Christmas Book Haul

Top: Me, Rachel
Bottom: THEE Books

Mid-December I thought through a list of books I'd like to spend my B&N Christmas gift cards on and guest posted it to get everyone's opinion. First weekend of January, I met up with my equally book crazy friend Rachel and headed out to celebrate the New Year buying books. We spent no less than four hours going through shelves, drinking coffee, and talking! And, for the most part, I stuck to my list - may be a first really and probably renders this post redundant, but, who doesn't want to talk about a book haul trip and awesome friends? (Is that sentence grammatically and punctuationally correct?! Is punctuationally a word? Who cares...I'm not back to work yet!) Plus, I have a couple other bookish Christmas gifts to show off, so stick with me here people.



I used my gift cards for:

1. Every Day, by David Levithan. This was unplanned, but Rachel randomly picked it off the shelf and read the front blurb to me, which I couldn't resist. It reads, "Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl." The extended summary on the back gives a bit more detail and makes it even more interesting. Rachel put it on her ebook list, so I bought the copy we'd found.

2. Where'd You Go, Bernadette, by Maria Semple. I've been told repeatedly to read this, planned on it, and just went for it. At the register the cashier said, "Oh this is a good one!" So, I'm extra confident in it now!

3. Lookaway, Lookaway, by Wilton Barnhardt. Another that's been repeatedly recommended.

4, 5, 6. Outlander (not pictured), Dragonfly in Amber, and Voyager, by Diana Gabaldon. I had debated on the previous post whether or not I wanted to buy the whole series with my gift cards or just the first one to see if I liked it. Rachel made it simple by asking, "Well, are you one of those people who's going to read the whole series just because you read the first one and it's a series?" Sometimes you just need that bookish twin who knows the right questions to ask. She's right, I am that person, so I figured I'd buy the first few at least. And now I have another reason to go back! I had to ask B&N to order the trade paper copy of Outlanders WITHOUT the movie cover. So, it is on its way. But they had in stock books number 2&3! Now, when to read them? I'm thinking June will be perfect timing, but don't know if I can wait until then.

Besides my gift cards, other bookish gifts I received were a new book light from my parents, a bookmark from Allison at The Book Wheel , and a literary memory game from my sister. The bookmark is a Bookjig, which I've never seen before. It clips to the front of the book and has a ribbon hanging down. So when you're not reading, your bookmark doesn't get lost! The book light is extra small, sturdy for clipping to the front of the book, and doesn't get in the way. And the memory game is the Book Lovers Classics Edition! No one has played with me yet...it's like they think the pictures will give me extra memory power! Love them all.

Anyone else get great books/bookish gifts over the holidays?