Happy February! January was a busy month for me, but surprisingly, I ended up getting a decent amount of reading done! So I’m just gonna start yappin’ about it:
Books
Comfort Me With Apples was my first read of the year, a 10 in 2020 book, and a new favorite. I picked this book up at BN’s half price hard cover sale and was drawn to read it immediately.
I don’t want to say what it’s about – honestly don’t even read the synopsis. Go in blind.
But I loved this novella. It was so unsettling and I still think about it a month later. – 5 stars
Shorefall was a buddy read I finished up with month with Meredith @Allboutthembooks and stuff. We read Foundryside together in early 2021 and both loved it, and then we both loved this one as well! It really expanded on the lore, and the villain is one of my favorite I’ve come across. The third one comes out this summer and I am p u m p e d about it! – 5 stars
So, Lonesome Dove was recommended to me by my mother as part of the 12 Friend Recommendations book challenge I’m doing this year. I decided to pick it up first, as it was the most daunting. I didn’t expect I would like it, but hey, I’ll eat my words. I really, really liked this book.
This book broke my heart, and I’m going to think about it for a long time. I grew to really like all the characters, even the characters that I hated, and they all pulled on my heartstrings by the end of it.
This just goes to show that I shouldn’t judge a book by its genre. – 4 stars
I picked up Dave Grohl’s memoir on audio book after randomly seeing it displayed on a table in my local BN. I didn’t even know he had put out a book until I saw it. So I got a physical copy for my mom for Christmas and I picked up the audio for me and listened to it.
Dave Grohl is the lead singer of the Foo Fighters, one of my favorite bands, so it was neat to hear his stories, especially because he narrated it himself. I liked it! – 4 stars
Manga
I read the entire series of A Silent Voice this month, all seven volumes! I watched the movie of this anime last year and really liked it, and after I received the box set of the manga for Christmas, I buzzed right through it.
I really enjoyed this manga. It was happy and sad and wholesome and sorrowful. It was lovely. – 4.2 stars averaged
So overall I read 11 things – 7 manga and 4 books! Doing good so far! Here’s what else I was up to:
Well hi! It’s the last day of Blogmas and my favorite post of the year. My favorite books! I’ll also look back on my 2021 reading resolutions and check out some Goodreads stats.
Goodreads stats:
Reading Resolutions:
Read 100 books – I set this goal pre-pregnancy. Well, that threw a wrench in things. I ended up adjusting the goal down to 80, which I’ve hit. So I’ll count this as a Success.
Reduce physical fiction tbr to 185 – I definitely hit this one. The purge really took a chunk out of it. My current physical TBR (not including Christmas presents) is 147. Success.
Reduce manga tbr to 50 – While I did read a lot of manga this year, not enough apparently. My current manga tbr is 139. Failure.
Maintain blog schedule – Lol. Failure
Finish my 10 in 2021 list – I was making good progress in this until the Great Reading Slump™. I managed to complete 5 out of 10. Failure.
So overall not great but considering I had a baby this year and fell into a huge reading slump, it could have been worse.
Top books of 2021:
These are all the new reads I rated 5 stars this year. They are in no particular order.
I buddy read Foundryside with Meredith @Allboutthembooksandstuff and both of us adored it. The tone is light and funny and serious and gritty at the same time. The characters are well developed and likeable, and the plot was well-paced and interesting.
Goodreads synopsis:
Sancia Grado is a thief, and a damn good one. And her latest target, a heavily guarded warehouse on Tevanne’s docks, is nothing her unique abilities can’t handle. But unbeknownst to her, Sancia’s been sent to steal an artifact of unimaginable power, an object that could revolutionize the magical technology known as scriving. The Merchant Houses who control this magic–the art of using coded commands to imbue everyday objects with sentience–have already used it to transform Tevanne into a vast, remorseless capitalist machine. But if they can unlock the artifact’s secrets, they will rewrite the world itself to suit their aims. Now someone in those Houses wants Sancia dead, and the artifact for themselves. And in the city of Tevanne, there’s nobody with the power to stop them. To have a chance at surviving–and at stopping the deadly transformation that’s under way–Sancia will have to marshal unlikely allies, learn to harness the artifact’s power for herself, and undergo her own transformation, one that will turn her into something she could never have imagined.
