Friday, November 29, 2019

2020 Goals!

1) My most important goal for 2020? Figure out how to mood-read! I know people complain about being mood-readers and here I am complaining about actually being able to stick to TBR's (granted I usually can't finish all the books because I make them too ambitious but everything I read is on the TBR's). Why am I complaining about being able to stick to TBR's? Because I make them out of buddy reads/group reads/readathons/time of the year and...really really want to read other books I just never get to. Things keep getting pushed aside or ignored for one reason or another and i've had enough of it. I read as a hobby. I read for many reasons but the most important one to me is for fun and enjoyment. That's it.

I want to find a love of reading that I forgot. I said before I found it again thanks to booktube but I realize now I only partially did because I got caught up in TBR's to my detriment and forgot the joy of mood-reading. Just picking up what I wanted when I wanted to pick it up. I miss that so much. So my December TBR for 2019? I hope that's the last TBR I ever make. I will still participate in buddy and group reads and readathons if I want to. But no more TBR's. I'm not against them for others of course, just for me personally.

I do still plan on participating in the Goosebumps Book Club and the R.L. Stine Buddy Reads in the Horror Aficionados Goodreads Group. None of those books take long anyway and I (usually) enjoy R.L. Stine. I also have a Goodreads Group Creatures, Creatures Everywhere! that I plan to participate in the group reads as often as possible. Other than that...it's whatever I decide to pick up! I'll ask myself what mood i'm in, how i'm feeling, if a book is calling my name. What will I read in 2020 and beyond? Who knows! I hope I have fun finding out!

2) No more Goodreads challenge! I'm not against it. I just don't think it serves me to do it anymore going forward. I'm glad i've done it the past few years, but it's stressful. And that isn't why I read. I like Mother Horror's blog post about a Goodreads rest Here. I was already planning on doing the same thing when I saw it and i'm glad to see it's not just me! I'll still be ON Goodreads, so if you follow me there you can see what I pick up and all that, I just won't have a set Goodreads challenge. I can still see in my shelves my stats and books for the year even without the challenge. And i'll keep track of stuff in my bullet journal.

3) Read more comics. I have comixology. I need to freaking use it!

4) Read at least 8 books from my 40 books I want to read before I turn 40 list. I'm not behind on anything I just would like to not actually take until i'm 40 to read them all lol. If possible anyway. No set 8, i've read 4 of them so far so i'm on track. That leaves 36 to choose from. My birthday is technically in February so it's close enough to the start of the year to mention it. I'll be 31. o_o

5) Do More Hobbies. Create art, play video games, do puzzles, watch tv and movies...maybe start writing. Basically do the hobbies I want to do when I want to do them. And I may blog about them too! 2020 will be my year of learning self-care and how to do me, I hope.

6) It would be nice if I could read what I have from Netgalley, and preferably stay away from Netgalley after that but we shall see.

Other: I hope to do a lot of things in 2020 but I just want to see what the year will bring. I hope to blog more. I hope to read diversely in all ways. I hope to learn to draw. Play some fun games. Be 100% me. Be happy. As happy as I can be anyway. I'm scared of 2020 but also hopeful for it as well. What do you plan for in 2020? What are your goals?

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Monday, November 25, 2019

Queer Lit Readathon and December TBR!

The Queer Lit Readathon takes place from Dec 1st-Dec 7th and the twitter with all the info is Here. They have a bingo board

I am under no delusions that i'll be able to get to my entire TBR for it. But here are the books I have for it and what squares they complete. I'll get to what I get to.

Feminist, Queer, Crip by Alison Kafer: Non-fiction

The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite: ???(Sapphic), Own Voices, Historical Fiction, New (to me) Author, Bi/Pan MC, Rainbow Cover, New Genre (historical fiction)

Blacker Than Blue by Rebekah Weatherspoon: ???(Sapphic), POC Author

Citrus Vol. 10 by Saburouta: ???(Sapphic), Graphic Novel, Translated

Glitter Blood: A Chapbook by Kayla Bashe: Disability Rep, New (to me) Author

Making Love by Aidan Wayne: Ace/Aro MC, ???(Sapphic), New (to me) Author, Bi/pan MC

George by Alex Gino: Trans Spec MC, Middle Grade, Own Voices, New (to me) Author, Rainbow Cover (because the letters of George)

IF I read them all i'll complete every square except for the group read as I don't have that one. The group read is Orpheus Girl by Brynne Rebele-Henry. I know I won't be able to read all that in a week though so we'll see what I get to.

My TBR for the rest of December!

The Nightmare Room by Chris Sorensen is a group read for the Horror Aficionados group on Goodreads.

The Ghost Files by Apryl Baker is a buddy read.

The First Horror by R.L. Stine is also a buddy read.

Krampus: The Yule Lord by Brom will be my 3rd time reading it if I do. I want to try to get into audio books by starting with books i've already read. I wouldn't recommend reading this the first time by listening to it though unless you have the physical book because there are pictures, but I have it physically so I can read along while listening and look at them. A wonderful holiday horror book!

Merry Murder by Angel Gelique is just a holiday horror book i'd like to read.

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden seems like a wintery fantasy book i've heard mostly good things about.

The Naughty List by Perrin Briar is another holiday horror book i'd like to read.

Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens edited by Marieke Nijkamp is an anthology i've been currently reading all year. I've read a few stories and mostly enjoyed them. As someone who was born disabled i've been waiting for a book like this my entire life. I was a disabled kid and a disabled teen, and now I am a disabled adult as I will always be disabled. Finally, a book like this exists. Why haven't I finished it yet?! Disabled teens exist and matter.

The Bizarro Starter Kit (Orange) is another anthology I started earlier this year though i'm not too far into, but the few stories I have read so far i've enjoyed. So I want to finish it before 2020, hopefully. We shall see.

The Shining by Stephen King i'm not actually expecting to be able to get to but it is a buddy read Paul Read's Books is doing and if I can manage it i'll get to it. I do really want to read it, but with the queer lit readathon (and me wanting to get to some queer reads) plus the holiday reads i'd like to get to in December specifically and wanting to finish those anthologies by the end of the year...December is looking very full of books. Which is a good thing of course, will just have to see what I manage!

The Deep by Rivers Solomon: This is the December pick for the Beyond the Binary Enby book club. I had already nominated it for the January group read for my group Creatures, Creatures Everywhere! though, the poll is still on-going. I don't think it's going to win though. If it does i'll wait until January to read it but if not I may try to squeeze it into December.

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill is highly unlikely that i'll get to it but why not add it to the pile of possibilities? Apparently it's holiday-themed horror.

The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories edited by Jeff VanderMeer: This is a group read for the Goodreads group Spells, Space & Screams from Nov 15th, 2019 to Jan 14th, 2020. So I need to get on it! I don't have to finish it in December but hopefully make a lot of progress. It's HUGE with TINY TEXT. Over 1,100 pages!

Will I get to it all? Not a chance, but hopefully i'll have fun reading what I get to! What are you planning on reading in December? Doing any readathons? Have you read any of these and if so what did you think of them (no spoilers please)?

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Sunday, November 24, 2019

Nov 17th to Nov 23rd Weekly Book Haul and Changes

Because of the youtube COPPA crap going on I might not do youtube anymore (depending on what happens next year maybe i'll be back, who knows) so i'll be trying to put more effort into this blog! Because honestly I wasn't. I was just using it to keep track of things for the most part. So this blog will have some changes, more posts over time. At least that is the plan. I have mixed feelings about Youtube but I really do want to do more stuff with this blog!

So you'll notice some changes going forward as well as next year so please bare with me (and feel free to comment on anything!). I'm still going to talk about books i've read and my thoughts on them as well as other things (what I watch among other hobbies i'm sure-I have many plans) i'm just changing up how I do things. Starting next year hopefully things will get into a groove.

To the Book Haul!

Amazon Freebies

Blackthorn Manor Haunting by Cheryl Bradshaw: I don't know if it's just a trilogy or not but I got the first 2 books for free from Amazon as well so...when I saw this one, the third one, was free too, I got it. I haven't read book #1 or 2...

Bears Of The Wild; Shifter Romance Collection by Lola Gabriel: I don't even know if I like bear shifter romance but it was free...

Reserve My Nights by Stephanie Julian is the second book in a series and I saw I have #1 (also apparently was free I think because it's on my "mid" shelf) so I got it..

Love Train: A Sweet-But-Hot, Explicit, Age-Gap Lesbian Fantasy by Mazy Rain: It was free lesbian erotica, of course I picked it up!

Six Merry Little Murders: Christmas Cozy Mystery Novellas: There are cute animals on the cover and it was free, could I really say no to that?

Indiscreet by Amélie S. Duncan: I saw free erotica and figured why not.

Teaching the Sitter by Mazy Rain: I saw free lesbian erotica, do I need to say it again? lol

Rescued from the Ashes: The Diary of Leokadia Schmidt, Survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto by Leokadia Schmidt: A non-fiction memoir involving WWII that sounds heart-breaking.

Dissident by Emma Night: Alien tentacle romance. I'm weird, I don't care.

Physical

Spellhacker by M.K. England: This was free as well because I won it in a Goodreads giveaway and it's an arc because it comes out in January. It's a fantasy with a female/non-binary romance by a non-binary author (and i'm non-binary) and that is all I needed to know to be excited!

So those are all the books i've picked up in the week. What have you picked up? Any of these sound interesting? Comment down below! :)

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Sunday, November 17, 2019

Nov 10th to Nov 16th, 2019 Weekly Wrap Up

What I Finished Reading

Titles in this section link to my (sometimes fuller) reviews on Goodreads.

Night Film by Marisha Pessl 2⭐

I just didn't care for this. It started out ok but quickly went down hill (and from what I heard from others that also didn't like it keeps going down hill-I DNF'd at 41%). Too much (seemingly pointless imo) racism, sexism, transphobia, and misinformation/stereotypes about paganism. I was also bored and I feel like crap so I figured it wasn't worth it to push through it. That and if I did it might get 1 star instead of 2.

Pile of Possibilities for the Next Week

I'm currently working on 'Salem's Lot though as I said I feel like crap so it's slow going. I'm enjoying it so far (a little over 1/3 of the way through).

TV I Watched

Kim Possible Season 1 Episode 1
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 1 Episode 6
Big Mouth Season 3 Episode's 2-4

No Movies were watched this past week.

Youtube Videos Posted

The Nosy Booktuber Tag
October 2019 Etsy Haul

Book Haul

Amazon Freebies


Audio Books with Audible Credits


Bookfunnel Freebies


Paid for Amazon Ebooks


Physical


Prolific Works Freebies


Smashwords


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