In case you missed it, I went back to the UK this month. It was the first time I’ve been back since I left after finishing school over there in 2009. It was a wonderful trip and I got to see so many people who I haven’t seen in SO long! We attended a wonderful wedding in London for my friend Emily and then afterward were joined by my childhood best friend Alie in London.
Not only did I see a bunch of friends from Leeds, but I also got to see a few friends from summer camp which was even better! I won’t spend the whole post talking about it, but suffice to say there are a lot of photos that I want to share but won’t because I either can’t be bothered to edit them or don’t want to overwhelm everyone. Highlights of the trip, specifically book related include: Jane Austen’s House (photos after the jump (left), Warner Brothers: The Making of Harry Potter Studio Tour, British Library and National Portrait Gallery. I didn’t have NEARLY enough time at Jane Austen’s, but I will go back eventually. That’s a photo of me and I was so excited and I was smiling so much that my eyes are closed in all of the photos.
We did a lot of touristy things because Tim and my best friend Alie hadn’t been to London. We visited Stonehenge (below right), the British Museum, the London Eye, Baker Street, the Natural History Museum, Hyde Park, Soho, the Tate Modern, and even took a river cruise on the Thames. As a bonus I’ve included my postcards at the bottom of the post.
Books and Bookish Things
Even though I’ve been traveling, I’m slowly getting back into the swing of reading and blogging again. Once I got through the slog of a read How to Survive a Summer, I was able to almost finish A Series of Unfortunate Events.
- How to Survive a Summer – Nick White
- The Hostile Hospital (A Series of Unfortunate Events #8) – Lemony Snicket
- The Carnivorous Carnival (A Series of Unfortunate Events #9) – Lemony Snicket
- The Slippery Slope (A Series of Unfortunate Events #10) – Lemony Snicket
- The Grim Grotto (A Series of Unfortunate Events #11) – Lemony Snicket
- Sovereign (Nemesis #2) – April Daniels
- The Penultimate Peril (A Series of Unfortunate Events #12) – Lemony Snicket
I of course picked up quite a few bookish things in the UK, enough so that we had to use our packable bag for me to bring all our souvenirs home 😀 On the left are the Little Black Classics from Penguin I picked up in South Kensington and two copies of Wuthering Heights I picked up. On the right are my souvenirs including the ornaments we got (Stonehenge, Jane Austen, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw), the “complete” works of both Jane Austen and the Brontë’s and the box of 100 book cover post cards (wait for a later post :-D).
We accidentally stumbled upon Word on the Water, the floating bookshop in London and I was SOO excited (left). I picked up one of my copies of Wuthering Heights there. And there was the cool page chandelier in the Foyles in Waterloo station (right).
I also had time to start catching up on blogs and podcasts that I had neglected and stumbled across these two pieces. The romance podcast is a two-part series and it’s really good!
Up Next
We have another vacation planned, an Alaskan cruise, for Tim’s birthday and I’m hoping I’ll actually have a bit more reading time on that one than I did on this past vacation. I’m also finally wrapping up things on the job I left full-time so that should also be done next month. I’m really hoping to make a dent on the big pile of galleys that have backed up over the past year and most importantly I’m gearing up for Book 500 which I already know will be the beautiful copy of Love and Freindship and Other Youthful Writings that Tim got me ages ago as part of the boxed set.
From top left to right:
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
- Hogwarts Crest
- I’m still really upset they didn’t have Ravenclaw postcards, it was the only one sold out, but it’s kind of funny when you think about it.
- Jane Austen’s portrait by Cassandra Austen
- Sad this wasn’t on display at the National Portrait Gallery, I mean it IS the 200th anniversary of her death this year.
- London Skyline from the Tate Modern
- Jane Austen’s House in Chawton
- Emily Brontë portrait by Branwell Brontë on display at the National Portrait Gallery
- Anne, Emily and Charlotte Brontë portrait by Branwell Brontë on display at the National Portrait Gallery
- Jane Austen’s “turquoise” ring on display at the Jane Austen House Museum
- Stonehenge at sunrise
- Stonehenge at night
This sounds like an amazing trip! I was in London for a bookshop crawl a little while ago and had to skip out before we got to Word on the Water, which made me sad. I’m still hoping to go back there some time soon. Glad you had a good trip 🙂
And I too love The Allusionist (though I will confess that the romance novel ones sounded a bit too racy for my personal tastes, so I skipped them). I loved the recent episode on the dictionary, which I think is called Authority, and I recommend it if you haven’t heard it yet.
The trip was WONDERFUL! I wish I had more time to explore bookshops, but I’ll be back eventually.
I’m trying to remember if the episode was super racy, I don’t think it was. I even felt like they used non-racy words to talk about racy subjects.
Maybe I’ll give that episode a try, then. 🙂