The Fifth Seasonwas another buddy read, read with a friend irl. I ended up reading the entire trilogy this year but this first book was my favorite of the three. It was such a unique world and the characters, while not “likeable” persay, were interesting and I felt for them. The plot was also super neat.
Goodreads synopsis:
This is the way the world ends. Again. Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze — the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization’s bedrock for a thousand years — collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman’s vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries. Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She’ll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.
Everyone’s A Aliebn When Ur A Aliebn Too was a Christmas gift and a last minute favorite of the year. It was just so simple and pure and wonderful and I adored it.
Goodreads synopsis
The illustrated story of a lonely alien sent to observe Earth, where he meets all sorts of creatures with all sorts of perspectives on life, love, and happiness, while learning to feel a little better about himself—based on the enormously popular Twitter account. Here is the unforgettable story of Jomny, an alien sent to study Earth. Always feeling apart, even among his species, Jomny feels at home for the first time among the earthlings he meets. There is a bear tired of other creatures running in fear, an egg struggling to decide what to hatch into, a turtle hiding itself by learning camouflage, a puppy struggling to express its true feelings, and many more.
I stepped a bit outside my usual genres and picked up a thriller, The Turn of the Key, and I loved it. It was eerie and isolating and exactly what I was hoping for.
Goodreads synopsis:
When she stumbles across the ad, she’s looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss—a live-in nannying post, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten—by the luxurious “smart” home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family. What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare—one that will end with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting trial for murder. Writing to her lawyer from prison, she struggles to explain the unravelling events that led to her incarceration. It wasn’t just the constant surveillance from the cameras installed around the house, or the malfunctioning technology that woke the household with booming music, or turned the lights off at the worst possible time. It wasn’t just the girls, who turned out to be a far cry from the immaculately behaved model children she met at her interview. It wasn’t even the way she was left alone for weeks at a time, with no adults around apart from the enigmatic handyman, Jack Grant.
And finally, I read All the Murmuring Bones and was reminded of the whimsy of a Miyazaki movie, but darker. Gothic. The tone of this book is its best point. It’s so enthralling and it was wonderful.
Goodreads synopsis:
Long ago Miren O’Malley’s family prospered due to a deal struck with the Mer: safety for their ships in return for a child of each generation. But for many years the family have been unable to keep their side of the bargain and have fallen into decline. Miren’s grandmother is determined to restore their glory, even at the price of Miren’s freedom. A spellbinding tale of dark family secrets, magic and witches, and creatures of myth and the sea; of strong women and the men who seek to control them.
And this is it. The end of Blogmas. I hope if you visited a post or two this month that you enjoyed them. If you visited more, I appreciate it. I do have another post coming out tomorrow, but it’s going to be the start of my “normal” posting schedule.
Blogging every day this month has reminded me why I made the blog in the first place. I had a lot of fun! I’m going to try to maintain it again, get back into it. I’m hoping it’ll also inspire me to read more, because I gotta tell ya, what little down time I get while the baby is sleeping, my brain tends to just want to scroll on tiktok. Reading is better for me though (and I enjoy it when I do it!) so wish me luck on that too.
So again if you’ve stuck around for the month, I do appreciate it. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas if you celebrate, a wonderful month otherwise, and a Happy New Year!
Today’s post is my November wrap up and I gotta say, I didn’t read much. I’ll go into why below though.
Manga
Black Butler vol 4 by Yana Toboso – This is the only thing I completed this month, and it’s a reread to boot. It was good though, and I enjoyed it as much as I did the first time I read it. 4 stars
Events
I had a baby in November! So obviously my reading took a dip. :p
He’s a bit over three weeks old now and very wiggly. I love this little gremlin, man. He’s changed my life for the better.
And honestly that’s it. My entire month has essentially been focused on the new human. I’m hoping I can catch up in my reading in December, now that I’m more used to the new routine. Wish me luck!
It has occurred to me that I usually make custom banners and stuff for spoopy season and I did none of that this year. My life is a bit full at the moment. I’m to be induced this coming Monday so honestly it’s going to get fuller. I want to try to do Blogmas again this year though, so I’m hoping that’ll work out and get me back into the swing of blogging. We shall see.
