Bookwyrm Breakdown: February 2023, Where I Read Books? (And then stopped.)

February was short, not helped by the fact there’s only 28 days this month. Life threw another card at me (more details later), but I’m still alive and kicking, and overall doing okay.

(Also like January I’m posting this on the last day of the month?)

February Musings

• [11 Feb] 2022 Book Blogging Stats Transparency: Sharing Numbers, Comparing Stats Over the Years + Personal Insights
• [16 Feb] The Matchmaker's Royal Mess by Frieda J. Downing ★★★★
• [28 Feb] Bookwyrm Breakdown: February 2023, Where I Read Books? (And then stopped.)

Books Hoarded

Just one book made it into my life (or more accurately, a preorder came).

• Chain of Thorns by Cassandra Clare – “If Chain of Gold was a disappointment, why did you get Chain of Thorns?” Honestly? It probably comes down to the fact I have both the first two books as the first collector’s edition and it would be weird not to have that for the final book either. (I know, it’s a terrible reason.)

Books Devoured

I read books? And not just one book (which was all I thought I would for a blog tour), but six books? cue surprised Pikachu face

Spoiler: It didn’t last long, unfortunately. It lasted maybe a week, tops.

• The Matchmaker’s Royal Mess by Frieda J. Downing – The only book I thought I would read and maybe cured my reading slump a little.
• The Cup and the Prince by Day Leitao – This was okay… but it was overall lackluster. I’m still interested in continuing, though, so I started the sequel (The Curse and the Prince) not long after.
• The Curse and the Prince by Day Leitao – I wish I could say the second book was better, but I ended up DNFing this at 41% because nothing even happens. Given my experience with the first book, I didn’t like it was worth continuing, which is devastating because I thought the second book would get better.
• Don’t Date Your Best Friend by Mahi Mistry – It was a wild time reading this one (and not in a good way like The Matchmaker’s Royal Mess was). That is all I have to say.
• A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik – This was confusing, but I enjoyed myself for the most part, and here I am with the second book just sitting from my library instead of reading all the other books that have been on hold for two years.
• Winterspell by Claire Legrand – I started this way back in August 2022 and loved the writing, but then I never continued (like all of my other books at that time). At first I thought it was just my reading mood, but it turns out this one just didn’t mesh well with me for a lot of reasons so I DNFed it at 44%.

I felt like I watched only one or two things, but it turns out I actually watched a fairly decent amount in this short month.

• Gudetama: An Eggcellent Adventure – This was short, cute, and all in all, I had a good time. (Also, being a lazy egg is a huge mood sometimes.)
• Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal The Movie – I really am living my best childhood nostalgia life this month.
• Heaven Official’s Blessings (天官赐福/Tiān Guān Cì Fú)
• Spy X Family – I finally got around to Part 2 of Season One and I loved every moment; I wish I savored it more instead of binge watching it, though.
• Spider-man: Homecoming – Don’t mind me going out of order in the MCU. I’m already scattered anyways, what’s wrong with being more scattered? I’m here to embrace chaos.

On the music end, I didn’t keep up with much of anything; I usually pull up YouTube once a week and save music videos to my watch later list but I don’t think I pulled up YouTube even once (maybe that’s good for me). I did, however, listen to Purple Kiss’s new mini album Cabin Fever, which I absolutely adored – I think this is my favorite release after their debut.

(Also one of my friends informed me Kingdom is making a comeback in late March, so I’m looking forward to that as well. Can’t wait to pop up into Clo’s messages when the album releases and the music video drops.)

The Breakdown

What catastrophes have the universe handed us throughout the month? Let’s find out. 🧐

(Okay, this section turned out longer than I thought.)

February swooped in and decided, “Yeah, so, you thought the last few months were rough mentally? Lol, how about let’s take out your back and get physical?” so the last week and a half of the month was spent in pain and playing Tetris with my bedroom during work so I wasn’t sitting since that was making it worse, only the issue is my knees are kinda fucked up from standing for long hours while working in food service.

All in all, it was a grand time (read: terrible). My laptop may have fallen a few times, but it’s definitely still alive (and hey, mom, my book collection came and saved me for once!) and trekking.

(My back is doing a little better now, though. And I got some chocolate on sale after Valentine’s Day!)

In other news, though, I did get a more proper desk. I had a lightweight (very portable) coffee table for middle and high school, and then I stayed until evenings on my college campus and used the WiFi there to do everything I needed to do (no internet at home), so I didn’t really need one (I might have been a commuter, but I truly wasn’t home all that much since if I wasn’t in classes, I was working, lol).

And then when my work switched to a hybrid model (finally) about a year (almost two) into the pandemic, I opted to work from my bed and moved around often to stretch because I knew full well that working from that position is just asking for problems (and I’m trying not to let that happen, or at least draw it out from happening). Yet I held off, because it’s one less thing to lug around (my wrists are worse than my knees and I have practically zero strength) when we finally [hopefully] move in a few years (the plan was originally last year but that fell through).

Anyway, I have a (standing) desk setup! I’m about halfway to a PC setup at this point, though I doubt I’ll ever get a full one, and there’s not enough room either so I ended up getting a laptop riser to use the desk space more beneath it instead of it being all laptop and nothing else. It’s very minimal overall with an angry Pikachu figurine (best investment, no regrets) staring at me all day (mood, though) and a very happy yet sleepy Snorlax on a desk mat along with Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle and Pikachu hanging out.

(It’s so weird getting used to a new keyboard and a mouse, though. I keep hitting my keyboard barrier that’s part of my desk because that’s where the trackpad is usually at.)

Other than health issues, February was overall okay. But tell me about your February? Hopefully without health issues like me?