5/27/2015

Read-a-thon || LGBT Read-a-thon: Goals, Updates, and Wrap-Up

It is now Wednesday the 27th of May. The read-a-thon started on Monday, and so far I haven't done so well. I do have an excuse though. Monday was all about preparing for my exam that started Tuesday, so I didn't actually have any time to read. Same thing with reading on Tuesday. It was a 24 hours written exam - which meant I had 24 hours to get everything done. Now I've handed in my exam paper, and I've even gotten a little bit of sleep - I'm still completely dead on my feet, with having had only four hours of sleep in the last 30 hours. But now that that's all over, I have time to read. And read I will.

Goals & Books:
My goal for this week is to read two books, and I feel like even that is setting the bar too high.   But We'll see, I might end up surprising myself and read more than that. I haven't chosen the books that I want to read, except the first one, but I do have a fairly big selection to choose from.

The first books I'm going to read, and have already started, is Something Like Autumn by Jay Bell. It's been waiting for me for too long now, and I have to pick it up. Besides that I don't know what I'll pick up - I'll have to see what looks good to me when I get there. However, I will show you some of the books I have to choose from. There's a couple of physical books, and I also have chunk of eBooks to choose from.

(A small selection of eBooks)

(Some of the beauties I have on my shelve)

Updates Wrap-up
(Throughout the week I will update this page with all of my reading... Or the lack of it)

Honestly there hasn't been all that much to update you all on. I've read about 23% of Something Like Autumn, and that's about it. It's been such a busy week, much busier than I had thought it was going to be. All in all, my participation in this has been a tiny bit of a failure on my side. But I am determined to redeem myself at the next LGBT Read-a-thon at the end of June. And with that said, next time I want to participate on twitter even more than this time.

Did you participate in the read-a-thon? If so, how did you do? Would you participate next time?

5/25/2015

Read-a-thon || LGBT Read-a-thon

LGBT Read-a-thon - 25th to the 31st of May.
The read-a-thon is hosted by Faye @ a daydreamers thoughts.

I've just found out about this read-a-thon that's starting tomorrow (the 25th), and ends on the 31st of May. This sounds like just the thing for me, so of course I've decided to participate. I have a shit ton of books that fall within the LGBTQ+ category, that are just sitting there and waiting for me to pick them up. A read-a-thon like this is a brilliant excuse for me to read them all. Not that I've needed any excuse to read LGBTQ+ books before (if you know me at all, you'd probably know that), but a week with almost nothing but LGBTQ+ books just sounds amazing.

I don't have a set TBR yet, and I probably won't when all comes to it. I just can't deal with having a set TBR, but I may post a picture of possible reads over on my instagram. I'm pretty sure I know where to start though. I've put off reading Something Like Autumn by Jay Bell for far too long now, so it is at the very top of my to-read pile. Besides that one book, I don't really know what I want to read, I'll just have to see where my mood takes me.

I do have an exam on Tuesday though - a 24 hour written exam, so I won't read there, and probably not on Wednesday either. But besides that I will try to read something every single day, and reading will be a great way to recover from my inevitable exam freak out.

Are you participating in the LGBT Read-a-thon? If so, what are you reading for the week?

5/19/2015

Wrap-up & Favorites || While I've Been Away

I'm back! *cue party music, bring in the confetti canons, and break out the champagne*. I took some of weeks off from blogging, and it was just what I needed. Honestly, the break went on for a little longer than I had planned, but all of a sudden I had so many things to do, so I decided to extend my break a little bit. However, I am here now and ready to start blogging again. So I thought a wrap-up post would be one of the better ways to get back into the blogging game, because it pretty much sums up everything that has been going on for the past two months. So without further ado, here is my wrap-up and favorites for the time I've been away.

|| BOOKS READ ||
In March I ran in to a bit of a reading slump. Not a big one, but most of the time I just wasn't in the mood to read anything, and I kind of forced myself to do so a couple of times. But I did manage to read a good amount of books anyway. In March I read 6 books, and I did the same in April. I do have some reviews of some of these books coming up in the next few weeks.
March:
Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry (★)
How We Deal With Gravity by Ginger Scott (★)
Trust the Focus by Megan Erickson (★ (3.5))
Seconds by Bryan Lee O'Malley (★)
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (★)
Not Otherwise Specified by Hannah Moskowitz (★)


April:
Y: The Last Man, Vol 7: Paper Dolls by Brian K. Vaughan (★)
Y: The Last Man, Vol 8: Kimono Dragons by Brian K. Vaughan (★)
Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan (★)
The Blinding Light by Renae Kaye (★)
Noticed Me Yet? by Anyta Sunday (★)
The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan (★)

|| BOOKS ACQUIRED ||
So in the months of March and April I ended up getting a lot of books, I got 23 books, not including the four that I've already done a book haul on. That's a lot of books, and only one of them is a physical book - the rest are eBooks. I won't show all of the books that I've bought (unless you want to see them - then maybe I'll do a post or a video, or something), but I do want to share a couple, that I'm most excited to read. Some of them I have already read, but they are still exciting to me.

