How I Fell Off the Book Buying Ban Wagon, Into a Heap of Books...

Let me preface this by saying that in my mind, I have succeeded with the task I set myself. I set out to beat 3 months without buying books for myself, and I did SIX. This is amazing to me. Unfortunately then we went on holiday, and I allowed myself to buy books 'just while we were away', which then turned into 'all the time, whenever I leave the house'. So yeah.

Before you all have heart attacks, this is my pile from the last two months, so it's not as bad as it looks... (it is missing a few of the children's books that I bought though,as I've put them away, and a couple I bought on holiday as my sister now has them!)

They're stacked weirdly because they're the result of several different shopping trips, so I will go from top to bottom:

• The top two, The Price of Fame by Maisie Mosco and When It Happens to You by Molly Ringwald were bought on holiday in Devon  (along with a couple of chick lit type books and a James Bond that I can neither find nor remember which one it was), Maisie Mosco because it is the third book in a trilogy I already have one of, and Molly Ringwald mostly because I love The Breakfast Club and was curious...
• Just Listen by Sarah Dessen and The Nobodies Album by Carolyn Parkhurst were bought from a lovely second hand bookshop in Lewes when we were there recently. I was killing time while Rhys was at an interview (which he didn't get, so we'll still be living next to the sea for the forseeable future!) and there were a few bookshops. It would have been rude not to go in!
• Fairy Stories by E. Nesbit was a local purchase (Oxfam Bookshop in Canterbury). Although I'm massively failing at it, she is my author of the year and I've never seen this before, so it's a nice addition to my fairytales collection. 
• The Enormous Room by E.E Cummings, Farewell Miss Julie Logan by J.M Barrie & The Hive by Gill Hornby were purchases from a recent trip to Deal & Folkestone with my sister and her boyfriend (and Rhys and Benji, obviously). We discovered a second hand bookshop in Deal that I've never been to before and were ridiculously excited to find the Barrie book, as I don't think I've ever found any of his work that isn't Peter Pan anywhere! The Hive is by Nick Hornby's sister and I wanted to get it after I heard her talking (via Radio 2) at the Edinburgh Book Festival. It sounds interesting and I want to see if she's as enjoyable a writer as her brother. 
• The Crimson Fairy Book by Andrew Lang was an addition from our day out in London minus baby for Rhys' birthday. I got really excited when I found it as you don't see them very much. So far I only have one and being the massive geek I am, I'm obviously trying to get all of them...
• Elephants Don't Sit on Cars by David Henry Wilson (which is part of his series of books about Jeremy James and seriously, if you have children/know any children/need to buy presents for children you should be buying these books. They are absolutely hilarious and amazing), The Wandering Wombles by Elisabeth Beresford, Nights with Uncle Remus by Joel Chandler Harris (another addition to the folklore collection and one I've never seen second hand before), and Santa: A Life by Jeremy Seal were all acquisitions from my favourite charity bookshop in Margate. 

So yes, that happened. I'm madly busy this week/month/year as (yay) my business has started to pick up a bit so I'm knitting like a madwoman, as well as which I'm taking a course on Coursera in Modern and Contemporary American Poetry, because I miss literature, as well as trying to read The Historian for the RIP readalong at the Estella Society and organise the Halloween Ninja Book Swap :-) I am busy, and I love it! There will hopefully be some reviews/bookish posts in between this madness. I will try to be here as much as I can, but in the meantime, who's excited about Halloween swapping? I know I am! Look out for sign up details which will be going up soon!