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…
Do you ever struggle on bookstagram with having a book you want to talk about but not having a picture to go with it, or having a picture of a beautiful cover but not feeling particularly excited to talk about the disappointing story it held, but you make a post anyway that’s mediocre in one way or the other because it’s the only content you have and you have to post consistently to appease the algorithm?
Well, eff the algorithm! I stopped posting on bookstagram regularly and the world kept on spinning (still promptly updating my Stories with most of my current reads though!). It feels great not stressing about it anymore. Plus, I had my best reading month of the year, though that may just be a coincidence and better attributed to the fact that I finally read The Poppy War trilogy.
Y’all, I’ve been reading the same three books for ages! Those would be The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, and Everybody by Olivia Laing. I feel bad that I have nothing new to report to people who ask. But I’ve added two more reads to the mix: Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart and The Poppy War by RF Kuang. Kinda wanna drop everything for The Poppy War then Shuggie Bain, but also wanna finish and be done with all those other books, which are interesting, but which I can’t seem to focus on :/ I’m tempted to put them on pause for now and pick them back up later when I’m in the mood, but I have a feeling that I might just never pick them back up… which… is not necessarily bad… but potentially sad to think about…
This post is for anyone who is feeling a little lost in all the world building after watching the first episode of the Netflix show, for fans of the book who are wondering how the show combined the Shadow & Bone trilogy and Six of Crows duology, and for new fans who are discovering the Grishaverse through the Netflix show and are now wondering where to start with the books.
The fandom is huge and there are so many resources out there, but there are also lots of spoilers, which can make them hard to browse through. So I’m here to give you a quick rundown to get you started, with spoilers from the first episode of the Netflix show but spoiler-free otherwise. I tried to only hit the questions that seem to always come up—nothing too deep—so feel free to ask any questions you have left!
The bookish event of the month was the Netflix adaptation of Shadow & Bone, and it did not disappoint! I convinced my brothers to watch the first episode with me when it released at midnight, and we finished the rest of the show in the afternoon. I haven’t been reading much this year so I haven’t been as active on bookstagram, but that weekend bookstagram lit up and it was so much fun chatting with people about the show and answering questions noobs had about the books hehe. I’m thinking of writing a blog post guide for it!