November Wrap Up/Winter Plans

I’ve been procrastinating this post all month because I kept wanting to wait until I could get a picture of the whopping three books I read last month, but it hasn’t worked out, so we’re just doing this.

Last month was NaNoWriMo, and the most recent round of Tome Topple happened. I did post about my Tome Toppple plans, but I didn’t expect to actually finish a book (I don’t think I ever have before during Tome Topple). How did I do? Well, I read all three of the books That’s right, I made it through Night Film, The Witches: Salem, 1692, AND The Diviners last month while also participating in NaNoWriMo. What?! I can’t believe it.

In my last update about all of this in November, I hadn’t finished my last book or NaNoWriMo. There was still time to fail. But…I didn’t. I don’t know what happened last month, but I was on fire.

I completed an actual entire first draft of a novel for the first time ever. It’s horrible, it needs so much editing and rewriting, but I actually did it! My final word count was 54,724 words! (The “goal” word count is 50k.)

Not only did I finish an actual first draft of a novel, but I also plan to go back and make it better probably during the spring. I can’t believe I really did it omg. I’m not going to lie, there’s a tiny bit of pride happening because of this.

I was also going to post my Bookish Bingo wrap up, but I totally lost track of what I read for the prompts and I didn’t do great with it anyway because I didn’t get much reading done this autumn.

That brings me to my winter reading plans and such!

First of all, Winter Bookish Bingo, yesss! I’m totally participating. Head over to Pretty Deadly Reviews to see the prompts for this round.

King of Scars comes out in January(!!!) so I’m considering pre-ordering that because I NEED IT! Aaah! Now I can finally read Wonder Woman: Warbringer because I’ll have another Leigh Bardugo book to read soon! You guys, I can not even begin to put into words how freaking excited I am for this book! It’s probably my most-anticipated 2019 release, honestly.

I’ll probably talk more about a few other 2019 releases I’m excited about in a later post (there’s a T5W with that prompt this month, but I’ll probably narrow it down to books released in the first half of the year).

Otherwise, I think I’m just going to try to read as much as I can before the end of the year. I’m definitely not hitting 30k pages read, but right now it doesn’t seem like I’m going to hit 25k, which was my goal once I started climbing out of The Great Reading Slump of 2018 *sigh*

And, hopefully, I’ll actually follow through with making some changes to this blog soon. I need to write a couple of reviews, and I have some ARCs I need to read and review soon. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping I actually get all of that done this month.

I really meant for this to be kind of short, but I rambled a lot more than I expected, oops. I just sat down and really felt like writing a blog post, so…here we are 😛

I hope your winter is off to a lovely start, and (if you celebrate any holidays this time of year) I hope your holidays are filled with joy ❤

September Wrap Up (Blogtober Begins!)

September was a rocky reading month for me, but I (finally) came out of a month pretty satisfied with my reading. The cursed slump was driven away, thanks to Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate.

I’m really glad I saved finishing that series for so long, because without it, I’m not sure I ever would have clawed my way out of the slump. (That’s probably overly dramatic, but it’s how I felt 😛 )

In September, I finished eleven books, four fairy tales, and one short story.

The Fairy Tales

(Clicking the titles takes you to my Fairy Tales Fridays post for each of them.)

The Books

The entire Parasol Protectorate series (Soulless, Changeless, Blameless, Heartless, Timeless) by Gail Carriger
The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco
Haunted: Ten Tales of Ghosts edited by Rayne Hall
The Suffering by Rin Chupeco
Kill Creek by Scott Thomas (reviewed)
The Marble and Other Ghost Tales of Tennessee and Virginia by Joe Tennis
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Short Stories

“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe

I totally won at R.I.P. 13, which I talked about in my first and second update posts. Since I’ve already succeeded with Peril the First (reading 4 books), my bigger focus for R.I.P. in October is going to be Peril of the Short Story and Peril on the Screen.

Over the weekend, there was a pre-FrightFall readathon, during which I read two books (the last two on my list above).

Lastly, I think I’ve been able to mark a couple of squares for Fall Bookish Bingo, yay!

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty excited for October, and I really hope I get at least as much reading done this month as I did in September.

How was your September?

Did you read anything great?