Physical books:
eBooks:
The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
Annabel by Kathleen Winter
Golden Boy by Abigail Tarttelin
Adaptation by Malinda Lo
One Small Thing by Piper Vaughn and M.J. O'Shea
Trouble & the Wallflower by Kade Boehme

|| LIFE FAVORITES ||
A lot of great things happened while I was away - Mostly in April though. First of all, I decided to take a break from blogging. I just wasn't feeling like writing anything, and I didn't want to force myself to do so. The break was really nice, and definitely needed, although it ended up being a longer break than I had anticipated. Nevertheless, I am here again, and ready to take on the world.. Blogging world at least.

I also went to some pretty great parties in April. The first was my cousin's 18th birthday party. It was such a fun night, and I may have gotten a tiny bit drunk. Just a tiny bit. At one point we went outside, while it was almost pitch dark, to play Kubb. I know, it sounded great to drunk ears, but it may not have been the best idea ever. Especially since as people may have gotten a little hurt, because it was dark and we were drunk. Nevertheless it was an amazing night, even though I ended up going home a little early, because I was pretty dead on my feet.

(My cousin and I at her 18th birthday party.. We may have been a little drunk)

The other party I went to was with two of my best friends from high school. Once a year the school throws a party where old students are more than welcome, so we went to that. I had a blast, and I don't think I've danced that much in a long time. It was so amazing seeing my old friends again, especially since we don't all hang out that much, so spending time with them is always a welcomed thing.

|| MOVIE & TV FAVORITES ||
In April I went to the movies twice, and both of those movies are on my favorites list. The first movie I saw was Fast & Furious 7. I went with my younger brother, and I'm so glad I went and saw it. I've only watched two other Fast & Furious movies before, but it wasn't that difficult to follow what was happening. It's definitely a movie I'd want to watch again. The other movie I watched on the big screen was of course Avengers: Age of Ultron. I was so excited to watch this one, and it didn't disappoint. There were things in the movie that I didn't like, but I honestly still think that I liked this one better than the first Avengers movie. I mean, this one has Scarlett Witch in it, you can't really beat that - well, you probably could, but I'm still ecstatic to have her in the movie.
Last but definitely not least we have, maybe the ultimate favorite, Wrestlemania. Wrestlemania this year was good, really good. I mean, there will always be things at 'Mania that people, including me, don't like, but overall it was a pretty cool show this year. 

|| MUSIC FAVORITES ||
The first of my music favorites ties in with the whole Wretlemania thing, and that is the song Suplex City Bitch by PFV. If you've seen Wrestlemania, you probably would have heard Brock Lesnar utter these words, and lo and behold, someone made a song out of it. It's kind of a ridiculous song, but I absolutely love it, and it's been my jam ever since I heard it the first time. Another music favorite of mine is, again, something wrestling related. It's Bray Wyatt's 'theme song' Live in Fear by Mark Crozer. It's a creepy song, but it makes me feel pretty darn awesome when I listen to it at six in the morning on my way to school. My last music favorite is kind of random, but it's 70’s music. Somehow I ended up listening to a playlist on Spotify filled with 70's music, and it was honestly the best thing I've heard in a long time. 

|| OTHER FAVORITES ||
One of my absolute favorite things I got while being on a break is my new planner. I'm now the proud owner of an A5 size 6 ring planner. It's from Paperchase, and it's been my savior ever since I got it. I've been so overwhelmed lately with school, and so many other things that I needed to keep track of, and this planner has been so much help. I can have everything I need in one place, which is just amazing. So now I have all my appointments, my blog related things, all my bookish lists, and my finance things in one place. Honestly, I just feel damn organized with this new planner.

Last but not least, is not really a favorite but more of a thought. I've thought about start making videos as well as blogging. Not all the time, but just maybe one here and there. There have been time where I've wanted to post something, but haven't been able to get the words out on, and I think sometimes it would just be easier to talk instead of type. However, I'm kind of terrified to actually turn on a camera and get in front of it. We'll see if I decide to do something about it.

So yeah, sorry for the long post, but I felt like I needed to come back with something. I have a lot of ideas for posts, and about 4 drafts lying around at the moment. I'm glad to be back!