My East Coast Adventures: Book Haul!

Hi all!

Now that you’ve read and — hopefully — enjoyed my travel posts about my time in the East Coast of America, I thought I’d show you all the amazing books that I bought while I was there! I went a little wild in the gift shops of museums and monuments and whatnot,  because I love learning about things I’m interested about, especially history and science.

Read Part 1: New York here
Read Part 2: Washington, D.C. here
Read Part 3: Boston here

This is also my first ever book haul! I’ve never done a book haul on this blog before, which is surprising considering I’m coming on three years blogging! Here are all the books!

And here’s a breakdown:

Barnes & Noble: Captive Prince

So, if you’ve been following me for any amount of time, you know that Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat is my favourite series ever. I’ve been following the series since it was an online original work — so from 2009-ish, this series has held a special place in my heart.

The second I entered Barnes & Noble in New York, I knew I had to find the American copies of Captive Prince. And I did! Look how gorgeous the covers are!

Barnes & Noble: Pride and Prejudice 

I’m sure all of you know how much I adore Pride and Prejudice, and that for the last three years, I’ve been collecting copies of the novel. In the US, I bought 5 copies of P&P: two Barnes & Noble editions, one limited edition (the one with the feather), the Cap edition, and a Vintage edition. Look how pretty they all are!

Amazon Bookstore 

In New York, near Central Park, my sister and I found an Amazon brick and mortar bookstore! This was super exciting because here in Australia we can barely get shipping from the online Amazon store — we definitely don’t have a real store! It was so busy in this store, but it was worth going. The store itself was small, but I loved that they had interesting sections for the books, such as “Most Read on Goodreads”. I found Never Let Me Go in one such section and since I’ve heard very good things about this book, I couldn’t stop myself from purchasing it! Apparently its a contemporary novel but sort of dystopian too? I’ve heard it has a massive plot twist, which I’m keen for — and it won the Nobel Prize in Literature!

Hamilton: An American Musical

My sister and I were so, so, so lucky to get the chance to watch Hamilton while we were in New York! It truly is an incredible musical and if you get the chance, you HAVE to watch it! I’ve been listening to the soundtrack for over and year and watching it in real life brought me to tears. So of course I had to buy a lot of merch, including the novel the musical is based on, Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. Chernow was actually a consultant while Lin-Manual Miranda was writing the musical, and Miranda used his novel as the basis for the entire play and the timeline of events in Hamilton’s life. I can’t wait to read this book! I know it’s massive, but I have a crush on Hamilton — even more now that I’ve seen the actually musical — and the book looks so interesting!

9/11 Memorial 

My sister and I went to the 9/11 memorial and it was a life-changing experience. I spent a good portion of the museum on the verge of tears, and I was so very impressed by the museum itself. They have a very complex timeline of events for that day, both what happened on the ground and in the sky, minute by minute. Once we finished in the museum, we went to the gift shop and it took me a while to choose what book I wanted to buy, and I decided on two: 102 Minutes by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn, and The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright.

102 Minutes is about what happened during the 102 minutes it took the two towers to collapse, and how the towers themselves were more deathtraps than the actual planes, while The Looming Tower is about the creation and rise of Al-Qaeda, and the book has been turned into a Hulu tv show!

The Museum of Natural History 

The Museum of Natural History was my favourite museum we visited while we were in the US! I had so much fun in the museum, I could have spent another three days in there, just wandering the place. So of course I had to buy some books to commemorate my time there but also to learn more about what I saw while I was there!

Seven Skeletons: The Evolution of the World’s Most Famous Human Fossils by Lydia Pyne is about the seven most famous skeletons of ancient humans that we have, and all the information we have learnt about our own history from these skeletons. One of the main reasons I picked this up was because it’s by a woman! But also: skeletons. If you saw any of my travel posts, you’d know I really like skeletons.

Masters of the Planet: The Search for Our Human Origins by Ian Tattersall is about why Homo sapiens, out of all other human species, was the one that survived. The book is even by a curator at the Museum of Natural History!

Woolly: The True Story of the Quest to Revive One of History’s Most Iconic Extinct Creatures by Ben Mezrich is about the true story of a group of scientists who tried to bring the woolly mammoth back using by splicing elements of the DNA of a modern elephant. It honestly looks like a great book!

Chelsea Markets

The Chelsea Markets are gorgeous little markets all congregated together in a building and underground. They’re so freaking cool, and remind me a little of Melbourne, particularly our alleyways. There’s an awesome bookstore in the markets and there I bought a copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray! I already own two other copies of Dorian Gray — just a plain Penguin copy and the uncensored version — but I wanted one with a nice cover. This cover is a limited one, and (I think) won’t be printed again. I also have a Pride and Prejudice version of this kind of cover too.

Smithsonian 

At the Smithsonian Air and Space museum I bought this very beautiful copy of Welcome to the Universe by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss and J. Richard Gott. I’m so excited to read this book, especially because while at the Smithsonian, my sister and I got to visit the planetarium and watch a show by Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Salem

I’ve always wanted to visit Salem and I got the chance to when I went to Boston! I’ve always been very fascinated by the Salem Witch Trials, particularly why they even happened in the first place, how a climate of fear lead to a bunch of powerful men deciding to murder a bunch of women. The book does look a little dry, but hopefully the content is interesting enough to keep me going!

Harvard Bookstore

Finally, I bought Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari at the Harvard University bookstore. I’ve wanted to read this book for ages, it looks incredible. I’ve read a couple of chapters and the writing is so wonderful because the author explains everything in very simple terms. It’s quite hypnotic. Like, Masters of the Planet, Sapiens wonders how, out of six human species, only one remains today. I’m so intrigued!

What do you think of the books I bought in America?

Have you read any of them? Are you interested in one of them? Which do you think I should start first? Let me know! 

And thank you for reading my travel posts! This has been such a fun experience, I hope to do more in the future!