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I know, I know. Worst pictures in the world
On the bright side, I seem to have got my reading mojo back after I finished struggling through Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. On the down side, I've acquired more than enough books to keep the afore-mentioned mojo busy!
For review
I've been ridiculously lucky in 2013 so far - I've received some wonderful books from all kinds of different publishers.
I've already reviewed Encounters of Sherlock Holmes and Adventure Time: Volume 1 so I won't bother discussing them again here. I am, however, going to rave about the other two, so you're just going to have to deal with that.
I adore Tracy Chevalier - I've read every single one of her books and while some are better than others (Remarkable Creatures is my favourite), there isn't a single one I didn't like. With that in mind, imagine how thrilled I was to be offered a copy of her latest book, The Last Runaway, due out in August 2013.
Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth looks beautiful. It's a huge shiny hardback that I'd completely forgotten about so opening it was like Christmas all over again. I love fairytales and I love art history, so I really can't wait to get to this one.
Bought
Okay, so there are just the Amazon books I've bought. I know, I have a problem. In my defence, I did end up with £20 of vouchers from one of those paid-to-survey websites and I blew it all in one happy spree.
I've read Gone Girl already, although it's going to be an absolute bitch to review so don't hold your breath for that anytime soon.
I've just noticed that I went for three non-fiction books - a biography of Harry Houdini, a scientific memoir of the palaeontological pioneers and a history of Middle Temple, a Law society-type-thing. The one in The Da Vinci Code. I really need to reread that actually, considering they make me go down to London once a month...
The Notable Brain of Maximilian Ponder is the best book I have read all year. Go read my review and then go buy it.
I've added two books to my Vintage Classics collection - Tom Jones and The Warden. I'm not in a particular hurry to read either of them, but I'll have to at some point so I can shelve them with my other red spined books. Tom Jones was 50p in the HMV sale and The Warden was in a charity shop, I think.
I picked up The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry in ASDA but then did that thing where you think you actually need to buy another book, just because it happens to be 2 for £7. Hence Capital. I'm a sucker, clearly.
Pride and Prejudices
This has been a good year for Pride and Prejudices! It's the 200th anniversary of publication, so there have been new editions popping up all over the place. I actually have two more on the way, but I'm planning to do a full post on my collection soon, so I'll hang on until then.
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The edition in the middle became one of my favourites the second I saw it. It was a present from Lit Addicted Brit, for no other reason than she saw it and thought of me. She's wonderful and so is this Pride and Prejudice. It's hideous, but in a kitchsy pulp-novel kind of way. The pages are red and it has an arty, colourful Colin Firth on the cover, with the words 'Lock Up Your Daughters... Darcy's In Town!' God, it's horrendous, but I love it so much!
The book on the left is absolutely stunning, however. It's a special edition, glossy hardback - Celebrating Pride and Prejudice: 200 Years of Jane Austen's Masterpiece. I don't usually go in for books about P&P, but it's beautiful and it's an anniversary edition. Sue me.
What books came into your home this week?
OH MY GOSH, that pulp-y P&P looks AMAZING/ridiculous! It's genuinely my life's ambition to find a copy of P&P that you don't have to send it to you, but I only ever seem to see the really like common, obvious ones :(. BUT ONE DAY I WILL DO IT!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it amazing!? You can see why it's an instant favourite. I love copies with character and you can't get more character-y than this!
DeleteOh bless you! I used to find quite a few in charity shops, but now I just see the same ones over and over. There's a hardback light blue edition with a black spine and a tiny square picture of mr Darcy on the front, and I see that IN EVERY SINGLE ONE. For every edition I have, I could have owned three of those :p
I love you for trying, you're lovely :)
I'm the same as Laura - every time I see a copy of P&P that maybe looks a little different, I'm like OMG THIS COULD BE THE ONE! And then you have it already. :(
DeleteThat Darcy one rocks, in a weird and super-cheeseball way! I have the blue hardback you mentioned, and you're right, it's everywhere - I think it was a freebie with a newspaper at some point, the first in a set of classics maybe? It's the one I'm getting rid of in favour of my pretty new copy, because the print's tiny and the contrast is really crap for reading. Shame really, because other than that it IS quite an attractive little book!