This is what I read this month:
The Two Towersby J. R. R. Tolkien – I liked this one more than the first one but honestly I found that I’m not a huge fan of these books and it’s a shame. I love the movies and I wanted to love these things and I just don’t. 3 stars
The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien – This one… was worse than the second. It was worse than the first. I didn’t care for this book at all and I’m so salty about it honestly. But hey, now I’ve read the whole trilogy and can say as much. Maaaaan. 2 stars
From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout – This was my first Armentrout book and I ended up really liking it. Now, I admit it’s not like… a modern classic or anything like that, but it was fun, fast-paced and entertaining. It was like riding a rollercoaster and I was highly entertained. I will be picking up the next one. 4 stars
And that’s it! By next post, there will be a baby amongst us. Wish me luck folks.
Blood of Elves by Andrej Sapkowski – Unfortunately, me thinking I’d like the novels in this series more than the short stories turned out to be false. I ended up actually DNFing this one. This is not a series for me, at least in this medium. I do enjoy the TV show. I won’t be continuing this book series.
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien – As a fantasy fan, it’s a bit embarrassing that I haven’t read these sooner. And honestly it’s a bit more embarrassing to read the first one and firmly state that I like the movie better, because I do. This book was alright. I am in the middle of the second one now which I’m liking better but like.. I don’t know, the hype kind of failed me here. 3 stars
The Stone Sky by N. K. Jemisin – I finally finished this trilogy, and I really enjoyed this ending. It was a bit happy and a bit sad but mostly just gray, which I feel like was a suitable ending to this series, especially with the world and atmosphere it had built up to this point. But yay, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. 4.5 stars
Manga
Black Butler vol 3 by Yana Toboso – This is the only manga for this month. My reread of this series is going slowly apparently. I did really enjoy this though, as I expected. 4 stars
2021 Reading Goals
Read 100 books – 68/80 – I’ve dropped my goal from 100 to 80 because babies are time consuming.
Reduce physical fiction tbr to 185 – 138
Reduce manga tbr to 50 – 139
Maintain blog schedule –
January: Good
February: Passable
March-Now: lol, i’m abandoning this goal.
Finish my 10 in 2021 list – 5/10
And that’s it for September. I’m hoping to get a bit more reading in during October, because come November I doubt I’ll be reading much at all. That’s when the baby is due!
Well hi! I did some reading this past month. This is what I read:
Books
The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson – Finally jumped into this, part of a buddy read. This book made me realize I really don’t like heist plots. The second half of it though was pretty good and redeemed the heisty bit. 4 stars
All the Murmuring Bones by A. J. Slatter – I don’t know if I expected to love this one quite as much as I did. This book was a cool, muted-paced book that gave me strong dark-Miyazaki vibes. It was really good and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 5 stars
The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware – Again, late to this bandwagon. I don’t typically pick up this genre but after this one I think I might have to more often. I really, really enjoyed this book. 5 stars
The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski – This book I buddy read as well, and it suffered from ‘Emily doesn’t like short stories’ syndrome unfortunately, so I didn’t like it as much as the average person. 3 stars
The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson – This was my third time rereading this wonder of a book, but the first time listening to it on audio. I think the narrator did a really good job of it. I loved this book just as much this time around as I did the previous two times. 5 stars
Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski – Honestly I liked this one even less than the previous one. Still buddy reading, still falling to ‘Emily doesn’t like short stories’ syndrome. The next one is a novel, which I’m in the middle of and already enjoying so much more. 2.5 stars
Manga
Black Butler vols 1-2 by Yana Toboso – I have begun the reread of this series that I’ve been telling myself to do for a year now. I picked up volume 30 the other day so it’s the perfect time. I am very excited, and so far I’m enjoying this series just as much as I did the last time I read it. 4.25, 4.5 stars respectively
And that’s it! I’m still getting back into the swing of blogging so forgive my sparseness. Happy reading!
I haven’t posted regularly since March, and while it started out as a reading slump, my life took over pretty quickly after that and I just haven’t felt motivated. Within the last couple days though, I’ve had the urge to post again, so here we are!
So the main thing that happened while I’ve been gone is this:
As of writing this, I’m 25 weeks along and I’m due in November. I’m having a boy! So I’m neck-deep in baby shower plans and adjusting my life to prepare for a new human.
