March Currently Reading! ’21

Happy March! This is what I’m currently reading!

Hood by Stephen R. Lawhead – This is my current audio book and honestly it’s pretty slow going. I’m a little over half way through at the moment. It’s not bad but I haven’t been sucked in or anything.

A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas – Shortly after posting my haul, I realized I forgot to include this book. Whoops – I’ll put it in next month’s. This came out earlier this month and I dove right into it. I’m about two thirds through. It’s… exactly how every one of this author’s books are. It’s fun but it’s also completely ridiculous.

Dragon Wing by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman – This is my current buddy read with Zezee @Zezeewithbooks! So far I’m rather digging it, though it is a tad slow. It’s not bad at all though and I’ve laughed out loud during the thing a few times now.

The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin – This is my current buddy with an irl friend! We read the first one last month and adored it, so we picked this one up right away. So far, we’re loving this, too!


And that’s it! Happy reading!

Blogmas is over! | Holiday Bucket List Check-In

It’s the last day of Blogmas! Well, ‘my’ blogmas, which has been going from November 21st until today. Every single day except Christmas day, I’ve been posting.

And man, I’m tired now. It was tons of fun though!

On Black Friday, I posted a Holiday Bucket list of things I wanted to do. Today I’m gonna see what I did!

Holiday bucket list

  • Chestnut praline latte ❌
  • Peppermint mocha ✔️
  • Winter beer ✔️
  • Break out the electric blanket ✔️
  • Make a list of Christmas movies to watch ✔️
  • Watch those Christmas movies ㋛
  • Bake Christmas cookies ✔️
  • Ship cookies to buddies ✔️
  • Decorate the Christmas tree ✔️
  • Go Christmas shopping (online? 😦 ) ✔️
  • Winter nail art ❌
  • Go Christmas light hunting ✔️
  • Hang up Christmas lights outside ✔️
  • Get Christmas sweets ✔️
  • Get fiction TBR down to 200 books ✔️
  • Watch Harry Potter (from beginning!) ㋛
  • Watch Lord of the Rings (again) ❌
  • Wrap presents ✔️
  • Decorate apartment all Christmasy ✔️
  • Finish hanging frames on the walls ㋛
  • Buy a car ❌
  • Complete blogmas ✔️
  • Irish cream cold brew ✔️
  • Get Christmas jammies to wear to bed Christmas eve ❌
  • Learn how to play Carol of the Bells on guitar – in progress!!!
  • Break out Christmas scented candles ✔️
  • Finish book buying ban successfully ✔️
  • Make nacho dip for New Year’s ✔️
  • Send cards to my grandmother ✔️

 

The ones with the ‘eh’ smile are ones I did partially, but didn’t complete. Namely, ‘learn Carol of the Bells’ I didn’t finish. I definitely made good progress but I didn’t quite get as far as I wanted. C’est la vie.

But otherwise I think I did pretty good! I still need to buy a car. I swear, I’m just being procrastinatey about it at this point because I don’t wanna go out, ahah. I’ll get there though. Bwah. Hopefully this month? We’ll see!

And that’s it for Blogmas, after today, I’m going to resume my new-normal schedule of two posts a week, unless there’s a special post to go up. If you’ve stuck around throughout this, thank you. I appreciate you.

Blogmas/vlogmas shout outs and faves!

Well, hi!

Today I’m gonna list some fellow bloggers (and a few youtube peeps) that are doing blogmas, and whose posts I have been following!

This is (obviously) not a comprehensive list of everyone I follow, so if you see yourself missing from this list and you’ve been doing blogmas, please let me know, and link me to your day 1 post! I’ll edit this post, add you, and then go binge all your posts so far. I did go through the posts of the last few days to make sure I wasn’t missing anyone, but I was actively looking for words like ‘Blogmas’ and the like. So if you weren’t being super in-my-face obvious about your posts being ‘official’ blogmas posts, I miiiight have missed you, I’m sorry! Correct me!

These buddypals are in no particular order, but you should definitely check them all out! I’ve linked their day 1 posts!

