My Favourite Book I Read In 2021

Hello! 

I can’t believe that we are on the final day of 2021! Today I celebrated with a booster jab, crepes and seeing the new Spider-man film. I will be spending my evening with a glass (more likely a bottle) of wine and a book.  This year has been one of a kind, sort of like a blur. For me, it started off shaky,  as the year has progressed things began to look up. I pursued my career in Copywriting and 6 months in I’m absolutely adoring every second of it. I’ll be continuing my role further into 2022 which I couldn’t be more grateful for. I’ve met some amazing people this year and despite my mental health not being the greatest I’m ending the year on a positive note! 

At the beginning of the year, I decided not to set a reading goal. However, I have still been tracking the books I’ve read on Good Reads and as of today, I read a grand total of 16 books in 2021!  Most of those have been towards the end of the year but I am absolutely chuffed. I finally reread the Divergent series after years of wanting to, I explored new genres and met so many new characters! I’m ready to read even more in 2022. 

 As I managed 16 books this year I am aiming to try and read 1 book a week, so my end of year total should be 52 books. I also want to write and share 2 book reviews a month with you guys, most of the year I was able to post weekly so I am aiming for this in 2022 too!

Out of all 16 books that I’ve read over the last year, one, in particular, stood out to me. Next Exit Home by Dena Blake. 

I read this book at the beginning of the year and absolutely adored it! I posted a review of the book which you can read here. It was this book that started my search for more queer fiction. Spoiler for my 2022 reading list: lots of queer fiction. 

I’ve been purchasing new books so expect a blog post in the new year talking about all the books I aim to read in 2022-with no pressure of course. I have enough on the list to cover at least 2 months' worth of reading.  I have never been more excited to read in my entire life, I can't wait to share more book reviews and bookish blog posts with you guys in the year to come. Wishing you the best for the new year. 

My Favourite Book I Read In 2021

Friday, 31 December 2021

NaNoWriMo 2021

 Hello!

This year I have decided to take part in NaNoWriMo. I became aware of it back in my early Wattpad days and I always talked myself out of taking part, well this stops now. 

If you're new to NaNoWriMo or haven't come across it yet, it's a non-profit organisation that promotes creative writing all around the world. They host an annual creative writing event in November. The goal of the event is from November 1st to November 30th to write at least 50,000 words. Hopefully, at the end of the month, you should have drafted a whole manuscript. On their website, you write the details for what you will be working on and you track how many words you write every day. By tracking your word count you can earn fun badges. Millions of people around the world take part in this event, it is a great opportunity to join a great community of writers as well as work on your craft.

My writing sessions have been a little all over the place recently so I thought by taking part in this year's event so I can try to refocus myself. Usually, people plan for the event but this year I decided last minute to partake. I did create a quick fun cover for the story I will be working on:

I have had a few characters and storylines floating around in my head so I am using NaNoWriMo 2021 to put them to use. Today I completed my first section at 1724 words, not a bad start. I worked out that to reach 50K words, you need to roughly write 1.6K words every single day!  I will be giving updates on here but in the middle of the month and again at end of the month to let you know how I am getting on. I am really looking forward to getting back into the habit of writing every day.

NaNoWriMo 2021

Monday, 1 November 2021

Goodreads Goals

Truth be told, I suck at goals. Especially my Goodreads, I have been using the app to track the books I have been reading for a couple of years now. I have yet to reach any of my goals. I always start the year with good intentions to read more but one way or another life gets in the way or something. I guess maybe I set my goals too high but I decided to scrap the reading goals for 2021. I managed 22 books this year and even though it doesn’t sound like a lot I am chuffed with myself!

One thing I am very proud of this year is discovering a love for Graphic Novels, something I never thought I’d see myself getting into. I  have read some amazing pieces one being the first two volumes of The Wicked & The Divine. The artwork is incredible and the storyline is so good! I really loved the characters, if you wish to read more about this amazing series I have done a book review on the first two volumes!  Just give the title a search in the top right corner of the page! I am waiting for the stores reopen properly before I search for a local comic book store in my city- rather than fund big businesses like Amazon. This year was definitely one of discovery. The first graphic novel I read this year was Faithless, very sexy but waiting for the next part of the collection which has not been announced yet.

I feel after this weird year I don’t want any pressure, I should just want to read and not feel like I have to.  Even though the Good Read’s reading challenge is supposed to be for fun I found myself rushing novels. I don’t want that anymore. I do want to read more, of course, I do. I want 2021 to be the year of content I care about, in all aspects of my life. I do want to try and not buy as many new books in the next year, my To-be-read pile is huge and my bookcase is full. I want to reread some of my favourite classics like Dickens' Great Expectations, Shelley's Frankenstein and whatever I find on my shelves. I want to be more creative over here on my blog too. Do you ever finish a book but you’re not quite over it yet? I want to explore that, maybe write an extra chapter or something. I know this sounds a little like fan fiction but I just want to share more creative writing with you guys. I will still write book reviews, I very much enjoy writing those and taking cute bookstagram photos to go with them.

This blog post is not disregarding Good Reads, I think it’s brilliant that I can see what I have been reading. Scrolling through the books I have read this year, I can say the book I loved the most, that I very much didn’t expect to, was Carrie Fisher’s Wishful Drinking. I never really showed much interest in this actress previously but I was and still am fascinated by her story. This also started my love of audiobooks (see more about this in my previous blog post) which has helped me discover stories I wouldn’t usually even look at on a bookshelf!   Having talked about the books I love the most it’s only right I talk about one story I didn’t enjoy as much.

The graphic novel version of Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.   If you know me, you’ll know I love the series. I have not enjoyed a series this much in a while. The graphic novel is very different, which as a lover of books I know adaptations change things and alterations are made, but the graphic novel disappointed me a little. I guess it just wasn’t what I was expecting. With the Netflix show coming to an end soon (sadly) I am feeling more inclined to purchase the rest of the volumes so I can keep it alive and maybe see a different ending. I hope the next volumes change my mind. 

I am looking forward to the books I could read in 2021. Let’s make this the year of reading books we actually want to read! What book is at the top of your to-be-read list?

Goodreads Goals

Wednesday, 30 December 2020