That middle P&P is so bad it's good - I love the 'lock up your daughters' part!
ReplyDeleteBitter Greens is fantastic, I've just finished reading it for a blog tour and it was excellent.
Sorry but can you hurry up with that Gone Girl review? I'm really curious to know what you think. Just kidding. Not about being curious, I am especially as you said 'it would be a bitch to review'. I think I know what you mean! It's a tough one. But I am kidding about telling you to hurry, haha. I read Gone Girl as well and am really looking forward to the film version. What do you think of Reese Witherspoon in the key role? How about Nick? I was thinking Ryan Gosling but I'm not sure.
ReplyDeleteAnyway since you are such a voracious reader - and spender on books - I wanted to tell you about a giveaway I'm hosting. The book is Broken by Daniel Clay; the film based on his book is opening in the UK on March 8. I'm posting an interview with Daniel and doing a contest and he'll send an autographed book to a winner in the UK and another one here to the U.S. Anyway I'll be posting that in a couple of days. Best of luck with all your reading...and that Gone Girl review.
Damn - I was freaking out at the beginning of the year about getting tangled up in reading deadlines so I didn't take up an offer to review Bitter Greens and now I regret it massively! How annoying...
ReplyDeleteHaha - I'd forgotten how naff the Pride and Prejudice really was! Doesn't it describe Mr Darcy as "fit" on the back or something equally weird? I think there's a whole series of classics bastardised in the same fashion - they'd look pretty hideously cool as a set!
I got Harold Fry a few weeks ago in an offer when I bought Gone Girl (which, incidentally, you are completely right about - how on Earth do you review it?!) and I planned on reading it straight away because I was waiting for the paperback for AGES but then I put it on my shelf and...well, I haven't read it yet, obviously...:-/
And I will be buying and reading Maximilian Ponder, for sure. I meant to waffle on your actual review yesterday but my phone was being stupid...I'm technically not supposed to be buying anything because we're moving soon but we all know that's not going to happen.
1. Haha, the "I MUST BUY IT NOW AND READ IT IMMEDIATELY... wait... where did those three weeks/six months/ten years go? I swear, I meant to read it straight away!" problem. I HAZ IT BAD.
Delete2. There's a whole set of those classics? *must find*
3. That's why I wasn't buying anything, because we're moving too. But every time the house hunt goes quiet or we have a few weeks where no one shows any interest in ours, I kinda conveniently forget and have a little binge again!
Sorry, sorry, ANOTHER comment - but I found those books! Google 'Pulp! The Classics', there's six of 'em so far I think. I love love LOVE the taglines! The Hound of the Baskervilles: "Murder... Mystery... Walkies!" Wuthering Heights: "Here's Looking at You Cathy". Haha, The Great Gatsby: "When it came to loving... He knew which Daisy to pick!" Ohhhh, that's just made my day. :D
DeleteOh Charlotte. Did I mention how much I love this P&P? Between this and the World Book Night edition, my collection wouldn't be the same without you!
DeleteI'd love them as a set too - I hope they do more!
I really, REALLY liked Gone Girl, although I think I liked Amy more than I was meant to. I kept picturing her as Amy Adams though, which didn't help. To be fair, she'd be an awesome casting choice :)
Pleeeeeease read Max Ponder! It's the best book I've read all year. And yes, it's only February but I DON'T CARE.
Haha - I've seen the whole bunch now and my WORD are they grim...I think my personal favourite tagline is actually Robinson Crusoe: "Solitude was driving him NUTS!" They're doing A Christmas Carol soon - I am so excited about that! I wonder if they all have coloured edges to the pages too...
