Tag: reading

My Rise and (Tiny) Fall from Book Clubs – Blogmas 2025

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

If someone told me that in late 2023 or early 2024 I would be a part of a bunch of book clubs, and that by the end of 2025 I’d be down to just a few, I’d laugh at them.

Okay, maybe not laugh, but I wouldn’t believe them all that much. And honestly, I have personal history to back that up.

For the vast majority of my life, I have detested being told what to read or when to discuss it, how to read something in a particular way and how to “engage with the text.” Even though I have an English degree and love reading, it’s always been difficult for me to read assigned books. Sure, some ended up becoming books I liked or loved or fought for, but in the end, that was like four out of fifty.

I also don’t particularly like discussing books down to the most minute detail. When I read, I want to enjoy books, not analyze them.

But then… well… the pandemic finally eased and I needed to get out of the house.

Without going through the entire history, I ended up joining book clubs at two different used bookstores and through my local library. Each one had a different mix of choices and types of discussions and in general everything seemed to be working out great.

I have read books that were so out of my comfort zone that it was unbelievable, and yet I ended up liking several of them. (Even the one that still gives me the occasional nightmare because it was so well written and vivid.) I’ve also read books that I thought I would enjoy, and discovered that I didn’t. I’ve found new auto-buy authors and whole genres I’ll give a second shot.

Over the past few months, things have changed a bit. I’ve made the decision to cut out all but two of the book clubs. Past of the reason is that I didn’t feel heard anymore. My suggestions weren’t being taken seriously. My points were being ignored in conversations, or were being somewhat manipulated to mean something else. It felt like anything I had to contribute was just… a waste of my time. But more over, it was becoming a waste of anyone else’s time but the core group.

So, I cut down from five or six book clubs (there was one that we only held sporadically) to just firmly two. One is fiction that feels very open to all conversation (and suggestions and picks are welcomed with open arms) and the other is queer, with subjects and genres galore.

Technically there is one more within that store, I just don’t go to it, as the theme just doesn’t click with me (and that’s fine!). I also have an open invitation to book clubs at any of the other locations, as well as one of the Barnes and Noble locations near me (though they have cancelled the YA Book Club, but that’s a conversation for another day).

As for now, i have two book clubs in two weeks in December, reading Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (for this coming Saturday) and The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch (on the following Sunday). I’m slightly behind in my reading, so I’m off to jump in.

Happy reading!

Reading Goals for 2023 – Blogmas 2022

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

I’ll be the first to admit that my reading goal for 2022 was a little… unobtainable, especially once my luck with the job market happened.

It wasn’t the total amount of books that was the problem. No, I’ve done that before and more. It was the fact that I was reading the same type of book over and over again. It just got… tiresome? I guess? You could also say exhausting. Or just… very one note. Basically, reading only one type of book made me not want to read, because if I wasn’t reading a book from my challenge, then I felt like I wasn’t reading the right thing.

For 2023, I’m going to try to broaden my palette, as it were. I still have my “reading challenge,” but I have a few others that will let me read basically anything I want. Let me explain.

Owlcrate’s 2023 Reading Planner Goals

Every year, my favorite book box Owlcrate sends out a reading planner with their November box. This year, the planner included a small list of 14 prompts as a way to encourage people to read something they wouldn’t normally.

For example, one of the prompts is to “read a collection of poetry or short stories.” Another is “an epistolary novel.” There’s also a prompt for “a book set in a library or a bookstore.” Two personal favorites of mine are “a book from a country that you’d love to visit this year” and “a recommendation from a friend with reading tastes different to yours.”

I’ve already come up with a few books that might fit some of these prompts, though I won’t start actually reading until January 1st. But I’m okay with that. Mentally planning is important.

The Nest’s 3 Degrees of Difficulty Annual Reading Challenge

Hilariously, this is also Owlcrate. They just launched The Nest, which is an app to connect with other booklovers in a safe and welcoming space (#notasponser). One of the things I like is that they are hosting their own reading challenge, with three levels. To make it slightly more challenging, each level features 25 prompts.

Level one is pretty simple. It has the normal prompts, such as “YA Historical Fiction,” “A Library Book,” or “A Classic High Fantasy.” Pretty much every prompt is one that can be found on another list someone else. It’s meant to be an easy list to fill.

