 Alright, today we are heading off to London again for another London Book Shopping video, you guys. I'm so excited. I just feel like I need to do some book shopping. But today, not only are we going to London Book Shops, we're going to your favorite ones. I asked on Instagram, what are your favorite book shops you've been to in London? And today, we're going to some of the most popular ones, some of the ones you mentioned the most, and some that I am just intrigued by. We've got a mix of ones that I've been to before and loved and some that I've still never been to. There's still so many book shops in London that I've never been to. So I'm really excited to head off today and go see them. But before we get into the video, I take a moment to thank the sponsor Book of the Month. Thank you so much to Book of the Month for sponsoring this video. I am so excited. I am obsessed with Book of the Month. Do you guys, if you guys in the US or Canada, I cannot recommend picking up Book of the Month enough. Book of the Month, if you don't know, is a super popular and fast growing online service for readers. Every single month, they scow the new releases. Their team are like, hmm, hmm. What new releases are coming out that we think everyone's gonna be excited for? And then they collate a selection of them for you guys to pick from. I feel like they always have a really great mix of genres. They'll have romance. They'll have a thriller. They'll have a historical. They'll have a mystery. They have such a good mix of genres every single month. And I feel like they do such a wonderful job of balancing, having new and emerging authors. There's been so many authors I've been introduced to because of Book of the Month and also having repeat authors so that when you love an author, you can get all of their books in the Book of the Month edition, so they match. That's something that's very important to me. So I feel like they do such a wonderful job of balancing those two almost opposing forces. I think they do such a good job of that. It is risk-free, so you can skip any month if any of the selections don't appeal to you. But trust me, more than one appeals to me every single month. So I don't think it'll be a struggle to find one that appeals to you. But if one month nothing appeals to you, you can skip. And you guys, I used to use my code MegwithBooks. If you ever want to use the code MegwithBooks, you will get your first book, hardcover for only $9.99. $9.99 for a new release hardcover book is like unheard of. So I cannot recommend Book of the Month enough. Let me show you my picks this month. So the first one, I had to get it. This is actually an add-on this month, but it is, love theoretically, the Allie Hazelwood. This is what I was talking about, right? I have all of my Allie Hazelwoods in the Book of the Month edition. So I love, oh, look how cute they look. My mom has already read this. As soon as this arrived in the post, like a day ago, she read it in a day. She loves Allie Hazelwood too. I'm so excited. It's another of her like science-y girls in STEM, girls who work in STEM romances. And I'm so excited. And then I also picked up Dark Corners by Megan Golding. This is the sequel to Night Swim. And I really enjoyed Night Swim. And I think this one is about, there's this like famous inmate in prison and an influencer visits him and then goes missing. And our main character is a podcaster in this and she's hired to kind of figure out what's going on. Those were my picks this month. I got this one and then this add-on. And guys, I cannot tell you what a good deal it is with Book of the Month. Use the card in the book from 9.99. Use my link down in the description. I love Book of the Month and I do not think your grouts are signing up because I think they're the best. Okay guys, so yeah, we're going London. Are we excited? I live about an hour outside of London. So we're gonna head in. We're gonna go to one bookshop and have lunch, but I cannot tell you how excited I am. We need to go. I'm running late. But yeah, I'm excited to explore your favorite bookshops ones I've never been to before and we need to buy some books. I have my eyes on a few that I would like. Some new releases, some ones I'm being pressured into reading, but I'm also open to like the magic of finding whatever. You know what I mean? And just going with the flow. So let's go. Okay, so we just went to Brick Lane bookshop and it was really busy in there. I'm not gonna lie. I was a little bit tired to film. But I found London, A Curious Guide for Wanderers by Jack Cheshire. And I wanted to get this because I follow him on Instagram and I'm actually going to one of his tours. He does, he does loads of guided tours in London. I'm going to one in a couple months. So I had my, oh, bookshop bookmark just fell out. So I've had my eye on this and it has just like loads of, I think, like little quirks of London and little things that you can spot and the history behind them. So yeah, I picked that one up. We're now going to a photography exhibition by Tom's sister. So we're gonna go in that and then we'll probably have lunch and then go some more bookshops. Okay, so we've had lunch. Now we're on our way to Forbidden Planet which is one I've been to before