Christmas Book Haul | Reading Update 12.29.20

 Hey hi hello friends, and welcome back to my blog!

A late Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all. Not gonna lie, December kind of sucked, hence why I didn't post anything this month. I was super depressed all month long and hardly got out of bed. I only felt good a handful of days, but at least I did something each of those days! I decorated the house for Christmas, I dyed my hair, I baked cookies, and went to Flagstaff with my friends for a weekend! It's so easy to focus on the negative, but even those little things are a step in the right direction. So in the words of Kayla from BooksandLala; "You're surviving and I'm proud of you." (Honestly, when she said that in her latest video, I had to pause to take a second and make sure I wasn't gonna cry. It's been rough, friends.)

Okay, anyway.

I thought I'd talk about the books I got for myself this Christmas. My friends and family know not to actually buy me books unless they're from my wishlist since I'm so picky, so they just give me gift cards to buy myself books. Not that I'm complaining! I love going book shopping, especially at second-hand and independent bookstores, which is what I did today! I got a couple of gift cards to Changing Hands Bookstore (Arizona) and walked away with a pretty good haul if I do say so myself. 

As you can see, most of what I got are sequels or continuations in series that I already own, and then some standalones. Let's go through, shall we?

Starting at the bottom, is volumes 6 and 7 of Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. This is the only comic/graphic novel series I own (since manga is an entirely different thing) and also one of the only Sci-Fi series I truly love. I've had the first five volumes for a while but I haven't wanted to buy them full price since they're so expensive. But Changing Hands came through! Now I just need volumes 8 and 9, since volume 10 isn't out yet. 

Up next are sequels/final books in series of which I own the first. So in order, we've got The Crow Rider by Kalyn Josephson; Night of the Dragon by Julie Kagawa; The King of Crows by Libba Bray; The Goblin King by Kara Barbieri. The only series in this that I haven't actually started is Julie Kagawa's, but I just know that I'm going to love it. 

I have Great Goddesses by Nikita Gill, which is a poetry collection about the goddesses, monsters, and titans from Ancient Greek mythology. In case you didn't know or if you're new here, I'm obsessed with Greek mythology. I'm even going to school for classical literature and language, focusing on Greece and Rome. I have a shit ton of books about Greek mythology, modern and ancient, primary sources and all. I've had my eye on this collection for a while now but have never found it in stores before. 

My first Murakami! Haruki Murakami is one of Japan's most famous translated authors and I've been dying to pick up his work. They had a good selection of Murakami's work, but Kafka on the Shore was the only one they had that I'm like, really interested in. Plus I've heard a lot of people say that this is where I should start with his novels. Either way, I'm excited. There's a special place in my heart for Japanese literature. 

And finally, I have two more Paulo Coelho novels to add to my collection of his. Again, in case you're new here, Paulo Coelho wrote my favorite book of all time, The Alchemist, and I've wanted to get more of his works for forever. Currently I have two others by him (The Spy, which I've read, and The Valkyries, which I've not) but it's not enough! So I also picked up Veronika Decides to Die and The Pilgrimage. The blurb on The Pilgrimage says that it goes hand-in-hand with The Alchemist so I'll probably pick up that one first. I'm completely in love with Paulo Coelho's writing and I hope one day to own all of his books. 

I do have an online order coming at some point in the new year, but for now I'll just give you the title's I'm expecting:

Hold Still by Nina LaCour
Life: Selected Quotations by Paulo Coelho (I'm so excited for this one!)
Middlegame by Seanan McGuire
The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho
The Silence of Bones by June Hur
Vita Nostra by Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko
We Are the Wildcats by Siobhan Vivian
Wings of Olympus by Kallie George

Okay, that's all I have for today! I'll probably do my wrap-up for December and 2020 stats on the 31st, so we can start 2021 with like my goals and such, so be on the lookout for those in the next couple of days!

Until next time!