Category: b o o k i s h t h o u g h t s

Fully Booked 2023 Reading Challenge is here!

Hello everyone and HAPPY NEW YEAR! I haven’t posted here in A WHILE! I believe my last post was a review back in October of 2022 and let’s just say that 2022 was not my year in terms of posting both here and on my bookstagram AND well… reading in general (cause I only read 9 books last year).

Moving on from that embarrassment I am manifesting a BETTER and BIGGER reading year for 2023. I have already set my Goodreads Reading Goal to 50 books and hopefully this challenge will help with that.

So time to explain what the 2023 Reading Challenge is all about. Basically my local bookstore, Fully Booked, came out with 12 challenges/prompts for this year where you read one book a month from January to December that inspires you to explore outside your reading comfort zone.

I believe you can do it in any order you want as long as you accomplish the challenges that were given. Also they have already posted a bunch of different titles for each prompt so if it’s a bit hard for you too choose you can also check the titles they suggested. (Link here)

It took me quite some time to choose what books I wanted to put in each prompt and I ended up with 6 books I currently own and the other 6 books are on my kindle. So without further ado this are the books I am planning to get to for the 2023 Reading Challenge.

  • Book that teaches you a skill. Atomic Habits by James Clear
  • Book that makes you SWOON. The Rakess by Scarlett Peckham
  • Book featuring a real person. The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold
  • Book with a magical element. The Poppy War by R.F Kuang
  • Book that helps you understand yourself. All Along You Were Blooming by Morgan Harper Nichols
  • Book that tells the story through images and texts. Fence Vol. 1 by C.S Pacat
  • Book with an intriguing mystery. The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling
  • Book of essays or short stories. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter
  • Book published in 2023. Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo
  • Book set in the Philippines. Dwellers by Eliza Victoria
  • Book that is more than 500 pages. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
  • Book with a one word title. Swordheart by T. Kingfisher

So those were the books I have chosen for this challenge. I do still have my Monthly TBR’s and this is just an exception and is automatically added to it. Will definitely not be doing this in order and just see what I feel like reading in the coming months. For this month I went with the prompt book with an intriguing mystery that fitted perfectly to my current read which is The Death of Jane Lawrence.

Honestly speaking choosing books for this made me so excited to get to reading. Hopefully all turns out well and I get to cross out all of the books I have listed by the end of the year. Fingers crossed and manifesting the heck out of this! 🤣

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2022 Anticipated Releases… SO FAR!

I have been on Goodreads for a few days now trying to check on all upcoming releases this year and I have seen a LOT of books. This is my first time making one of this so I had a hard time narrowing it down cause there were so many that I wanted to read and am very much anticipating the release of. (Side note: I made this list on the start of February so I might have missed a ton of titles BUT I will be doing another one of this in the future.)

For now I have chosen 14 books that I am sure I will get to and most probably buy (if it becomes available on my local bookstore) a copy once it comes out. This will be for the months of February to July (with 1 book from August).

Without further a do let’s get into the books shall we?

  • This Woven Kingdom (This Woven Kingdom #1) by Tahereh Mafi – February 01, 2022
  • Justice of Kings (Empire of the Wolf #1) by Richard Swan – February 22, 2022
  • Gallant by VE Schwab – March 01, 2022
  • The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd – March 15, 2022
  • The Bone Orchard by Sara A. Mueller – March 22, 2022
  • The City of Dusk (The Dark Gods #1) by Tara Sim – March 22, 2022
  • The Bladed Faith (The Vagrant Gods) by David Dalglish – April 5, 2022
  • Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel – April 26, 2022
  • Book of Night by Holly Black – May 3, 2022
  • Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid – June 7, 2022
  • Ordinary Monsters by JM Miro – June 7, 2022
  • In the Shadow of Lightning (Glass Immortals #1) by Brian McClellan – June 21, 2022
  • The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – July 19, 2022
  • Babel or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ by RF Kuang – August 23, 2022

So that is all my 2022 Anticipated Releases… so far! I actually really enjoyed the process of making this post cause it made me discover a TON of amazing titles that I might have not known of if I didn’t do this. I am so excited for the coming months cause of all this book and hopefully I get to them before the year ends.

