Well, January 2019 has come to a close, and therefore so has the 2019 Mental Health Book Bingo! I’m going to do a proper wrap-up in the next couple of days, but I just wanted to say a big thank you to all my co-hosts and CW, who designed the board and Instagram schedule. It’s been really chill, and really great fun!
In January I got off to a bit of a rocky start – I started working full time and severely overestimated the number of blog posts I would be able to write! But now I think I’m in the swing of things, and hopefully in February I’ll read and write a lot more.
Book reviews:
Mental Health Monday
Top 5 Recommendation
2018 books I want to read in 2019
Random
Year of the Asian Reading Challenge
- 100 books – I am on track with 11!
- Continue to read diversely – Because it was the Mental Health Book Bingo, most of the books I read had some aspect of mental health (I read about bipolar disorder, BPD, OCD, anxiety, and depression). Some of these books also included queer characters, including a nonbinary character, as well as POC. However, I feel like I could have pushed myself more in terms of diversity this month.
- Read more independently published/self-published authors – Not this month 😦
- Try to read more genres – Yeah, sort-of! I read a poetry book, a graphic novel, some YA, a kid’s book, a horror, and some nonfiction.
- Try to re-read a childhood favourite once a month – Yes! I re-read Matilda this month, and loved it, of course. (I went to see the musical last year and thought it was brilliant). I got one of the 30th anniversary editions, and I just adore the idea of Matilda as the Chief Executive of the British Library! (That’s the middle edition).
- Try to read one graphic novel a month – I also did this! I read Moonstruck Vol 1 which was a very cute sapphic read.
- Try to post three times a week – LOL NO. However I’ve got February pretty much scheduled, so hopefully that’ll improve next month!
- I also actually remembered to track my reading! I’m using Reader Voracious’ book blogger spreadsheet template, and it is a dream.
Every month I’m also going to update you with what books I’ve read for YARC (Year of the Asian Challenge!). This month I read: Darius the Great is Not Okay. I really want to up the number of Asian books I read in February.
On a more personal note, I also:
- Continued with therapy – I didn’t have a lot of therapy this month, but I did go a few times. I’m hoping to go every week in February, because I don’t think the as-and-when schedule is quite cutting it.
- Did some adulting – I got new glasses (yay being able to see!), had my hair cut (which I’ve been putting off since 2017), and through my job started putting money towards a pension. My boyfriend and I have also made a decision to stop drinking alcohol altogether (I’m going to talk about this in a Mental Health Monday post next month) and we might start doing meat-free Mondays as well.
- Planned at least one exciting thing a month – yes! I went to see my undergraduate friends in London – we went to Five Guys, which is always a good time. I also met up with my high school friend from Bermuda. For February, I’m going to see Hayley Kiyoko!
In other news, I kind-of restarted my whatthelog Instagram – if you want to have a follow that would be really nice! I’m trying not to focus on followers/themes, because last year that became really overwhelming.
How was your January? Leave a comment below! x
Love this post and love you read Moonstruck! I’m making it my mission to get everyone to give it a chance hahaha You go!! Hope February is full of amazing things for you! And I can’t wait to read all your posts!
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That is a brilliant mission! Hope Feb is a good reading month for you too x
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I love that you ended up re-reading Matilda!! I loved that book soooo much when I was a kid. Reading about a little girl who loves reading made me feel less alone, I suppose. I actually named my car Matilda as a tribute…and I got my 8-year-old niece a copy of the book as one of her Christmas presents.
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Yes I agree so much! And omg aww that’s so adorable! Sharing books and stories is like the one reason I would ever consider having kids. Hopefully my friends will have some so I can share books like Matilda with them 🙂
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Yeah, I definitely don’t want kids myself, but I love getting to hang out with my niece and share my love of reading with her. They’ve started having “family reading time” on Sunday afternoons, so I’ve started inviting myself over so I can partake!
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Awwww that is so pure! ❤
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I am so glad that the spreadsheet is helping you keep track of your reading, that makes me so incredibly happy! Hooray for adulting and being able to see, reminds me that I need to get some new glasses myself, oops. Happy reading!
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Yay! Haha, oh no, get yourself some new glasses! Gotta see to read you know! 🙂
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