Level two gets a bit more difficult. There are some more specific prompts, such as “set in the 1920s.” “More than 500 pages” sticks out because most prompt lists don’t have a prompt like that. “Portal Fantasy” is something I’ve never heard of as of writing this post. There’s also a “contemporary duology” and a “super serious sci-fi,” which means I’ll be scouring the internet for those and others.

I’ll admit, Level three is the one I’m not sure I’ll finish. Most of the prompts are ones that I wouldn’t normally pick up, and even if I did, I probably wouldn’t enjoy it. “African Magical Realism” is something I’ve never even thought of (though I am intrigued). “Healthcare Worker POV?” No offense, but I avoided that line of work for a reason, I’m not looking forward to that one. And I’ll be honest, unless I get lucky, I’m probably to have trouble with the “2022 Hugo Nominee” as I’m usually not a fan of their choices… Oh wait, Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir? Okay, that one might be okay.

But Wait! What About Your Reading Challenge?

I’m still going to do it! I’m midway through the Trials of Apollo, which is the last major pentalogy in the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles. I still have the two spinoff trilogies (The Kane Chronicles and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard) as well as the companion books.

I also would love to work my way through The Keeper of the Lost Cities series by Shannon Messenger, which was already in the challenge. Considering the size difference between KotLC and the other complete series in the challenge (The Shadowhunter Chronicles by Cassandra Clare), the former is at least obtainable.

One important things is that this challenge won’t be my main goal. I’d love to complete more than just the CHBC portion (which will get done next year if I have anything to say about it). I’m just going to prioritize reading for the other challenges more than just this. It will probably help with my anxiety as well.

Wrap Up

I’m hoping that having what amounts to nearly 100 prompts, I’ll get a lot of reading done on my offtimes. I do have some grand plans for reading, some ideas I’ve already jotted down, though of course nothing is set in stone just yet. We shall see what 2023 shall bring in the form of reading!

Until next time!

My 2022 Reading Challenge – Update – Blogmas 2022

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

Back in March of 2022, I made a series of bad “bets” on a few different TV shows, basically on what was going to be shown on screen or during the marketing of different episodes. And when I say I made some “bad bets,” I mean I kept on getting it blatantly wrong. Since a few of my (former) friends and I were pseudo-gambling on it, I had to set my own, for the lack of a better term, punishment for getting things wrong.

So I set out to do what I named “Remy’s Reading Challenge.”

The challenge was deceptively simple. I was to read every book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series by Shannon Messenger, every book in the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles series by Rick Riordan, and every book in the Shadowhunter Chronicles series by Cassandra Clare. To save you the math, the grand total is 46 novels, 60 short stories, 1 novella, and 1 online novel.

I set out to do this challenge with a bit of a gusto, as I really did want to read all of these books. It was something that, in February and March, was completely obtainable. And then it wasn’t.

April 1st, I got hired with my job, and cut off from the majority of my family. May 4th, I left the friend group that had been my support for over a year at that point, and in the process lost the “friends” that had helped set these challenges. End of June? I was knee deep in training and had my entire fandom life implode around me, which also almost resulted in the loss of my job. July through Septempber was simply trying to build myself back up, October was a low point, November was a disaster, and December? Well, at least 2023 is right around a corner. And on top of this, medical issues. Just… medical issues.

That’s a very long-winded way of saying that I am nowhere near completing the challenge in any way.

As of today, December 11th, I have read the first ten Camp Half-Blood Chronicles novels and one companion novel (which held two of the short stories, if I remember correctly, have to check that). No, you’re not reading that wrong, that’s it. That’s all. I never touched The Shadowhunter Chronicles or The Keeper of the Lost Cities, even though I did get Book 9, Stellarlune, for my birthday.

With everything going on, I’m honestly surprised I got this far. I really did want to read more of them, but I never was either in the mood or I didn’t have the time when I did want to read. It’s been a challenge all the way. It’s the same reason I don’t really think I’m going to do a reading wrap up this year, because I really haven’t read all that much.

Depression sucks, y’all.

While I’ll be doing a few reading challenges in the new year (hilariously all hosted by Owlcrate in various forms, I’ll talk about those later this month), I also am hoping to get through with at least part of this challenge by the end of 2023. I’m not making any promises.

But for now, I’m going back to The Hidden Oracle, since that’s where I left off and I’m just over halfway through… I will get done with Apollo’s books. One day, anyway.

Until next time.

