December Wrap-Up

Wow, December was just a blur! Probably because by the time it actually felt like it was December it was already the twentieth or something… December was just a set of weird month… Normally I spend the entire month feeling festive, and driving my family crazy by playing christmas music non-stop, but this year, I just… didn’t. It still felt like November to me. For like, half the month. Wow.

I actually had a super great reading month. Like wow, I don’t think I read anything I didn’t like. I also read twenty-one books, which is great.The past couple months, I feel like I’ve been reading less than I’d like, but apparently I got my numbers back up this month. Which is funny, because I actually didn’t feel like I spent all that much time reading in December…

Prodigy (Legend #2) by Marie Lu – Okay, so Goodreads is claiming I finished this on the last day of November… I’m pretty sure I actually finished it the next day, but it’s possible that I didn’t, and I’m just being silly… I don’t know, but I’m counting it for December. I like my twenty-one books.
Anyways, this book was very good, but… it sort of left me feeling like I needed to read the next book to decide how I felt on this one… – 4.5 stars.

I am Rembrandt’s Daughter by Lynn Cullen – This book was super fascinating. I loved the historical elements of it! The characters, however, were a bit dry, and the love triangle was ANNOYING! Grrr. – 4 stars.

Worlds Collide (The Land of Stories #6) by Chris Colfer – This was the conclusion to what was one of my favourite series when I was younger. It was definitely for a younger audience, but this series has a special place in my heart, and it wrapped everything up really well. – 5 stars.

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli – Wow. This was sort of amazing. It wasn’t as good as Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda, but I just didn’t let myself compare them, and it was awesome. Molly was one of the most relatable characters I’ve read in quite a while. Despite the fact that we have basically nothing in common. Soooo, I think that’s saying something. Also, it was incredibly diverse, which was awesome as well! – 5 stars!

Wires and Nerve* by Marissa Meyer – This was incredibly awesome! I almost didn’t read it, because I don’t really like graphic novels, but it was about Iko, so I couldn’t resist. And thank goodness I did. – 5 stars!

Saturdays at Sea (Castle Glower #5) by Jessica Day George – This is another childhood favourite series that came to an end this year. This one was aimed for a much younger audience though, and never captured my heart the way The Land of Stories did. Reading it, I don’t know, it just felt like the stakes weren’t high enough. I sort of spent the whole book thinking “Well it’s young MG, so no one’s going to die. Or get hurt. Or anything.” And what do you know, I was right. This is a lovely series for younger children, but I think I’ve outgrown this one. – 3.5 stars.

*I totally thought this was called Wires and Nerves for the longest time… like, even after I read it. Hahaha oops.

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith – This book was light fluff, but it was hilarious, and the characters were amazing, and I just really loved it! Also that is quite possibly the best title I’ve ever seen. – 5 stars.

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han – I quite enjoyed this book. It sucked me in, and I loved all the HP references in it. and the characters were great. However I did have a couple of issues with it… Still, I’m looking forward to finishing the series. – 4.5 stars.

Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson – This book was amazing. I fell head over heels in love with all the characters, and it just left me wanting more. – 5 stars.

Our Dark Duet (Monsters of Verity #2) by Victoria Schwab – This book was amazing and painful, and WOW! I did not expect that ending, and I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to recover from it! – 5 stars!

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter #3) by J. K. Rowling – After ODD I needed something happy. So naturally I chose the Harry Potter book that never fails to make me sad. Good choice Iris, real good choice. – 5 stars!!

The Other Countess (The Lacey Chronicles #1) by Eve Edwards – This is historical fiction and romance… I read this back when I still loved historical fiction, but I’ve never been a fan of romance. But for some reason I quite like this book. – 4 stars.

The Queen’s Lady (The Lacey Chronicles #2) by Eve Edwards – This was about my favourite character from The Other Countess, so… I quite enjoyed this one as well. – 4 stars.

Incarnate by Jodi Meadows – I absolute adored Jodi Meadow’s other series, The Orphan Queen, so I was sort of curious about this one… It wasn’t anywhere near as good, but I did enjoy it. It just… wasn’t what I was expecting. – 4 stars.

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner – This book was really great! There was more to it than I was expecting, and it was surprisingly creepy. But like, in a good way. I also had sort of mixed feelings about the ending… – 4 stars.

Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli – I didn’t mean to reread this… but I made my mum read it, so it was sitting on the coffee table, and I couldn’t resist picking it up… oops. But it was sos worth it. I love this book so much! – 5 stars!!

My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton & Jodi Meadows – This is one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. It was the most hilarious, least historically accurate thing I’ve ever read. It was AMAZING! – 5 stars!!

The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare – A book of short stories about Magnus Bane? Yeah, I was sold at that! And as I expected, they were amazing, and hilarious, and how is it possible that I forgot just how amazing Magnus is?! – 5 stars!

The Violet Fox by Clare C. Marshall – This book was actually really good! I was a tiny bit uncertain going in, probably because the cover was sort of super boring, but the book was great. It had some issues, but I’m definitely looking forward to reading the sequel. – 4 stars.

Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway – Um, WOW! I had fairly high expectations for this, but it still managed to blow me away! It was SO emotional, and amazing, and wow, wow, WOW! – 5 stars!!

Champion (Legend #3) by Marie Lu – AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! This book was so amazing, and SO painful, and AKDHASLJKDLFGSFGSFGSHGSFGHSDGFHJK!!! – 5 stars!

Because it was christmas, I had quite a large book haul this month! It was great! I also went to a great used bookstore, and found a couple books there! I’ve also already read all but one of my new books… I mean, did you actually think I was going to make my new book last? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Isn’t that a pretty great book haul? I think yes. Especially seeing as three new books in a month is a lot for me.

