What I’ve been up to in October 🎃 A lot of Readathons & Halloween

Hello fellow bookworms 🎃 You guessed it … HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 👻👻👻 By the time you’re reading this I will already be deep into the Halloween mood and hopefully getting out of my classes, so I can full on get SPOOKY! Overall, October was my last month of free time and I already started my new semester on the 22nd, so things will get a bit more busy here. Especially as tomorrow NaNo begins and I plan to outline the sequel to my WIP Intoxicated from last year!

Therefore here’s the important announcement

I’ll probably be going on a semi-hiatus in November. Like I said, I will be focusing on NaNo a lot (because I’ve been neglecting my writing a lot this fall and really need to make it a priority again) and it will probably take up a lot of time, especially as I have a lot of classes this semester. I will still be here, just a little bit slower with comments and blog hopping.

I also just wanted to say that I will get to all the comments that I haven’t answered (and there are sadly a lot) and blog hop as much as I can. The thing is that (and I’ll mention that again under life happening) university has started and things have not been great. The week before the semester started I didn’t get to answering comments and afterwards I a) had no internet in my new flat and b) was very stressed and tired. To be honest I felt kind of guilty for still having posts scheduled (I had them written way in advance), but not being able to answer the comments on my old posts. I have not forgotten you all and I’m very grateful for all the comments I get, things just have been a bit difficult 😦 Please be patient with me for a little whole longer 💗

What I read in October 🎃

Reading wise October hasn’t been bad, I was able to read 17 books, even more than last month. I have no idea how that happened, but I’ll probably not read as much in the future, now that I have stared university again. I did also join a lot of Readathons this month, so maybe that has boosted my reading! Overall, I read a lot of great books and now my Scribd free trial has come to an end, so I’ll be back to borrowing a lot of books from my local library (just renewed my card again, books here I come!) and I’m so excited, because they bought a few new English ones, yees!!!! By the time you’re reading this I will hopefully already have borrowed a lot of books 😀

Magical Readathon: Charms Extra Credit 💗

   

Here you can see all the prompts I completed

Here’s my Twitter Thread for updates and the picture prompts!

✨#CharmsExtraCredit UPDATE THREAD ✨

Here's my TBR ♥ https://t.co/luuAJXJ7qg

— Caro 💜 (@bookcheshirecat) October 8, 2018

If you’ve seen my TBR you know that I participated in the Magical Readathon’s Extra Credit for Charms in the beginning of October! I was on vacation for the most part of October 8th to 14th, but I did manage to read 3 books! I actually ended up reading a book that I didn’t have on my TBR (Vicious) and ended up not quite finishing Want, a book on my TBR. I got about 60 pages into it, but as I didn’t feel like reading a much after coming home from my vacation (post-vacation slump maybe?), I only finished the book the following week. Even though I couldn’t participate as much as I wanted, I had a great time and I pray for another event before the OWL’s start in April, because I adore these Readathons!

   

1. Vicious (V.E. Schwab) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐

2. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (Taylor Jenkins Reid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐

3. Giant Days Vol 1 (Allison, Treiman, Cogar) ⭐️⭐️.5

4. Want (Cindy Pon) ⭐️⭐️.5

Dewey’s 24 Hr Readathon 📖

 

5. Finding Felicity (Stacey Kade) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

6. Are We All Lemmings and Snowflakes? (Holly Bourne) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Sbooktober

  

7. A Monster Calls (Patrick Ness) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Reread)

8. Thunderhead (Neal Shusterman) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

9. City of Ghosts (Victoria Schwab) ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Smash Your TBR

 

10. From Twinkle, with Love (Sandhya Menon) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

11. The Alchemists of Loom (Sandhya Menon) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

More Books!

  

   

12. Six of Crows (Leigh Bardugo) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

13. Crooked Kingdom (Leigh Bardugo) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

14. Fangirl (Rainbow Rowell) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Reread)

15. The Guernsey Literary and Potatoe Peel Pie Society (Shaffer, Barrows) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

16. Dear Martin (Nic Stone) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

17. We are Okay (Nina LaCour) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Favorite Books 💕

   

What I posted in October 🎃

     

In the Bookish Community

For this section of my wrapup I’m linking up with the Favorite Blog Posts of the Month Meme that has been created by Kristin @ kristinkravesbooks to showcase our favorite blogs of the month!

• 5 Types of Readers & The how and why of Annotating (Swetlana @ thecaffeinatedbookwormlife)
• Shattering Stigmas 2018 & Are you a blogging cliche? (Marie @ drizzleandhurricanebooks)
• Halloween Shows I’m dying to watch (Sophie @ blameitonchocolate)
• Reading around the World: Paris & Plotting and Planning a WIP (Beth @ readingeverynight)
• Bookish Chats with Lily (Lily @ sprinklesofdreams)
• My Tentative Fall TBR (Marta @ thecursedbooks)
• Review: Heartless by Marissa Meyer & When you read a book at the perfect time (Zoie @ whiskedawaybywords)
• Books for the wistful season & The Worrier’s Guide to the end of the world (Evelina @ avalinahsbooks)
• 8 tips for writing a novel for busy people/ (Sophie @ Sophiexli)
• Favorite Villains &Halloween Reads for Scaredy Cats (Aurora @ auroralibrialis)
• The Dark Side of Scribd & Weekend Aesthetic: Strange the Dreamer (Pauliina @ bookaholicdreamer)
• Mental Health Day 2018 (Kathy @ booksandmunches)
• Review: Truthwitch by Susan Dennard ♥ (Dani @ perspectiveofawriter)
• How to make your post pretty (Marija @ insidemylibrarymind)
• Mental Illness Rep in Fantasy (Kat @ novelswaffles)
• Contemporary witches are back on TV (Kat @ lifeandotherdisasters)
• Why I love scary reads (Aimee @ aimeealways)
• Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon (Mel @ thebookmo)

