Books, books, books – What I got for Christmas & first impressions

I guess I was quite adamant when I said I only wanted books for Christmas, huh? Because that’s what I got – and piles of ’em! So you can imagine how thrilled I am to start the new year with a stack of books to read and plenty of reviews to bring you throughout 2017. I’m just about to finish reading Dave Gorman Versus The Rest of The World so I’m excited to dive straight into these new books. Here’s what I received and my first impressions:Caitlin Moran – Moranifesto

I’ve read most of Moran’s books and this one has been on my wishlist since it was published in March 2016. I didn’t buy it straight away though because I find hardbacks more cumbersome to read and I was waiting for the paperback version to come out. How long would I have to wait? While I was browsing a book store in Ely in November I found this signed first edition and pointed it out to hubby. Thankfully he took the hint and managed to snaffle it for me without me knowing! Can’t wait to get started on this one.Tim Peake – Hello, is this planet Earth?

As someone who followed Tim Peake’s mission religiously (and was giddy with excitement when I met him only a couple of days after he returned to the UK) you can imagine how excited I was to unwrap this book. It’s a chunky square book full of beautiful photographs taken by Tim during his time on the international space station. The cover is a shiny hardback (which I think looks a little bit cheap or unofficial) but when you open the pages, it’s full of stunning photos alongside Tim’s own words about the images and locations. I’d actually recommended this book to mum as a suitable present for my husband, but it was actually him who bought it for me. Good thing we didn’t all buy it for each other!

Meik Wiking – The Little Book of Hygge

This book is everywhere – I’ve seen it on blogs, vlogs and instagam photos almost daily. I don’t know about you but I get really put off when something is so popular and I resist buying it. But when I was browsing that book store I found the book on the shelf and thought that I’d give it a chance. It turns out that there’s a good reason for it being so popular; it’s a really easy-to-read, dip-in-and-out kind of book, with lovely illustrations and dreamy photos. Yes, I have to admit that I like it and I’ve been reading a few pages each evening since unwrapping it on Christmas day.Gretchen Rubin – The Happiness Project

I have no preconceptions about this book, I’m not even really that sure what it’s about, but I’m looking forward to having a read and see how I get on. My friend read this book last year and this certainly made me want to read it too. Is it a memoir or is it a practical advice book? I’m still not sure. I read Big Magic last year and have really enjoyed tapping into the self-help market by listening to a few ebooks so I’d like to give it a go and see what the author has to say.Amy Schumer – The girl with the lower back tattoo

I kind of knew about this book being published but it hadn’t registered in my mind that I wanted read it until I unwrapped it on Christmas day. I guess I thought it was a novel rather than a memoir and I’m not big onreading fiction. Turns out that it IS an autobiography and I’m a huge fan of Amy Schumer so why wouldn’t I want to read her life story? The first thing I always do with biographies is look at the photo pages and while I was glancing at the images I found myself getting drawn into reading a paragraph or two, and I had to stop myself before I read too much of the book out of sync.Okay, I didn’t only get books – there was some music in there too. To be fair, some of these aren’t really my presents; they are my husband’s gift from me. But I chose this music because I wanted to own it too! Good thing we have the same tastes, eh? I was in HMV looking for Absolutely Fabulous on Blu-Ray for mum’s Christmas gift when I spotted the Faithless LP and I’ve never been so sure that I’d chosen the right present for my husband. So this year we’ll be listening to the latest Classic FM movie themes CD and we’ve already been raving it up in our living room to Faithless on vinyl. My niece and nephew got me the ultimate cheesy pop compilation; ‘Now that’s what I call the 90s’. So many tunes from my childhood on three disks – awesome!The only problem I’m now facing is which book to start reading first? I’m going to continue dipping into the Hygge book and enjoying Tim Peake’s photos on a daily basis but I don’t know which of the ‘big’ books I want to start on first. Maybe I’ll try to read a couple of books at the same time and just pick up whichever one I fancy whenever I sit down to read – do you think that’ll be confusing or is it possible? Let me know if you got any interesting books for christmas and share your first impressions by leaving me a comment below. Thanks!