We are done traveling (long haul at least) for the summer! I know most people would not be as excited about this as I am, but it is exhausting.
I put a photo recap down below under books and bookish things because most everything we saw was connected to books, except for my friend’s wedding. We drove over 24 hours in total while we were visiting and it was awesome because we saw parts of the country I’ve never seen except by train or plane. The above photo is our full trip with a photo of our northern post point Ben A’an and our southern most point Brighton.
We did so many bookish things that I’ll just include a slide show below and put a caption explaining what they are rather than write them all out. We didn’t even set out to do that many it just happened (mostly because Tim told me this was our last trip to the UK for some time).
Books and Bookish Things
First, I have to share this inappropriate, but what isn’t when it’s Cards Against Humanity, game winning “haiku” I created on the I created on the fourth of July, it’s technically book related because of Harry Potter right? I thought it was worth the winning vote 😀
I read A LOT this month. I finished seven books and am a good chunk of the way through my eighth, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. If I’m honest it’s this Harry Potter re-read that’s keeping me ahead of the game this month 😀 Nothing like revisiting a series of favorite books and making myself read a galley/ARC between each one for motivation.
- Romancing Miss Brontë – Juliet Gael
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Harry Potter #1) – J.K. Rowling
- You Are Not Alone – Debbie Augenthaler
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter #2) – J.K. Rowling
- Superhero Ethics – Travis Smith
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter #3) – J.K. Rowling
- Mary B – Katherine Chen
I only have three outstanding galleys/ARCs left and I’ll be all caught up! I surprisingly finished Mary B on it’s publication day even though my response won’t be posted for another week or so. Yay pre-scheduled posts!
These are the two cool things I came across this month on the book internet. The top one is awesome and reminds me of that scene in Pitch Perfect where Jesse uses record covers to do something similar to make Beca laugh. The second is just an awesome art form.
A Centuries-Old Art Form Hides Within the Gilded Pages of Antique Books https://t.co/Mey1pwKxmL #art #literature #books #history #artdex pic.twitter.com/SPxAN2N3xy
— ARTDEX (@theARTDEX) July 20, 2018
New Acquisitions
Now I didn’t go to the U.K. planning to buy a bunch of books. I only went planning to buy two and to check out some editions of Jane Austen that I’m considering purchasing for my future reading copies. I have three galleys left (two below with *) and I’m all caught up. I accepted one more, but
- Queer City – Peter Akroyd
- The Complete Poems – Emily Brontë
- The Invisible Library – Genevieve Cogman
- Just Julian – Markus Harwood-Jones*
- Romeo for Real – Markus Harwood-Jones*
- Boy Meets Hamster – Birdie Milano
- The Eagle of the Ninth (The Eagle of the Ninth Chronicles #1) – Rosemary Sutcliff
- The Silver Branch (The Eagle of the Ninth Chronicles #2) – Rosemary Sutcliff
- The Lantern Bearers (The Eagle of the Ninth Chronicles #3) – Rosemary Sutcliff
I got The Eagle of the Ninth Chronicles from one of our stops along Hadrian’s Wall because they were young adult and kind of neat sounding. Queer City I picked up because it was in the discount bin for 50% off since it’s cover was missing and I saw it last year when we were in the U.K. but it was a bit too expensive new.
I also picked up two more copies of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone for my collection of foreign language editions. I picked up the Scots edition and the Ravenclaw edition. I didn’t realize they were releasing them in the house colors and thought it was awesome! I won’t get the whole set but that first one added to my foreign language ones is kind of neat.
What’s Next?
I’m looking forward to August being a bit of a slower month when it comes to travel and seeing people. I think we’re going to go with our roommate up to New Hampshire for his birthday and we both have family visiting, but since we’ll be staying mostly put it’ll be calmer. As I said above, I’m already into Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and I’m hoping to read Mark Adam’s Tip of the Iceberg that I received around it’s publication in May but had such a long backlog of books to get through I’m just now thinking about it. It’s a reflection on his 3,000 mile journey in Alaska.
Ooh, I can’t wait to hear what you think of Mary B. I am considering buying it, but it’s expensive here, even for a newly-released hardback, so I want to be reasonably sure. I read a wonderful article by the author about how much she is fascinated by Mary, which is a feeling that I very much share (in fact, her article was basically a much more eloquent version of a blog post that I wrote a couple of years ago), which gives me hope that the book will be good.
You may like it! I felt it had some pretty big flaws, but it was well written. I could read something else by her but I would prefer it not be about Austen.
I almost picked up that Scots edition at our Highland Games this year. I still might eventually.
Sounds like a great trip! I always come home with way more books than expected. I love checking out local bookstores, and it’s just too hard to leave without a book or two.
I’m surprised it took me this long to get it but I think buying it in Glasgow was the kicker for me 😬