January - June 2022: A Recap

It has been a long while since I've made one of these! 2022 has been a busy year so far, and I can't believe it's practically halfway over. In the past 6 months, I honestly haven't read very many books, but I have done a variety of other things. I wrapped up university in the past month, and I am now a university graduate with a B.S. in Biochemistry! I've also spent the past 6 months discovering and deepening my love for creative writing, and also learning for the first time what creative writing entails. I never thought I could be a writer of any sort, but here I am taking creative writing workshops and learning from some of the most insightful writers ever. I also got COVID during the past month, which definitely wasn't fun, but I've since recovered well, just in time to not miss my very last week of undergrad classes.

So, yes, I haven't read very many books, per se, in the past 6 months, but I have been reading. I've also been listening to new music (read: not just Taylor Swift) and discovering a love for poetry as well. I've never really been much of a poetry person, but some great collections have me rethinking this. Maybe I can become a poetry person. And it wouldn't be me if I wasn't reading some fanfiction, and I have some really great recs for you all. I've, of course, been reading manga as well and watching anime whenever I have free time, and I've come across some really great ones that I'm excited to recommend to you all as well!

January Wrap-Up

Happy January & Happy 2022 🎉

I always get extremely excited to fill in my Goodreads goal at the beginning of the year; I've settled with 2 books a month at 24 books this year! I try not to overshoot because I care way too much about hitting the reading goal, and I know that my time for reading diminishes a lot in the midst of the school year. Some months I'll read 5 books, other months I'll read none. So 24 is a very attainable goal at the moment. But I am guilty of changing the goodreads goal when it seems like I am getting there way too soon.

This month, I had a stressful start to the new school term. However, one of my classes really pushes me to read a lot more to explore different writing styles as well as writing subjects, and I've been trying to open my mind to the vast possibilities in the genres of contemporary and literary fiction. But of course, I am unable to completely break away from my beloved fantasy books.

Books Mentioned

• The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
• And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman
• Hori-san to Miyamura-kun (Vol. 1 - 10) by Hagiwara Daisuke
• My Love Mix-Up (Vol. 1 - 2) by Hinekure Wataru & Aruko
• Sasaki to Miyano (Vol. 1 - 8) by Harusono Sho
• Hirano to Kagiura (Vol. 1 - 2) by Harusono Sho

Everything I Read in the Last Quarter of 2021 -- Wrap-Up

Happy End of 2021 🎉

I've admittedly had an extreme rollercoaster ride of a time these past few of months, and I binge read quite a lot (of manga) to cope with everything. It's quite funny how (for me at least) in the worst of times reading becomes my biggest crutch to fall back on when the world as I know feels like it is crumbling at its edges. Very grateful for all the genuine feelings that books were able to bring to me when I felt like I had to put on a performance and recreate some semblance of normalcy for what felt like months.

I'm honestly really grateful that I am quite easily entertained, because I had a lot of very great reads these past few months.

Books Mentioned

• Dark Rise by C.S. Pacat
• Demon Slayer (Vol. 8 - 23) by Gotouge Koyoharu
• Spy x Family by Endo Tatsuya
• Yona of the Dawn (Vol. 1 - 36) by Kusanagi Mizuho
• Mist (薄雾) by Wei Feng Ji Xu (微风几许)
• Golden Stage (黄金台) by Cang Wu Bin Bai (苍梧宾白)
• Blue Period (Vol. 1 - 11) by Yamaguchi Tsubasa
• Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong
• It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

September Wrap-Up

Happy September 🍂

School starts up this month, so I did not have a very prolific reading month :") I can feel myself falling back into that reading slump, probably because I've been spending more time thinking about which books to bring to my school apartment and which books to keep at home. I'm bringing the absolute bare minimum (books I haven't read that I plan on reading, books I know I'll be lending) but it really does pain me to leave books behind, especially the books I have on display on my shelf. 

Books Mentioned

• On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
• Jujutsu Kaisen Vol. 8 - 16 by Akutami Gege
• She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

August Wrap-Up & more

Happy August! 

It's the last full month of summer before school starts up again 😥 And yet I had quite a lot to do this month to prepare for school to start. 

It's also my birth month! And even though every month is a month where I should be "taking liberties" and reading whatever I want, I felt that extra this month with all the work and studying I was trying to avoid. Sometimes it's just 1000x easier to just read through a manga with lovely artwork as opposed to reading blocks of words. I also recently got back into manga because my sister convinced me to continue reading a childhood favorite, and now I'm hooked once more. And maybe I'm realizing that one of my favorite genres of manga are stories set in Victorian England where the protagonist is a morally grey genius who I adore and am secretly rooting for 👀

Books Mentioned

• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• Black Butler (Kuroshitsuji) Vol. 26-30 by Toboso Yana
• Moriarty The Patriot Vol. 1-15 by Takeuchi Ryosuke & Miyoshi Hikaru
• People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry
• Tokyo Revengers Vol. 1-24 by Wakui Ken

July Wrap-Up & August TBR

Hi! I'm writing this at the tail end of July and I think I finally have a somewhat decent reading month? Decent for me, at least.

It probably helped that I went overseas and had a lot of ebooks on hand for when I had absolutely nothing to do on the airplane, and during my whole-trip quarantine as well. 

I've started using the CAWPILE system to organize my reading, since the spreadsheet by G does a really lovely job with helping me decide on a star ranking and also it makes it very easy to see my reading stats for the year. 

Books Mentioned

• The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang
• The Burning God by R.F. Kuang
• Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean
• Jade City by Fonda Lee
• Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater

Everything I Read in the First Half of 2021 -- Wrap-Up

Oh wow it has been a while :")

For fall quarter I did quite a lot of reading for school only, and I didn't have much time to read for myself, so I didn't make wrap-ups for those months. The following quarter was also a bust. I tried to read as much as I could and mostly stuck to short fanfictions since I spent most of my time reading articles and papers for class, so here is a first half of the year wrap-up. I'm also including the one book series I read at the very end of the month of December.

Books Mentioned

•  默读/Mo Du/Silent Reading by priest
• A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
• These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
• 七爷/Qi Ye/Lord Seventh by priest
• Circe by Madeline Miller
• The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
• 小蘑菇/Little Mushroom by 一十四洲