Tag: Wrap-Up

I need to start by clarifying that reading is not a competition or that I think it should be. Reading is a hobby, a source of entertainment, therefore, should never be a competition. And in the golden age of online sharing, I know it can be hard to avoid comparing our reading with others, especially when some are capable of hitting double digits every month. But this post isn’t about reading more than other people. Every time I mention competition or competing, I’m talking about doing it against myself, challenging myself, and pushing myself as a reader, not comparing myself with others. Keep in mind this is purely an experiment to get even more enjoyment of reading. To be completely honest, I decided to make this post on a whim. I had a couple of ideas left for reading experiments to do this year when I came across a video …

In 2020, March had 365 days instead of the ordinary 31, and being at home in lockdown didn’t help. But I’m not here to talk about these bad days we are living in. No, for that you can turn on the news. In this house, sadness stays outside the door, and if it dares to come in, I’ll fight it with a movie, a game, and a book (in no particular order). For now, I’m going to stick with the books that made my March more bearable and enjoyable. I participated in two blog tours in March. The first one was for Happy Family by James Ellis. The book is set in Spain where the main protagonist, Germaine, goes to try to break out from isolation the creator of the virtual reality game Happy Family. I’ve read books about VR games in the past, but none of those can compare …

Two months into the new year and my reading mood are as good as ever. At this point, I’m just waiting for a reading slump to hit me hard. Meanwhile, I’m taking advantage of it as much as I can! February had one more reading day this year, and even though it still has fewer days than January, I read six books one more than the month before. For someone that was reading one to two books a month, this is pretty awesome! Wrap-Up When I was presented with the opportunity to review another book by Karl Drinkwater for a blog tour, I had to grab it. Chasing Solace is the continuation of Opal’s scavenge through the universe, and I wanted to reread the first book, Lost Solace, to refresh my memory on everything that happened. I enjoyed Chasing Solace even more, and now that I know there is a …

Finally, January is over! I don’t know about you, but it felt it took forever to end. And the proof of that is the amount of book I managed to read. Last month, I read five books total and each one of them was amazing! I had a great start on my reading year, and I’m going to tell you all about it because it’s time to wrap-up January. Wrap-Up On my last wrap-up, I say that I had already read my first book of the year and that it was a favourite. Not only that, but it also motivated the only purchase I’ve done this month. I’m talking about Missing Pieces by Carly Anne West. This middle-grade book is the prequel to the famous game Hello Neighbor, being the first book in a series with the same name. And since I love games as much as I love books, …

Past me kind of made my life easier for October. I was way over halfway into three books, so it wasn’t hard to finish them all up in the first week of the month. I managed to read 5 books which is as much as the last two months combined. And not only that, but I also bought a few books for my birthday as a gift from me to me. Moreover, Spookathon happened, and I didn’t participate. All this time waiting for that stupendous week and life got in the way. I’m quite sad I couldn’t enjoy as I was hoping for since it’s one of the few readathons I’ve been doing every year. Oh well… there is more Spookathon next year – I hope! *fingers crossed* Wrap-Up The first book to finish off in October was One Child by Torey Hayden. I just wanted to get it out …

September was a fairly good reading month for me, and that gives me a reason to write a monthly wrap-up. I skipped doing this post in August because I barely read anything. It was one hell of an exhausting month and trying to read was a challenge on its own. I couldn’t read more than 3 pages without start closing my eyes. It was amazing that I even managed to finish anything. August On the first days of the month, I finished The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Tailor Jenkins Reid that I had started in Jully. I had a great time reading it. Evelyn is one of my favourite characters of all time, and you can know all about it on my review. I loved Evelyn, but I didn’t love the book as much as I did love her. I thought this book was over-hyped, although it’s still …

May it’s finally over and that means it’s time to talk about all the books I read and bought this month. I purposefully skipped April’s wrap-up because I wasn’t in the mood to write about books. I usually can’t shut up about them, but lately, things have changed. I’m in the worst reading slump, and it’s getting quite hard to get out. Please send help! On these two months combined, I read 2 books and 2 comic books, which isn’t much for me. In April, I read Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart which was great but not as amazing and surprising as We Were Liars (you can read my review here). While in May, I read Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami that was… strange. I didn’t get fully immersed in the story because I need to learn more about Japanese culture, especially why they act in certain ways …

I am so confused! March is already over and it felt so short and at the same time so long. I guess this was a big month for me, and unfortunately, the number of books I read didn’t match its length. Luckily, I’ve been in such a great reading mood that will help me a lot in April. I want to spend all my time reading, but I do fill very guilty to spend a lot of time reading instead of doing something productive. It’s the ultimate struggle!! I just hope I can take advantage of this mood and shorten my unread pile of books. Wrap-Up I finished two books this month that I didn’t even remember. Otherworld by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller was a great book to melt my geek heart. It wasn’t as amazing as Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, but I had a blast reading …

Long time no see! It has been ages since I’ve written anything on this little corner of the internet. I was expecting to take at least a two weeks break before Christmas, turns out it became an extended pause. Between two part-time jobs, a 25 hours curse, the usual Holiday madness, and family emergencies, December flew by. When January arrived everything slowed down, but I still kept on delaying my come back over and over again. Hopefully, this February is going to be my return to old routines and my usual schedule. I still need to organize my mind and start to plan ahead – or at least try. Back in December, I had planned to read so many books. I was reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See and The Affair by Amanda Brooke, which I intended to finish by the end of the month, needless …

Finally, we are in October! The best month of the year. Do you want to know why? No.1: Autumn. The greatest season of all. No.2: It’s my birth month, and everyone loves their birth month, especially since it means gifts – I already have books that I’m giving to myself on the way. No.3: It’s when I started my blog and also these monthly wrap-ups (changes coming next month!). No, I’m not going to say Halloween not because I don’t like it, instead because it’s not celebrated in Portugal the same way it’s celebrated in other countries. Although, I’m still planning on reading some spooky books – I might not do Halloween, but I’m not a monster. Before I continue to talk about my passion for October, I need to tell you all about the books from September. Wrap-Up When I think about September, I think I had a pretty …

It’s that time again to open my Goodreads page and see what books have I shelved and how many have I read this month. Thanks to the BookTube-A-Thon in the first week of August, I managed to read more than on an average month. Even though I was excited about the readathon and all the reading sprints and stuff, I didn’t participate in anything. When I wanted to read there weren’t any reading sprints happening, and when I did catch them I wasn’t in the mood to read for 20 minutes and stop, I wanted to keep on going. So in reality, the reading sprints did nothing for me. Although, I still finished two books I’m very happy about and a couple more in the remaining days of the month. Wrap-Up I didn’t read all seven books I was planning to for BTAT, but I enjoyed a lot of what …