Hello and happy Tuesday, lovely people! It’s been awhile since I posted. Life’s been busy, and I took a break from reading for a bit there.
Personal
When my time has been free from planning for next month’s wedding celebration, I’ve been watching streamers/broadcasters on Twitch. My favorite streamers play The Sims 4, and their streams are often cozy and welcoming. I can have a channel going on my laptop while I play The Sims 4 on my Playstation 4 or my husband’s PC.
It’s provided a much needed change of pace.
What I’m Reading and Planning
Currently, I’ve got a small stack of books from the library to read, including this month’s pick for my IRL book club:
It’s a YA historical with fantasy elements. I’ll share a review as soon as I finish reading it.
I’m also planning on expanding my blogging to encompass more nerdy media in addition to books. I’ll review video games I’m playing and share thoughts about upcoming releases and gaming in general as well as continue to share my thoughts on books I read and bookish topics.
Have you read Sky in the Deep or anything else by Adrienne Young?
This post recaps the past week in my personal life and on the blog, spotlights the non-book media I enjoyed, and shares what’s coming up this week on the blog.
Personal
I went to a local cat cafe/lounge with a close friend–as a Christmas gift to her–and it was really fun. I realized that hanging out in a comfortable lounge with a bunch of cats can serve as self-care; who knew? We’re definitely going back.
I have two months until my wedding reception/celebration(!). Although it’s going to be low-key and small, I have all of the decorations to make, so my frequency of posts on here will probably decrease during the next eight weeks.
Media I Enjoyed Last Week
Fated Mates: a Romance Novel Podcast with Sarah MacLean and Jen Prokop. Probably my new favorite podcast.
Smart Podcast Trashy Books: I’ve been listening to their (four) episodes about their reviewers’ favorite books of 2019.
In each Sunday Post, I share a bit from the past week in my personal life along with the non-book media I enjoyed. I also list some highlights from the past week on the blog and my blog plans for this week.
Personal
The first week of 2020 has come and gone. Kind of strange to think about, but they were fairly uneventful days in my personal life, even New Year’s Eve, which I spent at home with the spouse and fur babies after being away for several days.
Today–not so much uneventful. I learned upon waking up that Belle, the hamster in our household, went missing some time during the night after her cage fell over. We have yet to locate her. My best friend (who brought the hammy with her when she moved in with us during this past summer) is trying not to freak out. Since I’m a night owl and hamsters are apparently nocturnal, I will be looking for Miss Belle tonight whilst my family sleeps. Wish us luck!
In other news, I participated in an end of 2019 readathon hosted over on Litsy by @jb72, @TheReadingMermaid, and @Andrew65. (By the way, if you haven’t already checked out Litsy, what are you waiting for? It’s basically Instagram for readers.) #24b4Monday is a readathon hosted semi-regularly; their end of 2019 version had the goal of reading for 24 hours from December 27th through December 31st.
My total reading time: 19 hours and 5 minutes
Not bad considering I was pet sitting at a friend’s where I watched a lot of TV lol.
The Books I Bought
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier and The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton were my haul. I also got a 2020 weekly planner. I received a few Barnes and Noble gift cards for Christmas. 🙂
Media I Enjoyed
More of The Expanse. I finished season three yesterday. It only gets better!
Reading Envy: a podcast in which an avid reader talks about the books she’s been reading and has others on to do the same. I’ve been listening for years (her voice is so soothing)–and was even a guest myself! I’m in the process of catching up with the last few episodes.
Re-watched Brave and Finding Dory. I needed the feel-good.
Tomorrow marks the start of a new decade! Can you believe the future is here? I’m happy to say goodbye to 2019–it was a trash year in the world, no? For me personally, the year brought a crap ton of change which I’ll talk about more in a soon-to-come wrap-up post.
I like that my favorite books vary in terms of genre and category as well as the format in which I read them. I’m working on breaking my year of reading down further and sharing stats in a very near future post.
Christmas day was chill. I didn’t get a lot of reading done–thanks to trouble concentrating–but I did manage to turn a skein of acrylic yarn into a tangle of yarn and then into smaller balls (lol). I just started learning how to crochet a few months ago, and some of the gifts I received for the holiday were a bag of yarn, a pack of crochet hooks of varying sizes, and a pattern book.
The books I received:
Media I Enjoyed
This past week, I watched a lot of TV and played a few hours of one of my favorite video games:
Always Bring Books 