Christmas Book Haul 2

It's that time of year again folks! I hope you have all had an amazing festive period whether you celebrate Christmas, any other holidays, or nothing at all. 

As per usual, it isn't really Christmas without family, gifts and, of course, books! I thought for this post I would do a quick update on the state of the books I got last Christmas (blog post can be found here) and then dive into the literary wonders I received this time round.

Last year's books:

Eragon's Guide to Alagaesia by Christopher Paolini

This was the first book I completed in 2016 and I gave it a 4* review.

Illustrated Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling

I'm still yet to finish this one, but the images are just beautiful!

Wars of the Roses: Bloodline by Conn Iggulden

Oops I haven't even started this one yet.

Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan

Ahh yes this one was so good! I gave it a 5* review.

The Company of the Dead by David Kowalksi

Don't think I've even started this one either.

The Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan

I haven't even touched the first of this trilogy. Maybe this year?

The Copper Gauntlet by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

I loved this one so much I actually finished it back in 2015, just after Christmas! It got a 4* review.

The Enchanted Forest Postcards by Joanna Basford

I've done a few of these now and I'm still super obsessed with how pretty they are. Check out my adult colouring page here.

And now onto this years books!!!

The Bronze Key by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

Already read this one and I am so in love with it! It had a great twist and I'm heartbroken and I just need the next one like right now. Review shall be up soon.

Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

I read this back when it came out and gave it a glorious 5* review which you can read here. This was the edition I really wanted because it's so beautiful and is stamped by Cassie, but it was sold out when I wanted to get it. You should've seen the look on my face when I found some in my local Waterstones just before Christmas! I practically ran across the store crying! So yes, I am very glad to finally add this to my collection.

Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy by Cassandra Clare

In case you haven't noticed, I'm a pretty big Clare fan. I've wanted to read these short stories about Simon for a while now, but, as I did with The Bane Chronicles, I patiently waited until they were released as a full collection. Can't wait to get stuck in!

Wars of the Roses: Ravenspur by Conn Iggulden

Still haven't read Bloodline, but I needed this beautiful hard back edition to add to my collection.

Heartless by Marissa Meyer

I am a h.u.g.e. Meyer fan. The Lunar Chronicles is one of my favourite series ever and I've been dying to get my hands on Heartless since its release. This edition is gorgeous and I can't wait to get started! Find my review for Stars Above here, including links to the 4 main books of The Lunar Chronicles.

Magnus Chase and the Hammer of Thor by Rick Riordan

As you can see above, I loved the first book in the Magnus Chase series and can't wait to get stuck into this one.

Illustrated Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

Seriously, you can never read Harry Potter enough times. These illustrated editions are just a gorgeous collection to any Potter collection. They're almost too pretty to read!

Taylor Swift - This Is Our Song by Tyler Conroy

I have been a dedicated Swiftie for over a decade now so as soon as I saw this book, I knew I needed it. I'll probably get super jealous of all the fans when I read it (I still haven't seen her live - she always plays too far away for me to affordably go see) but I'll live with it because I just need more Swift in my life.


So there we have it! These are all the books I got for Christmas. Leave a comment with the ones you received!

Gift Cards

Whether it be Christmas, birthdays, or any other celebration, gift cards are always labelled a terrible gift (usually along with socks).
I can, to a certain extent, see why. Yes, they seem unoriginal and perhaps like you barely know the person. Furthermore, they also tell you exactly how much that person has spent on you, either making you feel unappreciated or perhaps like they've given you a lot more than what you spent on them.
However, I personally feel like they are wonderful gifts! A friend of mine gave me a £10 Waterstones one for Christmas, saying that she didn't potentially want to get me the wrong book, and I'm okay with that. As long as you get someone a gift card for something they enjoy (it would have been stupid to get me one for a clothes shop for example), it means that you avoid any chance of buying something dreadful. As I read so much, it would have been really difficult to get me a book that I haven't already read, without risking it being something I wouldn't like. This way, I can pop along to Waterstones after Christmas and buy anything that takes my fancy - it also avoids the stress of buying presents for the giver!
Of course, family or a significant other should probably warrant a little more than a gift card, but for friends and colleagues, I do believe that gift cards are a fantastic idea and require a bit more thought than just slipping a £10 note inside their Christmas card.

All I need to do now is to decide which books to spend it on!