Part of this includes dismantling my book room, and I’m bummed about it! I mean it’s worth it so he can have a bedroom but maaaan. In addition to losing the book room, I had to purge a bunch of books. Total, I have seven book cases in that room, and the living room, where we’re moving the books, will hold only about five book cases. So I had to purge. Last weekend, my buddy came over and helped me purge them. It’s to the point where I’m having difficulty doing a lot of bending and straightening in short succession so she helped me maneuver through the shelves.
So that will be a what, a ‘series’ on this blog for a bit – transforming the book room into a nursery, setting up the books in the living room, etc etc etc. PS, I’m also documenting this process on my instagram (shameless plug) where I tend to post what I’m doing for the book room in my stories, and I have a highlight of the progress so far.
I took some before pictures, so note these are the last shots of the book room I have before we started killing it:
And here are some shots of the purge:
So, I’ve gotten rid of about eight shelves worth of books. The small shelf on the right is going to stay in the book room and be used for baby books, and otherwise I’ve gotten rid of about another case’s worth. I haven’t decided what to do with the empty case yet – keep it in there for more baby books or get rid of it or use it as storage or what. Not sure yet.
In a few weeks, I’ll be having some friends over to help me physically move the books and cases out of the room and down into the living room. As a part of that we’ll be moving some storage from the living room into the nursery to use for the baby. The stuff that’s currently in that storage…? I’ll figure out what to do with it. I need to wall space tho, man.
So that’s what’s been going on with my life. I’m happy to say my reading slump is mostly over, so I have been reading again, even if not at my usual pace.
This is what I’ve read since the last time I posted:
Manga
Prince Freya vols 1-2 by Keiko Ishihara – This is a fantasy manga following a girl who takes the place of an ailing prince when he dies, and impersonates him to keep the peace in the kingdom. I do have vols 3 and 4 as well, but haven’t gotten to them yet. So far, I’m pretty interested. 4 and 4.5 stars respectively
Skip Beat!vol 1 by Yoshiki Nakamura – I’ve had my eye on this series for a while, so I’m glad I picked it up. This follows a girl who decides to get revenge against a boy who used her by surpassing him as a famous performer. It’s honestly pretty funny so far, and it’s not taking itself seriously. I like it. 3.75 stars
Waiting For Spring vols 5-14 by Anashin – I finished this series out by reading the last ten volumes in a row. This is a cute shojo romance about a girl who falls for a boy on the basketball team. It’s sweet and simple and dramatic and exactly what you’d expect in a shojo. The love interest is a sweetheart too so that was nice. 3.5-4.75 stars each
O Maidens in Your Savage Season vols 1-8 by Mari Okada – Part of this was a reread, namely vols 1-4, but the other four were new reads. I’ve finished this series out now too. Eight volumes of hilarity and awkwardness and drama. This series follows a group of girls as they start to be exposed to puberty and sex and it’s so painfully relatable. It’s a coming of age humor, not a raunchy thing, just fyi. It’s really sweet…. mostly. 3.5-5 stars each
Books
Dragon Wing by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman – This was a buddy read I did with Zezee @Zezeewithbooks and it was okay. It follows a few different perspectives in a world that is actually a bunch of different floating land masses, all hovering over the Death Gate, this unknown realm at the bottom of the universe. The characters were unfortunately a bit flat, as was the plot. The premise though had so much potential so I was a bit bummed, and have since decided not to continue with the series. 3.25 stars
The Frozen Crown by Greta Kelly – This was a 2021 release I picked up on a whim. Total impulse purchase, and it was the first step out of my reading slump. I ended up getting through this book in a few days, the fastest I had read anything in a while. This follows a young woman trying to reclaim her kingdom from invading neighbors and has witches and all sorts of fun things. It was rather enjoyable. 4.25 stars
The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin – This was another buddy read I did with an IRL buddy. This book fell victim to my reading slump, and it took me forever to finish. As a result, it got a lower rating than the first book did. Keep in mind, this was a me issue, not a book issue. I really liked the book. 4.5 stars
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakesby Suzanna Collins – If you remember before I disappeared, I was rereading the Hunger Games series and reviewing each book in prep for this book, which was also going to get its own review, buuuuut whatevs. I cannot be bothered.
