The Monthly Hufflepuff | September

I can’t believe it’s October already. I know I have this reaction pretty much every month, but now we’re actually getting close to 2016. TWO THOUSAND SIXTEEN GUYS

BUT IT’S THE MONTH OF HALLOWEEN SO THAT’S FUN. Even though we don’t really celebrate Halloween in The Netherlands sadly :( But I’m still excited (look look, I’m now called Spookchelle on Twitter! It sounds like a cute ghost Pokémon).

So what happened in the month of September?

whatiread

This was a pretty good reading month, mostly I think because of the Falling for Autumn Read-a-Thon haha. Also I read more than this picture lets on. I sadly don’t own all the Tsubasa volumes yet, so I read most of them online (soon I will own them all though) nor do I own xxxHolic (and unless the next volumes are better I probably won’t buy them at all).

  • Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas – no rating yet
  • Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles by CLAMP volumes 1-28 (reread) ★★★★★
  • Circles in the Stream by Rachel Roberts ★★★
  • All That Glitters by Rachel Roberts ★★
  • xxxHolic by CLAMP volumes 1-3 ★★★
  • Cry of the Wolf by Rachel Roberts ★★★

I’ll hopefully write my review of QoS later today. I just need to write down all my thoughts before I can decide on a rating. I’m also planning a combined review for Circles in the Stream, All That Glitters and Cry of the Wolf as I read them together in an omnibus and a post on why you should read Tsubasa.

2015goals

I FINISHED MY GOODREADS CHALLENGE!!! So naturally I changed it to 100 books. I actually wanted to set it to 100 this year, but because I was in my senior year, had my exams and started at a new school, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do it. As of right now I’m 19 books away of completing this new goal *GASP*

what I posted-2

September wasn’t that good when it came to blogging. It wasn’t bad (like last May when I had my exams), but I just wanted to blog more. Sadly I was sick for three weeks (I’M FEELING SO MUCH BETTER GUYS. I STILL HAVE A COUGH BUT I HAVE MY ENERGY BACK) and I started a new school. Since I give a list of all the posts I posted during my weekly wrap ups, I’ll give you a list of my favourites posts this month:

nextmonth

MAGNUS CHASE IS COMING OUT. SO IS CARRY ON. AND THE ILLUSTRATED EDITION  OF PHILOSOPHER’S STONE. ALSO HAPPY HOME DESIGNER CAME OUT YESTERDAY. I NEED MORE MONEY.

Okay let’s be more calm about this haha. This month I’ll have my first exams at my new school and we need to finish our magazine, so it’s probably (read: definitely) going to be busy. Now that I’m feeling better though I hope it won’t get in the way of my blogging (and writing. Oh my wizardgod I haven’t written since school started). Also! The Book Club of the Opinionated Hufflepuffs will be reading Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. I’m very excited about that, since I’ve wanted to read it for quite some time now.

And that was September! How was your month? I siriusly need to catch up on all of your blogposts. I feel so bad for not reading all of them, but soon guys. Soon!

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The Monthly Hufflepuff: August

Why am I not on the Hogwarts Express. Dumbledore explain.

ALSO QUEEN OF SHADOWS

I probably won’t be able to get it today, as I’m at school until half past five, I’m not familiar with the city yet (and thus don’t know where I could get it) and once I’m back in Amsterdam the bookstore will probably be closed. Even if it wasn’t, I need to save some money first. Also I have no idea when I’ll have the time.

Anyway, let’s get on with the wrap up.

whatiread

I read a bit less than last month (I read 10 books then), but I’m still happy with 8 books since I usually read less during the school year. I would’ve read more if The Young Elites hadn’t put me in a slight reading slump.

augustwrapup

De Watermagiër by Anne West (reread) ★★★★
De Vuurmagiër by Anne West (reread) ★★★★
De Zwarte Magiër by Anne West (reread) ★★★★
The Last Ever After by Soman Chainani ★★★★★
Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn ★★
The Young Elites by Marie Lu ★★★
The Warlock by Michael Scott ★★★★★
The Enchantress by Michael Scott ★★★★★

Review for Dash and Lily is coming tomorrow, I don’t know if I’ll write a review for The Young Elites and since it’s been a long time since I read the first four books of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel I don’t feel like I could do the last two books justice in a review, so I won’t review them (The Warlock and The Enchantress).