Cambridge

Back in July, I managed to convince my parents to take me up to the University of Cambridge for their open day. We left at the ridiculous time of 4:30 a.m. and didn't get home until past 2 a.m. the following morning in an attempt to visit as many colleges as possible.
Fast forward a few months and, after achieving brilliant AS results and getting predicted straight A*s for next year, I found myself applying to Cambridge. I had four colleges in mind: Magdalene, Sidney Sussex, Selwyn and King's. Eventually, I got down to just Magdalene and King's and finally sent my application off with King's being my chosen college.
Skipping a few more months, having already had two interviews at Plymouth and Cardiff, I was over the moon to receive an e-mail inviting me back up to Cambridge for two interviews!
This time, we decided we would stay the night before so that I wouldn't be insanely tired for my interviews. Luckily, we have family in a town just outside the city who allowed us to stay with them. It was great to catch up with them, and fun to stay there (plus they have a parrot which is hilarious!)
To get to Cambridge from their house, we took the guided bus. It was so strange! Basically, the bus follows set tracks, a bit like a tram or train, for part of the journey and then returns to a normal bus to get through the city centre. Even stranger was that it had normal road signs on the tracks and even traffic lights!

The guided bus

The first thing we did when we arrived in Cambridge was find our way to King's college (made easier by all the signs directing tourists to the famous chapel) where we found all the film crews busy filming in the chapel. Throughout the day, we did a little bit of shopping. My parents bought me an owl as a 'good luck' gift, I bought a Christmas bauble in John Lewis, which was a bit of a novelty as we don't have one near us. I also bought a King's college mug just in case I don't go back. The last things we bought were lots of Funko Pops, which were 3 for 2 in Heffers. I already have Ron Weasley and a Thor keyring so I picked up Harry in his quidditch uniform and Emma Swan and Captain Hook from Once Upon A Time.

My gifts from Cambridge (original photo here)

The interviews themselves were really enjoyable. Although nervous and a little apprehensive as to how difficult they would be, they were like miniature lessons where you work through things using your own knowledge. The questions were difficult, but with the prompting and by applying previous knowledge, they were fun to figure out and, even if I don't get a place, I will always remember how much I liked the interviews. I even got a chance to discuss my local bookshop with one of my interviewers as she had been there before!
It was a fantastic couple days away. Now all I have to do is keep my fingers crossed and wait to hear back from all my unis in the new year.

If anyone is interested in knowing a little more about the interviews, leave a comment and I'll let you know

Christmas Music

For over 5 years now, I've been playing electronic keyboard (with some dabbling at other instruments, mostly piano) and I reached Grade 6. However, this year I had to give it up to focus on my A-levels as even I'm not stupid enough to tackle 6 A2 subjects whilst being out of the house from 7a.m. to 5:30p.m. every day because of school.
To be honest, the lack of music lessons and not working on a grade hasn't made much difference to my life, as I still just pick up music books and play whenever I feel like it, and being a pretty good sight-reader has helped that.
Earlier, I was feeling really Christmassy and went to play some Christmas songs so I went to my music collection and started digging out all the Christmas song books I have and I realised in horror that I have very few - I used to borrow the majority from my music teacher!
I must admit I was rather devastated but, luckily, my grandparents were out so they picked me up two books and I've just spend the past couple hours playing all the Christmas songs to my hearts content and now, if possible, I feel even more festive!

Christmas Books

Over the past few weeks, I have seen many fellow bibliophiles get excited about Christmas reads. I feel almost embarrassed to admit that I have never read a festive book! Sure, I've read countless chapters around the Winter season but never a book solely based around my favourite part of the year.
As I am always on a book buying ban in December due to Christmas (nothing is worse than opening a gift from someone and having to force a smile then quietly tell them later that I already own it), I've never had the chance to buy a Christmassy book. 
However, I would love for this to change! If you would like to recommend me any of your favourite festive reads, I'd be happy to look them up and purchase them in the new year ready for next Christmas (or maybe perhaps sneakily buy a couple in the next few weeks).

