Book Haul

Hi, guys!
It's Book Haul Time *turns on music* Yes, that's right. I bought more books.... I don't have a problem I swear.... O.o
*coughs* Anywho, first book!
The first book I bought when I went to the Hay Festival, which is a book festival in a little town called Hay on Wye - Side Note: Definitely retiring there, so many book shops! - I got it in the Oxfam Book Tent and it is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Here's the blurb:

Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.

Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and a galaxy-full of fellow travelers.
{blurb via}

I've wanted to read this book for a while now and I saw it in the Oxfam tent and decided to get it. It's money to charity, after all! They did have the other three in the series (not the fifth) and they were all a matching set but I didn't want to get them and then not like the first one. I'm really looking forward to reading this - I love sci-fi. :)

The second book I also picked up in the Oxfam Book Tent. It is Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin. Read the blurb below:

If Naomi had picked tails, she would have won the coin toss.
She wouldn't have had to go back for the yearbook camera, and she wouldn't have hit her head on the steps.
She wouldn't have woken up in an ambulance with amnesia.
She certainly would have remembered her boyfriend, Ace. She might even have remembered why she fell in love with him in the first place.
She would understand why her best friend, Will, keeps calling her "Chief." She'd get all his inside jokes, and maybe he wouldn't be so frustrated with her for forgetting things she can't possibly remember.
She'd know about her mom's new family.
She'd know about her dad's fiancee.
She wouldn't have to spend her junior year relearning all the French she supposedly knew already.
She never would have met James, the boy with the questionable past and the even fuzzier future, who tells her he once wanted to kiss her.
She wouldn't have wanted to kiss him back.
But Naomi picked heads.
{blurb via}

Doesn't it sound amazing? I don't normally read these sorts of books - the light-hearted, warm and fuzzy type, but I've decided to branch out. Also, it's nice to be reading a book and not worrying about which of your favourite characters are going to die... I've heard great things about this book and I'm super excited to read it! I really want to read another book by Gabrielle Zevin called Elsewhere. Check it out on Goodreads here.

The third and final book I got at Hay is Flyaway by Lucy Christopher. The blurb is below:

While visiting her father in hospital, thirteen-year-old Isla meets Harry, the first boy to understand her and her love of the outdoors. But Harry is ill, and as his health fails, Isla is determined to help him in the only way she knows how. Together, they watch a lone swan struggling to fly on the lake outside Harry's window.
{blurb via}

I didn't actually buy this book, my mum got it for me. I had seen Lucy Christopher the previous day at Hay with my school - she wrote Stolen, which is an amazing book, definitely one of my favourite stand-alones - and so my mum decided to get me this book as it was on the signed copies table. I'm quite looking forward to reading this. It might be a bit young for me, but I read Rooftoppers a while ago which I thought would be a bit too young and I ended up thoroughly enjoying that book. Hopefully the same will go for Flyaway!

The next three books I bought at my local charity shop. I love that place. Paperbacks are 20p and Hardbacks range from 50p - £2. I bought 10 books once, for £2. You can't even buy one book on Amazon for that money! (For those Americans among you, *Googles it* 32 cents for Paperbacks. 75 cents - $3.35 for Hardbacks. Just so you can see why I love this shop!)

The first book I got there is A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly. You know the drill, the blurb's below:

When Mattie is given letters by a guest at the hotel where she has a summer job, she thinks the guest is simply upset. But when the woman is found drowned the next day, Mattie must decide whether she will read them, or burn them as requested. 
A touching, funny, surprising novel set in 1906 and based on a true story.
{blurb via}

Apparently this is called A Northern Light in America...? I'm really excited to read this - I love a good murder mystery! The fact that this is based on a true story will probably make it an even better read!

The next book I got is Lord of the Flies by William Golding. I'm pretty sure we have this somewhere, but I don't know where it is and now I have my own copy so...:

William Golding's compelling story about a group of very ordinary small boys marooned on a coral island has become a modern classic. At first it seems as thought it is all going to be great fun; but the fun before long becomes furious and life on the island turns into a nightmare of panic and death. As ordinary standards of behaviour collapse, the whole world the boys know collapses with them - the world of cricket and homework and adventure stories - and another world is revealed beneath, primitive and terrible
{blurb via}

This is one of those classics that I've been meaning to read for quite some time now and I just haven't got around to it. Hopefully now that I have it, I'll read it sooner!

The last book I bought in the charity shop is The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham:

Bill Masen, bandages over his wounded eyes, misses the most spectacular meteorite shower England has ever seen. Removing his bandages the next morning, he finds masses of sightless people wandering the city. He soon meets Josella, another lucky person who has retained her sight, and together they leave the city, aware that the safe, familiar world they knew a mere twenty-four hours before is gone forever.

But to survive in this post-apocalyptic world, one must survive the Triffids, strange plants that years before began appearing all over the world. The Triffids can grow to over seven feet tall, pull their roots from the ground to walk, and kill a man with one quick lash of their poisonous stingers. With society in shambles, they are now poised to prey on humankind.
{blurb via}

How cool does that sound?! It's a sci-fi dystopian...but it's a classic. It just sounds amazing. My dad was telling me about it a while ago because I was expressing my love for sci-fi by being generally weird and enthusiastic about a sci-fi book I'd read recently. And there it was, in the charity shop. I cannot wait to read it!

And the last book, my favourite of the seven - City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare:

Erchomai, Sebastian had said.

I am coming.

Darkness returns to the Shadowhunter world. As their society falls apart around them, Clary, Jace, Simon and their friends must band together to fight the greatest evil the Nephilim have ever faced: Clary's own brother. Nothing in the world can defeat him - must they journey to another world to find the chance?
{blurb via}

This. Book. I finished it on Saturday and.... I cried. Only cried twice at a book before - Allegiant and this one. I don't cry at books. Did at this one. A certain thing happens in Chapter 23, I think it is, on page 642, and it tore my heart into little pieces! If you've read the book, you know what I'm talking about. If you've read the book and you don't, go back to page 642 and read it again. If you have not read the book or are in the process of reading it but have not yet reached page 642, a) don't go to page 642, massive plot spoiler, don't do it! and b) I've warned you. Be prepared. That's all I can do for you, I'm sorry...
I will either be posting a CoHF book talk tomorrow or sometime next week, it depends on how I'm feeling tomorrow!

Aaahhhh, what a beautiful book pile. Right, I'm off to read Fangirl. I decided to read that because it is
completely different to CoHF. If I read anything similar to that - fantasy, action/adventure etc. - I'd just be like "Where's Jace?! You're not Jace" *groans* "I want Simon back. You're not as funny as Simon" *whines* *groans* *throws away book* "NO I WANT THE SHADOWHUNTERS NOT YOU!" and end up missing out on an amazing book because I'm still in my state of depression/mourning period/book hangover. I'm really enjoying Fangirl so far - soooooo relatable!



Thanks for reading ♥