Are you participating in any autumn or Halloween themed book events?

May + Spring Wrap Up

Goodreads is finally functioning a little more, so I can do this the easier way, yay!

May was An Experience, oh boy. I mentioned in my April Wrap Up that I was about 3,600 pages behind for my page goal. That…that was a lot of pages to be behind by. By the end of May, to get back on track, I needed my total page count for the year so far to be at least 12,500.

So how did I do? Well, my total pages for this year was 13,282 at the end of May 31st! Ho-ly craaaap that was a lot of pages read in May!

In May, I read 17 titles and finally (finally!) finished The Lord of the Rings! It took me about 2.5-3 months to read Fellowship and maybe the first chapter or so of Two Towers, but once I sat down and really started the rest of the book, I blew through it within the week, I think. I loved it, and I am so happy to finally be able to say I’ve read it haha.

Now, on to the rest of what I read:

From last book of the month to first book of the month…

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck– 3-3.5/5 stars
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge– 3/5 stars
The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur– 4.5/5 stars
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins– 1.5/5 stars
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien– 4.5/5 stars (-0.5 star because I didn’t really start loving it until after Fellowship )
The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs– 3.5-4/5 stars
The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo– 5/5 stars
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion– 3-3.5/5 stars
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine– 4/5 stars
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel– 1.5/5 stars
Everything Leads to You by Nina Lacour– 4-ish/5 stars
The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw– 3.75/5 stars?
The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee– 5/5 stars
The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan– 4-4.5/5 stars
The House of Hades by Rick Riordan– 3.75-4/5 stars
The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan– 5/5 stars
The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan– 5/5 stars
The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan– 5/5 stars

I pretty much did nothing but read every possible moment last month because I was determined to catch up while I was really feeling the urge to read. (That’s also why my blogging didn’t really happen last month, oops.)

I won’t get into my year-long reading challenges this time, but I’ll be doing a mid-year review/wrap-up at the end of June and include what I’ve read for the Pop Sugar and Book Riot’s Read Harder challenges.

Spring Bookish Bingo Results

I was so close to getting every square this time around, ugh.

Here’s what I read:

Ocean Theme: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Mythology: The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
Part of a Series: Gemina by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (review)
Pink Cover: Buzz: A Stimulating History of the Sex Toy by Hallie Lieberman (review)
Made Into a Movie: Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
White Cover: The Witch Doesn’t Burn in This One by Amanda Lovelace (review)
Spring Release: The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (review)
New-to-You Author: It’s All Fun and Games by Dave Barrett (review)
Retelling: Snow White and the Seven Keys to Doomsday by Justin Richards
Unlikeable Main Character: Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
Thriller: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Free Space: The Night of the Living Dummy by R.L. Stine
Intersectional Diversity: The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee (Disabled/POC/LGBTQ+ character)
Animal On Cover: She Who Destroys the Light: Fairy Tales Gone Wrong by Shahida Arabi (review) (A wolf)
Aussie Author: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
2018 Debut: DROPKICKromance by Cyrus Parker (review)
Epistolary: Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
Family: Funhome: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
Witches: The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw
Flowers On Cover: The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur
Set in Another Country: The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion (Australia…I think)
LGBT+: Everthing Leads to You by Dahlia Adler (F/F relationship)
Multi POV: Obsidio by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Second Chance: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (I counted this because I gave it a second chance after trying to read it as a kid and not liking it. I still didn’t really like it )

And that’s a wrap, whew.

May, and spring in general, was kind of eventful. A lot has gone on in my personal life, and not much of it was good But at least I’m back on track with my reading goals, I guess. (Well, at least my page count goal, if nothing else.) And I’ve managed to actually do pretty well so far with my reading resolutions for this year. But I think I’ve done enough updating and wrapping up for one post, so I’ll talk more about that in the mid-year update around the end of June/beginning of July.

April Wrap Up

I can not believe it’s already May, wow.

Part of that is because Mother Nature seems a bit confused and is still living in March. Weather here has been so weird, bouncing from highs in the 70s to having snow the next day. It’s not totally unheard of or anything, but it’s definitely been the chilliest spring we’ve had for a while, which hasn’t upset me (I hate the heat). But, because it was still spring and things were still starting to bloom and such, my allergies were horrendous and I felt awful most of the month. Which meant I didn’t get as much reading done as I wanted.

