January Wrap Up

Wow… what a month. What a start to 2020! We’ve had our fair share of disasters around the world, and sure, maybe some of us aren’t doing the best personally in terms of certain optimistic New Years resolutions (yep, I’m totally talking about myself), but we’ve survived. And if you’re lucky, you’ve even had the time to read a few books!

I started the year with a leisurely pace, working my way through books while lying on the couch under the air-conditioning and staying up until 3am impulse-buying ebooks. You know. The usual. In amongst my schedule of work, beach days, and a solid week spent watching Netflix, I managed to read nine books in total!

Time for a little breakdown:

• Novels: 5
• Short Stories: 2
• Comics: 2
• Audiobooks: 1 (also counted in “short stories”)

I’m so happy with the books I managed to read in January – my reading year is certainly off to a good start already! Ready to find out which books I loved the most? Check out my thoughts on all the below titles, then come tell me what your favourite book of January was down in the comments!

Top 10 Favourite Books of 2019

HERE WE ARE, FOLKS. We’re down to the last few days of 2019! It’s always such a weird mix of feelings that comes with another year ending, isn’t it? It’s like a weird sense of nostalgia for the past twelve months, but also the feeling that the next twelve are going to be so much better, right? It’s exciting, in a way, to have the future creep up on us. Next year’s a new year full of new releases, new favourite books to discover, new authors to try… and I’m looking forward to all of it.

But before I start getting too excited about all that (and a little overwhelmed), it’s time to look back on my top ten favourite books of 2019! It was so hard picking only ten for this list, but I was super strict with myself and forced myself to choose from my countless favourites. I read so many incredible books this past year – I fell into so many different lives, battled monsters, and gained a better understanding of not only the protagonists I read about, but also about myself.

So without further ado, here’s my top ten!

Expectations vs Reality: My 18 Favourite Books of 2018

I can’t believe it’s nearly the end of the year – how did that happen?! I’ve read some great books and some not-so-great books this year, but it’s safe to say that 2018 has been a fantastic year of YA. We’ve been blessed with new characters to obsess over, new adaptations to rewatch until we can quote them, and new worlds that seem so real we could just fall right through the pages and into them.

But not all of my predictions for my year of reading were accurate. This time last year, I shared with you 18 books I predicted I’d fall in love with during 2018 – so I thought it would be fun to revisit my original post and spill the tea on whether these books were as amazing as I hoped they would be. Enjoy!

Biannual Bookish Wrap Up

2018 has been a pretty great reading year for me so far. I started actively using Goodreads, which has been really useful in tracking my reading (despite me forgetting to update it for weeks on end), and actually made my first reading challenge goal. 2018 so far has been all about setting goals and figuring out what I can do to make those a reality, and my reading life has been no different.

Books I’ve read this year so far…

Total: 97

Goal: 200

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Favourite reads of 2018 so far…

I’ve read so many incredible books this year, but these ones really stand out to me as being a step above the rest. I definitely recommend checking these out if you haven’t read them yet!

Bookish Highlights of 2018 So Far

We’re so lucky to have a plethora of bookish events in Melbourne, with everything from group movie viewings, to launches, to full-blown book festivals. It really is the place to be for Aussie booknerds. Even though we’re only halfway through 2018, there have been some absolutely incredible, unforgettable events that I’m so grateful to have been able to attend.

So today I’m going to share my top five bookish events of 2018 so far with you, and then tell you my five most anticipated events for the rest of 2018! It’s going to be hard to narrow it down to just five, because I think I’ve been to about ten book launches in the past six months alone, but I’ll give it my best shot. Let’s do this!

Top five bookish events of 2018 so far…

YA Day

If you didn’t already know, my friend Alexandra and I co-created a Melbourne book club called The YA Room. We meet up once a month at Dymocks to discuss our Book of the Month, but occasionally we also do some special events—like YA Day! YA Day was a day of YA goodness in January, where we were joined by 13 guest panelists to discuss everything from the importance of teen voices in the community, to how to make a successful booktube channel, and even some tips about how to break into the publishing industry! We were joined by over 80 attendees for four panels, and we honestly couldn’t have wished for a more exciting day. We can’t wait to host another YA Day in early 2019!

2017 Wrap-Up

Wow, so much has happened this year! 2017 – the year of the Salt Bae, announcing we’re finally getting a female Doctor on Doctor Who, and the constant threat of an impending world war. Ahh, what a time to be alive.

2017 has been a big year for me, as I’m sure it also has for all of you, so today I’d like to share some of the stuff that’s been going on in my life! I’ve got some of my favourite movie, TV, and music recommendations, my writing progress, and ten things that made me happy in 2017. Enjoy!

Books

So umm… I don’t even KNOW how many books I read this year. I’m guessing it’s around 100, but seriously, I have no clue because I DON’T KEEP TRACK! I’M A TERRIBLE BOOK PERSON! But also, I don’t want the stress of Goodreads challenges and feeling guilty if I feel that I don’t read “enough”. I tried using Goodreads a few times and I just can’t really be bothered. Bleh. I mean, you can add me if you want! But just know that I only update what I’m reading like once every four months and I never post reviews on there. #sorrynotsorry

But I DID compile a handy list of my favourite books of 2017 for you to feast your eyes upon. Just click here to see what my top 17 books of 2017 were! I was surprised to love some of them as much as I did, and others were expected favourites, but overall, I think I read a lot of amazing books this year and it was so difficult trying to narrow it down. Also, the overwhelming majority of them are contemporary because I’m lazy when it comes to learning the rules of a new world. I’m ACTUALLY the worst.

But anyway, I think I had a great reading year! I’m sure I read more books than I have the past few years because the first year of my university degree was pretty chill, so it was great to get more time to read and post on my blog. Even though this year has been pretty terrible in a lot of other ways, I think it’s been pretty epic for the bookish community!