Our Signed Book Collection

 

This is a post I've wanted to do for a while, but with many other books on pre-order, I kept putting it off.

We won't be* buying many if any, new books for a while so I thought now that the last signed edition has arrived and as it has been about a month since my last book related post it was the perfect time to gather the books together and 'take stock' of sorts!

I am a collector. Of many things. But we loved to collect books and I especially find signed books extra special. To think that the person who spent so much love, time, and effort in writing that book also took the time to sign it by hand feels really cool to me and so I don't just buy signed editions from authors I already love but from new-to-me authors of books I love the look of. 

The signed books in our collection have come from a few different places, regrettably many from Waterstones - the less we talk about them just now the better! However, there are also books that have come from Forbidden Planet, Fox Lane Books, Forum Books, one came from a charity shop and we didn't know it was signed until Mr H read it and finally, I actually won War of the Wind by Victoria Williamson on Twitter!

*...well, we'll be trying not to...

I am gutted to say that I am yet to read 16 of the 32 that are mine (there are 36 in total though 4 are not my cup of tea and are Mr H's books. All of the books are 'our' books however there are some that are more my taste and some more to his). I am so excited to get around to all of them, if only I had more hours in the day to read more.

I've taken close-up photos of some of the more special or cool signatures but I'd also like to mention a short list of some of my favorites out of those I've read so far.
Including:

The Secret of Haven Point by Lisette Auton - One of my favorite books of the year! Check out this post here to read why.

Rumaysa and Rumaysa Ever After by Radiya Hafiza - Completely magical books bringing to life classic fairytales with an empowering, Muslim girl as their lead. LOVE!! 

The Lost Whale by Hannah Gold - I adored The Last Bear and I found this just as heartbreakingly beautiful and poignant. 

Finally, of course, I adore all of the Ransom Riggs books.

So yeah, that is our current signed book collection as of 2022! 
Until next time...

Walt Disney Company Book Collection

It's been a while! Well, yeah in general, but also since we shared any of our collections within our overall collection. The last one I personally talked about was the Harry Potter & The Wizarding World Book Collection which was apparently way back in November!! The thing is most of our collections change pretty regularly so that one is more than likely slightly out of date and I know for certain that Mr H's Tolkien collection has changed a lot since he posted it.

Today I'm finally getting around to writing about my Disney book collection. Just as I said in my Wizarding World post, I was sure there was more to my collection than it ended up looking once I took my photos, it's possible that I've missed a little chunk somewhere, but I've still spent a lot building the collection and love everything I have...obviously!

There are multiple categories of books within my Disney book collection, so that coupled with the fact they come in all shapes and sizes too means they are housed in different locations over the house.
The books in the images above live on the top shelve of our cabinet in the living room. They are main novel/story/book of the movie books. I have all of the Twisted Tales that are currently available in paperback (though I do still need to put them into chronological order), alongside the Serena Valentino fan fictions (which - spoiler alert - I hate) and a random one of Mr H's Marvel novels. My favorites in this section is definitely the Tales from the Haunted Mansion series!

Then we go upstairs to the bedroom! We have one small bookcase in there that is mainly used for books that are too big elsewhere or overflow from downstairs. The bottom shelve has a mix of things going on: a handful of what I call 'special' books from the 1970s - 1990s, art books, biographies and a couple of stray book of the movie books!
There is also the extra special Disneyland Paris A to Z book that was released for the 25th Anniversary that stays stored away.

Lastly we make the journey back down the stairs to the living room and the second shelve on the small bookcase (that also has the Tolkien collection and some of the Potter stuff on it). These are purely collecting books, as in I don't read them. The rainbow books are from the Wonderful World of Reading series published between the 1970s-1990s also. Then we have a newer collection that are technically meant as children's books, but I just really enjoy the artwork so I hoard them.

And that is it!

Periodically we'll find a WWoR book in a charity shop or a new Twisted Tales will be released but really this is a slower growing collection than the likes of Tolkien where multiple copies of the same title are bought in different covers or editions. I look forward to see what 2020 does to this collection...!

Book Collection Tour: Part 3

Stop! Before you proceed to read part 3, please do make sure you click this link to find your way to Part 2 of our Book Collection Tour! Done? Good. As we whittle our way slowly to the ending of these collection posts, this post provides us with the penultimate part. No alliteration intended.

This bookcase is another beautiful antique score from a charity shop, just like the one shown in Book Collection Tour: Part 1! From what we can gather it looks as if it has been handmade and is chock full of what Drew Pritchard would call 'patina'. Plus it was a bargain. Oh and it's primarily home to our fiction, YA, box sets and series.