Oh well, things still worked out pretty well. I participated in two read a thons over the weekend (Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon as well as the monthly read-a-thon in the goodreads group All About Books), and read five books 😮 Total pages was 927 (894 for the books I started and finished, plus a chapter from LOTR).

While I’m really happy about those numbers, I’m a little irritated that life got in the way on Saturday and Sunday, because I was soooo close to topping 1k pages. That’s petty, I know. But I was so close 😛

Ok, on to the rest of the wrap up…

I read:

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo– I loved this one and I highly recommend it. 5/5 stars, reviewed here.
Gemina by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff– Not my favorite from the trilogy, but still 4.5/5 stars, reviewed here.
Snow White and the Seven Keys to Doomsday by Justin Richards– I’m really liking the Time Lord Fairy Tales, but not quite loving them. I gave this one 3.5ish/5 stars.
Night of the Living Dummy by R.L. Stine– Goosebumps were my obsession when I was a kid, and I’m enjoying revisiting some of them. I think I liked this one better 20 years ago, but it was still a fun 3/5 stars read.
She Who Destroys the Light: Fairy Tales Gone Wrong by Shahida Arabi– I talk more about why I gave it 3ish/5 stars in my review.
It’s All Fun and Games by Dave Barrett– This one was a fun and quick read that I gave 4/5 stars. Reviewed here.
Tales of the Peculiar by Ranson Riggs– I love the Miss Peregrine’s series, so I’ve been wanting to read this for ages. I finally got around to it and gave it 5/5 stars.
Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams– This was a re-read for me and just as much fun the second (third?) time around. 5/5 stars and this one might be my favorite of the 5 part trilogy 😛
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson– I never read this as a kid, so I got to count it for a prompt in both the PopSugar and Book Riot reading challenges, whoo! I didn’t love it, though, so 3/5 stars.
Deadpool, Vol. 1: Secret Invasion by Daniel Way– I. Love. Wade Wilson/Deadpool. I’ve unfortunately only read a few of the comics, but I’m working on slowly remedying that by grabbing volumes when they’re cheaper for Kindle. I really liked this one (5/5 stars) and I can’t wait to get through the next two volumes because volume 3 has the comic that was the first one I ever read ❤ (And I am ridiculously excited for the new movie! If you are, too, let me know in the comments!)

11 books isn’t my best, but it’s the best I’ve done all year so I’m pretty happy with it.

I’m hoping to get through even more in May because I’m woefully behind on my yearly page goal. I keep trying to get to 30k pages in a year, and I never make it 😦 I got so close back in 2013 (29,521), but missed it because I got really ill the last week of December.

As of right now, I’m almost 3,600 pages behind. Ouch

But I have a plan, which, if successful, will get me back on track hopefully by mid May. (Spoiler alert: I’m going to binge my way through the Heroes of Olympus series, then hopefully get in a few graphic novels and a comic trade or two.)

Usually this is the point where I’d post my Bookish Bingo progress, but I think I’m going to start just posting those separately when the season wraps up.

I haven’t really examined my Book Riot or PopSugar lists to see what else I can cross off, but the children’s book prompts weirdly stuck in my head, so I know I can cross those off. Or at least I’m 90% sure I can

Since we’re almost halfway through the year, I think it’s time to compare my mental/wishful TBR with prompts on both lists (and the Bingo card) so I can work on prioritizing some of them.

Ok, I think that’s enough babbling. Time to go grab some coffee and hopefully dive into a new book. Happy reading, everyone 🙂

How was your April?

What was your favorite thing you read?

If you participated in Dewey’s and posted about it, leave a link so I can check out your TBR and/or wrap up!

March Wrap-Up

Is anyone else finding it both hard to believe it’s already April, and feeling like it’s only April? I feel like that’s been the case for almost every month for a year or more

This year hasn’t been great so far in any area of my life, but reading has been particularly bad. I’ve been in kind of a slump since January and haven’t felt like reading much at all. Even things I’ve been super excited about (like, babbling constantly about them for months or more) just aren’t working out for me.