Oops. What happened to posting eight times? I don’t know. I posted… five times… I’m really going to try and improve the amount I’m posting, but I’m not doing very well. Oh, wait, never mind, I actually posted seven times, and I just can’t count… And only three of them were book reviews or Top Ten Tuesdays this time… Yay! I still didn’t meet my goal, but… I did better than last month.

Um… I’m pretty sure I spent at least half of December reading or on Goodreads… Oops. Really though, I did do other stuff in December, it just wasn’t as memorable as the books.

• I sold some of my beading at a christmas market… that was fun.
• Although it also involved spending the night with a friend of my mum’s, who I barely know… which was sort of awkward. I just ended up hiding and reading for most of the evening.
• I made fandom themed jewelry for my cousins for christmas… It wasn’t exactly my best work, but it was fun.
• And it gave me an excuse to make Harry Potter and Percy Jackson themed earrings, soooo….
• And then I spent four hours on a Wonder Woman necklace… which was sort of fun, and really time consuming. Seeing as I’d probably spent an hour each on the other two.
• I um… did stuff. Who knows what it was though…
• I went to a couple of christmas skates. Which were fun, and christmassy, but I skate all the time, so it didn’t feel all that special.
• I stressed about christmas gifts.
• I did a lot of that. Way too much of it.
• Me and my mum joined some friends in the city to do some christmassy stuff.
• We went to the bookstore, then spent and hour or two stuck in traffic.
• An hour or two stuck in traffic on what should have been a ten minute drive. Ugh.
• Christmas happened.
• I spent most of christmas reading my new books.
• Just like every year.
• Yeah, I’m real social on christmas.
• I went to a new years party that went by Denmark time, which meant the party ended at five PM on new years eve.
• Then we went home and had CHOCOLATE PUDDING! Which is our new years eve tradition, and it’s delicious!
• Then I sat there reading as my dad attempted to get a countdown on the computer.
• I swear I read until there was only like a minute left.

That was basically my month… I’m sure there was other stuff, but… I don’t know what it was. I was too busy reading to remember anything else.

2018 Goals!

I know this is already a crazy long post, but… I really should have done this two days ago, so… I really shouldn’t wait any longer.

Bookish Goals

• Read 200 books. I should be able to achieve this one I think.
• READ THE BOOKS MY COUSIN LOANED ME BACK IN SEPTEMBER! I borrowed 46 books from my cousin at the beginning of September, and despite the fact that I’ve read more than forty-six books since then, somehow I’ve only managed to read about half of them… Oops.
• Finish all the books I started, and then just never bothered to finish. This includes The Lord of the Rings, The Golden Compass, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Insurgent, and Percy Jackson. The only one of those I actually feel motivated to read is Percy Jackson. Ugh.
• Keep on top of my reviews more. I think I currently have at least eight reviews to write, and some of them are from a good month ago… oops.
• Stop rating everything so high. I’m too nice with my ratings, because I genuinely enjoy most books I read. And even if I don’t, I can usually find some good in them. So everything gets really high ratings. On Goodreads my shelves are literally: 5 stars – 48 books, 4 stars – 26 books, 3 stars – 12 books, 2 stars – 1 book, plus a couple of half stars… I don’t even have a one star shelf!
  This needs to change, because I often read something, and I know I should rate it lower, but then that puts it with other books that aren’t nearly as good as it, so I I’ve it the higher rating, and ugh.

Blogging Goals

• Post at least eighty-four times in 2018. Ideally it would be more, but… how likely is that really? This seems achievable. (Also, this isn’t just a random number… this would be seven posts a month…)
• Set a monthly goal of eight to ten posts and achieve it! Um… So this probably isn’t happening with the amount of months I’ve only posted five times, but I’m going to try!
• DON’T just disappear for a week+ as I seem to keep doing. I can take a break if I need to, but I need to schedule it instead of just disappearing. If I don’t feel motivated to post, I need to make myself post anyways.
• Stop writing my post on the day I post it. Have some posts written in advance.
• HAVE A BLOGGING SCHEDULE! And more importantly, try to stick to it. I’ll hopefully come up with some sort of schedule soon, and I’ll post about it when I do…
• Change something about my design, so that I like it better. I don’t really know what, but I’m not terribly thrilled with my current design, sooo…
• Take better pictures. Somehow. I don’t know exactly how I plan to achieve this, but I only like about half my pictures, and I want to like all of them.
• Comment on other people’s posts more! Stop deleting my comments because I think they sound stupid, just comment!

Life Goals

• Stop procrastinating. Or at least, procrastinate less. I’m not going to be specific with this, but this isn’t just a life goal, this is for everything. Blogging, reading, preparing for public speaking, whatever.
• Find a way to make money so that I can buy myself more books. This will probably involve selling more of my beading… I don’t know.
• Stop sleeping so late. I have a bad habit of sleeping ’til eleven, or even noon. This needs to stop. Unless I’m sick or something, in which case I can sleep as late as I want. (Yay I have an excuse to keep sleeping in late for a few more days. Even though I’m barely sick anymore. But still…!)
• Get out of the house more. Like, daily would be good. I’m just going to pretend I’ve been out of the house yet this month… Oops.
• Write something.
• Write in a journal? Maybe? I’ve tried to do this every year, and every year I’ve failed, but there’s no reason not to try again…

Okay… Hopefully I’ll accomplish some of these goals at least.

Anyways, thanks for reading this insanely long post! Hopefully my next post will be like, half this length. That would be nice. Really nice.

How was your December? What were a couple of your favourite books this month? What are your goals for 2018? How did you celebrate the holidays? Did you do anything for Christmas or new years like me? Or something else?