hi :) it's Penny here, also known as the lethallime reads, and as usual I'm here
to talk about some bookish things. Specifically, today we're going to talk
about all the books that I've bought recently-ish. So I don't usually buy
books, although I do have 20 books to talk about today... um... oops?! I will say most
of these books I bought at second-hand shops or book fairs and so they were
like two dollars / two dollars fi.fty so I think that's acceptable
I don't feel too guilty although I do know that I was trying to get my
physical TBR down and it was like about 70 ish books before this. And now it's
gonna be a lot more. But anyway that's fine.
I wanted them all so I've got them. Firstly I'm gonna talk about the books that
I actually purchased new. I think there's about five of them. And then I'll get
into my op shop finds and then finally all the ones I got at a recent book fair.
I guess another perspective for the op shop and the book fair things is that all
the money goes to charity so I can feel good about helping different charities.
Alright so, new books! Some of these I bought a little while ago but I haven't
talked about them much. Some of them I've talked about a little bit. So firstly I
picked up the tenth book of the Kate Daniel series. This is the tenth and final
book. I already read it earlier in the year... last year? Whenever it came out. I
borrowed it from the library but I did want my own copy. I am a little bit sad
because it's not quite the same size as the other nine books that I have in this
series. :ike this one I think is like the second book and you can see - different
heights. Bummer. But not the end of the world. I do think the cover for this one
is pretty good so I guess I will learn to deal with the fact that it's different.
It's not so bad now because I've got my shelves rainbowarized they're all in
different places anyway. Before they used to be next to each other so it was
really obvious. Now it's not so obvious. Then I also picked up the collector's
edition for the Darker Shade of Magic series and I have also pre-ordered the
third book. The main reason I did this is because I heard that the third book the
collector's edition is going to have Kel's backstory in it and that's
something I'm really interested in and I decided if I was gonna buy the
collector's edition of the third book then I really needed to have the first
two and I am really happy with these books. I think they're really beautiful
and lovely so I'm counting that as a win. Then I did also pick up a couple of
books from the Warehouse. The Warehouse in New Zealand is this like bargain
department store and they often have little bargain bins of books. I try not
to look at them but occasionally I do and I ended up picking up for $3
(well three dollars and seven cents actually but what kind of price is that?) so
I picked up the Time Machine and other stories by HG Wells. I really love
time-travel stories so it's ridiculous that I haven't read The Time Machine and
since it was only three dollars, I thought why not get myself a copy so I
did. And then I also picked up for $16 which I debated whether this was
actually worth it but I guess I decided it was and that is Legion in the Many
Lives of Steven Leeds by Brandon Sanderson. I love Brandon
Sanderson. I don't really know much of what this is about. Something about a guy
named Stephen Leeds who has different aspects of himself and the different
aspects of himself have different skills? I don't know but I have seen some people
talk about this and say it's good. I think it's actually the wrap up of
several like shorter stories. So "an omnibus edition of the three amazing
novellas: Legion, Legion: Skin Deep and Legion: Lives of the Beholder. So three
stories in here and I will be excited to get to this at some point. So those are
all the new books that I bought. It's not too many. I think that is all the new
books I bought for the whole year so it's like nothing really.
So then we'll talk about op shop books. So one time we stayed in this fancy
hotel for free in town and while we were there we went for a wander and we found
this really cool secondhand book store and it had this big shelf of fantasy
books and I wanted to buy a lot but they were $6 each and so I limited myself to two.
And the first one I got is In The Ruins by Kate Elliot. This is the sixth
book in a seven book series where I have all other six books so I needed to
pick up the sixth one and since I found it I decided to get
it. But they will be an additional comment to this book when I get to a later book.
We'll just put it aside. I also found the second book of the Galactic Milleu
trilogy, Diamond Mask. So this is a really cool trilogy all about people developing
their psychic powers but it's also a murder mystery. I've read it before but I
really loved it and I want to reread it as well as the other series that's set in
the same world except the other series is back in time and both the stories
link into each other because there's time-travel. I love time travel. So I'm
really excited to reread this series and for $6 I couldn't resist picking up the
second book. I love this 90s style cover. It's just so beautiful. Then we went to
another op shop and I found the first and the third books from the same series
in the same style! Which I was so impressed and it was just these first
and third ones like it was just waiting to go with my beautiful second one. I
like to imagine that originally they all lived together somewhere and I've
reunited them. So we've got Jack the Bodiless is the first one, and Diamond
Mask is the second one, and Magnificant is the third one. I'm so
excited that I managed to get hold of that whole series and for like $10 total.
Good deal! Then another day we did go to another book fair and the books here
were also $2 and I managed to get the Power of One by Bryce Courtenay. So I
realized a little while ago that for some reason I only have on my shelves
Tandia, the sequel and I know my mum has a copy of the Power of One -
she's never gonna give that up so I thought I would get my own copy of this.