actually quite a few times and it's all graphic novels. So I have a few graphic novels in mind but I'm kind of looking for something cute. I feel like that's my vibe for graphic novels. So that's vaguely what I'm looking for. We've been to Forbidden Planet which I do love Forbidden Planet. They have such a good book selection in there as well like fantasy in particular but I always tend to just get a graphic novel next. It feels like I have to. But now we're on our way to Foils in Sharon Cross which I think is the big foils. Like you know how Waterstones Piccadilly is the big Waterstones? I think this is the big foils. I gotta be honest, I've never been which I feel like it's sacrilegious. Hang on, there's a machine. Yeah, I feel like it's kind of a sin to have never been to this foils. I've always seen like, I think this is one with a quote on the wall. But I don't know, I'm really excited. I don't tend to go to foils a lot. The only one I tend to go to in London is the one on the South Bank because I tend to sometimes be there for dinner and then pop in. But yeah, I'm really excited for this one. So let's go. I couldn't resist. So first I got Horror Store by Grady Hendricks. I feel like I've been eyeing this up for so long and like almost buying it so many times. It's a horror book set in an Ikea and it looks like part of it, parts of it look like an Ikea catalog. So I got that. And then it is Pride Weekend, the weekend I'm here in London. So I feel like I had to get something Pride related. So I got Bad Gays, a homosexual history. I almost got this last time I came book shopping in London. It got beat out by Ruth Ware, the kind I was gonna get from that shop. So now the paperback's out. I feel like, okay, I've gotta get this. I've been eyeing it up. I think it also won the Goodreads Nonfiction or one of the Goodreads Nonfiction categories. So I'm really excited. I'm really excited to read this. So pretty good haul. So yeah, let's just go ahead and try the next one. The next one is one that has to prove itself a little bit to me this time because I've been to it before and I didn't love it as much as everyone else. So we'll see what I think of it this time. I could give you more than half. I thought this quickly going through my haul of what I got from book shops in London will start at the end because I didn't actually show you what I got in the last book shop, which was Daunt Books. Daunt Books, I said it had to like, you know, repair our relationship and prove itself to me again because last time when I went, it was, I think, the last book shop of the day that I went to and it would be a long day. So I think I was tired. But the thing is, Daunt Books has that beautiful room at the back that you guys see where there's like that window at the end and there's the shelves on the side and the books in there are shelved by Country which is a really cool idea, right? But in terms of finding books that I have to be honest with myself book shopping, right? I have 200 unread books. I have to be honest with myself about what I'm actually going to read and buying books that I'm actually going to read. And I just find it difficult to find books there. Yes, I can look and be like, oh, I'll read that book. I'll read that book. I won't. I think because my brain is so trained to filter books by genre, I find it overwhelming in there. So I usually only ever get books from the front which is like where the new release is and where it's organized by genre. Even though that room is such a cool idea to like organize by Country, I still struggle to like process that. My brain can't like filter through because when you're book shopping, like looking at the books, whether I'm going out or do I want, like my brain can't take it because I'm like, what genre are these? I don't know. I don't have any information. So anyways, I got two books from there actually. I got The Other Side of Mrs. Wood by Lucy Barker. I was really surprised to spot this. This has just come out and I haven't really heard anyone speak about it but I'm really really excited to. Oh, I love that. Yeah, this is all my most anticipated new releases of this year. We're following a celebrated medium in 1873. You guys know I love Victorian stuff. I love anything Victorian. And she's like, you know, seances and kind of the otherworldliness of it all, like ghostliness of it all was like very big in Victorian times. I think it's gonna be really fun. But I think there's like American medians coming in and like her reputation is starting to get damaged. I love the cover. I think it's so cool. So yeah, I saw this and I was like, oh, I have to pick it up. I have to pick this one up. I'm really, really excited for this one. Also the cover is very like cool to the touch. It's very like matte. I really like it. And I also picked up a book I've never heard of which I think it's fun to do. In bookshops. I picked up eight detectives by Alex Paveci. It says on the back, all murder mysteries follow a simple set of rules. In the 1930s, Grant McAllister, a mathematics professor, turned author, worked them out, hiding their secrets in a book of crime stories. Then Grant disappeared. Julia Hart has finally tracked him down. She wants to know what happened to him. But she's about