I have refined my shopping on trips to two things: tea and books (well, three if you count the tons of snacks I buy as omiyage). I’ve found out that when it comes to souvenirs for myself, these are the two that I enjoy the most (what am I supposed to do with endless magnets and keychains??). This was a habit I picked up on my last trip to England and I was more than excited to go book buying on this one.

This time, though, I practiced a bit more restraint and only got five books and two magazines over the span of two weeks:

Pre-bought

I suspect that these two books were the reason I only came back with five books! I ordered them ahead of time and just knowing I had started spending before the trip even began was a great way to tell myself “you don’t need that”.

The first book is the National Trust Book of Scones, which I first found in the library and used to make my very first scones. And while I’m normally quite happy to return books to the library when I’m done, I realised that I wanted to keep this and try more recipes from the book. It’s pretty hard to get in Singapore, so I figured I’d just get it in the UK.

The Book of Afternoon Tea was bought due to the Amazon algorithms. I was actually deciding between this and another National Trust book of Afternoon Tea (I think it’s Teatime recipes or something like that), but after flipping through the contents of both, I felt that this had more things that I would actually try cooking.

Fingers crossed I get to these soon – I still have the Jane Austen cookbook from the last trip that I haven’t touched!

Bought in Edinburgh

I got this in the John Kay’s bookshop in Edinburgh (just next to Howies and walking distance from Oink!) but it’s really to commemorate my time in UK in general. This is supposed to be things that the Home Front actually published during WWII, which would be what I mistakenly assumed Heath Robinson’s Home Front was.

By the way, Edinburgh seems to have lots of really nice bookshops! I really wish we had more time to explore – I only mentioned to pop into three but didn’t have enough time to browse long enough to buy.

I also spotted this sign in the window of John Kay’s:

If I bought from both small bookshops and Amazon, does it mean the fairy will let me off?

Bought in Isle of Skye

I found this while on tour in the Isle of Skye, just when I was thinking of getting a book to remember this fantastic place! I love myths and legends, so this was exactly what I wanted – I’m looking forward to reading this(:

Bought in York

I got this at A Chocolate Story in York! I was considering getting a book on York’s viking history or on York Minster, but I have a major sweet tooth and couldn’t resist getting something about chocolate. If only there was one for tea too…

The last thing I got isn’t a book – rather they are magazines. This was a bundle at Tesco and since I’ve been using BBC Good Food recipes on and off last year, I wanted to get a paper copy of it. And also as a small gesture of support, since all the recipes on the site are free.

So this is my (rather mini) book haul from my trip! I’m looking forward to reading these – all while drinking the tea that I got from the UK as well.

(tea haul to come)