because you so obviously were), it's a tiny metal frog bookmark. I love frogs - I have a frog blanket, a frog toothbrush holder, a frog chalboard... everything. So look at this!

I'm not a massive fan of metal bookmarks, but the glass frog is just too cute. He's sticking out of Emma at the minute, so I can see him whenever I look at my Penguin clothbounds!

But obviously I haven't just got birthday books over the last fortnight. Sorry. I'm still determined that my TBR counter (on the sidebar, at the top) will have a downwards arrow by the end of August, but it's +6 at the minute and the books I spent my birthday money haven't arrived yet...

These are the others. There should also be Jurassic Park: The Lost World (which I've read but not reviewed yet) and the completely underwhelming The Fault in Our Stars (reviewed!).

It's strange, I avoided the hype over Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell for ages when it first came out, but I saw a copy in the charity shop I work in, read the first page and instantly knew I absolutely had to read the rest. It's not the pretty red copy, but I'll survive.

So that's it for this week! Stay tuned next week when I'll have all my birthday money books!