October Reading Round-Up

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

October has been a pretty good month for reading! I'm finally feeling like I'm getting my reading mojo back and I managed to read a not too shabby total of 6* books this month. 

I think what definitely helped was setting myself a goal at the beginning of the month and keeping the books out of my bookcase in a little pile so that I saw them every day and they helped to motivate me to keep on reading. 

Without further ado I will jump straight into my mini reviews:

V.E Schwab - This Savage Song  03/10

A slow starter and took me quite awhile to get into. However, once the action does eventually take place it is awesome! The plot twist at the very end had me reeling and I am looking forward to the sequel despite my previous concerns that this would be the one Schwab novel I didn't enjoy! Also, August is adorable. 

C.M Lucas - Mist & Whispers 10/10

I really didn't enjoy this book. I found the writing dire, the storyline was riddled with plot holes and the dialogue was cringe worthy. I felt like it really needed the touch of a good editor. 

Samantha Shannon - The Bone Season #1 20/10

I adored this book, the story was so unique the plot was expertly constructed and the characters were rich and interesting. Really looking forward to the sequel. 

Jessie Burton - The Miniaturist 27/10 

This was a slow starter and I found parts frustrating at times. However, I cannot fault the writing. Jessie writes beautifully and this whimsical story had stolen my heart by the final few pages. Loved it. It's so well written and Jessie manages to evoke the characteristics of the 1600s whilst still making the book relatable and easy to read for the modern audience. There is actually very little that I can pose issue with, except the point discussed below. *SPOILERS * Whilst I really appreciate the addition of a gay man living in secrecy in the 1600s, I find his actions borderline ridiculous. For instance, why would his affair be happening at his place of work where anyone could walk in (like Nella!) and then again at the side of the warehouse in public!!! It just seems a little too convenient for the plot points and not that organic. Like why would Johannes go back with Jack, when jack has only just killed his beloved dog? It makes Johannes seem weak and infantile which totally contradicts the way his character is presented to us. Other than that, I have no issues with the book. I loved the character of Marin and I feel the way she was portrayed was perfect, it was the epitome of a woman's struggles in the 1600s and the whole plot surrounding her felt organic and well thought out. The magical elements with the Miniaturist raised enough mystery and excitement to keep me wanting to know more about her and I think I'm right in saying that there is a sequel to this novel - which if there is I really hope it delves into that magical element more. I didn't know what to expect from this novel and it kept me guessing throughout. Even though it started off feeling very slow, it has since turned into one of my top books this year

Kiera Cass - The One #3 29/10

A predictable ending to a fairly tropey series. *SPOILERS*, Of course, Mer & Max get married and it all ends happily but I felt the ending was rushed and lacked depth. Not a bad series but not phenomenal. As I'd expected this book neatly rounds itself up with a happily ever after, which was nice. The ending was nice. I wasn't blown away though. All of the action actually happened in the last 50 pages and it felt so so rushed! I was reading it thinking how on earth is this going to conclude in less than 30 pages! The answer was quickly. It all sort of came to an abrupt end and it didn't feel fitting for the characters that died to be brushed over so quickly. 

*So I know I said I had read 6 books but I've only got the reviews for 5. Well, I'm planning on reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley on Halloween - starting on the 30th October (when I'm writing this) and finishing it on Monday evening. If you're interested in my opinion and want to read a review on it, then come follow me over on Goodreads. I update daily and review the majority of the books I read!

What did you read in October? 

My Reading Routine

Ta dahh, yes I have managed to get back into the swing of blogging again! I hadn't totally forgotten my little blog but last week was... hectic! So now time for a 'tiny' life catch up...

Monday: Nothing

Tuesday: GRADUATION! I graduated at Canterbury Cathedral with a 2:1 in English Literature! 

Wednesday: Twickenham Stadium Tour with Dad

Thursday-Sunday: RECOVERING. 

Like no joke that was my week! I was so totally exhausted mentally and physically from Tuesday & Wednesday and it took the rest of the week to just get back to feeling human again. 

But I'm back and have a little post about my (no bullshit) reading routine.

STEP 1: Decide to read. Light the candle and make a cup of tea - This one is a Strawberry & Raspberry tea by M&S and it's delish. 

STEP 2: Get distracted by Twitter or Bullet Journalling for at least an hour if not two. 