2015goals

  • I’ve read 44 out of 50 books for my Goodreads Challenge!
  • By finishing The Enchantress I’ve finished another series!
  • I’ve now read 5 books for the Fairytale Retelling Challenge as I read The Last Ever After
  • I wrote more about writing (which was a blogging goal)
  • I did a Discussing Hufflepuff and hopefully I’ll be able to keep that up!
  • Yesterday I did a post about my summer goals, so check that out if you want to know how I did on my summer goals!

what I posted-2

Since I give a list of all the posts posted during my weekly wrap ups, I’ll just showcase some popular posts this month:

nextmonth

September is going to be such an exciting month! The first month of school, AUTUMN WILL START (can you tell I love Autumn? I might do a post on why!), I’m going to see Lifehouse, there will be a sale by weight at my favourite bookstore (FIVE EUROS PER KILO GUYS), Boekenfestijn in Utrecht (have never been, but they’re supposed to sell really cheap books!!), Queen of Shadows and other books are coming out… I’M READY FOR SEPTEMBER.

Again, I don’t know how active I’ll be on here. I’ll try to schedule as many posts as possible, but we’ll see how things go!

How was your month? ARE YOU EXCITED FOR QUEEN OF SHADOWS?! And do you love Autumn too?

The Writing Hufflepuff (1)

The Monthly Hufflepuff: July

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT’S AUGUST ALREADY. This isn’t funny. I only have a month left before I’m off to study journalism (less: first schoolday is the 31st). Which is exciting and terrifying at the same time. There’s still a lot I need to do before I’m ready for school and I haven’t even completed my summer goals yet!

July was a pretty slow month, but in a good way. I’ve had a lot of time to relax, read, write and blog. I’ve also gotten back into Animal Crossing: New Leaf after a year (I’m siriusly shocked that none of my villagers moved out).

whatiread

I’m happy that I was able to read 10 books this month, even though that’s not a lot compared to other people haha. Almost half of these are rereads, and I loved reading them again.

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephenie Perkins (reread) ★★★★★
Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephenie Perkins (reread) ★★★★★
Paper Towns by John Green ★★★★
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan ★★★★★
The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore ★★★★
The Death Cure by James Dashner ★★★★
The One by Kiera Cass ★★★★★
De Aardmagiër (The…Eartmagician? The Eartmage?) by Anne West (reread) ★★★★
Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley ★★★★★ (actually 4.5)

Reviews for Will Grayson, Will Grayson and Magonia will be up soon (I’ve already written them and they’re crappy, because I waited too long oops). I’m also planning on writing a post about rereading childhood favourites inspired by De Aardmagiër. So look forward to that!

2015goals

  • I thought up a blogging schedule, which I may or may not follow this month, as I need to finish my Orlando posts first. This means one more blogging goal accomplished!
  • I read The Power of Six which means I’ve read (2/5) books from The Lorien Legacies. While I liked it I’m not sure if I’ll actually finish this series this year if at all.
  • I read The One which means once I’ve finished The Heir I can scratch another series from my Finish These Series Challenge!
  • I’ve reread four books from my Reread Challenge: Fangirl, Anna and the French Kiss, Lola and the Boy Next Door and De Aardmagiër. Which only leaves the rest of De Macht van het Zwaard (The Power of the Sword) series!
  • I’ve read 37 out of 50 books for my Goodreads Challenge. Only 13 books left!
  • I’m almost done redecorating my room, which is one of my summer goals. I don’t have any floating bookshelves yet, but I’m going to order those once I actually have books to put on them, so that’s an plan for the future!
  • I’ve blogged almost everyday this month so my ‘blog a lot’ summer goal is coming along well!
  • Another summer goal is to blog about my trip to Orlando. I’ve got two posts left (not including the post(s) about what I’ve bought), so almost there!
  • I’ve celebrated my birthday with my friends