It's a story about this young boy growing up in Africa and I guess it's a story about
race, and justice, and violence? It's a story about a lot of things. I haven't read it
in a long time but I would like to reread it as well as rereading the
sequel Tandia. Then at that same op shop I managed to find Dawn's Early
Light by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris. This is the second book in the Ministry
of Peculiar Occurrences series and i do have the first book on my TBR shelves
and i haven't read it yet so I really shouldn't
letting myself pick up the sequel but I was just in the mode where I wanted to
pick up books. I don't even know that much about the series except I think
it's like steampunk. I liked all the other stuff I've read by Philippa Ballantine.
She's also a New Zealand author although she lives in America so I was interested
to get more of her stuff. I'll get to it at some point. Okay so now we're going to
talk about all the ones that I got at the book fair recently. Actually went
back because it's a three day book fair I went on the first day and the last day
and picked up lots of books both times. It was a lot of fun, but let's talk about
the most interesting one, I think, in terms of story. So they do this book
fair at a school and there's this classroom dedicated to children's books
and it has like really young children's books as well as like chapter books for
older children but it's all children's books. And the children's books are also
cheaper, they're only a dollar each or fifty cents if its like a, quite a small
book. So while I was going through the children's books I found In The Ruins by
Kate Elliott and you might notice that that's the same book as this one. But I
love these covers way better and it's a dollar so I bought this which means the
six dollar one I don't really need anymore.
Oops. I'll find a new home for that one. But this one, what's especially funny
about it being in the children's section. I mean, I guess somebody looked at it and
was like oh a beautiful fairy, that's a lovely children's book. But really it's
like a 500 page book and this series is all about war and people fighting over
the kingdom and dark magic and murder and rape. Like it should not be in the
children's section and I can only imagine what could have happened if a
child had picked this up. So I did a good deed by buying it. I saved the children
from being traumatized and I got myself a pretty book at the same time. So I also
picked up The Murder Complex by Lindsey Cummings. So Lindsey Cummings wrote
what's it called? D? Nexus is is the sequel... the first one was called Zenith!
Zenith. So Lindsey Cummings is the author who wrote Zenith along with Sasha
Alsberg, who's a well-known booktuber and I read Zenith, didn't really enjoy it.
I'm kind of interested to see what Lindsey's writing is like when she's
writing alone. Also this is more of like a paranormal horror I believe so I don't
know. I picked it up just because curiosity mainly and I was kind of
surprised to find it I've made its way all the way down here to New Zealand. I
never expect to find anything in New Zealand because quite often shipping is
very expensive to New Zealand and so certain things just don't really make
their way down here. But since I'm talking about how difficult it is for
things to get to New Zealand, I'll talk about some other surprises I found. And
that is I also found an advanced readers copy of The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock. I
read this earlier this year... last year? Sometime. I read this and it's really
weird but there were some parts I really liked. Probably some part I didn't
like. So it's like a historical fantasy... but the fantasy is questionable. Like you're never
sure, is there really a mermaid? Is there not? There's kind of two mermaids and the
second kind of mermaid I thought was so unique and amazing and I loved it. So I
thought I would pick this up especially because it's an ARC. I never expect to
see those in New Zealand. I just think publishers won't bother
sending books down here because it's too far away and there's not enough people
but it turns out they do. I've actually found a few ARCs lately. I found one in
this middle of nowhere scary as shit op-shop
and there was another reader copy at the book fair that I saw. I didn't pick up
either of those because I wasn't really interested in them but this one I
thought, why not? It's got like these weird pink pages and it really is a
beautiful book so I'm glad to be able to have it on my shelves. And the other book
that has an interesting feature is this copy of Elantris that I found. Now
unfortunately it is a bit ruined and like looking at the book under the dust
jacket uhhh ugly but it is an autographed copy. And I... I will admit also that
Brandon Sanderson's signature is boring. Really boring.
and I had to Google in the middle of the
book fair whether it was even really his signature but it looks like it is so I
thought well why not get an autographed copy of Elantris. I do really like
Elantris although I do already have a paperback copy and I think if
I was ever gonna reread this I would much prefer to read the paperback
copy because it's so much smaller. Like look at the difference in size! This way
and this way. I'd definitely rather cuddle up with us
in bed than cuddle up with this but it's signed so why not. It's also got
this annoying sticker. Like why would you stick a horrible sticker on an
autographed book and like just devalue it straight away? Why would you do that?
Honestly some booksellers do some really questionable things. Ok we still got
a big stack here. So also I picked up this copy of Tales of Suspense by Edgar
Allan Poe. This is just a bunch of his short stories. I mainly bought it because
it just looks like the kind of book that would be cool to have on your shelves.
Is that a good reason. It's two dollars fifty. It's fine. I just noticed as well it has
this weird little like Reader's Digest thing in the front about this book.
That's weird. I've only read a few Edgar Allen Poe
stories and I've enjoyed them so I would like at some point to read some
more of his stuff. I also picked up Libromancer by Jim C Hines. So I've seen
him mentioned a lot but I've never read any of his stuff - maybe some of his
short stories? I'm not sure but I have seen this series mentioned before. I
believe it's like a librarian who has some kind of magical powers and has to
protect the world with those powers? I don't really know but it's
something that I would like to read. Then I got these ones which I think a totally
bizarre. I already talked about them in my reading vlog although did I post that one?