Let’s Talk Audiobooks – Blogmas 2022

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

I’ll be the first to admit, I used to never listen to audiobooks.

No, seriously. I really really disliked listening to them. So I just avoided them. I wasn’t one of those readers who loudly shouted that they didn’t count as reading or anything, I just didn’t like listening to them so I didn’t touch them.

I always felt that audiobooks were too slow. The narrators were dry and dull. The spoken word never brought images to my mind the way traditional reading did. I much preferred to read an actual print book, or at least a book on whatever eReader I had at the time.

Well, this all changed this year. When I decided to read through all of the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles, I knew I was in for it. That’s fifteen books, not counting the two spinoffs series and the tie in series. Something quickly had to give because it was taking far too long to read through everything. I just didn’t have the time to read 20-something books this year, not with working and other commitments.

On a whim, I logged onto my library’s eLibrary app and discovered that the entire Camp Half-Blood Chronicles were available in audiobook form. I made the decision to just go ahead and give it a try one day on my way to work. If I didn’t like it, I could go back to my music.

I ended up really enjoying it!

One of the things I really liked was that I could speed up the narrator. If I felt like a scene was going beyond too slow, I can slightly increase the reading speed and I’d cut through the time. I also liked that, at least in the case of these books, the narrator really got into it. Several times I caught when the narrator had to pause. It’s pretty interesting.

It’s been my saving grace for every Monday morning and afternoon drive to and from Los Angeles. I can listen to a good book (and currently make snarky responses to everything Apollo say).

To me, it ended up being worth it. Your mileage may very, of course. But or me, it worked perfectly.

Until next time! (When I’m actually awake from my nap)

My 2022 Reading Challenge

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

So, I don’t always make the best guesses at stuff. I’ll be the first to admit that. And honestly, I really should stop making statements that start with “I bet…”

Anyway, for the past several weeks, some online friends and I have been making joking gambles on different things regarding 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lone Star. Mostly they were regarding different things we would see in episodes, or marketing decisions. And I… I kept getting them wrong.

I won’t say what I did get wrong, but it happened three times in quick succession. And since I was so positive and sure about what I was betting on, the consequences would be large. And since we set our own “punishments”, it was something that I knew I could do, but wow was I embarrassed to admit it.

My challenge is to read every book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series by Shannon Messenger, every book in the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles series by Rick Riorden, and every book in the Shadowhunter Chronicles series by Cassandra Clare.

At this point, just saying that makes me wince, because I know what’s coming. That’s a lot of books. And that’s not everything. Because I was a glutton of punishment, and I got called out on it, I basically have to read everything. Novels and short stories. So, more than I thought originally.

The Challenge:

The Camp Half Blood Chronicles series is comprised of fifteen main novels, five in each of the following series: Percy Jackson & the Olympians, The Heroes of Olympus, and The Trials of Apollo. There are also a series of short stories released in a few different books or collections (for a total of 17, if I did my math correctly). And because my friends are pretty evil, I also have to include the Kane Chronicles trilogy (as well as the three crossover short stories, already counted) and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard trilogy and short stories (9 total short stories).

If you’re keeping track, that’s 21 novels and 26 short stories. The only really good thing is that this series is already complete, so this number isn’t subject to change. I hope.

Then there’s the easiest series to count. The Keeper of the Lost Cities series currently has nine novels with one on the way and four short stories. The only trouble is that three of the four short stories are a part of exclusive releases of her books, so I may have to do a search over at Barnes and Noble when I get to it.

Count check: 30 novels, 30 short stories. What a nice, even number.

And finally, we have the Shadowhunter Chronicles. This is a lot. There are sixteen novels with another on the way, 30 short stories, a serialized novel (available online) and a novella. It’s technically longer than anything else I have to read, due to the fact that the books are all at least 450 pages long, with a few coming in at about 600. It’s a lot. Also, the online novel is still updating through August.

Total count: 46 novels, 60 short stories, 1 novella, and 1 online novel.

The Timeline:

Technically, all three have their own rend requirements. For the Camp Half Blood Chronicles, I have until the end of 2022. For the Keeper of the Lost Cities series, the next book, Stellarlune, is due to release on November 8, 2022, which means I must be done with the series by then. For the Shadowhunter Chronicles, the final book of “The Last Hours” trilogy, Chain of Thorns, is scheduled to be released on November 1, 2022. I must be caught up by this point.