I did really enjoy this book. I went into it hearing that it wasn’t that great but honestly it surprised me. I was expecting it to try to redeem Snow or make him a likeable character but just “misunderstood” but nope, nope. He’s a dick, and you can see his slow decent into villainy as the story progresses. As far as villain origin stories go, I think this one is worth the read. 4.5 stars
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie – This was another buddy read with Zezee, and I gotta say I liked this one a lot more than the other buddy read we did. This one we’re planning on continuing for sure.
This story hasn’t really… developed yet, though. Book one is very much a set up book, but it’s really got me interested. There’s a corrupt government and wizards and weird buildings and metaphysics and it’s just really neat. 3.75 stars
A Court of Silver Flamesby Sarah J. Maas – This is another one that fell victim to my reading slump and took me ages to read. This book, like all of Maas’s books, I both loved and hated. I recognize that they’re not stellar literature and parts of it were driving me nutso, but I don’t know, there’s just something about them that’s so readable and enjoyable and just utterly ridiculous. I never go into this expecting to take it seriously, and I feel like as a result I end up enjoying them. 4 stars
Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo – If I’m being honest, this is one of the few books I’ve ever come across where I recommend the abridged version. I did not read the abridged version and I regret it.
This was a buddy read with Katy @Bookbinderway and I think she liked it more than I did. I purged this book with my nursery-book room purge and I’m never lookin back man. The main plot was fine – I didn’t mind it. But augh if I have to read one more rant about buttresses. 2 stars
The Wolf by Leo Carew – This book I got as a gift two years ago from my IRL buddy and I finally got around to picking it up. Overall I enjoyed it, but unfortunately I’m not motivated to pick up the next one. This book follows a young man whose father dies in battle and he’s unexpectedly thrust into the crown, but there’s mutiny and political strife and war and blah. It was pretty interesting and I enjoyed reading about the different political aspects, but overall it was a bit flat. It needed more female characters to be honest. It was good though – if war stories are your thing you’ll probably like this. 3.5 stars
Fanfiction
Change of Heartby nyteride – This is the sequel to the Bulma/Vegeta fanfic I read months ago. This one takes place after the Cell arc and before the Buu arc in Dragonball Z. It was fluffy and cute and convinced me that both Bulma and Vegeta would be terrible romantic partners, therefore they are perfect for each other.
DNFs
Hood by Stephen R. Lawhead – This is a Robin Hood retelling and therefore wasn’t for me. I tried, I tried to keep an open mind, but honestly it bored me to tears. If you like Robin Hood you’ll likely like this, but that story has always been dull to me. Not the book’s fault.
The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein – This one was a gift to me from an IRL buddy a few years ago and I always feel so bad when I don’t like books that were gifts, but it is what it is. It’s a psychological thriller but the pacing was just too slow for me.
And that’s it! That’s where I’ve been, that’s what I’ve been doing, that’s what I’ve read. I think from this point my posts won’t be “regular” but I’ll definitely be posting again. Next post will be a haul of the books from the last three or four months. Because shock, just because I was in a slump didn’t mean I didn’t stop purchasing books. So look forward to that. Good to be back, peeps.
Happy end of February! My reading month was pretty decent, though I admit my blogging has suffered a bit. I’m hoping to turn it around in March, but we’ll see how it goes.
This is what I read:
Books
The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin – I’m very late to this train, but I absolutely loved this book. I did a blabber on it earlier this month, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. This story takes place in a world that ends over and over again, and follows the people trying to live there.
5 stars
Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett – This was another favorite of the month, I absolutely adored it. A review for this one though likely won’t be coming, just because it’s been so long since I finished it. But who knows, maybe I’ll get inspired. But I loved this book just as much as the one above – I couldn’t pick a favorite between the two.
5 stars
The Book of the Dead Days by Marcus Sedgwick – Unfortunately this book really disappointed me. I picked it up off a recommendation from one of my buddies so I was hoping to love it, buuuuut I didn’t. I felt the ending was too abrupt, and the characterization was one dimensional. I tried to read this with a mindset knowing it was middle grade or just above but I feel like I would have disliked this even if I had been twelve. Sorry pal.
