What I’ve been up to in January ⛄ The Thesis Writing begins & Things to be grateful for

Hello fellow bookworms ⛄ I cannot believe that the first month of the year is already over, time flies by so fast – I feel like I often say that but it happened a lot more this month than I was used to 😱 Maybe that’s because I quickly settled into the new routine of working on my thesis while balancing the rest of life. I’m currently trying not to think about how I’ll be handing in my thesis in two months and then … graduating, though I’ll have to pass my thesis first 😅 Sadly, there was no snow in January to bring me joy (climate change is the worst 😞), but I’m still thriving in winter, even with the Post-Christmas blues settling in. I hope you all had a great start to the new year! Let’s work on those goals and resolutions  ❤

How I feel about snow

🔄 = Reread 💌 = Library Books 🌈 = Here and Queerathon

🐯 = #YARC2020 ⭐ = #StartOnYourShelfathon  ⌛ = Digital Arc

In January I ended up reading 13 books, which I consider to be pretty good, given that I started writing my thesis. I think reading a lot in the evenings when I was finished with doing my work (I don’t watch that many shows, an episode with my friend per day and sometimes I’ll watch an episode of another show) helped keep up my reading habit for sure 📚 I also picked up some shorter books and read quite a bunch of Arcs as I wanted to get on track with reviewing them, as they all release within the next three months. Apart from that I mainly read books from my library (I don’t think I’ll read many books from my physical TBR in the next few months), though I tried to limit what I check out, as I knew I wouldn’t have the time to read all the books on top of the Arcs 😅 I didn’t find a new 5-star book asap, but overall I had a good reading month with a lot of books that I enjoyed reading 🥰

Edit: At the very end of the month (after prewriting this wrapup) I found my first favorite of the year!  🎉🎉🎉 I completely fell in love with Jackaby so the reading year is starting off strong 🥰

Every month I’m planning on recapping my progress with my own reading challenge, to hold myself accountable for my goals and show what books I have read and how I like them. In the month of January, I read 6 books that were out of my comfort zone, something I consider a great start to the challenge, especially as I liked most of them! I read 4 (!) nonfiction books, one of them in the adult genre and two YA mystery books. I’m definitely grateful for my library for allowing me to check out books out of my comfort zone without having to pay for them, it’s honestly so helpful for branching out 😊 With Jackaby becoming the first 5-star book of the year (and having read 5 books in total), I’ve also earned two badges 💗

1. Jackaby (William Ritter) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐ 💌 

2. Reasons to Stay Alive (Matt Haig) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💌 

3. Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls (Elena Favilli, Francesca Cavallo) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 💌

4. Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls 2 (Elena Favilli, Francesca Cavallo) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 💌

5. Queer Heroes (Arabelle Sicardi, Sarah Tanat-Jones) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⌛ 🌈

6. We are all Greta (Valentina Giannella, Manuela Marazzi) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⌛

7. We Were Liars (E. Lockhart) ⭐️⭐⭐💌

I also wanted to say a big Thank You for everyone who signed up for my challenge so far, it means the world to me that you all are joining me and supporting my challenge! 💗 It’s so much fun to be doing this together and hopefully, we’ll all find some great new books outside of our comfort zone to enjoy! 😊 Also thank you, Marie, for giving my challenge a shoutout! 🥰 There’s still some time to sign up for the challenge if you want to though, signups will stay open until the end of the year 😉

Thank you for signing up everyone 😭💗

• Out of your Comfort Zone Signup (Anastasia @ anahasapen)
• 2020 reading challenges (Mel @ cottoncandybookwitch)
• I’m Joining the Out of your Comfort Zone Reading Challenge 2020 (Rae @ Rae’s Reads and Reviews)
• Plans for 2020, Reading Challenges, and We Have a New Co-Blogger! (Sabrina @ wordyandwhimsical)
• Out of Your Comfort Zone 2020 Reading Challenge | announcement and potential TBR (Sophie @ meandink)
• Out of your Comfort Zone Signup (Sandra @ eiIishftmendes)
• Out of your Comfort Zone Signup (Tammi @ tammi_doran)

 

