Month In Review // January 2016

Welcome, bookworms! You may have noticed my absence in the blogosphere lately, but hopefully I’ll be getting back to my normal schedule of posting 4-5 days a week soon! I’ve had a lot of stuff going on lately, both school-wise and swimming-wise. January has been an insanely busy month for me, but I’m hoping things will cool down a bit this month!

Things Not Bookish

• I saw ‘The Fifth Wave’ in the theaters! I KNOW, FINALLY. It was one of my most anticipated moments going into this year, and I’m happy to say I wasn’t disappointed. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much going into it, though- I had already looked at the ratings and reviews. Though there were some very cheesy and unrealistic moments, I thought it was a very entertaining film overall.
• I had two major swim meets. And by ‘major,’ I mean really, really hard. My coach requires us to do every event during every season, which meant that I basically had all my hard events to complete during the month of January. My toughest events were probably the 200 butterfly, 200 breaststroke, and the mile, and I’m pretty proud of my results in all of them.
• I reached my 100th post on this blog! I was planning on doing a post on this, but I kind of forgot about it until now. So, thank you to everyone who has supported me during my amazing (and far from over, hopefully) blogging journey! I look forward to talking books with you in the future!
• I started my ‘A Walk Through The Middle Ages’ project in social studies! Basically, you get into groups of 4-6 people and get to choose a topic set in the Middle Ages to do your project on. Luckily, I got an amazing group, and my first choice in topic: “books and illuminated manuscripts.” Typical, I know.
• I set a Goodreads challenge for the first time! I set my goal at 100 books, but I honestly have no idea if that’s going to work out because I’ve never consistently used Goodreads to track my progress. So far, I’m on track- but it’s still extremely stressful for me.

Best In Books

I read a total of 9 books this month! These included:

        

      

I didn’t have any 5-star books this month, but This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales and Scarlet by Marissa Meyer both came pretty close. I also FINALLY started reading the Lunar Chronicles, and so far, I love them! I need Winter in my hands ASAP. I wasn’t a huge fan of Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy and Delicate Monsters by Stephanie Kuehn, but besides that, I think it was a solid reading month for me.

Most Popular Posts Of The Month

• Am I Too Easy Of A Rater?
• Top 10 Characters I’d Name My Children After
• Top 5 Book Boyfriends of 2015
• Top 10 Books That Tackle Tough Issues
• Top 8 Fantasy Novels I Need To Read

Clearly lists are beloved posts! I’ll definitely keep that in mind in the future!

Around The Blogosphere

• Cait @ Paper Fury shared some of the many lies bookworms tell themselves – I’m sure you’re guilty of at least a few!
• Grace @ Rebel Mommy Book Blog shared how audiobooks changed her reading experience. 
• The team at Book Riot shared some literary Valentine’s Day cards. Trust me, you’ll want to check these out. They’re quite adorable.
• Jeann @ Happy Indulgence discussed a topic I’ve been thinking a lot about lately – the casualness of death in literature.
• Emily @ Loony Literate shares some fairytale mash-ups that would make amazing books.
• Josie @ Josie’s Book Corner discussed the struggle of rating and reviewing books.

Quote Of The Month

“Sometimes people think they know you. They know a few facts about you, and they piece you together in a way that makes sense to them. And if you don’t know yourself very well, you might even believe that they are right. But the truth is, that isn’t you. That isn’t you at all.”

-This Song Will Save Your Life, Leila Sales

What’s Ahead

• I’m going on an overnight trip up at Stanford with my swim team buddies! We’ll be touring Stanford’s campus, meeting a famous swimmer, and watching an exciting college duel meet, so I’m super excited! It’s an overnight trip, so I also get to skip a day of school.
• I’m going to the Pasadena Antiquarian Book Fair! I’m mainly doing this because of the research project I’m doing on “books & illuminated manuscripts,” but it should be super fun to look at all the medieval manuscripts and whatnot.
• Valentine’s Day! I’m still not really sure how I’ll be celebrating it, but hopefully it will involve fluffy contemporaries and time with friends and family and plenty of food.

How was your January? What were your favorite books of the month?