Is there any books on my list that you are also anticipating?

Reading Preference: Does it really change?

So this idea popped into my mind while I was stuck at home for a week cause of an ear infection. 😂

There I was… sitting in my room, staring at my shelves then the ceiling then back to the shelves and then it hit me. I have given away so many books in the past months… does that mean I have changed? Did my preferences changed from when I started to now? How did this affect me as a reader? Pros? Cons? Discoveries?

With all that questions in my mind I then decided to make this post. It took me awhile to start it cause I had to gather my thoughts and remember how I really was when I first discovered I loved to read. So… let’s go back to my highschool days shall we?

I was an avid reader of ROMANCE books way back. Besides Percy Jackson I wasn’t able to get into a book without romance in it. Maybe it’s the teen side of me but I really loved the cheesy young adult romance books like Anna and the French Kiss, My Life Next Door, The Fill-in Boyfriend and many more.

Then I discovered Young Adult FANTASY. Fantasy for me back then was a very challenging genre to get into. So a requirement for me to read a fantasy is… you guessed it. Romance. I could get into a fantasy book or series when the main focus is the romance between the 2 characters. That’s when I started to read Twilight (who wouldn’t want a shimmering boyfriend, right? 🤣), Darkest Power series (which I LOVED), Vampire Academy series, Hush Hush series etc.

Now we go to my College days. This time I do still read a lot of YA Fantasy romance but another genre I got into was Historical Romance. This was the time I discovered Book Sale and there wide variety of HR books. I started collecting books from different authors like Victoria Alexander, Stephanie Laurens, Lorraine Heath, Cathy Maxwell and so on.

More years passed and I was slowly introduced to the genre I am currently in love with… High Fantasy. I was introduced to this genre by the awesome Brandon Sanderson which is now my all time favorite author. The Mistborn series was what I considered to be the turning point of my reading preference. I was changing from reading books that were centered on romance and instead looked for the thrill of adventure in the story. I started to get interested in authors like Patrick Rothfuss, VE Schwab, Michael J Sullivan, Jim Butcher, Robin Hobb and many more.

By this time I realized that I was slowly starting to fall out of love with YA. Maybe because I was growing up and the themes doesn’t really match with me anymore or the characters felt to young for me to connect with them. I still do read YA by favorite authors but when it comes to new releases I tend to be hesitant to read them cause I didn’t want to be disappointed (cause oh boy… I had been… more than I thought I would).

Presently in my collection I have a variety of books from 4 genres. High Fantasy, Mystery/Paranormal, Historical Romance and New Adult Romance (kindle).

Mystery/Paranormal was one of the genres I didn’t think I would love but when I read A Discovery of Witches as well as The Year of the Witching I started to look for more books like them. I do tend to read majority of my paranormal books during the fall season. On the other hand, Historical and New Adult Romance books are my life saver when I feel like I’m getting into a huge slump after reading a bunch of Fantasy books OR when I just want a feel good and romantic read.

With this I conclude that my reading preference DID changed as time went by. But not as drastic as I thought. I do still have the love for romance but it just got altered from YA to adult. I did discover new genres, authors and books that would be part of my collection for a long time. I ALSO did give out all of my YA with the thought that someone out there might start to love reading when they get this. Cause basically… this is where it all started.

How bout you? Did your reading preference change? 🤔

Books I Want to Read Before 2021 Ends?!

Anyone here who makes a list of books they want to read/finish before a specific year ends and then the year DOES ends… and you finished nothing. 🙋‍♀️ Now I am doing another list and putting it out here and HOPEFULLY it encourages me to get to even half of them.

