Last Loot of 2012 - MFB Style

Each year, at the end of the year, I have an annual blowout online and in shops in advance of the new year and gearing up for reading in 20whatever it is.

This year though, the blowout's tinged with a bit of sadness purely because this is the last year I'm doing it, using MFB as an excuse.  From now onwards, my only excuse for buying far too many books one person with only one set of eyes and brain and can read is: I have a book problem.  To illustrate this, I've decided to show you pictures of the books that I've bought and received as gifts in the past week alone.  This is not bragging, it's more an admittance of being spoiled rotten.

These are the "from me to me purchases" - please do not judge me by my random DVD purchases included in the pic.  Tom Hardy FTW, what can I say?  Wildwood has been on my radar for ages - I've recommended it to loads of friends, not having actually read it myself and yet every single one of them said how much they enjoyed it.  The rest of the titles were reaped from various "best of" and "highly recommended" lists across the interwebs.

These were purchased at Waterstones Canary Wharf before we headed off to see The Hobbit.  The two Secret titles are great purchases and the NY one came highly recommended by the one bookseller when we told her we were planning to visit NY this year.  I've read Falling Kingdoms since purchasing these and I must say it's a fun, light, easy to get into, entry-level fantasy for younger readers.  I had a few issues with it, but it won't stop me from buying the sequels.

The lovely Lynsey Newton arranged a UKYA Blogger Secret Santa - both Sarah and I took part in it and these are the items I received from my Secret Santa.  Some great titles I'm looking forward to reading.

These two titles, along with Citadel by Kate Mosse, was part of my pressies from Mark this year.  They are rather splendid and both sound fantastic!

Yesterday, Mark and I met up with Sarah and her hubby for our annual (and final) MFB Xmas lunch.  We went to Honest Burger (delicious and highly recommended tiny restaurant) and immediately swapped presents.  Sarah got me an amazing poppet - Dream's Poppet  - which I was ecstatic about, but as she was worried the poppet would not arrive in time, she also bought me some "emergency" book presents.  From Sarah: Necromancing the Stone / Elves, Fauns and Fairies by Robert Kirk / The White Forest and also a set of moleskines which I'm truly happy with.  The other titles in this pic I bought at Forbidden Planet.  The Immortals of Meluha by Amish looks like a great read.  And I just had to get City of Dark Magic as it is (obviously) set in Prague.

Super special treat from the boys and girls at Head of Zeus - The Grim Company - and it came wrapped and everything, in time for Xmas.  How lovely? Also, the story sounds fantastic!

This is today's purchases from Foyles.  Sorrowline by Niel Bushnell has been on my radar for some time now.  It looks great.  Sweet Venom by Terra Lynn Childs - TLC is one of my fave authors.  She just writes so well.  Maria V Snyder is a favourite too, so I had to get this.  The Secret of Lost Things - I sadly had to get this as a second hand copy as nowhere I went to had copies in stock.  Just look it up.  You'll understand why I had to have it.  And The Dogs of Winter - based on a real story, about a boy who spent 2 years or so living with a pack of dogs in Moscow, is the perfect reading in chilly weather.

I'm now fully booked up for some time and in 2013 have resolved to dig into the boxes in storage and read some old favourites and new ones I've just never had the chance to get to.

Hopefully some of these books I've pictured may be of interest to some of you! A mixture of adult and YA and younger fiction to grace your shelves is never a bad thing.  If there's one thing I hope readers of MFB take away from this blog is that you should give all kinds of fiction, for all ages, a try because good writing isn't exclusive to adult or literary fiction and you should read voraciously, across borders.