The biggest one is probably Gemina *sobs* I’ve had it since around the time it came out, give or take a couple of weeks, but held off on reading because I wanted to re-read Illuminae and then binge through Gemina and Obsidio. Well, I have Obsidio and I re-read Illuminae, but I have not been able to get into Gemina. I’ve been trying to read it for about 2 weeks now and still haven’t hit 50 pages in.

Ok, ok, this is supposed to be a wrap up and I’m getting way off track. I don’t think I’ll do a haul in this post because I haven’t been buying many books (I think my husband actually bought more books than I did), and I’m thinking I’ll just start doing seasonal ones or something. So, book haul will probably be coming around the beginning of June, for March-May.

As for what I read last month, well…It wasn’t impressive:

Heat by Rachel Windsor (got it from Net Galley quite a while back, ended up skimming most of it because it wasn’t for me, so I didn’t review it)
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (re-read, still 5/5 stars)
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (I didn’t like this one as much as I’d expected, but 3/5 stars)
Buzz: A Stimulating History of the Sex Toy by Hallie Lieberman (reviewed here; 4.5/5 stars)
Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn (I might write a review eventually, but I gave it 4/5 stars)
DROPKICKromance by Cyrus Parker (reviewed here; 5/5 stars)
The Witch Doesn’t Burn in This One by Amanda Lovelace (reviewed here; 4.5/5 stars)

I still haven’t really crossed off many prompts (or any? I’m not sure) for the PopSugar Reading Challenge (I have a post with some book recs for prompts if you want to check that out), or Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge, but I have gotten a few squares for the Spring Bookish Bingo. (That was a lot of links, wow.)

PINK COVER: Buzz by Hallie Lieberman
SPRING RELEASE: The Witch Doesn’t Burn in This One by Amanda Lovelace
AUSSIE AUTHOR: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
2018 DEBUT: DROPKICKromance by Cyrus Parker
EPISTOLARY: Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
FAMILY: Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

I can’t believe I’m already so close to a BINGO, whoo! (Will it be cheating to use the entire Illuminae Files trilogy for this? Because I can use the other 2 for “Multi POV” and “Part of a Series”and I’m really thinking about doing that… Yeah, I’m doing it. Probably.)

I think that’s it. 2018 is turning out to be a weird year for me. I’ve been thinking a lot and re-evaluating things, and trying to figure out some stuff. Like what I want to do with this blog.

I haven’t been very active here for a few months, not really because I don’t want to be, but because of life being hectic and all the thinking. I’m hoping to have a clearer idea of what I want to do, soon, but for right now… I don’t know. I was honestly thinking about deleting and giving up, but that was a fleeting urge (thankfully, because I’m pretty sure I would have hated myself about 5 minutes after doing that).

I just got really overwhelmed for a while, and discouraged, but I’m feeling better about it all now. I think. I’m still a bit overwhelmed, honestly, but I’m working it out.

2017 End of Year Book Survey

I’m late, I know. I wanted to get this up in the first week of January, but…life. And a bit of laziness, and panic because I still haven’t made new featured images. *sigh* Oh well, I’m here now and I’m ready to do this thing!

The end of year book survey is hosted by Jamie (Perpetual Page Turner), so go check out her blog to see all the other people who have done the survey and linked up, and don’t forget to add your own link if you participate 🙂

2017 Reading Stats:

Number Of Books You Read: 105! (But, a few of those were short stories, so it was more like 98-100 books, I think.)
Number of Re-Reads: 15 if I counted right.
Genre You Read The Most From: Fantasy, with poetry coming in as a close second.

Best in Books:

1. Best Book You Read In 2017?

Ok, I’m cheating and not answering this one yet, because I’m working on a big post about favorite reads from last year. So, when that’s done, I’ll link it here.

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

Cinder by Marissa Meyer I really wanted to love it, but I just didn’t. I didn’t hate it, but I wasn’t a fan and I think I gave it 2.5 or 3 out of 5 stars.

3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read?

Hmm… Ok, I’m going with “good” surprising and say Everything Must Go by Jennie Fran Davis. I was prepared to really dislike it and the protagonist, but I ended up really loving both.

4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did)?