The Plan:

I’m doing this in stages. So I’m a bit of a mood reader, at least that’s how I’ve grown to be in the last several years. It’s hard to get myself to read something that I’m just not in the mood for. So my plan is actually to see where my mood takes me. Right now, I’m knee deep into the Percy Jackson series, with the goal to be done with the first five books by the end of March (because I have a few other things going on). From there, I really want to get started with the first “Mortal Instruments” trilogy.

Is this sustainable? Jury’s out. I’m not going to push myself to read something that I’m just not into right now. The thing is, all of the books are fantasy. There are times that I will want to read something that is more contemporary. I’m totally willing to take a few days to read something else, like American Royalty  by Katherine McGee or Your Life Has Been Delayed by Michelle I. Mason, two books firmly on my to-read list.

Also, I know for a fact that my time will be cut short as soon as my job search comes to an end (I have like 50 applications out right now, and no that’s not a joke). 

How I Am Reading Everything:

I actually own a vast majority of the books I need to read, barring some of the short stories. I have all but one of the Shadowhunter Chronicles, most of the Keeper of the Lost Cities series, and about half of the Camp Half Blood Chronicles. Most of the books are available at my local library, or I can access them through the library’s ebook catalogs (cloudLibrary and Hoopla).

I don’t have a firm preference on how I will read everything, as I’m fine with both physical and ebook media.

How Far Am I Already?

Well… Behind. So, I got nailed with this around February 21st, after my last guess was proven wrong. And I even announced it on Tiktok around the same time. And as of the writing of this post, I’ve read one and a half books. To be fair, I did start to read City of Bones, but my old copy literally tried to fall apart in my hand, and my library no longer has the ebook, so…

I will be reviewing each book as I go (though the review for the first book won’t go up until Thursday or Saturday, since I’m still playing catchup with everything I was behind posting). Once I am caught up, unless there is something else pressing to be posted, I will have the review up by the next day at noon.

I am also planning on keeping track by making a shelf on GoodReads, though that will be after I’ve read a good amount of books. I’m also tempted to keep a running list of what I have read and what’s coming on this blog as a separate page, but that isn’t set in stone yet. So, no promises on that.

So, that’s my reading life for 2022. And you know the hilarious thing? If I read everything? I should just make my 2022 reading goal of 52 books. I think that’s kinda funny.

Until next time!

Remember Reading? I Sure Don’t.

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

Being in a reading slump is a problem.

I didn’t realize it until this evening, when a friend from my B&N YA Book Club texted me, asking if I had sat down and read Blood and Honey, the sequel to Serpent and Dove by Shelby Mahurin. We’d talked about it over a month ago, and I’d started the book, only to stop about fifty pages in.

And then I looked on my shelves. On my “Read these next” shelf, which is right next to my bed, I have ten books. Eight of which I haven’t touched. Two of which I DNF’ed (Did Not Finish) with extreme prejudice.

It hit me that I haven’t been looking forward to reading. Sure, I’ve been collecting books, thanks to Owlcrate and the book club, and a couple books that I’ve had on my wishlist. But I haven’t been reading.

I even said I was going to do that readathon. I never picked up a book. They’re sitting next to me, but I never cracked one open. Never started.

It’s unheard of for me.

The last time I was in this much of a reading slump, it was the six months after I graduated from University. I was an English/Creative Writing major, and I’d had to read and analyze so many novels that I didn’t like or care about for classes, and I was burnt out. I didn’t pick up another book until around my birthday that year, which was six months after graduation.

And now I feel like I’m in the same boat. Ever since the pandemic happened, I’ve been in a semi-self-imposed quarantine. Basically, what I mean is that I go to the grocery store or Target twice a month. The rest of the time, I’m here at home, keeping safe. I still don’t have a full time job, but this way I’m not potentially bringing something home that could cause harm to my family. And I know that is taking a toll on my mental health. I’ve been sleeping more, but I also can’t go to sleep at a normal time. I’m writing, but a lot of the motivation is gone. Video games are an outlet, but I’m having some trouble focusing.

And then there’s the reading. I guess I just got burned out again. I have so many books that I want to read, but I just can’t get the motivation. And when I do try, I find something that I dislike and I set it aside quickly.

Let’s take The Falling in Love Montage for example. This was a book that I picked up the summer of last year. I’ve been wanting to read it. I get maybe five chapter in and detested the writing, the name choices, the main character and more. Now I can’t look at it without being annoyed.