Other Life Stuff in October 🎃

University starting again. It has been a week and a half by now and things have quickly gone a downward spiral. This has never happened so fast, but this semester is a bit different. I just moved into my new flat and there are a lot of problems: it’s a very loud environment, so I could hardly sleep (anxiety didn’t help with that) and there’s some mold and other things the landlord didn’t tell me about, that I had to talk to him about (and he was really snappy at first, so yeah). Adjusting to a new flat and very different timetable (none of the people I’,m friendly with are taking any of the classes I took) and then having these problems drained me real fast. My flat is always my safe place (for recharging after a long uni day), but given the circumstances I have felt incredibly uncomfortable and lonely there, making me completely feel at unease and generally anxious about everything. I hope things get better, but as of right now I’m just very tired. It doesn’t help that I have a lot of statistics classes that require a lot of work and just don’t excite me at all. I already did statistics for Psychology and now I have to do it again for Sociology and I have no motivation. I try to at least find something enjoyable in all my classes, but I would love to set my 5 statistic classes on fire, beau I’m so sick and tired of having to do this again, just with even more content.

Vacation to Hamburg! I was finally visiting my favorite German city again! I really needed the short vacation before me next semester started to wind down and spend some time with my mum and grandmother, the visit was a present for the latter. If you ever have the chance to go to Germany, make sure to visit Hamburg, as it’s such a beautiful city!! I have been there almost 8?? times now and still find new things to enjoy. This time we even went to a CAT CAFE and my heart was full, because I LOVE CATS SO MUCH!!! I was never allowed a cat, so this visit filled the void in my heart with cuddles and stroking cats! I also bought a few books, which is always very exciting! Sadly, the time fly by so fast and now the vacation is already over

Fun Fact: Last year I visited Hamburg around the same time and got inspired to pick up my heart’s WIP again and polish it. So we’ve got the 1 year anniversary of the revival of my WIP!! (This is important, as I have been harboring this story for about 6 years now) In that  1 years I managed to write my WIP, learn a lo about writing craft and plan to write my sequel, all in all good progress! My story also starts out in Hamburg, so that’s fitting and I think book 3 will take place entirely here, but I’m not that far ahead 😄

I participated in a lot of Readathons. You can see that in my Wrapup above, but I was in a Readathon Fever this month and participated in 4 Readathons! I had a fantastic time during each of them, because Readathons are just my thing and never fail to boost my reading for the month. I also couldn’t resist the spooky themed Readathons, because I love all things spooky (despite being easily scared). I literally Readathoned my way through the last two weeks of October, that’s how exited I was for all the Readathons 😂 To wrap it up, I participated in the following Readthons:

• Charm Extra Credit ✨ October 8th – 14th
• Dewey’s 24 Hr Readathon 📖  October 20th-21st
• Sbooktober Readathon 🎃October 22nd – 27th
• Smash your TBR 📖 October 24th-28th
• Series SCAREdown 🎃October 26th – November 4th

Looking Ahead: November

  

1. The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue (Mackenzie Lee)
2. Hearts Unbroken (Cynthia Leitich Smith)
3. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (J.K. Rowling)

I have no idea how much I will read this month, given that I have started my semester two weeks ago and will be focusing on my writing this month, as it’s NaNoWriMo! However, I have 3 books that I absolutely want to get to this month! With my Scribd free  trail at an end and being close to my library again, I will also be using the library a lot more again. However, first I want to finally get to The Gentleman’s Guide, because it has been on my TBR for way too long … almost a year which is not something I want to keep doing. I was kind of waiting for the right ‘moment’ but that just never really happened, so I’ll read the book now. I can definitely use a funny story!

Then I have an October Arc that I didn’t get to (and I really should) and will try to read and review now! I have another October Arc, but I don’t know if I will get to it. I feel like ever since Netgalley started shutting out international reviews, I ave been getting less and less excited about Arcs and the few that I get seem to be more like a chore if I’m being honest 😕 Lastly, I want to reread Harry Potter, as I have never reread the books entirely. I did reread books 1 and 2 in English, and book 3 several times in German, but I haven’t read the majority of the books in English, so I really want to do that now!

Goals

• Outline WIP Contaminated for NaNo!!!
• Don’t get stressed out by university again
• Do lots of fun fall activities

What was your favorite book this month? Has anything exciting happened in your life? 🎃