Bloggers:

Vloggers:

~~~

So for right now that’s it! Obviously I’ll be editing this post if anyone pops up with a link of their own blog to add, so keep a look out for that. I’ll try to be quick about it.

I love Blogmas guys, augh I love it. It’s such a fun time 😀 I hope you all like these peeps and go follow them!

 

Thanksgiving decorations 2020!

I decorated for Thanksgiving this year, which is something I’ve never done. I used being stuck inside my house because of the plague as an excuse to get extra festive because I won’t have anyone visiting to be festive with otherwise.

So this is everything I set up!

As you can see it’s mainly my livingroom that’s decked out. Christmas decorations will spread to other rooms but since this is my first time decorating for Thanksgiving, I didn’t have too many things to decorate with. The flowers are on my kitchen table, but other that that, it’s all in the main living area.

Let me know what you think! I think it came out pretty nice if I do say so myself.

January Book Haul! |#36

Book Haul Base Banner

It’s been a while since I posted, about since I made a post going ‘I’m gonna post consistently’. C’est la vie.

Today I’m gonna post about all the books I got this month, and I’m doing it a bit early because I’m going on a self-imposed mini ban, starting today through February 14th. Basically I got a lot this month and I wanna actually read a lot of them.

This is what I got:


Manga

I’m really on a manga kick right now. And you’ll see this in my wrap up, but I’ve literally not read anything else so far in 2020. Maybe that’ll change by the end of the month, but we’ll see.

Black Butler vol 1 by Yana Toboso – Finally bit the bullet and decided to start this series. I watched the anime a while back and thought it was decent. I wanted to see the source material though and find out if anything had been changed between the two medias.

Magus of the Library vol 1 by Mitsu Izumi – Confession here: I have no idea what this is about, aside from a Magus and a Library. I picked it up because Katy @Bookbinderway really loved it and her tastes in manga overlap mine a lot, so, Katy don’t let me down. No pressure.

All You Need is Kill by Ryosuke Takeuchi – I’ve actually read this one. If you’ve ever seen the movie Edge of Tomorrow, that Tom Cruise ‘Live, Die, Repeat’ movie, this is the source material of that. The movie definitely took some liberties but honestly I thought it was pretty solid. This manga in my opinion is even better.

O Maidens in Your Savage Season vol 5 by Mari Okada – I need to reread the first four of these before hopping into this one. This is a recent favorite series, and I hope this volume keeps it up.

Ajin: Demi-Human vol 1 by Tsuina Miura – I picked this one up at the recommendation of my husband, who watched the anime and really liked it. I tried the anime, but I couldn’t get farther than like five seconds, purely due to the animation style. I didn’t dig it. The plot though sounds neat to me, so I’m gonna try the manga instead.

Our Dining Table by Mita Ori – This. This is my first five star read of the year. This is a little one shot, fluffy BL romance and it’s so damned cute. I loved this.

Ouran High School Host Club vol 3 by Bisco Hatori – Going through and collecting this still. I’ll read them eventually, probably after I have at least half of them.

Otomen vols 1-12 by Aya Kanno – I’m also on a shojo manga kick and guys. Guys. This is one of the most ridiculous series I’ve ever read. I like it. I shouldn’t. But I do. I’ve read four volumes so far and literally in volume four a guys chucked a shark over his head. It’s. ridiculous. But I can’t stop, hahahaaa

Books

The Wilful Princess and the Piebald Prince by Robin Hobb – The trek I had to go through to get a copy of this damned book, man. I ordered it in early December, and it never came. Never came, never came. Then, I get a message from the seller going ‘so…. we received this book back – USPS returned it to us because it was damaged.’ and I was all ‘oh no, can you send me another’ and they went, ‘No 😦 that was our only copy’.

Cue me finding another seller, ordering it, aaaaaand…. it never came. Eventually, I contacted this seller, too, saying ‘what gives’. They respond with ‘we’re having trouble getting a copy of this from our supplier. Would you like to cancel or wait?’

As soon as I finished being mopey about it, I responded saying that if they can confirm the supplier is working on it, I’ll wait, but otherwise, I’ll cancel. Then I get an email with shipping confirmation, and the seller replies with ‘well it just shipped, so’.

It arrived. It’s above. That’s it. Goodness. I’ll eventually buddy read this with Zezee @Zezeewithbooks and it’ll be neat.

The Wolf by Leo Carew – My buddy got me this book! And then I dropped it twice and bent it up. Whoops. I’m still digging it though – I’m in the middle of it right now.

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi – Jumped on the bandwagon with this one. Honestly I’m not sure if I’m gonna like it or not. I hope I do, but we’ll see.

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo – Bandwagon buy. Might be neat!

