What I’ve been up to in April 🌻 My Birthday, OWL’s and Camp NaNo

Hello fellow bookworms 🌻 While March seemed to last forever, April moved along much faster, at least for me! At least a few more things were happening, like my birthday, Camp NaNo and the OWLs Readathon, to keep me entertained as the times are still stressful and uncertain. I hope you’re all staying safe and finding at least some comfort right now, be it in books, shows, video games or whatever makes you feel a little bit happier and relaxed 🥰

Time to escape into a Ghibli Movie … Goodbye 😂

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

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

As you’ll see below I had a fantastic reading month, the best one in a while yet! I read 23 Books a new record for me! I want to say that I could read so much because with everything going on (and me not having university anymore) I have had a lot of time on my hands and obviously not really any other places to be. For me personally, reading has been a great way to cope with the stressful times we find ourselves in, so that’s why I ended up filling a lot of my spare time reading all the books, including a lot of comfort reads like graphic novels or novellas/shorter books 🌸 Though, it’s totally okay if reading currently isn’t what works for you and comfort might be found in other media 💗 I didn’t even plan on reading so much, it just kind of happened, fuelled by the many Readathons I was participating in (OWLs2020 Readathon, Easter Readathon, #stayathomereadingrush) and the fact that diving into fictional worlds helped distract me and my anxiety from the uncertainty that lies in the future. I also found so many favorites, three Best of 2020 books in April alone and it made me so aware of how much I love reading and all the things that come with it 🥰 April really reminded me of how much reading has helped me over the years.

This month I didn’t focus as much on reading outside of my comfort zone (as I was mainly concentrating on the OWls Readathon prompts), but I still ended up reading  4 books for my own reading challenge 💗 Three of them were sci-fi reads and three are in the new adult/adult genre, so I think that I made great progress with picking up some books that were not YA! I also liked all the books I read so that’s another bonus and a great reminder how nice it can be to give books outside my comfort zone a try 🥰

Vengeful (William Ritter) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐⭐ ✨ 🌈 

Red, White & Royal Blue (Casey McQuiston) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐ 🌈 

Not Your Sidekick (C.B. Lee) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 🐯 🌈

Saga Vol 1 (Vaughan & Staples) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 💌

April meant OWLs 2020 Readathon Time and I enjoyed every second of it! My aim was to become a Wandmaker and hopefully read books for all of the 12 prompts. The good news is that I read a bunch of books and managed to find books for all of the prompts, securing not only my career prompts but all alternatives! I honestly had so much fun reading for the Magical Readathon, as a lot of people are participating and the whole atmosphere is simply magical ✨

Ancient Runes 💛 Arithmancy 💛 Astronomy 💛

1. Technically, You Started It (Lana Wood Johnson) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐ 

2. Nice Try, Jane Siner (Lianne Oelke) ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5  

3. It Sounded Better in my Head (Nina Kenwood) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ⌛

Care of Magical Creatures 💛 Charms 💛 DatDA  💛

4. Cat’s Café (Matt Tarpley) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐⭐ ⌛ 

5. Vicious (V.E. Schwab) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐⭐ 🔁 

6. Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief (Graphic Novel) ⭐️⭐️ 💌

Divination 💛 Herbology 💛 History of Magic

 

7. Red, White & Royal Blue (Casey McQuiston) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐ 🌈 

8. Misfit City (Smith, Lustgarten, Franquiz) ⭐️⭐️⭐ 💌

9. The Scapegracers (Hannah Abigail Clarke) ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🌈 ⌛

Muggle Studies 💛 Potions 💛 Transfiguration

10. Love from A to Z (S.K. Ali) ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 🐯

11. Vengeful (V.E. Schwab) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐⭐ 🌈✨

12. 9 From the Nine Worlds (Rick Riordan) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐⭐

   

13. We Used to be Friends (Amy Spalding) ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 💌 🌈

14. Not Your Sidekick (C.B. Lee) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 🐯 🌈

15. Eat and Love Yourself (Boo & Klepakowsky) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 🐯

16. Saga Vol 1 (Vaughan & Staples) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 💌

17. Quiet Girl in a Noisy World (Debbie Tung) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 🐯

18. Book Love (Debbie Tung) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 🐯

 