Looking back I did pretty well when it comes to my goals this month!

what I posted-2

My survey was the most popular post this month and I want to thank all of you again for being so sweet! There will definitely be more writing posts this month and there will be at least one Discussing Hufflepuff each month. I’ll also hold a Q&A soon and of course I’ll start my Amsterdam blogging series! I still don’t have a name though, so if you have any suggestions, let me know! I’m also going to start to do a weekly wrap up, starting from next week (it’d be a bit silly to do one tomorrow).

My Orlando posts were also quite popular. If you’ve missed them and are interested:

I also participated in Music Monday: Girl Power and Nostalgia and of course I wrote two posts for The Feministas. Our first theme of the month was female protagonists for which I wrote a post on Celaena Sardothien and the second theme was a free theme, for which I wrote a post about whether Snow White and Cinderella are good role models or not.

The Book Awards are still going on of course, with Best Stand Alone and Best Book Series. I promise more posts this month, but I do really need your help, so please take a look at this post to see which nominees I haven’t read. You can do a guest post or just tell me in the comments why a nominee should win!

I’ve also caught up a bit on tags this month, though I’ve still got a long way to go (damn I sound like Shang in I’ll Make A Man Out Of You haha).

personal

Like I said before in this post, I celebrated my birthday with my friends. I had planned a picknick and kept an anxious eye on my weather app, but the weather kept changing, which was really annoying. In the end it still rained and we only got to sit outside for less than a half hour. We quickly grabbed everything and went inside where we ate the rest, did karaoke and play this quiz game with a bomb (not an actual bomb of course. A tulip comes out. Can it get any more Dutch? Haha) which was a lot of fun. One friend gave me a Waterstones voucher which I’ll definitely spend this month and my other friend gave me Looking For Alaska, which I already had so she took it back with her haha. I thought it was  pretty cool that she knew my reading tastes since she’s not much of a reader herself (okay so I did mention that I had read Paper Towns but still). All in all it was a fun day!

This month was relaxing and stressful at the same time, as I would finally know for sure if I was accepted at journalism. I had to take a test in March and I got number 19, which sounded really promising, but I’m always afraid to start cheering before I know for sure, so I was still anxious to get my email two weeks ago! I was so relieved when I saw that email (if I had been rejected I would’ve gotten regular mail, so I spent the morning basically checking my email and the door all the time haha). So I’m officially a journalism student now! I got my books yesterday which are all very interesting and I’m very tempted to read them already, especially this one book about magazines (history of, making of, etc.).

Throughout the month I also went out with my mom to the market, the bookstore, shopping for school supplies etc. and of course I visited my grandfather. We also went to visit my aunt where I played with my nephew (who took me on an adventure inside ‘the forest’ which was basically just a few trees behind my aunt’s house haha. But it was very dangerous, because there were bears and dinosaurs!) and caught up with my aunt. The next day we went to the Amsterdamse Bos which is a park with a big lake where I met up with one of my friends and we spent the day swimming.

nextmonth

So this month is my last month of freedom. I have no idea how busy I’ll be and thus I have no idea how much I’ll be able to blog. I hope that I’ll get back in my old routine of scheduling posts during the weekend just like I did at my old school, but we’ll see what happens! I’m going to try to finish my Goodreads Challenge this month, but obviously I’m not going to push myself. I’ll definitely finish my reread of De Macht van het Zwaard series and for the Book Club of the Opinionated Hufflepuffs we’ll be reading Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares. Aside from reading I’m going to try to write as much as possible, finish my Orlando blogging series and just blog in general. As promised: more writing posts, Discussing Hufflepuff, the first Amsterdam post and more Book Awards.

My cousin was busy with work last month so hopefully we’ll go and see Inside Out this month. I also hope to see my friends again this month, even if it’s just once. Most of all I’ll be enjoying my freedom!

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