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio!!! ❤ (I have no clue if anyone actually read it, but I haven’t shut up about it all year. Let me know in the comments if you read it because I pushed it so hard 😛 )

5. Best series you started in 2017? Best Sequel of 2017? Best Series Ender of 2017?

Can I cheat and not answer this one, since these are categories for my big post of 2017 faves? Ok, I’ll partially answer with a 2017 released series ender that I read: A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab.

6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2017?

Oh gosh, this one is tough, too. I’m just going to go with poetry for this one and say Kat Savage. (*stops self from adding 4 more poets*)

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?

I’m going with cute, YA, contemporary books for this one and saying When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon. If any book were going to convince me to give more contemporaries a try, this is it.

8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

I’m cheating and using two (one adult, one YA) that were both new to me and read within a day: The Martian by Andy Weir, and 27 Hours by Tristina Wright.

9. Book You Read In 2017 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?

Uuuh…. Ok, either one of the Shades of Magic books (or the whole series), or the Six of Crows duology… Or maybe The Valiant because the sequel (The Defiant) comes out soon.

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2017?

(Do comics count? I’m counting it.)

11. Most memorable character of 2017?

So. Many. I’ll say Kaz Brekker, though, because I swear I think I think about him every day.

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2017?

I have to go with My Invented Country by Isabel Allende. The translation was beautifully written, so I can only imagine how great the original Spanish was.

13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2017?

I’m not sure I read many books that would fit for this one, but I’m going to say Exit West by Mohsin Hamid because it’s very timely.

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2017 to finally read?

The Martian by Andy Weir! I’d had a copy for over 2 years, and it was out for like 5 years before I finally got to it.

15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2017?

I don’t have any written down, but it was probably something potentially obscene from The Martian 😛

16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2017?

I’m not bothering to try to figure out what the shortest novel or novella or poetry collection was, so I’m including short stories for this. My shortest was The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe (12 pages), and the longest was East of Eden by John Steinbeck (778 pages).

17. Book That Shocked You The Most

There was a thing that happened in Winter People by Jennifer McMahon that I still kinda remember, a year later, that totally caught me by surprise. Like, I usually see things coming, but that one thing…

18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!)

Holland (Shades of Magic) + PEACE 😥 I’m really not a shipper, sorry.

Ok, ok, to actually give two characters, I have to dig into my re-reads because it’s the only time I can even remember shipping characters, on my own, without the influence of the bookish community: Sookie + Eric from the Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris.

19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year

Hm, probably Fallon and Elka from The Valiant by Lesley Livingston.

20. Favorite Book You Read in 2017 From An Author You’ve Read Previously

The Six of Crows duology from Leigh Bardugo! I’d read the Grisha trilogy before, and she’s become one of my absolute favorite authors ❤

21. Best Book You Read In 2017 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure:

Uuuh… I actually don’t think of any. Can I count something I only read because everyone was talking about it? I’ll go with A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. (This book solidified my opinion that hyped books are really not always good books. I mean, if you like it, great, and I hope the rest of the series doesn’t disappoint you. It just really wasn’t for me.)

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2017?

I’m not sure I had any. If I were still a teenager, it would probably have been Nina Zenik, though.

23. Best 2017 debut you read?

I can’t pick just one, and this is another for my big list (that will be broken down into categories).

24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?

Probably the Shades of Magic world by V.E. Schwab.

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?

Maybe it’s a weird choice, but Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher was the first book that came to mind.

26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2017?

Love, and You by Gretchen Gomez ❤ I loved it and teared up a lot, cried once or twice, and then felt healed and better than I was before reading it by the time I got to the end.

27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?

Love, and You by Gretchen Gomez!! Not enough people are talking about it, and I think they should be. (For poetry readers, that is, or people who are looking to get into poetry.)

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

Damn it, I can’t use Love, and You for everything -_- Uuh… A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab, probably. I remember coming out of reading it feeling like I’d been pulverized then poured into a vaguely me-shaped mold and recast.

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2017?

I’m going with Everything Must Go by Jenny Fran Davis because the formatting was really cool and fun to read. The whole book was also pretty unique, at least in my reading experience.

30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?

