2021 WRAP UP IN 2022

I sought out to read 20 books in 2021, and I sorta accomplished this goal.

RELEASE: A SEQUEL TO MY FAVORITE BOOK

Hi, it's been a while. I'm reading Emma. Well, I've been "reading" it for around 4 months and haven't made any progress. I'm fine; how are you? 

QUARANTINE 2 | WHAT I AM READING & BOOK HAUL

Hello everybody! How are you? I hope you are well. I'm not gonna repeat all the descriptions and instructions people have written and said. I want y'all to know I moved my desk chair somewhere, so I am sitting on top of a trashcan while typing this post on my desk. All about them cold openings here on my blog!

QUARANTINE | POST I

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is well. A long time has passed since my last post. Now that classes are online, I have a little more time to pursue hobbies and read. Hopefully, there will be a book review soon; I recently placed an order for some new books! My spending has been out of control because of social-distancing. What are you guys doing? What are you watching? Drop some recommendations in the comments. I'd love to catch up with you guys. 

2020 VISION

As someone who relies on corrective lenses and glasses and just recently broke her glasses, that title is hilarious. I doubt I will be getting any reading this year unless it is for school, but I will still be setting a challenge for myself. As someone who overthinks and stresses over menial things, writing out tasks and goals will force me to accomplish them. I will be setting my 2020 reading challenge to 3 books. The following list includes books I want to read in 2020, but might not necessarily get to. They're my options.

LIFE UPDATES

Hello, ma dudes. After all those reviews, I needed to write and upload a discussion post. In a couple of days, I will be graduating! I've been ambivalent toward my school during the four years I was there, but now I'm dreading leaving and going to college. Speaking of college, I got into a Chinese program, and I have to complete 10 lessons before the summer courses... yeah, that's right, summer school-plus, it's not accredited. Chinese is hard: a lot of words to remember, my handwriting is terrible, the characters are difficult to write, etc. I've been taking notes and making Quizlet flashcards to help me remember words.

GRAB A TISSUE BOX BECAUSE YOU'RE ABOUT TO CRY

I've watched my fair share of animes that made me cry in my life: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, Ano Hana, You Lie in April, Grave of Fireflies, Your Name (not sure about the last one but we'll include it anyway.) Unlike Hotarubi no Mori e, they took more time for me to become invested; it took several episodes or extra minutes for those to tell a story, to develop the plot, and for me to fall in love with the characters. In less than an hour, Hotarubi no Mori e does all that. It had me laughing, uwu-ing, and crying in that timeframe. It delivered so much in so little time, and I'm left hungry for more!

THESE BOOKS HAVE GOT TO GO | READING RESOLUTIONS

I'm not putting in the effort to find new books to read, so I'll chop down my TBR pile. I've been pruning the list, but I didn't read those fallen books: I lost interest in them. Look at that unnecessary tree-related diction choice... I wrote this post almost a month in advance, so I've begun reading some of the books on the list already.  

MANGA RECS

I have a short attention span, which is why I often have trouble reading for prolonged periods; I get bored and take many breaks in-between. I also respond better to visuals (I like art), so it doesn't come as a surprise that I enjoy manga and graphic novels. Lately, I've been reading more manga than actual books: I find random ones and continue ones I enjoy. Because my old post about manga was popular, I have more recommendations. (This list is all Shoujo with recent updates. It's ironic how I bemoan romance in novels, but don't mind it in manga.)

2017 FAVORITES

I set out to read 100 books this year, and I accomplished this goal, yay. I read a varied selection, found new favorites, and rediscovered the magical library. I also had a book crisis-I own a lot of books that I don't like and wasted excessive money on! I reread some of them, and plan to reread more-2018 book goal. Without further ado, here are my favorite reads of 2017:

A CANDLE REVIEW...

I entered Burning Pages Candles' Instagram giveaway and was rewarded second prize. You can check out the shop here: Etsy, Facebook, Instagram. (The store is now permanently closed.) My prize included: a full sized candle, a solid perfume, and a tea blend. All of my prizes were Night Court scented, obviously! You can check my pictures of them on Instagram: tea and perfume.

