Hello, hello. For those who live in America, the month of September started off with a nice long weekend in honor of Labor Day. I was feeling pretty ambitious about the amount of books I could read in 72 hours and thought that I’d go ahead and document this weekend.
So grab yourself a cup of tea or something hot and cozy and lets travel back to the start of the month and see what I got up to!
Friday, September 2nd, 2022
Today was one of the best Fridays I’ve had in a while and it really made me think on why this particular Friday went well for me. I don’t know if it’s a mindset thing or if it’s because of the long weekend excitement but whatever the reason, today was equally relaxing as it was productive.
I started off the morning with a workout at the gym and let me tell you, the stair master is an evil invention. I honestly didn’t know if I was going to trip or choke myself to death from a lack of oxygen. I went into work afterwards feeling like a burnt out noodle and dealt with some emails I’ve been putting off and got stuff ready for the following week. Does anyone else have email anxiety or is it just me?
As soon as I got home, I pulled a table outside onto my porch, sat under the blazing Florida sun and drank copious amounts of water while I read about Carrie Soto fighting to keep her title.
I heard from Becca on the “Bad on Paper” podcast that when she was reading her early copy of “Carrie Soto is Back”, the first half was hard to get into because it was a bit slow but that it really picked up in the second half. I’ve also read reviews that it’s pretty heavy on the art behind tennis which I personally don’t mind as I have no problems reading books that are about a very niche topic.
I wouldn’t say I struggled but I was wary of the writing style in the beginning of the book because it felt a lot more like telling than showing. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been so used to reading third person that the first person point of view threw me off or if it was something else but I wasn’t bothered for too long because I got sucked in.
I’ll go into my thoughts more later on in the book but somehow, like how my reading experience with “Malibu Rising” went, I finished “Carrie Soto is Back” just after sunset, sitting outside. I ended up reading the majority of this book sitting outside and sweating off whatever water I had consumed the past few days just like I did when I read “Malibu Rising” on the beach when I was on vacation.
I’m pretty sure my neighbors saw and heard me sobbing when I reached the end of the book but what can I say, Taylor Jenkins Reid knows how to give you hope, make you feel things, and then push your heart back into the ground.
I ended off my day with some well deserved Netflix time, more specifically, a couple of episodes of “Lucifer”.
Saturday, September 3rd, 2022
Today was a great reading day. Honestly, I can’t believe I read this book as fast as I did. Today was all about reading and finishing “Vicious” by V.E Schwab. My reading experience with V.E Schwab is an interesting one. I started and loved the first book in the middle grade series she’s put out but I’ve never really dived into any of her other books. Even though I haven’t read many of her books, I somehow still love her as an author. I love how much she shares about her writing process and I also love the wide array of genres and ideas she explores in her books.
For example, I love X-Men so I knew that I was going to love “The Villains” series. The idea of “The Darker Shades of Magic” series with alternative Londons just sounds gorgeous and I don’t know who Kell is but from what I’ve been hearing of this character, I’m sure I’m going to love him. Also, “The Invisible Life of Addie Larue” sounds absolutely entrancing and gripping.
All that being said, the books she has published sound right up my alley but like with everything that I know I’ll love and adore, I save it for later and “later” often ends up being pushed further and further out in my made up reading timeline.
I started this book in the morning with a cup of tea and ended it in the night with a cup of tea. My heart was pounding at the ending. I love how short the chapters were and how everything tied up in the end. Honestly, this book has some of the best characters I’ve read from in a while. This is an immediate 5 star read for me.
The day wrapped up nicely and I ended up going out to dinner with a couple of friends to a fish and chips place and then afterwards, dropped by Crumbl cookies. It was my first time trying a cookie from there and my oh my, they sure are sweet.
Sunday, September 4th, 2022
Hello, hello. Today I’m checking in a bit earlier than I usually do. I like to hop on and write an update after I’ve finished a book but as of when I’m writing this update, I have yet to read a single page.
I’m not sure what shops are going to be open tomorrow (Labor Day) so I wanted to head out and run some errands today. I was a 100% influenced by Alexandra Roselyn’s latest Fall Vlog and went to Bath and Body Works and hauled some candles. I got more candles than I probably need but hey, it’s Autumn, the season of coziness and what’s more cozy than candles?
I also got my hands on a couple of books. I of course had to get a copy of “Vengeful” because the ending of the first book took me O U T. I needed to know more of what’s going to enfold. I’ve recently gotten back into middle grade and for some reason, I associate Fall and Winter with middle grade reads so I had to pick up a book to welcome the new season. I ended up picking up a copy of the second book in “The Venderbeekers” series. I have the first book already so I didn’t want to make the same mistake as I did with “Vicious” and wanted to have the sequel ready at hand for when I’m done with the first book. On another note, the covers of this series are absolutely gorgeous. They’re so pretty I want them all. I also got my hands on “Bird by Bird” which I heard recommended a ton for aspiring writers and fellow creatives.
Monday, September 5th, 2022
I read more of “Vengeance” yesterday and this morning and was introduced to a character by the name of Marcella. I have NOT finished the book so please no spoilers but my oh my does V.E Schwab know how to write characters that just hook your entire being and pull you into the story. I didn’t read much today because the Sunday scaries hit me hard and I really wanted to sort my life out. And one of the things that I’ve been procrastinating and let build up into a huge, almost unimaginable issue is the way I’m organizing my books. I have a stack going on my floor, everything’s just generally dusty, and I’m having trouble finding the books I want to read when I want to read them. Also, with the change of the season, I really wanted to do a big tidy of my entire apartment and sort through things that I want to keep and donate and thought that I’d start with my books.
The pic above shows a before and after of my shelves.
I don’t know if you can pick up on a big difference but let me tell you, I can and I’ve never felt better.
Some of the major changes I made is that I made a book cart and organized it by month. So in my three tier book cart, I have the first row containing all the books that I’d want to read in September, the second tier containing my intended October reads, and the third row contains all my November reads. Obviously, there’s a ton of books on each tier but they all are categorized by the moods I associate for each month so instead of digging around my shelves for a book to read, I’ll have a stack of them to choose from on my cart.
Another big thing I did was separate all the books that I’ve already read and the books I’m not in the mood to read right now. From those piles, I sifted through my books and made another pile of books that I’m ready to donate. Separating my read books and don’t want to read right now books really cleared up room on my main shelves. I’m clearly a maximilist when it comes to books but there’s something so peaceful about seeing what you want to see and limiting options on your main shelves.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to finish “Vengeance” today and I’m not going to lie, I was a bit down about it but I don’t want to force myself to fly though it. I want to give this book the time it deserves because my gosh, it’s great and honestly, I think my heart needs a break from adrenaline pumping stuff so maybe it’s good that I didn’t stay up all night today finishing it.