Twice now, both while doing the banner and typing the title, I almost wrote “August wrap-up”. That’s what it feels like: I’m writing this on the 10th of August and July already feels very far away and I feel like the holidays are over (although it’s still very summery).
I had a busy July: I was interviewing and got a new job, which meant some paperwork on all sides – but also that I got some proper holidays in-between. I had hoped to do a lot of reviews and catch up on blogging, but as it turns out the internet at my grandparents’ was pretty much nonexistent – I could barely check twitter and discord unless I was out in the far end of the garden.
I did have a good rest though: although grandparents are pretty ableist so it was quite exhausting mentally, I had very little to do for 2 weeks and I pretty much read, played crosswords, ate and went to the beach for 2 weeks straight (last of July and first of August).
In the middle of all that, I was taking part in Reader Player Read, a readathon organized by the SFF Oasis discord group [click here to join the group], which was a fun group bingo. It helps also that my team won, but even if we hadn’t, the whole experience was great and it made it easy to talk to a few people and get a feel for the Oasis’s community. Oh, and I read 22 books during the month, in an effort to complete a full card!
22 books is, in fact, the most I’ve read since October 2020, when I tried reading a book a day and ended up with 29 books in a month. Even then, a lot of it were comics and illustrated nonfiction so it doesn’t feel really comparable.
I also read loads of ebooks (8 in all, I think, which IS loads for me: that’s almost more than I’ve read all year so far!) as well as the usual paper and audiobooks, because I tried to pick books off my owned TBR for this. A secondary goal was to finish all my library borrows before I left for the holidays, and I would have succeeded if the library didn’t get 2 books I had on hold for me at the last minute! (I didn’t take them with me, I live in fear of forgetting a library book somewhere).
I’m very happy with July, and I hadn’t planned to do that much reading at all, so I’m now going for a more relaxed August – not least because I am going to start a new job on Monday. My goal is to read the 2-3 ARCs I have due, the 2 library books, and then whatever I get my hands on, no pressure. I’ve read over 100 books so far this year, and my original goal was 100, so even if I read nothing this month, I’d be happy.
Also, as a sidenote, I found two great video games: Alchemic Cutie, which is a sort of Stardew where you forage for plants and breed some cute jellies to unlock more and more of the island you’re on; and Let’s Build A Zoo, which is a zoo version of Roller Coaster Tycoon, essentially. And much like the latter, it’s sucking all my time as I want to make the perfect zoo and get all the cute animals! And I can only multitask so much – Alchemic Cutie works great with audiobooks but LBaZ needs all my focus. I want my reading to stay fun above all else, so I’m not pushing myself to read more and neglect other hobbies.
Speaking of which, I now have a bit more space for sewing, and I got back from holidays with a bit of my stamps collection. Wondering if any of yous would be interested in seeing content on either topic?
