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
![falling stack of books](https://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/falling-stack-of-books.gif)
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
![reading books fast chloe park we bare bears](https://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/reading-books-fast-chloe-park-we-bare-bears.gif)
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%.
Fandom Assemble
Media we’ve consumed and enjoyed, or what we’re looking forward to that’s been announced lately.
![tom-and-jerry-popcorn](https://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/tom-and-jerry-popcorn.gif)
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.
![i-thrive-on-choas-bh90210](https://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/i-thrive-on-choas-bh90210.gif)
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?
![bookwyrm-breakdown-february-2023](https://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bookwyrm-breakdown-february-2023.png)
Sophia started blogging in February 2012 for the hell of it and is surprisingly still around. She has a GIF for nearly everything, probably listens to too much K-Pop and is generally in an existential crisis of sorts (she's trying her best). More of her bookish reviews and K-Pop Roundups can be found at The Arts STL.
If you enjoy her posts or found them helpful, consider tipping on KoFi!
It sounds like you’re not having much luck with your books lately…😞 And don’t let me start on your health issues. You sound like me…only you’re 30 younger…I’m sorry you’re having it rough. It’s really too soon to be in pain like that (though I understand that your old job is responsible for many of your current problems). I hope your back will start to behave at least…
(“30 YEARS”, of course)
Oof going through the back issue sounds awful! I’m glad to hear that you’re better now and I hope you recover fully soon. A desk is much needed in a hybrid setup. When we moved, my proper desk was one of the things to go because we didn’t have enough space in the new place for it and I decided that I didn’t need it as much anymore. Then the pandemic kicked in. I was able to order a desk a few months in but I continued to use a plastic chair that we had instead of a proper chair and used it for almost TWO YEARS of full remote work. It was uhh not a good decision for my back and posture. I have a better chair now, at least.
In conclusion, I relate to putting things off and being bit back because of that and finally making investments to help haha.
Hope your March is better to your than your Feb!
Matchy matchy books is a very valid reason to get chain of thorns (says the person who has the first book and hasn’t read it at all….rip) Feel like your mission is still to get me to fall for Kingdom *sobs* though I do sometimes go back and listen to the acoustic version of night air.
Glad you got a desk, here’s hoping your body settles itself down and stops giving you pains. The angry pikachu is the cutest thing ever. I feel like you need an army of angry pokemon figurines now because that’d just be an entire mood 😂
My mission is actually to make you fall for any and all potentially awesome Kpop groups that I come across if we want to be really honest with ourselves. 😂
Having a bunch of angry Pokemon figurines would be hilarious and definitely a mood but I don’t think I need THAT much anger in my life (and I definitely don’t have the space, haha).