New Year Resolutions

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I'm quite aware it is February ;) I wrote those down a month ago, but never got to share them.

  • read 70 books*
  • listen to 10 audiobooks
  • see 10 theatre plays
  • watch 50 movies
  • start art journal again
  • write more
  • blog regularly (once a day)
  • take more photos and share them
  • consistently write book reviews
  • write plays/events reviews
  • take care of my health
  • start going to the gym again
  • travel to new places
  • meet new people
  • smile every day

*I set my goal at GoodReads for 70 books as well, but it is not the same. On GoodReads I keep track of both books and audiobooks, but in my journal I keep them separate. Which means that I will hit my GoodReads goal before my personal one.

I must say that my book reading challenge is going quite nicely AND I have already listened to 10 audiobooks, so that is quite encouraging :D

I also started a new art journal. I hope to keep doing that throughout the year.

I still suck at writing and posting reviews right after the events/plays/reading books. But I am working on it!

Books: December Wrap-Up

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Okay, I have dwindled my thumbs enough - time to sit down and be done with it. Here is what I read in December - not as much as in November by any account, but still enough. I was pretty busy in December and I couldn't devote a lot of time to reading, so I ended up reading a lot of ebooks, which were generally shorter.

All of the ebooks I read in December are MM romance - I posted almost all of the reviews on GoodReads, and won't repost them here.

The two paperbacks that I read are very different. Adam Silvera's novel was terrific, but Illuminae left me confused about why everyone is so obsessed with it. See my reviews linked below.

I got lucky with graphic novels that month - all of them were terrific reads.

Books:

  1. More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera (my full review is here) - 5 stars
  2. Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1) by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman (my full review is here) - 3 stars

Graphic Novel/Picture Book:

  1. The Pied Piper of Hamelin (Russell Brand’s Trickster Tales, #1) by Russel Brand - 5 stars
  2. The Less than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal Volume 2: Wanderlust Kings by E.K. Weaver - 5 stars
  3. The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal Volume 3: Ten Days of Perfect Tunes by E.K. Weaver - 5 stars
  4. Baba Yaga's Assistant by Marika McCoola - 5 stars

Ebooks:

  1. Alien Christmas (The Traveler #1) by Max Walker - 3 stars
  2. Spring Mates (Pack Mates #1.5) by Lynn Tyler - 3 stars
  3. Seven Thousand Minutes: A #Not Safe For Work story (Tagged Book 0) by Ingela Bohm - 3 stars
  4. Marked (Northern Shifters #1) by Joely Skye (**) - 3.5 stars
  5. Called to Mate (Pack Mates #1) by Lynn Tyler - 3 stars
  6. Bleeding Heart (Mi Corazón Sangrante #1) by Melissa Graves - 3 stars
  7. Most Wonderful by  Hollis Shiloh - 3 stars
  8. Feral (Northern Shifters, #2) by Joely Skye (**) - 3.25 stars
  9. The Mark of an Alpha (Pack Discipline #1) by Kim Dare (**) - 3.75 stars
  10. The Strength of a Gamma (Pack Discipline #2) by Kim Dare (**) - 3.5 stars
  11. The Duty of a Beta (Pack Discipline #3) by Kim Dare (**) - 3 stars
  12. Without Reservations (With or Without #1) by J.L. Langley (**) - 4 stars
  13. With Caution (With or Without, #2) by J.L. Langley (**) - 4 stars
  14. Building Bonds (Kiss of Leather, #1) by Morticia Knight - 4 stars

(** - these books were re-reads)

Total: 2 books, 4 graphic novels, 14 ebooks (some of those were novellas, but it is hard to tell number of pages with ebooks)

I plan to make a wrap up video too. Will be posted shortly.

Instagram Prints // Parabo Press

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[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeV0JLTklEo[/embed] Back in December, I got a promo code for Parabo Press app for iPhone that allowed me to order prints for free and pay only for delivery. (I think it was their holiday season promotion.) I jumped at the chance as I had wanted to have prints of my favourite Instagram photos for some time.

Before this I had never ordered any prints online, and it'd been awhile since I printed photos at all, so I decided to make an unboxing video for anyone who might be interested in the service.

If you have any recommendation for similar services (but perhaps a better quality and smaller sizes), I'd appreciate it. I am glad that I didn't pay the full price for these prints as they turned out to be a bit different from what I expected.

My Year in Books - 2015

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goodreads2015 Here is my reading year at GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2015/3155103

I started my reading challenge in July and set a goal of 20 books. But I went far and beyond and finished the year at 70 books and 18,158 pages! Wow! I do hope that 2016 will be as good! I set up the goal of 70 books since this is what I already attained once.

My bro and I have been challenging each other as to who would read more books every year. And every year during that past 7-8 years, he always won.

Well, in 2015 I finally won! For the very first time! :) Even though I came very close once or twice ;) Need to mention that he used to read way more than me (150-200 books a year) but now he has no time with his job, and I managed to beat him :)

I am excited about all the books I plan to read in 2016!