September Wrap Up & October TBR

I don’t know whether it’s this pandemic and the immense uncertainty in the air, or just the fact that I’ve been indoors for perhaps far too long of a time – but time has been flying by and yet not. It is a very screwed up construct right now and holy macaroni – It’s OCTOBER. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t using reading as a distraction as well as a hobby because I have. September was again, another successful reading month. I beat my personal page goal and I just feel proud of myself for enjoying what I’m reading. I didn’t DNF a single book and I thoroughly liked most of my reads so it’s definitely a nice achievement to reflect upon.

Now, Let’s get onto everything I read ~

What I Read In September

This month was another highly successful month if I do say so myself! It’s a little scary because I’m not really forcing myself to read heaps, I’m just enjoying reading so much more and I hope that this continues (my TBR will love it anyway). I’m finding it easier to read as well by making sure I don’t get too distracted by my phone.

For a few reading sessions, I’ve been using an app called Forest to help my reading and productivity. It means I have been able to get more into the story and take less frequent and unproductive breaks. I’m mainly super happy that I managed to beat last month’s books read and my page count – which was already my highest so far! To think that last month I read 5,200 pages and this month I read even more!! IS CRAZY. I don’t think I’ll be challenging myself to read even more than that for October but rather to keep up with how I’ve been reading so far.

Total Books: 13

Total Pages: 5,460

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
★★★★★ (5/5) | Taylor does it again, absolutely LOVED THIS.

To Sleep In A Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini
★★★★☆ (4/5) | READING BLOG & BOOK REVIEW

Permanent Record by Mary H.K. Choi
★★★★☆ (4.75/5) | MINI-REVIEW

Blood & Honey by Shelby Mahurin
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5) | AUDIOBOOK REVIEW

A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder by Holly Jackson
★★★★★ (5/5) | A NEW Absolute Favourite

The Beautiful by Renée Ahdieh
★★★★☆ (4/5) | READING BLOG

The Damned by Renée Ahdieh
★★★★☆ (4.75/5) | READING BLOG

September Love by Lang Leav
★★★★☆ (4/5) | my favourite of Lang Leav’s yet.

DKMH by Dacre Montgomery
★★☆☆☆ (2/5) | Boring, not my cup of tea.

The Pale Dreamer by Samantha Shannon
★★★★★ (5/5) | So good! Well worth the read before diving into The Bone Season – Loved the crime/mystery vibes.

Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare
★★★★☆ (4.5/5) | Strong start to a new series, very enjoyable.

The Wicker King by K. Ancrum
★★★★☆ (4.5/5) | Crazy, confusing, raw, heartfelt but so important.

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
★★★★★ (5/5) | I love this book and I’m super excited to finally read its sequels + the next book comes out early next year!!

Blogging Highlights!

Here are some blog posts you may have missed ~ I blogged quite a lot this month and also tried out my new format of Reading Blogs that I’ve been really enjoying 🙂 Other than these posts, I also hosted a couple of author interviews which you can find in the drop-down of my blog menu if you’re interested!

I’m really excited to keep writing more posts that are discussion-based or just plain entertaining for myself. Bloggers shouldn’t restrict themselves to reviews and this month I had a lot of fun expanding what I blog about.

How To Create A Healthier Relationship With Reading

So I Watched A Bunch Of Studio Ghibli Movies For The First Time…

Cataloguing My Entire Physical TBR & My Latest Bookish Journal Spreads

Reading ‘Blog’: To Sleep In A Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini

Reading ‘Blog’: The Beautiful & The Damned by Renée Ahdieh

What I Watched in September

I only watched…1 movie. After all the ones I watched in August for my studio ghibli marathon, I kind of took a break from movies and tv shows. I watched a lot of YouTube and Among Us stream videos, but I did manage to watch a movie with my partner as well as start a documentary that we later DNFed cause it wasn’t super informative after all.

Knives Out ★★★★★

I’m so glad I watched this movie. It was AMAZING. Just when I was finishing up A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, this completely replicated the mood with its whodunnit mystery plot. The acting, directing and cinematography were amazing and I was fully engaged and enamoured by this film. I am so looking forward to sequel whenever that happens. I never knew what was going to happen and I would highly recommend this movie!

The Social Dilemma – DNF

Lol, look at me DNFing a documentary. I don’t think this was super revolutionary at all. As someone who works in digital marketing, I was well aware of a lot of what was talked about. Because of the nature of my work, it was all a bit redundant and boring for me. It also felt very one-sided and kind of over-produced. The way it makes social media to be the bad bad guy constantly got old really quick and I was happy to go read a book instead. If people are watching this and being completely shocked, you may need to reevaluate what you use digitally, understand the terms and conditions you agree to when using a simple app like Instagram and learn a bit about the fundamentals of business. Social media is created by companies who want money, it’s as simple as that – AND not everybody is as addicted to it as it’s portrayed.

My October TBR

I think my TBR is very ambitious, I haven’t been super strict about reading what’s on my TBR the last few months but it’s definitely a great guide. Some of the content planned on my blog is based off the books I plan to read but if I can’t be bothered reading a particular, it’s not a huge deal either. My TBR or at least what I’ll likely be reading are a bunch of sequels. So many sequels that I’ve been super slack at reading or just books I’ve owned for a while that I really want to finally get to.

Vicious & Vengeful by V.E. Schwab
I bought this beautiful duo in hardback a while ago and since reading ADSOM for the first time, I’m extremely optimistic about this duology. V.E. Schwab’s writing really impressed me and she’s the favourite author of many people I know so I’m very excited to pick these up!

Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashadourst
This is a new release that you’ve probably seen everywhere because of that beautiful pink special edition that came in a subscription box (that I’m forever crying about not having because ya girl doesn’t have that kind of dosh – subscription boxes are expensive! but this edition is SO beautiful.). I’ve seen a few people give really good reviews about this one and I bought a couple of months. It is forever my goal to actually read new books I’m buying and this also sounds super intriguing and seems like a fun, quick read with some sapphic romance.

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi
This is going to be part of a blog post I hope to write where I read a bunch of heist books – I’ve seen rad reviews about this beautiful diverse book and I’m very, very excited to read from Roshani Chokshi for the first time too.

Hunting Prince Dracula by Kerri Maniscalco
I have been neglecting this series for far too long, I LOVED STJR and yet couldn’t get past the first 50 pages of this book during a book slump a year ago. A perfect spooky book for October, I’m ready to meet Dracula!

The Disasters by M.K. England
Another heist book that I mentioned in one of my latest posts about unsolicited books I’ve received and I’m super excited about – this sounds like it’s going it be an amazing adventure. Space heists are one way to hook me in!

Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff
Another sequel I have neglected – especially since I loved Nevernight so much. I’m sorry Godsgrave, but this month, your time has come. I am committed to finally breaking my heart and reading this book.

So, how did you reading month go? Did you watch anything interesting? Have you got a particular book on your TBR that you can’t wait to start in October?

Let me know in the comments,

Until next time,