2 stars
Manga
Ouran High School Host Clubvols 8-18 by Bisco Hatori – I finished it! I finished my reread! Well, according to Goodreads it’s my “initial” read, but I did read it back in 2006 or so during high school. This reread though showed that the series holds up over the test of time. There are definitely some jokes in it that haven’t aged well, but overall? it’s pretty good. It was just as funny and sweet as I remember, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
3.25 stars – 4.5 stars each
Shaman Kingvol 9 by Hiroyuki Takei – I’m really trying to catch up with this series. My sister lent it to me back in like April or May, so I’d have something to read during the plague, but I’m a bad sister and haven’t binged it yet like she’d hoped. I’m hoping to get a lot farther into it in March, or even complete it. We shall see.
So far the story is pretty decent. This specific volume wasn’t my favorite but I do like the series overall.
3.25 stars
Fanfiction
No striking ones this month, but I feel like that’s going to change in March. I’ve been eyeing another DBZ fanfic, and was just waiting for the right time to start it.
2021 Reading Goals
Read 100 books – 24/100
Reduce physical fiction tbr to 185 – 215
Reduce manga tbr to 50 – 147
Maintain blog schedule –
January: Good
February: Passable
Finish my 10 in 2021 list – 1/10
Stats
15 things read this month
3 novels
12 manga
9 things purchased this month
3 novels
6 manga
Total money spent: 133.80
Genre breakdown:
3 fantasy
11 shojo
1 paranormal
And that’s it! Lemme know how your reading month went!
Happy end of January! I swear, this month went so fast. It still feels like March of 2020, but that’s another story.
Anyways, I read nine things this month, most of them manga. This is what I completed:
Books
Renegade’s Magic by Robin Hobb – I wrote a blabber for this one, if you’re interested. I buddy read this with Zezee @Zezeewithbooksand found this final book in its trilogy to be… decent. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t dislike it either. It was decent. For more in depth thoughts, check out that blabber.
3.75 stars
Manga
Ouran High School Host Club vols 3-7 by Bisco Hatori – This is a such a pleasant, ridiculous series. I originally read this back in high school, but that was before Goodreads, so it’s my first time officially marking it as read. This past summer for my 30th birthday I bought myself the box set of this series, and I’m now making my way through it. There are 18 volumes total, so I’m hoping to finish it by March or so. This series is so outrageous and over the top, it’s fluffy and nice and wholesome. Some of the vocab it uses is outdated though and can be considered offensive, so fair warning. It was made back in the mid 2000s.
But overall? So far I’m really enjoying this series. 3.25-4 stars each.
Kamisama Kiss vol 1 by Julietta Suzuki – This one I picked up last year some time after a recommendation to do so ‘if I want more series like Inuyasha’. So far it’s decent but I feel like I’ll need more volumes to make a full judgement on the thing.
3.75 stars
Yana Toboso Black Butler Artworks vol 2 by Yana Toboso – Technically this isn’t manga but it’s the closest category. This is a book of extra arts by the author of Black Butler. It’s a gorgeous book itself, on top of the art included within, and I really hope I can find the English translation of vol 1 at some point.
5 stars
Fanfiction
I’ve been reading a lot of fanfics recently, and some of the more well-known ones have entries in Goodreads. So I’m going to start covering the ones I read on a couple conditions: 1) if they’re popular enough to have a Goodreads entry, therefore count as a book toward my Goodreads goal, or 2) I just really liked it to the point where I want to share what it is. I’m sure there will be a lot I read that aren’t worth mentioning, but the good ones I’ll be sure to link to.
This month I read one notable one, namely You’ll Be the Death of Me by Niteryde, which is a Dragon Ball Z fanfiction that tells the story of the three year gap between future Trunks warning of the imminent android invasion and when they arrive. It focuses mainly on Bulma and Vegeta, and how the two came together, because it’s a canon thing that they did, but it’s never talked about how. So this fanfiction writes the story of their romance, and I really enjoyed it. 4 stars
2021 Reading Goals
Read 100 books – 9/100
Reduce physical fiction tbr to 185 – 200
Reduce manga tbr to 50 – 152
Maintain blog schedule –
January: Good
Finish my 10 in 2021 list – 0/10
Stats
9 things read this month
1 novel
7 manga
1 fanfiction
6 things purchased this month
3 novels
3 manga
Total money spent: $99.47
Genre breakdown:
1 fantasy
1 romance
6 shojo
1 paranormal
And that’s it! Lemme know how your reading month went. Happy reading!
