Nothing like last month’s midterms to get me into the procrasti-reading groove! I found more in-between moments to sneak in some reading outside the house throughout the day, which have been rare to come by since the pandemic as I really only ever go out for errands or horse riding now — not much time to kill outside. But now finals are coming up and I’m trying not to procrasti-read this time around, so I might not get that much reading done these next two weeks, though all I want is to do is hide away with The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne. I’m 50 pages in and I’m already sad and I love it.

The festive season is here!! I didn’t do much for Halloween except buy this super cute vest, watch some movies, bake, eat hella Reese’s, and read one spoopy book. With that done and dusted, the countdown to Christmas has begun!

I started off the month by finishing two books I had started in the latter half of August, then spent the rest of the month reading A Fort of Nine Towers by Qais Akbar Omar and Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang, neither of which I’ve finished yet, unfortunately. If I wasn’t in school, I would have definitely pulled a reading marathon these last few days of September! Alas, I’m sneaking in a few minutes of reading before class and a few minutes before bed. Loving both A Fort of Nine Towers and Beautiful Country, and hopefully I’ll have a lot to say about them next month!

School’s started and I’ve been doing lots of academic readings. Someone please give me a recommendation for books like Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino and Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener so that I have new references to make in class haha. As for pleasure reading, it’s been going slow and steady. I can’t tell you how badly I want to spend every weekend doing nothing but reading for fun. Still getting used to transitioning back to a “normal” pace of life… and having to commute!

Riding on June‘s momentum, July was another great month for reading. I’ve been frantically cramming in more reads before the school year starts again, as well as catching up on blog posts; with this one up, we’re all caught! Check out my 2021 mid-year reading check-in from this past month if you missed it. The doodles took me way too long but they were very satisfying to make hahh.

So far this year I haven’t been able to focus on my favourite genre, literary fiction, which tends to be character-driven. Instead, I’ve been more captivated by plot-driven stories, and have even turned to a few graphic novels, middle grade books, and old favourites–as in rereads!–all of which are out of character for me. At first I felt a bit anxious that I was missing out on books that would have been new favourites had I not been in the “wrong” headspace, but I’m learning to embrace this change in my reading habits for however long it might last. Despite my worries, I found a new favourite after all, and it’s one of the best feelings in the world! The only problem now is that I need to figure out how to put these fictional characters behind me and move on with my life hmm…