I’m going with something I really didn’t like for this one, and I’m mad because I really wanted to like it: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. *ducks and covers head to avoid rocks* I know, I know! I just couldn’t love it, and I’m sorry. It was almost my least favorite book of the year

Your Blogging/Bookish Life:

1. New favorite book blog you discovered in 2017?

No, no, no, can’t choose! I’ve found so many absolutely wonderful blogs in the last year, and I can’t pick a favorite, sorry. I

2. Favorite review that you wrote in 2017?

Oh gosh, none of them? I’m so critical of my own stuff, and I always doubt that I’ve written anything good, even if I thought it sounded good as I wrote it. *sigh* That said… If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio, probably, because I loved the book so much that the review ended up being super easy to write, and I had fun writing.

3. Best discussion/non-review post you had on your blog?

Hmm… I really don’t know, sorry. There were tons of things I really enjoyed, like doing T5W and Blogtober, but I’m not sure I could pick a “best” post. I will say one of my favorite bookish posts was my Spooky Book Recs & Discussion: A Mixed Bag (which links to my two other posts for spooky recs during Blogtober last year). I had a lot of fun with that series, and Blogtober in general.

4. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, memes, etc.)?

Ha, Blogtober! I loved it, even though it was a little challenging and hard to keep up with. I think I’ll participate again this year.

5. Best moment of bookish/blogging life in 2017?

Uh…I’m really not sure. Maybe getting a few spam comments. I felt like I’d finally “made it” haha.

6. Most challenging thing about blogging or your reading life this year?

Oh definitely the surgery, ugh. That prevented me from reading for weeks for various reasons (pain, stress, meds, etc.), and kinda killed my reading motivation and desire to blog for a while.

7. Most Popular Post This Year On Your Blog (whether it be by comments or views)?

By views, it was The New Disney Princess Tag (I’d forgotten about it, but it was really fun).

8. Post You Wished Got A Little More Love?

Most of them 😛 Kidding (well, mostly haha). I’m not really sure about specific posts, off the top of my head, but I know there were a few I’d worked hard on that didn’t really get any interaction, which was a little disappointing. Maybe some of my reviews, or lists of book recommendations.

9. Best bookish discover (book related sites, book stores, etc.)?

I’m not sure if it counts as a discovery, since I’d been aware of its existence for years, but I finally got to make a trip to the closest used bookstore

10. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year?

Yes! I set a low-stress goodreads goal of 12 books and finished 105, whoo! I also did pretty well with the Fall Bookish Bingo and other autumn challenges I participated in.

I came pretty close to succeeding with my #RockMyTBR goal (every month read at least 1 book I’ve had for at least a year but haven’t read). I ended up getting 9/12 months, and at least 17 books. There might have been more I never shelved, though. I call that a win because I still managed to read more than 12, even if I missed months, and reading more from my personal library was the ultimate goal, so… *shrugs*

Looking Ahead:

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2017 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2018?

Eh, there were a few that are really high priority for me, including a few backlist titles I’d wanted to read last year, but never managed to get to (like Hidden Figures, which I’m currently reading, and This Savage Song). I’ll say The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, though, because I really wanted to read it last year.

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2018 (non-debut)?

So many! Probably Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, and The Witch Doesn’t Burn in This One by Amanda Lovelace are highest on my list right now, though.

3. 2018 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?

The only debut I can think of right now that I’m eagerly awaiting is DROPKICKromance by Cyrus Parker, but I’m sure I’ll find a few more soon.

4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2018?

I…don’t think I’m actually that caught up on series that are ending or getting a new book this year I’m at least one or two books behind for all the in-progress series I’m interested in, or haven’t even started them yet. It’s probably still Obsidio, though. I’ve only read Illuminae, but I’m dying to jump into Gemina when I get Obsidio so I can marathon them.

5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2018?

I did the T5W last week that was about bookish resolutions, but I think my number one thing to do/accomplish is to just have a good time reading. I spent a couple of years putting way too much pressure on myself, and I want to relax with books again.

6. A 2018 Release You’ve Already Read & Recommend To Everyone (if applicable):

I thought I had a book in mind for this, but it actually came out late 2017. I’ve got a few ARCs, though, so hopefully I’ll have a few recs soon.

