I was so excited yesterday to come home and find a notice from the post office that I had a parcel to be collected. I set off immediately, and was handed a MASSIVE box with the Reddit logo on it, which according to the shipping label weighed a whopping 7.9 kg. I thought my face would split from grinning, and my arms had almost given out by the time I had lugged this along the short walk from the post office to the car.

The instant I got home, I ripped into it, pausing only to take a photo or two of the process. As I opened all the little parcels, it became clear that my wonderful Rematch Santa had done her homework well. Not a single duplicate book, and all of them look fascinating!

I mentioned that I was interested in fantasy, but hadn't read much beyond ASOIAF, LoTR, Temeraire, etc., and how I loved being recommended awesome stuff that other people loved.

My Santa responded by sending me the first two books in Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series, the first two books in Alison Goodman's Eon series, the first three books in Paul Collins' Dragonlinks series (Santa totally picked up on my love of dragons!) and all three of David Eddings' Elenium series!

I haven't even heard of most of these, much less read them, so I am definitely excited to jump straight in - only problem is, I don't know which one I want to read first!

I had also mentioned in my Likes/Dislikes that I love cooking and baking, but that I didn't have any cookbooks for savoury food, and was always on the lookout for good vegetarian recipes. My Santa then sent me a beautiful vegan cookbook. I have flipped through, and the recipes look amazing, but still really doable for a novice - I am definitely going to be using this a lot!

I had also mentioned my interest in historical fiction, and how I wanted to branch out from reading stuff set in the Regency period, and enjoyed the politics and backstabbing of ASOIAF. So my Santa promptly gifted me The Tyranny of the Blood, the first in a historical series set in 4th century Scotland. The synopsis sounds like it will be right up my alley.

I also encouraged my Santa to share something she really loved, that maybe I hadn't expressed interest in - to introduce me to something new. She totally delivered, by sending me one of her favourite Jeffrey Deaver novels - it sounds really interesting.

Along with all these books, my Santa included a couple of prepaid postage satchels and the sweetest note telling me that she had noticed I was passing on books to others via subs like /r/random_acts_of_books, and that I was welcome to pass on any I didn't like. Sorry to disappoint you, Santa, but I absolutely love all of them, and won't be parting with them - I will simply have to find other books to send to deserving internet souls :)

And in the best coincidence ever, my rematch Santa turned out to be my favourite giftee from a past exchange - the one who responded to all my messages and enthusiastically posted the instant she received her Harry Potter gift! Thanks so much for your wonderful rematch gift, klynkitty - it's been a pleasure doing exchanges with you :)