New Books + a Mug = Cozy Times

I have a mini haul of some interesting looking reads and a nice new (green) quirky mug to complement ✨💚.

If you also are following along on my YouTube channel, I have started The Artist's Way "course" if I can call it that. I'm currently on Week 4 which has challenged me to go on a reading ban for the week. As you can imagine, this is not such a great time for me so I've made up for my lack of reading by writing a post about books I'm excited to read when this break is over.

I came across Jeffrey Boakye’s book (pictured) when my friend and I were on a search for a book to purchase when we went on a day trip to Manchester. (Side note: I've filmed a vlog all about our day so stay tuned for that!) 

I knew that there was no way we could spend the whole day and not go home with at least one book. We went to Waterstones and spent a laughable length of time in the Manchester Art Gallery shop on the hunt for the perfect reading book or journal. 

We ended up leaving with only photos of books we would consider buying.

My phone gallery is full of books that I thought looked intriguing but wasn't quite ready to add to my library as of yet.

Shopping around and comparing prices on other websites is something I think I'm pretty good at. If I think the physical copy looks particularly beautiful and deserving of a place on my bookshelves then I will purchase it, otherwise I will just get the Kindle copy. I LOVE my Kindle 😍. 

Here's a list of some of the books we photographed that I want to see about getting:

- Spirit of Place by Susan Owens

- A Simpler Life by The School of Life

- How to Be a Hepburn in a Kardashian World by Jordan Christy

- Mindfulness in Gardening by Ark Redwood

- Brit(ish) by Aqua Hirsch 

We both ended up picking up a copy of Me vs Brain by Hayley Morris. It sounded very up our alley at the time but was definitely unexpected when we began to get into it. (I've included a mini reading vlog in my Week 3 vlog of The Artist's Way which I'm going to begin editing after I've finished typing this post.)

We went to some other stores, Urban Outfitters being one of them. I just appreciate the boho aesthetic of UO. I saw this beautiful green mug (pictured) and the flower in the middle sold me on it. I didn't however purchase it on the day *pat on the back to me*. I did however search for it online and added it to my basket which I didn't check out until a few days later after I believed I had selected an interesting mix of goods to potentially keep. 

The "Black Listed" book as well as the Sunshine book were two that I thought I would add to the basket. I ended up returning "The Little Book of Sunshine" and adding another called "Don't Touch My Hair" by Emma Dabiri to my Kindle wish list. Sunshine just wasn't up my alley which I was fairly disappointed by and Dabiri's was something I definitely wanted to read but I couldn't see it as something I would want to display on my shelves. 

It's quite funny because I'm so obsessed with the idea of being surrounded by piles of book stacks, but I've become very selective of what I bring into my life and how much money I spend doing so. 

I'm looking forward to getting back into reading next week. I have 5 days left and I can't wait! 

What book(s) are you excited to begin reading? I might just add it to my list 😉.