There are actually about four or five books that I have started, now that I think about it. All of which are on my DNF list. And honestly, that’s kind of a problem.

I know right now I’m not in the right mindset to be reading, which, yes, is a thing. I’ve made a list of those books I flat out DNF’ed, and hopefully in the back half of the year, when things are getting back to normal, I can sit down and blast through them.

Until then, I have graphic novels. I have fanfic. And honestly, I have The Old Guard: Tales Through Time, which is coming out towards the end of this month, and I’ve preordered all but one of the covers. Yes, that’s four of five. No, I don’t have a problem, my Discord friends, I have an… Okay, it’s a completionist addiction. Bite me. I am still gonna go on eBay and get that final issue. (Maybe. It’s like $80 right now. Damn it.)

I’m okay with this, honestly. I’ll get back at it soon. It’s just gonna take a little more time.

Until next time!

Another Readathon? OwlCrate-A-Thon!

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

Yes, I’m doing another readathon. Yes, I’m probably going to regret it.

But I want to, so sue me.

Starting today and running through March 28th, OwlCrate is hosting their annual readathon. Usually it would be a major deal over on their Facebook group, but since they nuked that a couple months ago… Instragram is having fun with it anyway.

The goal of OwlCrate-A-Thon is to read books (or sequels) that have been released by OwlCrate and OwlCrate Jr that you haven’t read yet. Works for me, since I’m horribly behind. The cool thing is you don’t have to be a subscriber to participate. You just have to read books from OwlCrate’s extensive list, now into its sixth year. Which I still cant believe, because that makes this month my five year anniversary with supporting OwlCrate, which blows my mind.

There are three challenges during next two weeks, but you don’t have to do them if you don’t want to. They’re just there as a guide. Challenge one is to read the OwlCrate book that you’ve had on your TBR the longest. Challenge two is to read two books over the course of the readathon. And challenge three is to get a bingo on the bingo board they created, which I’ve included below.

No photo description available.

Apparently it’s actually possible to complete the bingo with only one or two books, but I’m not entirely sure about that. But that is just my opinion. I know there are many people who are going to be trying to blackout the board.

Of the three challenges, I’m going to focus on the second and third ones. The book that’s been on my TBR the longest just doesn’t interest me, and I’ve tried reading it twice (once when it arrived with OwlCrate, the second when it came with Uppercase Books, a defunct book box I supported for like six months). Reading two books shouldn’t be too bad… provided that I make the time to do so. I’m trying to rework my streaming/writing schedule, so here’s hoping.

Unlike with the Reading Rush from last summer, I’m not going to make a firm list of books I want to read. I’ve realized that doing that doesn’t encourage me to read, it just sits in my mind when I’m doing other things, and stresses me the heck out. Instead, I have the list of books that are OwlCrate books, along with their sequels/prequels. It’s a decent sized list, so I shouldn’t have too much trouble finding some things to read (*knock on all the wood*).

I’ll keep you all updated on how I do, especially when I review any book that comes from this challenge. It looks like it’ll be fun, so I’m pretty excited. Happy reading!

Until next time!

Reading Goals for 2021

~ Liz Harrison ~ Leave a comment

I usually never set hard and fast reading goals for myself. It’s something that I had always hated when I was in school. We would always have to read a certain type of book, usually a classic or three, and that would be the focus of the year. Forget loving fantasy or sci-fi, they need not apply. Even in college, when I was on the English/Creative Writing track, we were heavily encouraged to only read what was assigned to us, and if we had any free time, to focus on literary fiction. Genre fiction need not apply.

Because of that, and being burned by Accelerated Reader so many times, I developed some really bad reading habits. I blast through books without taking the time to really focus on characters or anything besides the main plot. If I do slow down, I find myself bored. Another thing is, if I stop reading at any point, for more than a few hours (like, I went to bed or something), getting back into a book is an outright nightmare. I could only do that with rereads, and only certain ones at that.

For the past several years, I’ve signed up for the Goodreads Reading Challenge. My bad habits came out in a big way because of this. I’d read a bunch during the beginning of the year, taper off during summer, and blast through a lot of manga or graphic novels by November and December. Or I’d just lie. Because honesty doesn’t exist when a non-competing reading challenge is at stake. (That was sarcastic, I swear.)

