Hello, 2014! My first weekly wrap up of the new year! I love new years and all the stuff surrounding it - resolutions and a new notebook/planner (I use a blank moleskin to keep track of stuff. And my phone calendar). It hasn't technically been a full week yet, but it's the first Monday of the year and I felt like five days counted and it's Monday, this is my plan this year.
Reading: (finished this week and actively currently-reading)
The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami (5/5)
A very strange, short piece of fiction. And my first Murakami, but I really, really enjoyed it. It was weird, but not in a bad way (weird is very rarely used in a "bad" way with me).
The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman, Chris Riddell (5/5)
This book is gorgeous and has that Gaiman tone to read that is wonderful. and Chris Riddell's illustrations are gorgeous and add so much to the story. Highly recommended - an interesting twist on the classics tales of sleeping beauty and snow white.
Above the Dreamless Dead: World War 1 in Poetry and Comics by Chris Duffy (editor) (5/5)
I enjoyed this a surprising amount, I'm going back and forth on writing a full review for it - mostly to highlight my favorites of the bunch. I'd never read any war poetry, let alone WW1 trench poetry, before and I wasn't sure I'd enjoy it. It was pointless worrying, apparently, because I loved this book - the poems, the art styles (most of the art styles, at least), it all felt like it meshed well and was interesting to read like this, instead of just words on a page (though, I'd like to go and read my favorites like that, as well). I'd highly recommend this - you can definitely feel the pain through the words, but they're gorgeous words.
Freakboy by Kristin Elizabeth Clark (5/5)
Really, really good. Raw, at points, and just so good. I don't know if I can articulate the words I have about this book. It was a lot more then I expected, I tried to not set the bar too high for what I thought, but it was fantastic. I don't read books in prose a lot, but I might start to read more.
What I've Been Watching:
Not much and a lot all at once? I wasn't feeling well towards the end of the week and for that just mostly watched random stuff on Netflix (hello, random rewatches of Ouran). But also a ton of people put up resolution videos, generally, or wrap ups or favorites for those book YouTubers. I'm quite a fan of lists and especially end of year stats, but I'm going to limit myself and just mention a few.
50 Things I Learned in 2014! (by the lovely, the wonder - Meghan Tonjes. Not book related, just life related. Also you should listen to her sing while you're over there because yes)
My 2014 Goodreads Challenge Wrap Up and 2015 Goals (by a booktuber, Gwen, whose name is: The Gwendolyn Reading Method on the youtubes. She's one of my favorites, as are all the people on this list. She reads a wide range of stuff and, also, reads at about the same pace I do).
2014 Wrap Up & 2015 Goals (by rincey reads. She has some goals that I am going to enjoy following her progress for the year for. They all seem very doable for her, though).
Books That Made Me 2014 (by Choncey Boddington. This is more then just a favorites of the year - it's the books that affected her and changed her and made her. And will make you want to read Moby Dick. A fantastic booktuber and person in general, and this is a fantastic video and just idea).
Most Anticipated Releases of 2015 (by Lindsey Rey, another booktuber. She's fantastic and very SF/F heavy).
Blog Posts I've Liked:
As with the videos - posts about goals and lists abounded this week in the blogsphere, too.
Wrapping Up 2014 - Looking Back at 310 Books (And you guys thought I read a lot this year. Pshhh, I've got nothing on this blogger, who is awesome and posts and reads so much I am astounded and impressed).
So I Sat Here Ready to Declare My Goodreads Challenge Number (This was a very interesting blog post to read, as someone who is a bit obsessed with goals and lists. Anyway - I'm excited to see how this affects her reading, if it does at all, and all that jazz. Personally, I would go insane with curiosity).
2014 Year in Review (there's a part with a graph and favorites of hers that I've had on my list for way too long, that you should check out as well from what I hear).
22 Things to Do Before I'm 22 (I love this idea, a lot. And so many things that I can identify with that I'd like to be able to do soon, especially as someone whose also a writer).
How To Read More (I agree with most of this, actually. Definitely the stop reading what you 'think' you should read, and stop 'hating' a certain genre - see the proof in that I use to hate romance, and now that's one of the genres I read the most of in 2014).
Miscellaneous:
Book Riot - I've really gotten into them recently. I got the last Quarterly box (and continue to wear the book hat, I love it). But I just started listening to the podcast, and the most recent was Year in Review - and have I mentioned I like the list/stats thing? Is that obvious? This was a lot of fun to listen to, very interesting.
I feel like they put out so much content, I'm surprise I'm able to see half of it. I'm going to be taking part in their Read Harder challenge, though, and they've got so many good recourses for book people.(Like this reading spreadsheet thing)
On the blog:
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