Jerusalem by Alan Moore – This is a bucketlist book. One of those ‘I’ll read it some day’ books, but I saw it for cheap, and I knew I wouldn’t see it that cheap again. PS I can’t get the damned sticker off without ripping the cover. So there’s that.

Windwitch and Sightwitch by Susan Dennard – These aren’t actually going on my TBR, as I’ve read both of them at this point via audio. But I saw them for cheap so I got’em. All I need is Bloodwitch now.


And that’s it! As you can see from above, I got a decent amount. On the plus side though, I paid list price for 0 of them, so pbtbtbt. Ban for me, then fun manga things which I’ll get into later. Peace!

 

2020 Reading Goals

2020Goals (2).png

Happy New Year!

These are the goals I hope to achieve reading-wise this year. I have an iffy track record with goals – I tend to only complete two out of every three or so, so hopefully I’ll do better this year:

  • Read 50 books

I make this goal every year, and some years I struggle and others I fly past 50 books in 3 months. Really just depends.

  • Maintain a consistent posting schedule

Right now my schedule is Sunday-Wednesday-Saturday, but I’m thinking about switching it up. I’m going to keep it at two to three times per week, but I might change the days. To be decided. As long as I’m continuously posting though, I’ll be happy.

  • Keep track of reading statistics

Same goal as last year. Yesterday, I posted a 2019 reading statistics post, and I thought it turned out really neat. So I wanna do the same thing this year. To keep track of everything, I use the reading spreadsheet made by Brock @Let’s Read, and then I go into it and fiddle with the formulas a bit to handle quarter stars and extra stuff that I want to track that’s not in there already. But the base spread sheet is pretty in-depth as it is, so if you’re looking for something neat to track your reading, I recommend this one.

  • Reduce physical TBR to 200

Right now, while writing this, my physical TBR is 252. I did have it down to 249 on Christmas, but then Christmas happened, soooo.

Last year, I started at 280 and wanted to get it to 250… this year, I’m starting at 252 and want to get it to 200. Why the change? Well if you notice on last year’s goals post, I made additional resolutions like ‘go on a buying ban’ and ‘keep buying limited’ and stuff like that. This year, I’m not making either of those goals, but I am increasing how much I wanna cut my TBR by. Basically, I’m telling myself to have self-control and to use my best judgement when it comes to buying and self-banning to hit this goal. Do purges count? Yes! I can purge, too.

But basically the over-arching goal is 200 TBR books, and I wanna have the freedom to use buying/not-buying/banning as I see fit, instead of finding myself locked into numbers every month. This way sometimes I can get 0 books and other times I can get 12 books and just go with the flow, as long as the end result is good. We’ll see how it goes: If it fails terribly, the 2021 goals will be similar to 2019’s, haha. But 2020 is my year to show my self-discipline. Wish me luck!


And that’s it! What are your goals for this year? Lemme know, and if you have little mental things you do to keep yourself from over-purchasing, lemme know those too! Happy reading!

December Book Haul! |#35

Blogmas 2019

Happy Monday! This is the only time I’ll say that because I’m still on vacation this Monday, so a happy Monday it is indeed, people. Next Monday is different and we’re denying it’s existence right now.

So for December, I received two books as gifts, bought three on my own, and then used gift cards I received as gifts to get the rest. So technically I went over my five, but hey, they’re gifts and we’re about to enter a new decade. I do not caaaaare.

This is what I got!

Harry Potter: A History of Magic – This book I got from my husband, and man, did he get creative with it. He’s the type of person who buys and wraps everything a day or two before Christmas, so all of the 23rd, he’s hiding in his office, and there are paper sounds and curses and thuds and all that and I’m in the next room reading, just listening to all this, right.

So he finally comes out with a pile of gifts for me, and there’s one that’s about three feet long, two and a half feet wide, and about eight inches thick. And I’m looking at it like ‘there’s nothing I asked for that’s that big, he has to have been creative and got me something else’. So he’s putting it under the tree and I’m looking at it and go, ‘Wow, I have no idea what that could be!’ and he looks at me and goes, ‘It’s a book, obviously!’ and I laugh and he laughs and the cat laughs and we move on.

Christmas morning, I open the honking huge package to find… two giant sheets of styrofoam, sandwiching paper towel tubes that have been taped between them. And on this inside of the paper towel tubes? This book. He had told me it was a book and we all laughed and it was actually a book. What a nerd.

Rave Master vols 7-9 by Hiro Mashima – These three I bought myself. I picked them up second hand at Half Price Books! I’ve been collecting this series as I see it. It’s hard, as it’s out of print, but as of now, I think I have 1-9 and then 12!