STEP 3: Find that comfy reading spot. Whether it's curled up on the bed or cross-legged on a desk chair, finding a comfy spot to read is vital. However, be aware that you will be uncomfortable again in roughly 1.5 chapters. Reading life yo. 

STEP 4: The integral step, choose a book. Now whether you're like me and have a TBR for the month (Check out my September TBR here) or you just have a looming pile of unread books to get through, without a book yo can't read. I usually can't choose what book to read as I have over 60 unread on my shelves + more on the kindle, so I write all my unread books down onto individual pieces of paper, fold them up and choose at random. This helps to avoid that feeling like I'm choosing between my children. 

STEP 5: To sit and read. Quite often I will do everything else on this list and never actually get round to reading. Reading Slumps are the bain of my life. I normally can read anywhere between 50-300 pages in one sitting it just really depends on the time of day, what I've got going on and my tiredness level! I try to read at least a chapter before I go to sleep but if I'm really into a book I can quite easily read 50-100 pages before bed. 

STEP 6: Rest! You've drunk all the tea, blown out the candle and got to the end of the chapter! It's really important at this point, to rest or do something other than read. I find if I take regular small breaks from reading I'm less likely to fall into a reading slump or get a book hangover! That being said I know when I finish Empire of Storms I'm going to be suffering! 

Do you have a reading routine? I thought it would be fun to share what I do on a daily basis, I want to start injecting more of my actual life into this blog so I really hope you enjoyed this little taste! 

Bullet Journal Flip-Through + Book Journal (UPDATE)

Wayyy back in May I shared My Bullet Journal Flip Through which most of you really seemed to like and even to this day it remains one of my most viewed posts. So I thought it was about time that I gave you guys a little update on the Journal situ. 

Whilst I am still devoted to my little pink Leuchtturm1917, I have altered the ways in which I use it to make it more suitable to my lifestyle [read laziness].

The first noticeable change being the photo above /\  - Since May I have added a monthly spread to view my month as a whole, whilst it does make planning my days a little easier, it does get rather depressing when you realise you have nothing planned! But swings and roundabouts I guess! 

I've also added some goals to the left-hand side, detailing my monthly Blog Goals, Lifestyle Goals, and Reading Goals. I've found this the most useful as it helps to keep me motivated and working towards something even when I'm feeling a little low. 

I've also added my Tweet Schedule to help when I'm scheduling out posts and want to properly promo them. I've been TERRIBLE at this lately so I really need to get back into the swing of things and get my promo back! Especially since I've changed my domain name and my traffic has fallen to a record low! 

Continuing the theme of blogging, I also created a yearly goals page for all my social media outlets. As you can see I've been pretty ambitious with my goals but I'm really hoping that I can get close to them by the end of 2016! 

My tracker has stayed mostly the same but I have changed a few of the things I track, I've merged Skincare AM+PM together as if I forget to do one then I can just shade half the square. I've also added Driving Lessons so I can track how many I have each month. 

Linked to the tracker, I also have my Driving Tracker - which actually needs to be updated oops! - I thought it would be interesting to keep track of how many lessons I've had and how much money I've spent. I'm now well over £200 into my driving lessons! 

I've also added a Blog Planning page to help organise my blog plans and posts. I've changed this slightly for September but it's mostly the same. I jot down any ideas that come to my head (although most of them are eventually either ignored or changed slightly) and then I attempt to plan out the weeks. As you can see I pretty much failed in August, but I'm back and raring to go in September so hopefully this will be much more successful. 

This time round I thought I would show you my other journal - which although isn't a bullet journal, is actually my first successful attempt at some form of journaling.

This is my book journal. I've chatted about it a few other times but I wanted to give it it's own space as it's actually more important to me than my bullet journal. 

As you can see, I began this journal at the very end of 2014 after it was brought as a Christmas present from the boy. 

I wanted to document all the books I was reading. I'm not really sure why, mostly to look back on  my reading habits I think and remember what I thought of the books, but I actually found it helped to motivate me to read more. I will religiously jot down my immediate thoughts about the book straight after finishing it and then move on to the next one (after my GoodReads review of course!) 

As you can see I've been in a bit of a reading/life slump until recently so there's a bit of a gap but I'm hoping to make up for that throughout September.... In case you're interested I've listed the books I plan to read in September here! 