19. The Prince and the Dressmaker (Debbie Tung) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 🐯 🌈

20. Tyler Johnson Was Here (Jay Coles) ⭐⭐⭐.5 💌

21. What I Like About You (Marisa Kanter) ⭐⭐⭐.5

22. Moonstruck Vol 1. (Grace Ellis, Shae Beagle, Kate Leth, Caitlin Quirk, Clayton Cowles) ⭐⭐⭐ 🌈💌

23. The Extraordinaries (Debbie Tung) ⭐⭐ 🌈 ⌛

Average Rating ⭐ 3.8

Favorite Book 💕

🌻 Blog Tour: Super Adjacent by Crystal Cestari 💖 It’s Superhero Time! 🌻 Review: How to Make Friends with the Dark by Kathleen Glasgow 🌷

🌻 The Perfect Comfort Books 🌸 offering some escapism 🌻 Arc Review: It Sounded Better in my Head by Nina Kenwood 💗 A surprise favorite!

🌻 Getting Back to Writing #5 // Back from my writing hiatus, 2020 Goals, and Camp NaNo Checkin 🌷 🌻 Arc Review: Eat and Love Yourself by Boo & Klepakowsky 🌼 A graphic novel about learning to love your body

🌻 Favorite Books Throughout the Years 📚 bring on the nostalgia 🌻 Stay Home Reading Tag 🌸 feat. #readingrush Wrapup

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!

• My (Late) April TBR + Mini Life Update!! // Books You’ll Probably Yell at Me to Read & Taking my O.W.L.s & CAITLIN READS: Book Bloggers’ Book Recommendations // ft. Scythe, Graceling, & more! (Caitlin @ caitlinalthea)
• 10 Books to Bring You Joy While You Stay at Home (Charis @ charisrae)
• The Quarantine Write Tag & What I’ve been binge-watching #31 & Books That Inspire Wanderlust! (Kat @ lifeandotherdisasters)
• 2 Reasons I like Participating in Blog Tours (& 2 Reasons I Don’t) (Kat @ novelsandwaffles)
• Easter Readathon 2020 Announcement (Kate @ readingthroughinfinity)
• #SteelCrowSagaReadathon TBR // In Which I Read ALL the Diverse Books (Lily @ sprinklesofdreams)
• 3 Steps To Stop Procrastinating And Start Writing (No More Excuses!) (Madeline @ Happy When Writing)
• My 12 favorite male book characters of all time & 47 thoughts I had while rereading The Hunger Games trilogy & All 100 books on my LGBT+ Goodreads shelf &Writing update | treating writing like a job during social isolation (Margaret @ weirdzeal)
• Review: It Sounded Better in my Head by Nina Kenwood & 12 cosy and heartwarming ya contemporary books to read this spring & My first steps as a newbie bookstagrammer (and my worries) & Pairing 10 books I recommend with 10 songs I love (Marie @ drizzleandhurricanebooks)
• Project Self-Care for self isolation + A Self Care Bingo Card (Noura @ theperksofbeingnoura)
• OWLs Magical Readathon TBR: April 2020 & The Animal Crossing Book Tag! (Pauliina @ bookaholicdreamer)
• Simple Writing Advice You Should Never Forget | pretending to know what I am doing again (Sophie @ meandink)
• Book Series Review: Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead (Tiffany @ readbytiffany)
• Things We’ve Been Doing to Keep Ourselves Calm and Occupied During Isolation &Celebrating Female Authors with the Women’s History Tag & The Stay Home Reading Rush (TBR and Tag) & 70+ Titles You Can Watch on Netflix Right Now (Sabrina & Veronika @ wordyandwhimsical)
• Checking Back Into The Blogging World // how is everyone? what are some things you’ve been doing? (Xandra @ starryskybooks)

I celebrated my Birthday 🎉 Having your birthday in the times of quarantine was a bit weird, but being with my family and having the burden of my thesis off my shoulders is all that mattered 💕 We ate lots of delicious homemade food, had amazing cake and I got some lovely gifts that really brought a smile to my face 😊 From having a nice, chill breakfast with my mum, to driving to a nearby lake for taking a walk in a different scenery and watching my favorite guilty pleasure reality TV Show, it were the little things that made the day so nice 🎂

