Ben & Books

Book shopping is therapy. Walking through the aisles, carrying a basket (or two) of books, I find that all my stress, all my anxiety, just seems to fade away with every new and unique cover I see, with every interesting blurb I read, and with every new book I choose to bring home with me. Working in hospitality over Christmas is not therapy. In fact, its quite the opposite. Rudeness and impatience reach new heights as busier days cause longer wait times and the sudden influx of Christmas parties, work Christmas night outs, and family meals bring additional stress as group after group of people who seem to only go out around the holidays descend upon the local pubs, bringing with them obnoxious loudness and ridiculous demands.

The one benefit from this, of course, is the tips. From 7 years of working in a busy, food serving pub, I have realised that December is the month of tips. What was a couple of pounds a week becomes four to five times that, more in the busier weeks as everyone finishes work for the weekends. It was with my realisation of this four years ago that a new Christmas tradition for me began. Throughout the month of December, I would save up every tip I received, and in January, I would go book shopping with the money I had saved. This had a dramatic effect on my work in December, as the knowledge that I had a massive book shopping trip planned calmed me down significantly. What once was a stressful, big Christmas booking became another opportunity to add to my new book fund.

The first three years of the Christmas book fund led to decent amounts of money to spend on books, between £60-£80, which had me coming home with a good number of new books to add to my collection (and maybe someday even read!). But the 2024 book fund was something extraordinary. By the time 2025 began, my book fund had risen to an almost dizzying £140! So, with two baskets in hand, and a frankly ridiculous amount of money to spend on books in my pocket, I set myself upon the aisles of Waterstones, keeping track on my phones calculator how much of my book fund remained with every new book I chose, until what can accurately be described as a pile of books that towers over my cat was collected, and my Christmas book fund was fully depleted, at least until next year.

Here are some of the books I am most looking forward to reading from this collection:

The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett

I have never read a Terry Pratchett novel before. I have heard plenty of the qualities of his writing, yet miraculously I have managed to somehow avoid learning anything that could be considered a spoiler for any of the books. I am very much looking forward to my first experience of Discworld, and I am sure it will be the start of a very long reading journey for me.

Scythe by Neal Shusterman

I was drawn to this one by the cover, the simplistic, yet striking use of reds and whites in the cover are contrasted excellently with the scythe that almost feels out of place in the picture. The plot sound fascinatingly dark and dystopian with the disturbing idea of being able to control death itself. Finding out that this is also the first part of a trilogy also makes me excited to read this book, if only just to give me an excuse to buy the other two and have a collection of all three beautiful covers.

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler

This one just looks like a lot of fun. The combination of the quite ridiculous sounding name, the inviting yet simple cover, and the utterly bizarre yet brilliant premise of a hero trying to become a dark lord to break a time loop makes this a must read for me. After reading a lot of books that have made me sad recently, I am very much looking forward to reading something far removed from dystopia and death and grief, I am looking forward to laughing at a book again. Also, it has a map in it, which makes me want to read it even more.