Working our way down, the top shelf houses some bony bits and pieces, candles, incense, our new TBR jar (separate post to come soon) though it all changes periodically. Following that are mostly series' with my boxed Chronicles of Narnia set taking pride of place...I think that shelf definitely gives a good indication into our reading tastes.

Up until recently the second book-filled shelf was mainly just a colour co-ordinated mix of fiction and somewhat still is. However, with new books entering the household and things getting moved around, it's becoming more difficult to organize them this way.

Now the bottom two shelves definitely are on the younger age scale. You'll spy one of my other favourite series in a box set on the bottom shelf - Oz, along with my puffin classics collection and paragon children's classic collection.
Other than that those shelves admittedly annoy me slightly because they just have a kind of messy, nonsensical look to them. Don't you think? I guess many of them are lone books from series so hopefully as we complete those series it will all start to look a little more put together.

Ahhh, I can't believe we only have one more of these posts to do! Boo! I'm pretty sure by this time next year we'll be re-doing all of these tours seeing as most of the book shelves have already changed since they've been posted haha.


💀 Mr & Mrs Hallow 💀

Book Collection Tour: Part 2

This is part 2 of our collection of books so if you haven't seen it yet, please make sure to check out our Book Collection Tour: Part 1 !
Staying in our living room where three quarters of our books are housed, we move to the second of three bookcases. This one is a 'collection' fiesta, technically, of which you have seen the majority of already...

Top shelf! (Or maybe second depending on how you see it.) This shelf is for our precious Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and other Tolkien related books. Mr H used to be a big collector of Funko POP! Vinyls too, though downsized his collection last year only keeping the special LOTR, Harry Potter etc ones, two that you see here guarding the ring that I bought as a 13 year old fantasy fan!
To see Mr H's Tolkien collection in more detail and hear about it in his words make sure to click here and read his JRR Tolkien Collection post!

Originally, this whole bookcase was overtaken by purely Disney books. Part one showed that some of my Disney collection moved to that bookcase and others are even further away, in our bedroom. All that is left here are my Wonderful World of Reading books from around the 1950's to the 1990's and the newer Treasure Cove Story collectable books that, despite being from the past few years, include some absolutely beautiful old style artwork as well!

Lastly, on the bottom shelf is a part of another of our collections that you have already seen in more detail. Our full Harry Potter & The Wizarding World Book Collection can be seen if you click here, but as a quick explanation these books are my original childhood Potter series, the larger books in my series including art of, vaults etc and a couple other cool little magical world books - books from within the books and books about the books. How many times can I say books in one paragraph eh?

We have our 3rd instalment in this mini tour coming next month, however parts 1 and 2 are already outdated due to our book buying problem so maybe next year we'll have a re-arrange and re-tour! Maybe...


💀 Mr & Mrs Hallow 💀

Harry Potter & The Wizarding World Book Collection

I've hinted at it a couple times but it's finally here - my Wizarding World book collection. To be honest, from the get go, I was sure it was more substantial than it actually is which is why I wanted to do this post to being with. However once taking the photos I realize it's quite an underwhelming amount...especially if you're aware of the likes of Peter Kenneth and his impressive hoard.
Either way it's my special collection and I'm very happy and appreciative to own it. Here is a closer look.

Starting off on the bottom shelf of the same bookcase that houses the majority of Mr H's LOTR/Tolkien collection. The books that started it all live here. My original copies from when I was a child, which have been read, re-read multiple times and are visibly very well loved, sit stacked on the right.

Next to those are a couple of the David Colbert 'unofficial' books and the super cute original copies of Quidditch Through the Ages, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Tales of Beedle the Bard which were charity partnered - a portion of the money from the sale of each going to Comic Relief for the first 2 and High Level Children's Group (now known as Lumos) for the stunning hardback Tales of Beedle the Bard.

Finally, on the left you see the physically larger books joined by a random smaller hardback that was demoted from the shelves below when a new addition bumped it out of it's space. 

Rounding it up with the last few books, you may recognize this cabinet from our first Book Collection Tour post. We prefer the look of books without slipcovers so that's why these books may look slightly different to how they are usually recognizable. My Hufflepuff editions of Philosopher's Stone, Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban, the Fantastic Beasts screen plays, the Cursed Child screen play and all of the currently available illustrated editions of the original series.

Then finally the last few that are on the bottom of yet another bookcase due to their size and shape etc, which includes the official guides from my two trips to the WB Studio Tour, Leavesden.

And that about concludes my current collection! Maybe this time next year I might have a little update with any additions...

💀 Mrs Hallow 💀