8. Dry (Neal & Jarrod Shusterman) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 💌

9. Belle Révolte (Linsey Miller) ⭐️⭐⭐⭐ ⌛ 🌈

10. Palast aus Glas (Cornelia Funke) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 💌

11. Tweet Cute (Emma Lord) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⌛

12. We are the Ants (Emma Lord) ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🌈

13. If You Only Knew (Prerna Pickett) ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⌛ 🐯

Average Rating ⭐ 3.8

Favorite Book 💕

⛄ What I’ve been up to in December 🎄 Bachelor Thesis Prep & Christmas ⛄ 2020 Reading Challenges I’m joining 📚

⛄ My Out of Your Comfort Zone Challenge TBR 💗 ⛄ Blog Tour: Tweet Cute by Emma Lord 💗 Twitter Wars & Romance

⛄ Most Anticipated Releases of 2020 (January-June) 📖 ⛄ I’m joining the Pondathon 🌷 #TeamXiaolong

⛄ Arc Reviews: Queer Heroes & We’re All Greta 🌈🌳 Two Nonfiction books ⛄ Arc Review: Belle Révolte by Linsey Miller ✨ Magic and rebellion

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!

• 2020 New Young Adult Books We Need Before We Slightly Scream!!! [Ft. January, February and March Releases (Cait @ paperfury)
• Top 5 Best Books I Read in 2019 // Last Year’s Saving Graces & WordPress Tips & Tricks Part TWO // ft. Making Post Titles Bold, Centering Multiple Images & more (Caitlin @ caitlinalthea)
• Time to fight for the Pond! || #Pondathon is here (Camilla @ readerintheattic)
• Pondathon: Prologue – Something’s Wrong… [Readathon Information], Pondathon: Prologue – It’s Time to Protect and Fight [Readathon Schedule], Pondathon: Prologue – We Need You and Your Magic; Choose a Team! [Readathon Team Information] & Pondathon: Prologue – Join Us In Battle and Armour Up! [Sign-Up & Create Your Character] (CW @ thequietpond)
• How to Find Your Book Blogger Flow and Enjoy Blogging Again (Dani @ perspectiveofawriter)
• My Top 10 Continued TV Shows of 2019 & What I’ve Been (Binge-)Watching #25 & What I’ve Been (Binge-)Watching #26 (Kat @ lifeandotherdisasters
• A Fiction Feast: The 5 Best Books I Read in 2019 (Kat @ novelsandwaffles)
• Year of the Asian Reading Challenge 2020 // January’s Book Recommendations ft. LOVE (Lily @ sprinklesofdreams)
• Anything But Books Tag (Louise @ exploringbystarlight)
• My 2020 Goals // Finding My Creative Joy Again (Madeline @ happywhenwriting)
• Backlist recommendations: books from 2000-2009 & Why I don’t buy books from Amazon (Margaret @ weirdzeal)
• My reading, blogging & writing resolutions for 2020 & 14 young adult book recommendations for this winter & 21 books to read for #YARC2020 & Participating in my first readathon – #Pondathon Signup Post and TBR (Marie @ drizzleandhurricanebooks)
• Here & Queerathon: January releases & liked // try – The Gravity of Us (Mel @ cottoncandybookwitch)
• My New Hobby! (Mel @ thebookmo)
• Original End of The Year Book Tag: Fire Emblem Three Houses edition; reviewing my year in reading through a video game I love & #Pondathon TBR and meet Amélie, my Pondathon character 💛🌻 (Noémi @ tempestofbooks)
• Top 10 of 2019: Best Books of 2019 (Pauliina @ bookaholicdreamer)
• 2019: A ‘Stat’ely Review Ft. Captain Ray Holt (Sophie @ meandink)
• 2019 Writing Achievements & Lessons Learned (Sophie @ sophiexli)
• It’s Time for That Post: Did I Read All My Anticipated Reads of 2019? (Taasia @ libraepaintspages)
• #Pondathon Sign-Up Post // Joining My First Readathon (Tiffany @ readbytiffany)
• Plans for 2020, Reading Challenges, and We Have a New Co-Blogger! (Veronika, Ruzi & Sabrina @ wordyandwhimsical)
• Farewell, 2019! // My favorite things from last year, and goals for the future! & I’m joining the Pondathon! // #Pondathon sign up and TBR (Xandra @ starryskybooks)