I participated in Camp NaNo 📋 I’m finally back in the writing game, made another update and returned from my thesis-induced hiatus. At first it was really hard to get into my story again, but participating in Camp NaNo really helped me get into the habit of doing my revision every day and commit to rewriting a lot of my story that couldn’t be salvaged. Some days I even lost myself in writing and it was the most amazing feeling in the world 🥰 In the end I completed my goal of revising 50K of my WIP and finished my first round of revisions!! Now it’s back to more revision and thinking about new projects!

Things that made me happy 😊

• Participating in all the Readathons 📚 I’m generally a huge Readathon person and given that going outside isn’t really possible right now a lot of Readathons were hosting special #stayathome editions and 24 hour Readathons. I personally participated in the OWLs 2020 Readathon, the Easter Readathon and the #stayathomereadingrush, all of which I really enjoyed – they also definitely boosted my reading motivation and it was fun to share a bit of my reading in general 📗
• Watching Gameplay Walkthroughs on Youtube 💛 I did also play Zelda on my Nintendo as I’m still on Ocarina of Time 3D and just got A Link Between Worlds for my birthday. But with so many new games coming out that I cannot play due to not having all the devices (I’ll get a Switch one day … it might just take a few more years) I lived vicariously through other people 😄 My friend Sandra shared all her Animal Crossing: New Horizons progress with me and I also watched a few playthroughs, which I recommend because they are very relaxing 🌸 My favorite has to be Amazing Phil’s AC videos as I’ve been watching his videos since high school! I also watched people play the new Final Fantasy 7 Remake as I used to play some of the other FF games available for the Nintendo back in the day and I really like the new game. It’s almost like watching a movie and I got weirdly attached to all the characters … now I really want to play as well 💔

• Buddy Reading Vengeful with Caitlin 🥰 We did another buddy-read and this time we picked Venegful as we both wanted to finally read this sequel to Vicious (I have been procrastinating reading it)! As you can see above I loved that book and we both had so much fun reading and discussing it – hands down one of the best reading experiences I have had this year 💕
• Watching Shows with my friend Sandra 💗 Apart from books, consuming shows and movies has been amazing and comforting for me! Buddy-watching is not only amazing to discuss all the things and fangirl together, but also perfect to have fun with friends right now – would highly recommend 🥰 Together we watched {Money Heist, I Am Not Okay with This, October Faction, Howl’s Moving Castle, Whispers of the Heart, Princess Mononoke and Castle in the Sky} I also binge-watched the new season of Nailed It! my favorite comfort show 🎂

May is going to be a quiet as I don’t have any plans 🌸  I’m super sad as I was supposed to take a big vacation in honor of my Mum’s 50th Birthday and me finishing my Bachelor Thesis, but alas it’s of course no longer happening 😥We were set to take a 1-week long cruise on the North Sea and while I understand that it’s not possible right now, it still breaks my heart as I was SO excited to get a little reward and now we have to push it into next year. The problem here is that by then I’ll probably be in my Master’s, so I have no idea how to plan for next year which limits the dates we can pick. Trying not to think about the uncertainty of the future right now.

Apart from this I’ll be picking up my revision again for a second round of developmental edits (all the big picture things like characters, plot and worldbuilding) as I did a lot of rewriting in this first round. In General, I will be taking things more slowly🌸 That concerns both writing (I might take a tiny break before diving into edits again, to do some brainstorming) and reading. I loved reading so many books in April but I think I need a little break and time to do something else so I don’t end up in a reading slump. Nevertheless, I hope to participate in some of the amazing Readathons happening soon. I’ll definitely participate in the Tome Topple, as I have been meaning to read some longer books again 📚

Readathons I might participate in 🌸 

• Mental Healthathon 🌷 Month-long 🌷 Twitter
• Asian Readathon 🐯 Month-long 🐯 Twitter
• Tome Topple 📚 May 9th to May 22nd 📚 Twitter

What were you up to in April? What was your favorite book this month? Did you participate in Camp NaNo? I hope you’re staying safe 🌻

 

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