Festive Fortnight [7]: An Amsterdam Book Haul

Last weekend, my boyfriend and I took the train to Amsterdam for a fun day out together. I was planning on taking some nice festive pictures of all the Christmas lights, but it was pouring rain when we got there, which was a bit of a bummer. We still had a great day, though! We spent some time wandering around town, had great food, and visited an interesting exhibition on Medieval times at a museum.

And then, of course, there were the bookshops. Oh, the bookshops… I love them so! I was planning on buying some books in Amsterdam since I still had some book vouchers, but I didn’t expect we’d come home with eight of them! Eight is enough to warrant a good book haul, right? Right! Let’s go!

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett – Although it hasn’t been very high up on my priority list, I’ve been wanting to read something by both Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett for a while now, so this seemed like killing two birds with one stone! Plus, it sounds hilarious. The sentence “and someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist” alone had me grinning already.

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro – One of my best friends loves Ishiguro’s work and I’ve read a lot of good things about him. I guess him winning the Nobel Prize for Literature is quite a good recommendation as well. I was thinking about getting Never Let Me Go, but this actually seemed more appealing. It’s a really pretty edition, too.

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa – I don’t often buy books I’ve never heard of before, but this one seemed like such a lot of fun that I couldn’t not pick it up. It also kept appearing everywhere I went within that particular store, which I decided to take as a sign. The story is told through the eyes of a cat (who goes on a roadtrip with his owner), and I generally like those types of unconventional perspectives.

The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers – I think I heard some BookTuber recently describe this one as the perfect book for fans of Firefly, which made sure I was immediately interested! I’ve just finished watching Firefly for the first time and I loved it. So, when I went in search of this book (with its beautiful cover) in the shops we went to and found it, I didn’t hesitate to buy it. It looks like fun!

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas – Okay, so I already own this book. In fact, it featured in my previous book haul. But that book has now been read by four different people, and it’s starting to look a little rough around the edges. When my boyfriend pointed out this hardcover version I think I literally gasped. This is probably my favourite book of 2017, and I’m so happy to have such a pretty version of the book now!

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson – I want to read some more graphic novels/comic books, and came across this one in one of the shops. I vaguely remembered a BookTuber talking about it and liking it a lot, but the blurb on the back was what really convinced me to buy it: “Nemeses! Dragons! Science! Symbolism!” If that doesn’t sell a book, I don’t know what will.

Willem picked out the last two books (but conveniently left them at my place), so I don’t know that much about them as I do the others. I’ll probably be reading them too, though! They’re both comic books, and they sound pretty good. Fables, Vol 1: Legends in Exile is about figures from legends and fairytales (like Snow White and Rose Red) disguised as modern-day New Yorkers, which sounds like it’s right up my alley! Apparently, Watchmen is super famous and renowned and stuff. I’d never heard of it, but I’m looking forward to reading it!

Oh, and in the end, I did get in at least one picture of Amsterdam’s Christmas lights…