to discover that a good mystery can be murdered to solve. I'm really excited. I hadn't heard of this. But I love the cover. Look at that. Isn't that cool? Yeah, I'm really excited. I can't seem to look out for more murder mysteries. And murder mysteries that play with the genre. And this sounds like that's what this is. You know, play with the stereotypes, play with what we expect from a murder mystery book. Kind of like my favorites nowadays, I think. Or the ones that are more likely to get a five star. Right? I love a classic murder mystery, but if I love it, it'll probably be a four star. Like I feel like to get a five star murder mystery has to do something different for me, you know? Cause I have high standards. So those are the two books that I got in dog books. And you guys have seen all the other books that I got but we'll run through them quickly again. I picked up Horror Store finally by Grady Hendrix. I had to go through and delete all the books on here that had been on my Amazon wish list. And this was one of the oldest books on my Amazon wish list. And I was like, finally, Megan. This is a horror book. I just know it's set basically in an Ikea and the book looks like an Ikea catalog. And that just, oh, it's camp. It's camp, Grady Hendrix. I've only read one, Grady Hendrix. I own quite a few now. I own my best friend's Exorcism as well. I wanna get my hands on how to sell a haunted house, but I don't like the UK cover. So I feel like I need to get the US cover somehow. But now book depository is dead. It's like, what am I supposed to do? It's really difficult out here. Anyways, Summer Ween is coming up this week. It starts this week. And I think I will probably read this. So that's always good when you buy a book to like read it straight away. And I also finally picked up Bad Gaze, the homosexual history. I almost picked this up in my last book shopping vlog, which was like last summer, I think, when I went to London. And I just know we're following like Bad Gaze throughout history and that interests me. Listen, I love, I love anything. And I've always said I love like women learning about forgotten women throughout history. I love my forgotten women books, but I love anything throughout history that's shining a light on like marginalised people. I don't, I've had enough with history, right, of reading about straight white men. I have no interest in reading about straight white men. But anything other than that, I am very interested in reading about. And then the other two books, oh my God guys, this is A Travesty. I got this one, Summer, by Jillian Tamaki, Mariko Tamaki. I think they're cousins, I think, and they've done lots of YA graphic novels together. And I've only read, Laura Dean keeps breaking up with me, which I think is by Mariko. I haven't read any of their duos, but look, I don't want to bend it anymore, but can you see? It got a little bent in my back, and I'm really upset, really upset. But yeah, I love, this one has got like this kind of blue lavender colour scheme. And I just thought this would be fun, you know, it looked like my kind of graphic novel. I really like all the graphic novels published by first, second, most of my graphic novels are. That's kind of the style that I lean towards for graphic novels. And then the first book I picked up was London, A Guide for Curious Wanderers by Jack Cheshire. I cannot recommend following Jack Cheshire enough. Again, this is the kind of thing I'm obsessed with. I follow him on Instagram, I think, or Twitter, and I am subscribed to his newsletter. I read his newsletter. It's all about like hidden things throughout London and like the history. For example, you've got the Soho noses here, and that's what this book is about. I'm going to one of his tours. In a couple months, he does like guided tours. I've tried to convince Tom to come with me and it's like not his thing. Maybe I'll get him to come to another one. So yeah, when I saw this, I've been eyeing it up for a while and I think it's just really cool. Like learning about all these little things in the architecture or little parts of history that still exist. And I love that it's got illustrations because it makes it kind of come alive. So yeah, that is my haul from London. Guys, I think it was a pretty good haul. I'm really happy. I'm really excited to read a lot of these. I feel like we've got a good mix of some newer releases. These are both 2023 releases, some books that I've had my eye on for a long time, like Horror Story and Bad Gaze, and then a few surprises. Like this one's somewhere in eight detectives. Oh my God, that's such a good split between the six. So yeah, let me know what you thought of any of these books if you've read them, which ones you think I should prioritize. I'm really excited to read through all of these. I think it's a really good selection. I hope you guys enjoyed coming with me to London on your favorite bookshops. I thought that was such a fun way to decide what bookshops I went to. And you guys picked well. I had a really great day. I felt like it was a really great selection. So yeah, if you enjoyed the video, leave a shopping bag emoji down below because my wallet is definitely feeling it. And I'll see you guys very soon in another video. Bye.