book haul

I've blogged about Hylands House before, this weekend we took a rather soggy walk around the grounds. Aside for a blast of fresh air, the main reason I wanted to visit is for the fabulous second-hand bookshop they have in the old stables. 

Paperbacks are £1.50 and 3 for 2, and they are have a good amount of stock neatly arranged. I was talking to the chaps at the till and they said there are plans to double the size of the shop, so it's going to get even better. In my opinion its the best second-hand book shop in Chelmsford. 

I was moderately restrained and only bought 4 books:

• Xiaolu Guo, A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers
• Jaqueline Sunsa, Valley of the Dolls
• Lloyd Jones, Mister Pip
• Armistead Maupin, Tales of the City 

Admittedly I still have those Man Booker books to get through  (so far I've read 2 and 2 halves) but these where so cheap I couldn't resist. Plus in my defence - the Man Booker's are all hardbacks and they're a bit heavy to lug around in my work bag. 

What do think of my haul? Have you read any of them?

book haul

I've broken my self imposed book buying ban in a big way, but in my defence 3 of the 5 are second-hand.

Nnedi Okorafor, Who Fears Death
After reading the kindle sample of this I was immediately hooked. *Trigger warning rape and violence.
Recently I've been interested in reading afro-futurism (inspired by my new found love for Octavia Butler) so this novel fit the bill.    

Octavia E. Butler, Seed to Harvest
Speaking of Octavia E. Butler, this collection of the Patternist series also got put in my shopping trolley. Seed to Harvest contains four novels and fits into the afro-futurism/ science-fiction genre. For my review of another of Octavia Butler's books, Kindred see here.

Margaret Atwood, The Robber Bride and Bluebeard's Egg
I've mentioned several times on this blog that I'm a massive Atwood fan, and as both these books were going cheap second-hand on Amazon I couldn't resist. The Robber Bride is a strong contender for my favourite Atwood, so I felt I had to remedy the fact that I didn't actually own it. Bluebeard's Egg is a collection of retold fairy-stories (similar to Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber) so I had to have it. It's like a triple thumbs up, Margaret Atwood, yep! Fairytales, yep yep!, feminist re-telling, yep yep yep!

Jeanette Winterson, Sexing the Cherry
I was very impressed with Winterson's retelling of the myth of Hercules in Weight, so thought I should work my way through some more of her back catalogue. Sexing the Cherry is similar to Bluebeard's Egg, more fairytales.

What do you think of my book haul? Have you got any suggestions of what I should add to my reading list?

Book Haul

Here is my recent book haul from Hylands House, they're second-hand but look like they've barely been read and I got them for a grand total of £3.10! 

1. Jeanette Winterson, Weight: I'm a big fan of Greek mythology, so I put this short novel in my basket as it is about a deal made between Atlas and Hercules.

2. Irvine Welsh, Filth: A novel about a corrupt police officer investigating a racially motivated murder (highly topically at the moment, with the recent Stephen Lawrence inquiry). For my review of another Welsh novel click here

3. Elizabeth Wurtzel, Bitch: I felt slightly embarrassed about handing this over to the sweet, old ladies behind the counter. It is a collection of essays about 90s feminism and how bad girls have more fun.  

Hylands House

The sunshine this weekend meant pretty much the entire population of Chelmsford was at Hylands House. The car park was absolutely mental.

"In London, love and scandal are considered the best sweeteners of tea" - John Osborne

If you want to have a rummage around second hand and independent bookshops, one of the best areas you can go in London is around Leicester square.

There are loads of bookshops waiting to be discovered in the vicinity, we stumbled upon Cecil Court (WC2N 4EZ) completely by accident.

Established over 100 years ago Watkins specialises in occult books 

Alice Through the Looking Glass

After having a wander around the bookshops and The National Portrait Gallery we were parched, so went to probably one of the most unusual places we have ever had a cup of tea- the crypts of a church