Aaannndd we’re done! Whew.

Anyone still awake? (Ha, I’m just kidding. I doubt anyone slogged through that whole post 😛 If you did, oh my gosh, are you okay? And also, thank you ❤ ) As you can see, my reading and blogging life is just super thrilling.

Oh well, I enjoyed doing this anyway, and I’m probably going to do it next year. The difference will be that I’ll be prepared next time, and will have fewer vague answers and the like.

If you did this survey, too, let me know in the comments and I’ll check yours out 🙂 Happy 2018, everyone!

Weekly Wrap Up: Jan. 01-Jan.07

I seriously doubt I’ll stick to weekly wrap ups because A) I don’t have the time, focus, or patience for it, and B) my life (including my reading life) is pretty boring honestly. But, I felt like trying something new, and I wanted to make a blog post.

Reading stuff:

Screenshot (99)

2018 started off strong, and then tapered off dramatically in like two days.

Why? Well, at the end of 2017, I decided to try to finish series I’ve started but never finished. I have quite a few of these (or at least parts of them) sitting on my shelves, and it’s time I finally get through the ones that are complete, or will be soon.

I was excited about re-reading The Southern Vampire Mysteries (aka the Sookie Stackhouse series, aka the books True Blood is based on) because I’d just finished True Blood and I (finally!) had all the books. Yay! (I’d read all but the 13th a few years ago, and have since forgotten basically everything )

But no. I read up to Dead Reckoning, finishing it in the wee hours, and got up later and reached for my copy of Deadlocked (the 12th of 13 books in the series)…and it wasn’t there.

I tore my house apart all day looking for it. No luck finding it, but I did find about 6 billion spiderwebs, 5 missing DVD,s, a few other missing books, and a partridge in a pear tree. (Ok, not the partridge, but everything else.)

Then I checked Overdrive. Huzzah! The entire series is there! But no. The license for just the last two books has expired.

But wait! My library has a physical copy! Nope. That was when the below freezing weather began and husband has been working snow removal, and heck if I’m driving an hour one way across a mountain in the snow and ice just to check out one book.

Finally, I looked on goodreads to see what the edition I’d read previously was (I’m obsessive about getting the right edition shelved, except in rare instances, like back before we had the re-read option). Hardcover. No, that can’t be right! I only owned books 9 and 10 in hardcover!

So, it turns out I never actually bought book 12. *sigh* I have books 1-11 and book 13, as well as the complete stories, but not book 12. That frustration kinda killed my desire to keep reading.

_hidden figures

But all is not lost! I’m starting a buddy read of Hidden Figures with one of my friends, now that we’ve both managed to get a copy.

Hopefully, since the days are supposed to warm back up a bit this week, I’ll be able to finish it, get to the library and check out Deadlocked, and get back on track. (Bonus Timon! 😛 )

Life stuff:

You really don’t want to hear about it. Basically, this is me right now:

Blog stuff:

I’m working on figuring out a new schedule because some of the weekly meme things I used to participate in don’t seem to be active anymore.

I’m also reading an ARC I should have read last year (my surgery, the kittens, and NaNo really threw off my reading and reviewing, eek) and will hopefully have finished and reviewed around the middle of the month.

I’ve gone through my files and deleted pretty much all my (ugly) original featured image things. I’m planning to take some pictures, maybe doodle some, and play around a bit more with GIMP. Hopefully, I’ll have new ones that look better on posts by mid-February.

That’s a project I’ve been meaning to work on for almost a year, and it’s really not something I’m looking forward to because I have a lot of ideas, I’m not particularly talented, I’m a little lazy, and I tend to lose interest in projects like that halfway through. (There’s a reason I have a few scrapbooks and the like with only a few pages finished. *sigh*)

Lastly, I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do for my 2017 wrap up -_- That should be up in a few days.

On the agenda for today:

Hopefully knocking out a chunk of Hidden Figures, not freezing to death (it’s actually not that cold, it’s only like 0-ish outside and between 50-60 degrees inside), and getting started with those featured images. And getting pictures I’ve been meaning to take since Christmas, of my holiday book haul, because I’m sick of looking at my tree and meant to take it down on the 1st, but keep putting it off because I want it for those pictures.