I Have To Own That #3

Well the shopping mood has descended upon Booking in Heels, and while I've banned myself from buying books it doesn't stop me from looking at bookish products.

 
Here's what has turned up on the radar this week.

I love this print more than life itself. Doesn't it just perfectly capture that feeling of fuzzy happiness you feel after reading a really great book?

I will have this on my living room wall one day.

Book Drunkard Print from Hesed Books and Gifts.

So a quick glimpse of Hanna Manor (that's my new favourite phrase, I swear) will reveal my slightly obessive love for frogs. I have a frog toothbrush holder, a frog scarf and even a frog hot water bottle.

Since I already have frog bookends, I thought I'd try and branch out. Owls are my second favourite animal and these Ollie Owl Bookends from The Literary Gift Company are adorable. 

Who remembers The Gruffalo? The wonderful children's book that the majority of our generation thinks of as a fond reminder of our childhood. Well the owners have licensed a whole merchandise range and it's adorable.

You can buy this Gruffalo Pencil Case from The Gruffalo Shop. 

'It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.'

Yay for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies! I'm not usually a fan of fanfiction-type novels of any classic, but even I have this one proudly displayed with all my other editions.

So who wouldn't want a zombie Elizabeth Bennett pendant? It's a bargain at $7 from The Halloween Queen.

So what bookish buys are tempting you this week?

Review: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

I'm not sure why, but Neil Gaiman has never really featured on my reading radar. I'd read Good Omens and loved it, but as a stand alone writer I'd never really had the inclination to pick up his books. I'm not sure what made me change my mind - possibly all my book blogger friends threatening to disown me if I didn't get it read immediately, but I'm glad I did regardless.

Under the streets of London there's a world most people could never even dream of. A city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, and pale girls in black velvet. Richard Mayhew is a young businessman who is about to find out more than he bargained for about this other London. A single act of kindness catapults him out of his safe and predictable life and into a world that is at once eerily familiar and yet utterly bizarre. There's a girl named Door, an Angel called Islington, an Earl who holds Court on the carriage of a Tube train, a Beast in a labyrinth, and dangers and delights beyond imagining ... And Richard, who only wants to go home, is to find a strange destiny waiting for him below the streets of his native city.

While I did enjoy reading Neverwhere, I can't help but feel it's ever-so-slightly over-rated. I'm not sure if it suffered from the weight of my too-heavy expectations or what, but I just didn't love it. There didn't seem to be much to set it apart from all the other urban fantasy books out there - you know, simply bouncing from clue-giver to clue-giver as an attempt to find the lost key/solve the murder of Miss Duvet/ get back to Never Never Land. I expected it to be cleverer, I think. Instead it's just fantasy. The tone is a lot more serious than I expected; I mean, it's still fairly light but not as funny or as acerbic as Pratchett and it's not as deep as most fantasy books.

That said, it does have some adorable little quirks that made me smile. I loved The Market - how could I not? A secret marketplace filled will all kinds of items, both magical and mundane, all available to be traded for a biro pen or a half-eaten sandwich. It somehow embodies the entire book for me - the diversity present in these scenes is, to a lesser extent, existent throughout the whole.

There are some interesting characters kicking about in there too. Door is a favourite of mine. She can unlock any door, padlock or box just by the power of her mind. It just seemed quite unique to me - it's not toted as 'magic,' it's just one of those cool things that makes Door... well, Door.

However, the absolute best thing about this book was Richard himself. He's nothing that special as protagonists go, but he was believable as a normal person (one of us, even) who suddenly finds that everything he thought was a myth is as real as real can be. Rats can talk, little smelly men inhabit the sewers of London, a mysterious beast terrorizes London Below... and Richard doesn't believe it. You don't know how refreshing that really is. I'm sick to the back teeth of urban fantasy characters that just automatically accept the newly magical world around them. I'd give Neil Gaiman an awful lot of brownie points for having Richard assume that it's either all a giant joke, he's dreaming or slightly insane. I know I wouldn't just suddenly believe in a secret underground world below London, so why should a fictional character?

I actually liked the epilogue-y thing, which is rare for me. I pretty much just hate Every Epilogue Ever Written, so for there to be one that made me smile is a pretty big thing. All Richard wants throughout the book is to get back to his life. It wasn't his fault he fell through one of the cracks and ended up in London Below, so he just wants a normal life. Without revealing the ending, there's a tiny little part that rounds off the whole thing nicely. Seriously, it's perfect. Not overdone, just... nice.

There's not much I really disliked about Neverwhere. I enjoyed reading it and I would do so again, it's just not the ultimate reading experience that I've had it described to me as.

I Have To Own This #2

I'm a sucker for book-related merchandise, I admit it. I'm also a sucker for desperately wanting something and then not being able to locate the link when payday finally rolls round. So this semi-regular post will hopefully have the dual-purpose of filling you all with bookish lust and allowing me to find the damn things if (read: when) I've decided that I can't possible live without them.

This might end up being slightly longer than normal as it's my birthday on the 4th and I've spent far too long this morning looking at bookish loot to buy afterwards :)

I nearly spat my Dr Pepper out when I saw these. InBook takes hardack editions of the classics (mostly) and turns them into a fully working iPod/iPhone charging station! How clever is that? The two above are book editions I actually own - Jane Eyre on the left and Pride and Prejudice on the right. 

These would look amazing laid on a book shelf; you couldn't ask for a more discreet charging system! They're not cheap - they're both $52 or about £32.68 - but in my opinion they're so worth it. Those particular ones can be found here and here.

This is Advaced Potion-Making, as recommended by Professor Horace Slughorn for his Potions students. Well, it's not, but it is a fully make-up book using old science and mathematic books. I'd love to get a look inside this one!

It's £15.21 from Elizanders and can be found here. Hell, I spend more than that on mass-produced, non-Pottery therefore more boring books every week.

 I know that anybody who has set foot even vaguely near a book-shop selling gifts will have seen this before, but I really like it. It features one of my favourite bookish quotes and is more than reasonably priced at £9.50 here.

 Right. So I will never, ever use this. I understand that. Yet I want it regardless.

I'll hang my head in shame and admit that I hate lending books. The only way you're leaving my house with a book is if I've previously inspected your hands for cleanliness, sprayed you with Dettol and extracted a signed declaration that you will not open it too far and therefore Break The Spine (so sacriligious it needed capital letters). 

So the chances of me ever needing a Personal Library Kit are admittedly rather slim. But, although I may be a Book Nazi... I'm also an Organisational Nazi. Who wouldn't want to stamp each book when it's loaned out and issue the borrower with a check-out card!?

Oh right. The rest of the world. Sorry... 

I Have To Own This #1

I'm a sucker for book-related merchandise, I admit it. I'm also a sucker for desperately wanting something and then not being able to locate the link when payday finally rolls round. So this semi-regular post will hopefully have the dual-purpose of filling you all with bookish lust and allowing me to find the damn things if (read: when) I've decided that I can't possible live without them.

  

These are all from Evie's Teesand I need them. If I don't get one of these within three weeks, I think I'm going to spontaneously combust and I'll just be a little heap of pink dust ad sad longing.

I can't decide which though. I prefer the Harry Potter ones to the Percy Jackson one (although that's still awesome), so I'd probably start with the Marauder one.

The same shop has some Hunger Game t-shirts too, but I'm more lusing after...

 

... this. It's from Amazon, of all places. I definitely want the above Potter-y t-shirts first, but then I have a voucher for Amazon.COM and for some reason these aren't on the UK website. We Britons want our fill of Hunger Games Goodness too, you know!