DeleteI know what you mean about Gone Girl and Amy Adams would be PERFECT! Good choice!
Max Ponder is up the next time I succumb to buying anything, don't you worry! :)
Ohhh... I want A Christmas Carol so badly. They all look great, but I'm not THAT interested in the others. I MUST have that one though! Surely they must all be coloured?
DeleteEither her or Rachel McAdams. Definitely leaning towards Amy Adams though... a bit different from her Muppets role!
Bitter Greens is so pretty - and LOOK AT ALL THE BOOKS! I feel much better about my post now. :)
ReplyDeleteI still haven't read 'Remarkable Creatures' - it's on Mount TBR! - but I really enjoyed 'The Virgin Blue' when I read it a year or three ago. I've got 'Gone Girl' and 'The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry' awaiting me as well, even though I preordered them yonks ago because I needed to read them IMMEDIATELY... and now two months have flown by since they arrived. Yay Loki! And yay cool copy of Tom Jones - I think I'm holding out for that edition meself.
I'm glad you've got your reading mojo back (I really should patent that phrase at some point!). To my horror, I seem to have regained mine after accepting that me and Jane Eyre aren't getting on right now and that she needs to sit out of the way on the windowsill for a bit while I read some other things. I mean, she was my favourite! I read her twice as a kid and loved every minute! WHAT'S HAPPENING?! Why, at 25, am I struggling and getting bogged down in the moral banter, when I sailed through it as a child?! Stupid book. Grrrr. *goes back to hot zombies and books about books with stubborn defiance*
Oh, and read 'Warm Bodies', dude. But don't tell me if you don't like it because I want the world to love it and want to have its babies. It's that kind of awesomeness. :D
I really do want to read Warm Bodies! It didn't appeal at first, but so many people that I trust love it. Plus I just rewatched the trailer and I looks amazing. I wish I hadn't just spent another amazon voucher!
DeleteNo, the Jane Eyre thing probably makes sense. I mean, as a child, you probably loved it but only really paid attention to the story. Now you're older, your brain is telling you to take in the whole thing and technically you've never paid attention to those parts. It's a theory anyway :)
Gone Girl is amazing! Really dark and clever, but really easy to read at the same time. Read it so we can talk about it! There are too many twists to be able to write a coherent review lol.
That trailer was where it all started for me. It's not often I see a movie trailer and immediately go OMG I MUST SEE THIS FILM! WHEN DOES IT COME OUT? LET ME WRITE IT IN MY DIARY AND THERE SHALL BE POPCORN! but for this one I totally did all those things. And then I watched and rewatched it, and saw some other little clips and stuff, and YES the book is better and they've skewed the focus of the movie a bit, but both of them are kind of entwined together for me so I SHALL SAY I LOVE THEM BOTH. You've got me all excited again now.
DeleteP.S. I think you're right about J.E. You have much wisdom...
P.P.S. Gone Girl is bad for coherent reviewing? An excellent excuse for a vague but enthusiastic mini review, if ever I heard one! ;)
Whoa - the one in the middle does look hideous - and so un-Pride and Prejudice-like. I really like the green one, though. And after seeing all these editions I'm dying to see your collection now! :D
ReplyDeleteNow thats an awesome book haul! I need to read Gone Girl been on my shelf for months now. Enjoy all your fab reads.
ReplyDeleteNew follower via GFC.
My Bookhaul
Look at all those books! Great haul! Gone Girl was one of my favorite books last year, I love Gillian Flynn!
ReplyDeleteBree :)
Coffee Bean Bookshelf
I was lucky enough to get my hands on an ebook copy of Bitter Greens even though it doesn't have a release date here in the U.S. yet. I read it over the weekend and really loved it!
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, does it really say "Lock up your daughters, Darcy is in town"? That is awesome. And I would love to see your P&P collection.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your books. Happy reading :)
That P&P cover *is* horrendous, but I love the quote and think it's a great addition to your collection. Happy reading!
ReplyDelete