A Tale of Two Cities

So, as I mentioned before, I finally got my hands on a copy of A Tale of Two Cities earlier in my favourite shop, Waterstones!
Charles Dickens is an author I have always wanted to read, especially as he has such a major role in classical literature. I've read the odd excerpt and chapter throughout school, but I've never read a complete book of his.
A Tale of Two Cities has been one that I've had my eye on for years and after reading The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare, Tessa's (and Will's) love for it just made me want to delve into it even more.
I had noticed that Waterstones had been selling really beautiful cloth bound copies of lots of classics (and, of course, I want all of them) but AToTC was the one that really caught my eye, especially as the one I wanted to read the most. However, ever since I discovered it, I've been unable to find it, despite religiously checking my local Waterstones in Plymouth every time I was there.
Today I nearly couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it. I rushed across the shop, dodging people, and probably sounded a little mad as I exclaimed "They finally have it!" I must admit, mum wasn't too happy about me buying more books (especially as I had also picked up a book for my friend for Christmas) but after spending so long looking for it, I felt that I finally deserved it and I can't wait to start it!
If anyone else has read it, I would love to hear your thoughts (although no spoilers of course - do spoilers still apply to books that are centuries old?)

In other news, I got an e-mail early this evening inviting me to a medicine interview at King's College Cambridge! I am over the moon and was bouncing around my house in excitement. 

Plymouth Medicine Interview Part 2

The interview went okay! I'm not as confident about it as I was Cardiff last week, but I do believe it could have gone much, much worse. It was also quite different as I had to fill in a questionnaire first and choose an ethical scenario to answer questions about.
After the interview, I went into the city centre and did some more Christmas shopping. I also bought myself A Tale of Two Cities and got an All Time Low calender for next year. I usually have the Taylor Swift one however, this year, I wasn't as impressed by it and was wowed over by the gorgeous photos of ATL.
Being Black Friday, which even the UK now gets in on, there was, of course, many sales. I'm not really the shopping type, but as we made our way back to the car, mum decided to pop into Saltrock. That was a bit of a mistake. I got three really nice t-shirts (one put back for Christmas) and a really comfy black sweater. Mum also bought some things and we ended up saving £80!

So, overall, quite a nice, relaxed morning in Plymouth. I've also just ordered the last of my Christmas presents on Amazon so that's all the Christmas shopping done. Now all that's left is to count down to the big day!

Cardiff Medicine Interview

On Wednesday, I headed up to Cardiff (luckily not too far from home) for my first medicine interview!
I have wanted to do medicine for as long as I can remember, and now that I'm in my final year of sixth form, with this year came the difficult decision to decide which university's to apply to. For those of you who don't know, you can only apply to 4 medical courses in the UK. Cambridge has been my goal for even longer than wanting to do medicine, so that was an automatic choice (although picking a college is a whole different story...). After a round trip to Glasgow, Edinburgh and Swansea with a couple friends, Edinburgh became my second choice after I absolutely fell in love with the city. For the final two choices, I had no idea so ended up just randomly choosing Cardiff and Plymouth.
With good GCSEs, personal statement and UKCAT result, along with top AS results and impossibly high predicted grades for A2, the medicine interview wasn't much of a surprise, although I will admit that the short notice of only one week was a bit of a pain! I was a little nervous about it, with no practice at all, but it actually went okay. It was really relaxed, and having a chance to talk to other applicants and medical students beforehand really helped with that. The questions were mostly the typical ones, with a few harder topics such as social health, but I am fairly confident about how it went. It seems like I impressed the two doctors more than the medical student though, which I'm not sure is a good or bad thing really.
Now to Cardiff itself. As I never visited the uni, I think it's fair to natter on about the city itself. I quite like the city, having been there on numerous occasions for concerts such as All Time Low and Fall Out Boy. Although not a shopping fan, even I have to admit that the multiple shopping centres, especially St. David's, are rather magnificent. Of course, my favourite shop would have to be the Lego Store! After many hard decisions, I ended up buying Poe's X-Wing Fighter as I am a huge Star Wars fan (trust me, words can't even explain how unbelievably excited I am for the new film). As this was above £50, they were kind enough to throw in a free Lego Christmas train and even an extra Star Wars figurine, for which I am really grateful. Because of the unexpected freebies, I have decided to put the X-Wing back for Christmas as a present from my beloved dog Merlin.

Overall, it was a really good, relaxed day in Cardiff and now all I have to do is sit tight and wait to see if I get an offer. Oh, and prepare for my interview on Plymouth next Friday...