I don’t know about you but I somehow feel lighter. I know the calendar is a social construct but something about not having a 0 at the end of the year anymore is super nice.
One good thing that did result from this past year though, is that I read way more than I’ve ever read before in a single year.
Read 50 books (later amended to 100) – Success. I read 171.
Maintain a consistent posting schedule – Success. I was kinda iffy in January, but throughout the rest of the year, I posted at least three times per week, every week.
Keep track of reading statistic – Success. They will be below.
Reduce physical TBR to 200 – Success. There is a caveat to this one. I ended up amending this to ‘reduce physical fictional TBR to 200′ because nonfiction is a different thing and I don’t feel like coffee table books and whatnot should be held against me. So it’s basically novels. Manga is also its own list, this is just books. But yes, I hit 200 on the 26th of December!
Look at that! I did all four goals! I don’t think I’ve ever done that before to be honest.
Reading Statistics
So just like last year, I kept track of my reading stats in a spreadsheet and made some charts!
So the beginning of lockdown definitely showed my best reading. I read almost 40 things during April! My lowest reading month was November, which makes sense since I was doing Nanowrimo.
161 books were read for the first time
7 were rereads
3 were DNFs
99 of the books read were purchased in 2020 (mostly manga, tbh)
1 was a gift
34 were on my shelf from a previous year
37 were borrowed either via library or service
115 were manga
11 were hardback
14 were trade paperback
2 were mass market paperback
12 were ebooks
14 were audiobooks
2 were graphic novels
1 was a picture book
Out of the novels:
27 were adult
12 were YA
1 was middle grade
1 was a kid’s book
3 were new adult
Out of the manga:
46 were rated T (Teen)
68 were rated OT (Older teen)
13 were rated M (Mature)
Author info:
140 were female
29 were male
1 was unknown
1 was two authors
123 authors were from Japan
35 were from the US
5 were from the UK
4 were from South Korea
2 were from New Zealand
1 was from France
1 was from Ukraine
Diversity:
28 had no diversity
50 contained a combination of diverse types
6 were LGBT+ diverse
81 were racially diverse
6 had diverse authors
Pages:
2 were under 100 pages
84 were between 100-199 pages
45 were between 200-299 pages
19 between 300-399 pages
11 between 400-499 pages
4 between 500-599 pages
2 between 700-799 pages
1 between 800-899 pages
1 between 900-999 pages
2 were over 1000 pages
Publication year:
3 were published during the 1920s or earlier
1 in the 40s
3 in the 70s
42 in the 2000s
13 in 2010
9 in 2011
7 in 2012
5 in 2013
7 in 2014
13 in 2015
13 in 2016
16 in 2017
10 in 2018
23 in 2019
6 in 2020
Rating:
Finally, the ratings! It’s a bell-ish curve? I guess?
3 were 1 star (the DNFs)
2 were 2 stars
2 were 2.5 stars
1 was 2.75 stars
11 were 3 stars
36 were 3.5 stars
18 were 3.75 stars
54 were 4 stars
5 were 4.25 stars
24 were 4.5 stars
1 was 4.75 stars
14 were 5 stars!
It’s been a while since I had this many five star books, I’m pretty excited about it! I’ll go over them in more detail later in the week during my top books of the year post!
~~~
And that is it. A year’s worth of books and now I need a nap I think. Here’s hoping 2021 is bright and shining and hopeful and full of good books.
This hobby blog is dedicated to movie nerdom, nostalgia, and the occasional escape. In the late 90s, I worked at Blockbuster Video, where they let me take home two free movies a day. I caught up on the classics and reviewed theatrical releases for Denver 'burbs newspapers and magazines. When time is free between teaching high school music and being a dad, movies are standard. Comments and dialogue encouraged!
I buddy read 
The Fifth Season 
Everyone’s A Aliebn When Ur A Aliebn Too
I stepped a bit outside my usual genres and picked up a thriller, 
And finally, I read 
Embuhleeliest 
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