🦕 Hai Beautiful 🌼

It’s not my last post of 2021, but the intention is there.

I haven’t been very active on here at all this year, choosing mostly to focus on my BookTube channel and healing myself mentally. Throughout the year, my mental health was a huge focus for me and my creative hobbies were set on the back-burner – which in hindsight was not the best idea as their existence is vital for a healthy mind.

This post was inspired by Haley of Fangirl Fury, as she had posted her version of this book tag in November (as I was intending to also, but… you know me ), and I absolutely loved

her post. You can read her post here, and also visit the creator of the tag, Ariel of Ariel Bissett over on YouTube.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s get into the tag!

Are there any books you started this year that you need to finish?

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

have been reading this book since <> and just like Nevernight, no matter how much I am enjoying the book, I just cannot seem to finish it,.

My goal is to binge read this book and complete it before the end of Jan, especially since I am now out of this annoying reading slump that has had me in its grasps for the past four months!

Do you have a seasonal book to transition into the end of the year?

I didn’t have a Spring or Summer themed novel picked out to close out the year. I just wanted to finish The Final Empire. Which to no ones surprise, I did not.

I don’t really do seasonal-themed reads, I tend to just pick up whatever book I’m interested in at the time.

Right now, it’s horror and true crime content. In saying that, I recently purchased the eBook and Audiobook of Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry. It was recommended to me by my boyfriend’s sister who is currently reading the physical copy and loving it.

Is there a new release you’re still waiting for?

I truly haven’t been keeping up with the book community or bookish news recently. Over the past six months I’ve been so out of the loo that I truly don’t even know what new releases are coming up in 2022, but I am sure there are many that will pique my interest.

What are three books you want to read before the end of the year?

Since I’m writing this post on Jan 6, two days before my birthday, I can’t really answer this one as it should be answered, so I’m going to list my top three books I want to read at the start of 2022.

(1) The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson (2) Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff (3) When We Entered That House by Claire L. Smith

Is there a book you think could still shock you and become your favourite book of the year?

If I had finished The Final Empire, it would certainly have been my favourite of 2021, although since I had’t read anything in November or December, my favourite book of the year has to be one of the 17 I did read this year.

Favourite book of 2021!

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller.

A book a couple of friends and I had intended to read for a book club that ended up falling through. I really loved Miller’s writing style, every word oozing with emotion. The slow burn and the character development was just *chefs kiss*. This book really is worth all the hype that it’s given on social media and I really want to read Miller’s other works sometime soon since I’ve heard amazing things about Circe too.

Have you already started making reading plans for 2022?

I haven’t made any plans as yet.

There are books on my shelf that I am eager to get to, as mentioned above, but other than that I really just want to read what my heart desires, do away with TBRs and set reading schedules – unless I have a book club read of course. I also want to finish The Final Empire, finally.

My 2021 Goodreads performance and 2022 Goal.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, 2021 was a year of growth and development for me and that meant a lot of my creative hobbies (including reading) kind of fell into the gutters and were forgotten about for a while.

I had a goal of 30 books set and as you can see in the summary screenshot on the left, I ended up only reading 17 books. Honestly, not a bad effort really, plus I also didn’t buy many more than I read which was a huge plus.

I’m not too sure about the 2022 Goodreads colour (green has become my colour of the year), but alas, we move on. I have set my goal lower this year to 25 books.

I lowered my goal to reduce pressure on myself and also because I have so many other hobbies going on – YouTube, Blogging, Writing, etc. I also want to just enjoy the books and not feel pressured to reach an arbitrary goal.

Thank you all so much for reading and sticking till the end. I’m really excited to be back blogging. I’m hoping to post content whenever I feel like I have something to say and chat about.

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See you back here on Monday (book reviews), Wednesday (storytime/ writing updates) and Saturday (other bookish) content.