January Recap

January seemed to pass in a flash, and I can already tell the rest of this year will go by just as quickly, but I’m getting ahead of myself now. Overall January was a busy month work and life-wise, but I’m back reading and blogging again, even if I am taking it a little slower than I was last year.

I got through nine books in total; four of which were re-reads, but luckily they still count towards my goal because I’m hoping to do a lot of re-reading this year. Asides from reading most of my January has been spent catching up on blogging and re-organising my life. New year, new start after all.

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• The Lantern’s Ember by Colleen Houck — Three stars
• The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden — Five stars
• The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden — Five stars
• The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden — Five stars
• The Cruel Prince by Holly Black — Five stars
• The Wicked King by Holly Black — Five stars
• You Asked for Perfect by Laura Silverman — Four stars
• Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo — Five stars Four stars
• Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo — Four stars Three stars

Favourite read; The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden which was an incredibly beautiful and magical story, the perfect ending to the Winternight trilogy.

Least favourite read; The Lantern’s Ember by Colleen Houck which had too many characters who were all trope and no substance, and focused too much on the romance.

So far I am smashing my Goodreads Reading Challenge, especially when you take into account the fact that this time last year I was already falling behind and wondering whether I should lower my 2018 goal.

I’m three books ahead of schedule, and having a lower goal for this year has meant I can actually enjoy reading rather than stress about the numbers.

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I had the very best intentions when I gave myself a writing ‘goal’ of between 2000 and 5000 words a week. Based on what I’ve written in the past I figured it would be no problem to write a minimum of 2000 words, but it turned out to be a very big problem.

In my defence I’ve had a lot of other things going on which have taken up more of time than I thought they would; as well as catching up on blogging and launching my new blog re-design (which is now live) I’ve  been sorting through everything that’s been stored in my loft and getting ready to move out into my own place, and just generally putting my New Year’s resolution of focusing on my mental health into action.

But just because I haven’t been writing my Death Born WIP that doesn’t mean I’ve haven’t been anything writing-related all month. One of the new WIPs that has been floating around in my head for a while now has been getting louder and louder, so I’ve started plotting it ready for NaNoWriMo 2019 (but more on that later this week).

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So as I’ve mentioned a few times already in this post this year I’ve made it a goal of mine to start focusing more on my mental health. It hasn’t been easy, work has been a major source of stress at times, but so far it’s been good because I felt much more content in January than I did at the back end of 2018.

Highlights:

• Even though I haven’t officially moved in yet I’ve already started planning how I’m going to re-decorate my new place. The best part of moving is, in my opinion, being able to put my own stamp on my own place.
• I saw Mary Queen of Scots which is a brilliant film (though not for the faint hearted). Both Margot Robbie and Saoirse Ronan are incredible as Elizabeth and Mary.

• I started learning Dutch. I tried learning a language before, even set learning a language as one of my New Year’s resolutions, but I never got too far so here’s hoping second time’s the charm.

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Not many books were brought last month, and to be honest not many books will be brought next month either. I’m going for quality over quantity this year though, and you can’t deny the two books I brought in January are amazing ones.

Granted I’ve only read the first, but I’ve heard amazing things about the latter.

• The Wicked King by Holly Black
• King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

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Hopefully this month I’ll be able to quickly finish my re-read of the Grishaverse books; I just have the Six of Crows duology to go and then I can jump right into King of Scars.

Two more of my most anticipated books of this year are being released in February. I’ll have to re-read The City of Brass before I can start The Kingdom of Cooper, but The Priory of the Orange Tree is one I hope to start the second I have it in my hands. I’m going Samantha Shannon’s release-day event at Waterstones Piccadilly so I’ll be getting my copy of The Priory of the Orange Tree a day before its release.

I want to get back into writing again this month now I’ve launched my new blog re-design. I have a post planned for next week which goes into a little more detail about my new WIP for anyone who’s already curious about what I’ll be writing for NaNoWriMo 2019.

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How was your January?

How many books did you manage to get through last month? Are you ahead of your Goodreads Reading Challenge goal for the year, or have you already fallen behind but have plans to catch up?

What was one good thing that happened to you last month, and what are you looking forwards to this month; are any of your most anticipated releases of the year coming out in February?

Happy reading.