Like all writers, I’m an avid reader. I consume books (and chocolate…and films…) like most people drink water or wine. Alas, as I’m not a huge fan of alcohol, my vice is a tendency to buy as many books as there are days in the year.

As you can imagine, this habit can soon burn a hole in your pocket. What The Husband thinks every time a new Waterstones/Amazon package turns up at the door, I’ll never know (and don’t want to). So when my sister sent me a link to something called A Box of Stories, I was super intrigued.

A Box of Stories is a book subscription service which tries to save all those books which would otherwise be pulped or forgotten about – you can either pay a monthly fee and get a box of 4 books a month for £21.99, or you can get a one-off box from £14.99 (I think…this is the option I hope I chose, but I’m gonna email them to confirm this, as I have a bad habit of not reading the small print). You can have a box arrive every 1, 2, 3 or 4 months, and choose from a wide range of genres – fiction, crime, historical, light reads, YA, mixed, sci-fi/fantasy – and you can even swap genres at any time.

Weirdly, my sister happened to send me a link to the website during one of my rare reading lulls – I just finished Maggie Steifvater’s Mister Impossible last week and I’ve been restless since then. I couldn’t decide what I wanted to read next – try and find another fantasy? Another light summer rom-com? Anything I found online or on my kindle just didn’t whet my appetite. So when I got the Whatsapp from my sister, I bought a box the very next day. Naturally, I went for the sci-fi/fantasy box and then I just had to sit back and wait for my lovely books to arrive. (While waiting, I actually found a book on my kindle called Lexicon by Max Barry and OMG IT’S SO GOOD).

Yesterday, I came home from work to find this beauty waiting for me:

I was so excited! What surprises would I unearth?! What delights awaited me??

Well, I’ll show you:

(Yes I took those photos on my kitchen window with my basil plants because the kitchen has the best light that time of day. Don’t judge me.)

Although I’ve never heard of any of these books/authors (which I realise is the point), I love that that’s part of the surprise. What new favourite author will I discover? Have I just found a new book that will earn it’s place in my exclusive ‘favourites’ bookcase? Who knows! There’s only one way to find out…and that’s by pouring myself a cup of tea, sneaking off upstairs out of the way of the Big/Little Terrors and choosing one to read.

I’ll keep you updated as I go, and let you know whether I think it’s worth buying another box or not.

Have you ever had a book subscription? If so, how did you find it? And if not – would you consider it?

Z xx