So I separated this into 2 sections: the 7 Priority TBR books and 5 “if you still can” books. Majority of the books in the priority pile are very thick and intimidating so… Goodluck to me. 😅 Shall we get on with the books?

7 Priority Books

  • The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive #1) by Brandon Sanderson – Page 275 of 1007.
  • Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon – Page 437 of 830.
  • Escaping the Devil (Stalking Jack the Ripper #3) by Kerri Maniscalco – Page 232 of 416. Currently Reading
  • Theft of Swords (The Riyria Revelations #1-2) by Michael J. Sullivan – Page 202 of 649.
  • Elantris by Brandon Sanderson – Page 51 of 622.
  • The Bitter Kingdom (Girl of Fire and Thorns #3) by Rae Carson – Page 150 of 433.
  • Scent of Magic (Healer #2) by Maria V. Snyder – Page 20 of 414.

As you can see I have already started all of this and stopped at some point cause… I got distracted by unnecessary things. I’m sorry! 😓

5 “if you still can” Books

  • These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
  • A Torch Against the Night (An Ember in the Ashes #2) by Sabaa Tahir
  • Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows #2) by Leigh Bardugo
  • Kingdom of the Cursed (Kingdom of the Wicked #1) by Kerri Maniscalco
  • House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

This are the books I will be reading when I do finish my priority books. If that won’t be possible this will be the first set of books I go with next year.

And that is it. Now that I have put it here I feel…. more pressured. I have a very packed reading/reviewing schedule for this month so hopefully when November rolls by I can start tackling my priority list. I am very excited with all the titles though and I just need to plan my reading schedule well.

What do you think I should read first?

Reading Slump. What to do?!

As we all know reading slumps are the bane of every readers existence. Not being able to read for days, weeks, months.. YEARS would make you think “Am I ever going to read again?!” (cause that is what happened to me back then 😅)

As someone who has experienced huge reading slumps countless of times I do have some tips and tricks on how to get rid of them. So if you are experiencing a reading slump right now don’t you worry. I gotcha!

Below is a list of 7 tips I have found to be the most effective way to get over a reading slump.

First off! Get off your phone or any gadgets. Yes I know. You want to binge watch or rewatch Shadow & Bone BUT you won’t be able to get to your book if you keep being distracted by the gadgets around you. So for now let go of the gadgets and try to read a few paragraphs of your current read.

Read your favorite book. If reading a new book puts you on a slump why not go back to that book you have reread countless of times but still absolutely love. You can never go wrong with a favorite, right?

Try a new genre. I actually tried this for my recent slump. I got tired of reading fantasy last year and the books I had was not appealing to me at all so I changed it up and started reading historical romance books. This wasn’t a new genre for me but I haven’t been reading much from this and it rekindled my love for it AND got me back on track. So put that Fantasy, Contemporary etc down and try a different genre. You never know. You might find a new favorite after.

Read shorter books. When on a slump reading a 800+ page book won’t help you. It might even trigger your slump more then you’ll not be reading for months! Start with something small and when you get the feeling you won’t go deeper onto your slump you can now pick up that big book.

Join a book club. Surround yourself with people who have the same interest as you. You can even talk about your own struggles with reading slumps and share your own tips and tricks.

Watch booktube videos or browse on bookstagram. This is what I usually do when I feel like the slump is slowly getting to me. I don’t know why but when I see a bunch of people hauling books or see them absolutely rave about a book I always end up missing reading then sooner or later I will be able to get back to it.

Lastly if everything fails Don’t Push Yourself. Don’t get mad at yourself for not reading. Think of it as taking a bit of a break. If you pressure yourself to read something you might end up hating a book that you were so excited to get to. So don’t panic. Breathe in. Breathe out. I am now allowing you to watch a few episodes BUT don’t go to hard that you’ll completely forget about going back to the books. 😉

Now.. any other tips and/or tricks of your own to get over a reading slump? Let me know down below.