The Bachelor Thesis writing began. Officially turning in my application for the Bachelor Thesis had me feeling very unreal, as I couldn’t believe I was already at the end of my Bachelor studies, it truly felt like not a lot of time had passed 😱 Not going to lie, I was nervous about diving deep into the work, as there was so much to do. I did a study on recovery and leisure after work (as I have to do my own study since I’m writing the thesis in psychology) that included a week of daily questionnaires so I was seeking out participants that would be okay with that amount of involvement. It mostly worked out and I was busy with promotion, making sure all technicalities were working, organizing the prizes for later on and doing a lot of other things as well. Then there was the actual thesis writing which was tough at first, as I struggle with procrastination when it comes to scientific writing due to the fear of my draft not being perfect, but I managed to pull through and work. (I highly recommend these study beats playlists) Still, I sometimes feel like I should be working more, even though I’ve ticked off everything on my plan/to-do list … it’s this unhealthy belief that my thesis will only be successful if I’ve overworked myself. So I’m trying to quit that kind of thinking.

But there were also things to be grateful for. Uni Stress aside, the beginning of the new year and the very first month of 2020 also brought a lot of positive things to enjoy and balance out the strain of intense thesis writing. That’s why I wanted to include a short list of things that made me happy in January!

• The New 2020 Goodreads Reading Challenge this year in a deep forest green (my prediction was right after all) 💚
• The Start of Pondathon, an amazing story-driven Readathon with Teams and sidequests by CW @ thequietpond 🥰
• Officially starting my own reading challenge (the Out of Comfort Zone Reading Challenge) and liking a lot of out of comfort zone reads + seeing lovely people signing up to join me 💗
• Playing on my Nintendo again, as a kind of stress relief. I played through all of Echoes of Times (a game of the Final Fantasy spinoff Crystal Chronicles), a game I adored way back and that got me completely obsessed! I’m glad I’m playing more video games again, as I LOVE them so much 💕
• Watching Netflix as a reward for writing my thesis 🥰 {January Watches with my friend Sandra: Raising Dion (S1), Spinning Out (S1) and Sex Education (S2)}
• Going to Yoga again (I missed it, as there was a break over Christmas) and visiting some great talks about Master study opportunities for my course that made me a bit more informed about my future ⌛

I reached 500 followers here 😱 AHHH! Thank you so much, it’s honestly so surreal that so many people like my content. It truly means the world to me and I’m always so grateful to be getting so many kind comments and support from all of you 😭💗 Not to be super sappy but I love you guys!!! 🥺💕

*sending all the hearts to you* 💗💕❤❣🥰

February will be another intense month. My thesis writing continues (my deadline is March 25th) and I have no idea if I need a semi-hiatus in February, as so far I’m somewhat balancing everything in my life. Though I’ve noticed that it gets harder to keep up with answering comments and blog-hopping, so I might be a bit slower with that until my thesis is done. Apart from that, nothing much is planned. February will be focused on the Data Analysis of my study (highkey nervous, as my study, demands an analysis method we didn’t learn in my statistics class) and it’ll be weird still being at university when everyone else will get their semester break mid-February.

Reading-wise I hope February will give me my first 5-star read of the year, as that’s always a nice ‘first’ of the new year 🥰 I’ll also be reading as much as I can for the #pondathon as I love the story-driven Readathon so much and it’ll hopefully bring me a lot of joy even when things get stressful 💛 Like in January, I’ll be aiming to read books primarily from the library as my time in the city grows short and I want to make the most of my library access. I’m hoping to get to my high priority library books first and also read some eArcs that I gladly got via Netgalley and hope to read in time to write my review 📚

February TBR

• Of Curses and Kisses (Sandhya Menon) ⌛ 🐯
• The Electric Heir (Victoria Lee) ⌛ 🌈
• Becoming (Michelle Obama) 💌💗

What were you up to in January? Did you have a good start in the new year? What was your favorite book this month? ⛄