The Inheritance and Other Stories by Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm – These are the same people, both pen names. But I picked up this in tangent with picking up The Wilful Princess and the Piebald Prince, which…. never arrived, waah. The seller contacted me and told me it was damaged in the mail and that they didn’t have a second copy to send me. Sad 😦 So I’ve re-ordered it from another seller, and it’s on its way, but it’s gonna be a bit. In the meantime though, I’m excited about this one.

Jade City by Fonda Lee– My parents got me this! 😀 It was on my books I hope Santa brings list, so I was v happy to get it. I’m pumped about it too!

The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden – Second book in the series! I read the first earlier this year and really liked it, so I’m hoping to like this too. I got this for myself at Hpb.

Blackwing by Ed McDonald – Another Hpb purchase, I got this because I saw it and I had heard good things, soo…. it’s mine now.

5 Centimeters Per Second by Makoto Shinkai – Picked this up with giftcards, so thanks, aunts and uncles! Honestly the only thing I know about this is that it’ll rip my heart, and I kinda wanna no nothing else until I jump into it.

Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin – Another giftcard buy. I’m jumping on the train, whaddya want.

Ouran High School Host Club vols 1 and 2 by Bisco Hatori – Hpb buy! These are actually still in print. I’ve been meaning to pick them up for like… forever, and when I saw them for cheap I couldn’t refuse. I read this originally when I was in high school, so I’ve got the nostalgic factor going for them, big time.

Paradise Kiss by Ai Yazawa – This is a gift card buy, and super nostalgic. A friend I had in high school loved this series, and I’ve since lost contact with her. I remember reading them and liking them, but honestly… I got this series just so I can remember her better. I literally have zero way to contact her. She had no social media that I can find and moved away from the area. -_- MELANIE, I MISS YOU. This is the bind up edition of the entire series and it is thiiiiick.

Dragon Ball bind up vol 1 by Akira Toriyama – I’ve decided to collect the original Dragon Ball series. I grew up watching Dragon Ball Z and loved it, and recently I watched Super and thought it was okay. But the original Dragon Ball, I’ve seen bits and pieces of. So I figured why not collect the manga? As the original editions are out of print, and because I don’t own any already, I decided to collect this edition. Gift card!


And that’s it! A total of six books, eight manga. I’m pretty pumped, honestly.

Also, when I was trying to take pictures of all these yesterday under the tree, my cat came over and reminded me why I can’t have nice things:

Sigh.

Happy reading!

10 in 2020

Blogmas 2019

It’s time to make a new list! As I write this, I’m on track to complete my 10 in 2019, and unless something goes horribly wrong, I should do so. That means it’s new-list time!

Technically this is still my blogmas, as I posted that I’d be doing it through early January, so get ready to keep seeing me pop into your feed for the next week or two.

Anyways, these are the top ten books I want to read in 2020. They will (mostly) align to my Fantasy Bingo, in the hopes that I get them done early this year and not racing the clock at the last minute, so wish me luck:

  1. The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter
  2. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
  3. Pestilence by Laura Thalassa
  4. The Scar by China Mieville
  5. Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
  6. The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemison
  7. Heaven’s Devil by William C. Dietz
  8. That Time I Was Reincarnated by a Slime vol 1 by Fuse
  9. The War of the Flowers by Tad Williams
  10. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

And that’s it! I think I have a good mix in there – light novels, sci-fis, fantasies, and even a classic. The classic is intimidating me honestly, but that’s why I chose it.

Lemme know what your top reads for 2020 are! Happy reading!

12 Days of Christmas Book Tag!

Blogmas 2019

A tag today! This tag was created by Lizzie Loves books! I wasn’t tagged, I’m just doin it because CONTENT, MAN.

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: A partridge in a pear tree!

The partridge stood alone in the pear tree. What is your favorite stand alone?

 

The Martian

The Martian by Andy Weir – This ended up being my favorite book of 2015 or so, and it still holds its title. It’s a pretty great one, and lives up to the hype in my opinion.

On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: Two turtle doves!

Love is in the air! Who is your one true pairing?

Honestly? I kinda don’t have one. I like a lot of romance ships, cannon and otherwise, but none stick out to me as ‘the one’.

On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: Three French hens!

In the spirit of threes, what is the best trilogy you have read?

The Tawny Man trilogy by Robin Hobb is definitely up there. Man </3

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: Four calling birds!

Since series usually consist of four or more books, what is your favorite series?

The Temeraire series by Naomi Novik – it’s a nine book historical fantasy about dragon warfare in the Napoleonic era. It’s super neat.