That is these Avril Lavigne graphic novels that are also illustrated by this artist
Camilla d'Errico, who I follow on Instagram so
kind of weird to that I never knew that she did some kind of Avril Lavinge
collaboration. It looks like it'll have some kind of paranormal aspect because
there's some kind of cute little monster. I don't know the ex library books from a
local school so I couldn't resist picking them up. Like I'm not a huge Avril Lavigne
fan but I like her stuff okay and I'm just really interested to see what an Avril
Lavigne graphic novel might be like. Then I also found a few Baby-Sitters Club
books and I have a big stash of about fifty baby-sitters Club books in my
closet and most of the ones I found I already have in there. I don't know that
I need a babysitter's club book collection but I have one and I don't
have book number 103 so I thought why not pick it up. It was $1.00. Why not?
This is Happy Holidays Jessi, Sure cool. One day I'll read it. Then I also
found Third Degree by Tania Roxborogh. So Tanya Roxborogh was my sixth form
drama teacher. I remember hearing about when she
released this like just after I left school so I'm interested to see what my
drama teacher might write a story about. Then I also picked up The Girl on the
Train by Paula Hawkins. So there were a few classrooms dedicated to bargain
books which I guess are books that they've had a long time and nobody's
really been interested in buying them. I went through all of that. They're only a
dollar. I couldn't find many that I was interested in but I did find this. I've
seen these books all the time at op shops and markets and so I thought, fine
the universe clearly wants me to buy it. Although really all it means is that a lot
of people have bought this and read it because you would not believe how many
copies of Twilight the book fair has. Also Divergent and Hunger Games were
pretty common amongst the books. There's just you can tell the really common books
because they're everywhere So I don't read that many thrillers but
I wanted to get to this at one point and for a dollar I don't have to try to get
hold of it. I've got it. Then I also found the fourth book in the Percy Jackson
series and I just finished reading the first book in the series and I
quite enjoyed it so I decided that I would pick up the fourth book. Now I
don't own the second or the third books but this is the same kind of edition as
my first book so at least they go together.
Maybe one day I'll find the second and the third book. Although the question
is whether I'll wait until the end to continue the series or whether I will
just get the books from the library. I'm not sure but I don't think that I would buy
these ones new because I'm pretty confident that at some point I will be
able to find them second hand. Then I also picked up Glass Sword by Victoria
Aveyard. So I already have Red Queen on my TBR shelf. I haven't got
to reading it yet. I know that reviews of this series are very mixed. Some people
love it, some people hate it and think it's not very unique. I don't know how I
will feel. I'm a little bit scared that I won't like it but my sister was there
at the book fair with me and I asked her should I buy this and she seemed sort of
interested in it so I thought, you know what, if I read the series and I don't
like it, I can just give these books to her. And they are pretty so at least they've
got that going for them. Oh and that is all of the fiction books that I got. I
did also manage to pick up a couple of nonfiction ones that I was interested in
although actually I already own both of these. So this one Images of
Organization is a really great book about different ways of structuring
organizations. I read it when I was at university and I really loved it but my
copy from University has heaps of writing through it because I got it- when
know at university I had to buy secondhand because I didn't have a lot
of money. But now I can afford two dollars fifty to buy a version that's
like beautiful and new and I did want to reread this at some point and now it'll
be a beautiful experience and I can put my own notes on it without having some
other idiot that's highlighted like whole pages. Like what's the point in
highlighting a whole page?!?!! So now I've got my own beautiful copy. And I also picked
up Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker. So Peter Drucker
is another one who I read quite a lot of essays by when I was in management
school and I really respect his opinion. And Innovation and Entrepreneurship is a
book that I really want to read. I must really want to read it because when I got
back home I discovered I already have another copy on my shelf. This version's
littler though... but the writing's tiny so I'm not sure which one I will probably
prefer to read. Probably the other one to be honest...
but if I like this then I can lend this out to people and recommend it to people
so that's it's good to have like a little spare copy that I can lend out.
So those are all twenty books that I have acquired recently. I think actually
that's all the books that I've purchased this year, although most of them were
purchased in the last week. Honestly most of the books left on my physical TBR are
from this book fair that I went to last week. I just can't seem to stop myself
from buying lots of books. However I have been getting that shelf down recently
so hopefully even though I've just bumped it up a bunch I can get it down
again to a reasonable level this year. That's the plan anyway! Do let me know if
you have read any of the books I talked about today. What do you think about them?
Are they worth reading? Were they worth my two dollars fifty? Or
were any of the books in this haul something that you're hoping to read in the future?
Maybe you can motivate me to pick them up sooner?
Otherwise that's all I have for today. Thank you so much for watching. I hope
you're having a wonderful day and I will see you next time :)