BELATED CELEBRATION OF PRIDE

On Sunday, June 25th, 2017, I participated in the NYC Pride March with three of my friends. I was excited about my first Pride experience, but perhaps the walk wasn't the best option. According to Google Maps, the walk was 2 miles long, but it felt much longer than that. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the "NYC experience."

STARTING A BLOG | PART III : DESIGNING

Designing is easily one of the most fun and frustrating parts of blogging. There are many beautiful blogs out there and you need to make yours stick out. In this post, I have accumulated some resources and tips to help you in your designing endeavors. 

PRODUCT REVIEW

This week, I received a couple of packages in the mail. I received things from Society6, a small package from an author and a book. The last two items I mentioned were won from a giveaway. My Society6 packages were purchased by myself. I went a little crazy shopping after getting rewards from buying contacts.

STARTING A BLOG | PART II : RUNDOWN OF BLOGGER

This post will be dedicated to the whole Blogger interface. I'm only doing Blogger because I'm most familiar with it. It's rather easy for me to navigate and use. I am, by no means, trying to force you to use Blogger. Again, there are many hosting sites out there: weebly, wordpress, tumblr, squarespace, etc. 

STARTING A BLOG | PART I : THE OBVIOUS

Someone recently contacted me regarding my blog/my reviews and the exchange felt extremely déjà vu. It reminded of the day I first started my blog. So, I decided to write a mini series on my blog on blogging and designing things by yourself. This post will mainly be the "fundamentals"/101 post. Also, apologies for being gone for a month. I've been in a major book slump and not particularly inspired lately. 

APPROACHING BLOGGERS & REVIEWERS

Bloggers/Reviewers follow "rules" when requesting ARCs. There's this whole etiquette that my friend Alex from @The Books Buzz wrote on her blog, there are many posts about this topic on the interwebs. It's a great and insightful post, everyone should read it. I follow it to some degree, lol. Therefore, there must also be "author etiquette". Very similar to blogger etiquette and just as delicate. I'm not saying everyone is guilty of this. This is more of a PSA, so don't get offended. If you are . . . why?

MOST ANTICIPATED THINGS

Hello there!

There are so many things - maybe, I'm doing this post without any thought - that I'm excited for. There are so many releases that I am absolutely DYING for! The number one is, and I doubt people are shocked by my choice:

MISCELLANEOUS MONDAY | BASICALLY 'WEEKLY OBSESSIONS'

This post should've been a Music Monday post, but I don't have a specific artist to feature this Monday. Like most youngsters in America, I have started school! Ehhh... I like school because it keeps me occupied and I learn, but it's boring to sit all day in the heat. It's super nice to see my friends again and awesome to meet new people. It's nice to meet new people, but I miss my "pack" [classmates] from last year because we traveled together and had almost every class together. It's scary not having familiar faces around.

While I was still on break, I watched two really great shows. I watched Penny Dreadful, which I have mentioned before. It's super dark, suspenseful, a lot of books combined, and set in Victorian England! It's an exciting paranormal, historical show with a diverse set of characters. I also watched Stranger Things, everyone probably watches or watched this show. Let me just say... IT'S FANTASTIC! It's a children's fantasy game gone wrong and what if E.T. phoned other people. It's retro, exciting, and super nostalgic. #winoforever Another show I'm really obsessed with is RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars. I think everyone knows my love for drag queens. I've never actually watched the first 8 seasons of this show because I don't have Logo TV. I love the drama, most of the queens on the show (all except Phi Phi and Coco), the humor and everything.

I've also started watching The Tudors... Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Natalie Dormer, Henry Cavill, and history!

Now to the music bit

COMPLETING THAT READING CHALLENGE

If you didn't know, Goodreads does this thing where you pledge to read x-amount of books in a year and it keeps track of everything you read. It's motivational, it's organized and it comes in handy when creating the best books of the year posts. I've been participating for two years and I've completed the challenge both years. I "read" - I DNFed A LOT of books - 131 books in 2015 and 100 books in 2016 (so far). That means I read, about, 200 books in 2 years! It's crazy seeing the numbers add up because it's a lot more than you realize. And because I want all of you to accomplish your challenge, here are some "tips":