This year, I decided to try to change things up a little bit.

I cut my Goodreads Reading Goal to almost in half. Instead of 100 books, I’m aiming for 52, which is amount of weeks in a year. So, if I miss a week or two (which I did at the beginning of the year), I can make it up pretty quickly. This has already lifted a weight off my shoulder, which is something that I was doing to myself.

Another goal for me is to review everything I read. I have this terrible habit of not talking about what I read, or just a one line little sentence. I miss discussions (and book club meetings). To compensate for that, I’m going to try to give at least a one hundred word review for what I read. Will I do it every time? Probably not. I’m totally gonna miss a book at least twice this year. I also want to give honest ranking. Not just giving everything that I’m okay with a 4-star. I want to be honest. I’ll go into that in more detail in another post.

A goal that came to mind when I decided to write this post is to not hold myself to finish a book. By that, I mean that if I’m truly not enjoying a book, I can set it down to return to it later or DNF it altogether. I usually hate doing this. I have so many books with sticky note bookmarks in them. And I just don’t like DNF’ing books. But I am giving myself permission to do that this year. I actually already did this, when I put down Rebel Rose, which was the first book I started reading in 2021. It just didn’t click with me, at least right now. With the world the way it is, I’m not going to force myself to do something that I just can’t get my heart into.

There is a goal, or rather two goals, that I would like to complete, though I’m not stressing about it. One is to read all the Owlcrate releases for 2021. I’m so behind in reading my Owlcrate books, it’s not even funny. They’re all sitting on my unorganized bookshelves, taunting me. I would really love to finish at least the next twelve. But I’m still going to follow my previous goal, so if it’s not clicking with me, I can set it down. (I did that with Everland in May 2016.)

I’d also like to catch up with the Barnes and Noble YA Book Club. I’m several books behind, even though I was so excited for so many books. I still am hoping for in person book club meetings to resume in summer/fall 2021, so I want to be caught up. That’s about a year’s worth of monthly releases, excluding December (that month was skipped).

The only other goal I have is to not force myself to read something because of #reasons. By that, I mean I want to read books as I get to them, not because it’s a certain month or because of some arbitrary reason. I’m not planning on taking part in any readathons, unless they are just for myself, for the same reason. By setting sometimes unrealistic goals for myself, I find myself beyond stressed out and just not happy with the results.

I do have a small list of books I want to get to this year, but as I said, no pressure. They include:

  • The Percy Jackson series (all books) by Rick Riordan. My cousin is slowly working his way through the series, and I want to be there for him as he finishes each part. This is a personal goal of mine, not something to speed to.
  • Hold Still by Nina LaCour (among other books by her). I loved her book We Are Okay, which actually destroyed me. I would love to read more from her.
  • Sarah Dessen. Look I just want to reread several of my favorite novels by her, including Lock and Key.
  • Manga: I want to finish Bloom into You and Our Wonderful Days, two absolutely beautiful yuri manga that caught my eye around last summer. I haven’t yet finished both of them (three left for Bloom, just the final volume for Wonderful Days), and I really want to see the conclusions. But that’s about it on manga, considering the amount I read last year.
  • The Sword Art Online light novels. I would love to reread Progressive, in light of the announcement of Sword Art Online the Movie – Progressive – Aria of a Starless Night. Progressive is a retelling of the beginning of the light novel series, with much more depth. There are six thus far, and I think it would be good to at least have that knowledge. I also want to read Moon Cradle and Unital Ring, both continuations of the original series, post Alicization. [And it is here, I realize, that I am a massive anime nerd and not many people would understand why I care about all this. But I do so shush. And yes, that all made sense to me.]

There are, of course, many books that I haven’t referenced here that I’m aiming to read this year. More specifically, Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson (the highly anticipated sequel to last year’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, finally releasing in the states almost four months after its UK release). Also, there is I Think I Love You by Auriane Desombre, which has been on my must read list since it was announced in early 2020, only to be delayed twice thanks to the pandemic (first to September 2020, now March 2021). And there is the book that might be a Peter Pan-retelling, though no one is quite sure. Lost in the Never Woods is by Aiden Thomas, coming off of his debut Cemetery Boys, which I’ll be reading hopefully this year (book club book).

And there are more. My shelves are lined with books I just haven’t gotten to yet, or ones that I want to return to. So here’s to that!

Until next time!