I hope you've enjoyed this little glimpse into my journalling life. I would love to see yours so if you've written a post on your journal then please link it below!

September TBR

I'm back on the reading hype again so I thought I would share what I'm planning on reading throughout September! I know a lot of you are avid readers as well so I thought it would be fun if we could have little chats in the comments about your TBR lists each month when I share mine! 

1. Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas 

   I've been binge reading this series in time for the new release Empire of Storms which, despite being somewhat controversial, looks amazing! Queen of Shadows is #4 in the Throne of Glass series and follows a girl called Celaena Sardothian as she gets wrapped up in a whole world of trouble. It's a really fun series to read and the books are very easy to get into. In fact, I actually managed to break my 5-month long reading slump thanks to Crown of Midnight - the second in the series - so that just goes to show how captivating the writing is! 

2. Savage Song by V.E. Schwab 

   Hang on whilst I fangirl for half a page yeah? If you've read my bookish posts before you will know I'm a HUGE fan of V.E. Schwab. She's one of my all time favourite authors and everything she writes is flawless. This is obviously going to be a must read for me and I've been dying to get to it! It was also on my list of most anticipated book releases of 2016. 

The next two books on my TBR were chosen at random. I have a mug in my room filled with little pieces of folded up paper each with a book name written on them. At the beginning of the month I will draw however many I feel like reading and stick to them! 

I find it really hard to choose a book to read as I have SOOOO many options, this way I end up reading things that I would perhaps put off otherwise! 

3. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

    This was the first piece of paper I drew, I've had Frankenstein for a couple of years now and still haven't got round to reading it so I was really happy to see this. My edition is one of the beautiful Penguin Clothbound Classics which are absolutely stunning. Really keen to read a classic this month. 

4. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton 

    The second randomly selected book and another one that I just seem to forget about. The premise of this story sounds really intriguing though and the magic element is definitely what will keep me hooked. It looks like a fairly easy read as well so I will look forward to getting started with that. 

5. Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas 

   Rather obvious but once this comes out on the 6th September I will be running to my local Waterstone's on the hunt for it. I've been binge reading the series so it would be rude to not include it on my TBR for September - although whether I get to it in the month remains to be seen! 

As you can see I've got a pretty busy month of reading ahead of me. I'm going to be doing a round-up at the end of the month with a bit more detail about each of the books I read, however, if you want to see a full in-depth review of any of the books mentioned then let me know and I will make a note of it! 

What are you reading this month? 

Christmas Book Haul

I thought today I would share what books I have very kindly been given for Christmas by my lovely family.  I'm a bit of a book hoarder to be honest and I can never have enough so I was over the moon to receive these on Christmas day. You may note that I've not actually written a "What I Got For Christmas" post but that's purely because I wanted to write smaller more detailed posts about the gifts rather than a big generalised one. 

So here's a little run down of the books I received. 

• 8 Penguin Little Black Classics - These were released in 2015 to celebrate 80 years of Penguin and although they are now difficult to find in store, you can still purchase them through Amazon. I think it's a lovely way to sample some authors that you would be to intimidated to pick up otherwise. 
• Scarlet by Marissa Meyer - This is the second book in the Lunar chronicles. These are fairy tale retelling's that have a sci-fi element to them. I loved the first book Cinder (a take on Cinderella) and I'm sure I'm going to love Scarlet!
• A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings by Charles Dickens - I'm currently collecting the Penguin Cloth Bound classics and this was the perfect addition at Christmas time. I'm currently studying Dickens at University as well so it's rather apt. 
• How to be Well Read by John Sutherland - If you're a English Lit student I doubt John Sutherland will be a new name to you, but if not he is a marvellous critic with an eye for a good book. How to be Well Read is an anthology of 500 books you really should read. I'm currently feeling very "nesty" by that I mean that I'm desperate to move out into my own home and make it my own. This book is just adding to my expanding collection of 'coffee table books'... I'm collecting so many I could probably make the coffee table out of books at this rate! That might not be a bad idea... *wanders over to Pinterest* 

That's all for today's post! I hope you enjoyed the first little glimpse of what I received for Christmas, it most definitely won't be the last of this sort of post this month. 

Make sure you pop back tomorrow for a rather important post to me "Pressure in the Bloggersphere"