January 2016 || Looking Back

Hello everyone! Looking Back is a new monthly feature on this blog. It’s basically a recap of a specific month that I’ll be posting on the 1st or 2nd of every month. This will give you an insight on how I spent my month, involving both bookish and non-bookish elements. It also let’s me keep track of time and my progress, because let’s be real, a month can fly by without me really knowing what I did and I dislike coming out of a month with nothing to show for it.

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Books

Books read/reviewed in January:

• Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon- 4 stars || Review
• Not Okay Cupid by Heidi R. Kling- 4.5 stars || Review
• The Girlfriend Request by Jodie Andrefski- 3 stars || Review
• Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard- 3.5 stars
• The Probability of Miracles by Wendy Wunder- 4.5 stars
• The Secret to Letting Go by Katherine Fleet || Review

Total books read: 6

Book of the month: The Secret to Letting Go by Katherine Fleet

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Books acquired in January:

• School of Deaths by Christopher Mannino || Review copy
• The Truth Spell by Anita Oh || Review copy
• Thief of Lies by Brenda Drake || ebook
• Truthwitch by Susan Dennard || ebook
• Mercury Striking by Rebecca Zanetti || e-ARC
• Love Me, Love Me Not by Alyxandra Harvey || e-ARC
• Holding Court by K.C. Held || e-ARC
• How Willa Got Her Groove Back by Emily McKay || e-ARC
• The Secret to Letting Go by Katherine Fleet || e-ARC (Reviewed)
• The Girlfriend Request by Jodie Andrefski || e-ARC (Reviewed)
• Not Okay, Cupid by Heidi R. Kling || e-ARC (Reviewed)

Total books acquired: 11

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Goodreads 2016 Reading Challenge:

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Blogging

Posts in January:

• Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon || Mini Book Review
• The Girlfriend Request by Jodie Andrefski || ARC Review
• Not Okay Cupid by Heidi R. Kling || ARC Review
• Let the Read-Along Begin! (Red Queen)
• Mini Update
• Top Ten Tuesday #7 || TBR Newbies
• The Secret to Letting Go by Katherine Fleet || ARC Review

Total posts: 7

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Movies

Movies watched in the cinema:

I only watched one movie in the cinema this month which is The 5th Wave. My friends and I watched it on the first day of release and it was so good. Can’t compare it to the book since I haven’t read it yet but as a movie it’s enjoyable. And umm… the eye candy didn’t hurt either. 😉

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TV Shows/ K-Dramas

TV Shows I watched in January:

• The Shannara Chronicles || Ep 1-5
• Shadowhunters || Ep 1-3
• DC’s Legends of Tomorrow || Ep 1-2
• Grandfathered || Ep 10-13

K-Dramas I watched in January (first time watching):

• Madame Antoine || Ep 1-4
• Moorim School || Ep 1-6
• Oh My Ghost || Ep 1-7
• Modern Farmer || Ep 1-4

K-Dramas I watched in January (rewatch):

• Healer
• The Heirs
• Oh My Venus
• Bride of the Century
• The Master’s Sun

For the K-Dramas if you click on the title you’ll be sent to its Drama Cool page where you can watch it with English subtitles. 🙂

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Music

I spent the second half of January obsessing over Panic! At the Disco and Brendon Urie’s exceptional vocals. I remember hearing ‘I Write Sins Not Tragedies’ and ‘Nine in the Afternoon’ when I was way too young to actually get what the songs meant, especially Nine in the Afternoon. “But there’s no nine in the afternoon?”, the confusion was real and I think my parents were more than a little reluctant to explain to me the significance of the lyrics.

I stumbled upon ‘Nine in the Afternoon’ on Youtube recently, nostalgia hit and I somehow ended up listening to lots of their songs, even the latest album, Death of a Bachelor. So, now I can’t seem to stop listening to their songs, I’m actually listening to a playlist of them right now. My favorite changes constantly, but right now it’s ‘LA Devotee’. Or ‘Death of a Bachelor’. ‘Hallelujah’? ‘This is Gospel’, maybe?

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Miscellaneous

• I refrained from going to the recent Big Bad Wolf Double Trouble book and poster sale. I deserve a cookie.
• Keira @ Signing On started a book club that Jackie @ fallinlovewithesoundofwords and I now co-own. You can check it out here.
• I stayed up everyday till 3/4 a.m.. I feel like I’m able to get more things done at that time and I have trouble falling asleep, so…
• I ended up re-reading more books than reading new books.
• Every waking hour that wasn’t already occupied was spent stressing over college and my future. Now that I think of it, I even stressed while I was busy.
• I don’t think anything else significant happened. To be honest, January passed in a blur of entertainment interlaced with stress and keeping myself busy.
  

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  Overall

  Like I said, January was a blur and came to an end much sooner than I expected it to. 6 books really isn’t much for someone done with high school. I’ll be upping my game for February and hopefully no reading slumps will get in my way of slaying my TBR. It was a good month for TV shows and K-Dramas though, so I’m hoping to keep it up in February. As for movies, a film that I wanted to watch but didn’t get the chance to was The Boy. I might catch that with my friends this month along with Deadpool (YAY!). In terms of music I’m glad I got to really discover Panic! At the Disco.

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  What do you think? Would you like to see more of these posts? Personally, I enjoyed doing this and found it oddly relaxing. Anyway, how did your January go? If you posted your own recap, leave a link in the comments and I’ll check it out. Share your thoughts with me! Hugs. ❤