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: Five golden rings!

One ring to rule them all! Who is your Favorite Villain/Antagonist?

Augh this question. I can never really answer this question. I don’t read too many books with villains.

On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: Six geese a laying!

Creation is a beautiful thing. What is your favorite world/world-building?

Assassin's Apprentice (Farseer Trilogy, #1)
Robin Hobb again, but her entire Elderlings world is one of my favorites if not my absolute. I’m such a fangirl.

On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: Seven swans a swimming!

Who needs seven swans when all it takes is one good animal sidekick? Who’s your favorite animal sidekick?

Royal Assassin (Farseer Trilogy, #2)

Robin Hobb again – Nighteyes! He shows up in I think the second book of the Farseer trilogy, and captured my heart. He’s such a wonderful wolf.

One the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: Eight maid a milking!

Milk is so 18th century. Which book or series takes beverages/food to a whole new level?

Food Wars!, Vol. 1

Obviously need to go with Food Wars by Yuto Tsukuda – It’s a story about cooking competitions in a culinary school. It’s rather hilarious and all of the food looks like it’d be to die for.

On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: Nine ladies dancing!

Dancing is just one skill of a Lady! Who is your favorite kickass female lead?

Ella Enchanted (Ella Enchanted #1)

Ella from Ella Enchanted – This story is a good one I think. The main character is placed under a curse to always be obedient, and though our main character deals with that, she’s still strong-willed and determined to live her own life. I really like her, and as a youngun growing up I thought she was really neat, too.

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: Ten lords a leaping!

How about your favorite leading lad?

His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire, #1)

Already mentioned this series, but Lawrence from Temeraire. In the beginning of the series, he’s a naval captain who takes a French ship containing Temeraire’s egg, and once Temeraire claims him as a captain, Lawrence is flung head first into the Aerial Corp, the dragon division of the British military. I like him so much because of his sense of morals. He always strives to do what is right, even if it ends up being illegal, or having huge consequences. Throughout the series, he never loses this moral compass he has, no matter what happens to him, and I really like him for it.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: Eleven pipers piping!

What is your favorite book or bookish thing with musical influence? (It can be about music, reference music a lot etc.)

The Wise Man's Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #2)

Rothfuss’s Kingkiller trilogy has a neat thing. As many issues as I have with this book, which you can see here if you’re really curious, I really like the musical dynamic it has. The whole music competition, the high prospects of musicians, all of it. I think it’s really neat.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave ot me: Twelve drummers drumming!

Drum roll please…what is your favorite read of this year?

That… would be a spoiler. :”D I have a full favorites post coming out within the next week or two. You’ll just have to wait, hawhaw.


And that’s it! I know it’s super close to Christmas now, but if you’d like to do this tag, consider yourself tagged!

Books I hope Santa brings

Blogmas 2019

I do one of these posts every year. This is my bookish wishlist for Christmas, and some of these I’ve requested, some I haven’t, so the odds of them all showing up are obviously slim to none. But this is would I would love to have!


Harry Potter: A History of Magic (American Edition)

A History of Magic, illustrated edition – I did ask for this one, so I’m hopin’, I’m hopin’!

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: Illustrated edition

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – Again, I’ve asked for this one. It looks so prettyyyyyy

Jade City (The Green Bone Saga, #1)

Jade City by Fonda Lee – This is the last book I’ve actually asked for. This time, asked my parents because for some reason they still insist on buying me gifts even though I tell them not to… sillies. If I don’t give them ideas though, they’ll just guess. So like… might as well tell them book titles, right?

Silver Spoon, Vol. 5

Silver Spoon vol 5 by Hiromu Arakawa – I’ve been collecting this series slowly, and this is the next one I need. Considering nobody who gets me gifts knows I even want this, I’m not getting it, but hopefully I’ll receive a gift card or two I can use to purchase it.

Wilder Girls

Wilder Girls by Rory Power – This is one of those ‘I’ve carried it around the store and almost bought it like five times now’ books. I’m thinking this’ll be purchase if I get some gift cards too.


And that’s it! Well, that’s not it, but that’s it. There are tons more I could mention, but these are my tops. Here’s hoping I receive one or two of these. :”D SANTA PLEASE.
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