Bookwyrm Breakdown – March 2021, Plain and Simple

So I actually forgot to write this and then schedule it for yesterday. 🤣 Hence the title being boringly plain and simple because I don’t think “So It’s Been a Year in this Hellhole” works as a title that I want.

It’ll definitely be memorable when I look back in the future though, because a lot of my memories are helped through the personal tidbits in blog posts.

I can’t believe it’s been over a year since this whole mess started and it’s April already. Time has felt both slow and fast, and I think for me, March has been a mixture of both in some cases, but one or the other in a lot of ways.

This Month’s Posts

I want to post a lot more in-depth discussions and do weekly memes where I bend the rules because they’re fun to do, but I haven’t felt like doing anything for the past year. But I’ve been slowly posting reviews from the hoard, much to Shruti’s delight (how dare she lovingly bully me publicly and in DMs). Also much to her dismay, I’m about to add approximately three more reviews to that hoard.

• [7 Mar] Bookwyrm Breakdown: It Started Out Colder than Iced Coffee
• [17 Mar] This Golden Flame by Emily Victoria ★★★½
• [26 Mar] Wallflower by Cookie O'Gorman ★★★★

Books Hoarded

Honestly outside of a few ARCs and whatever I borrowed from the library or Kindle Unlimited as I use up the last of my three-month trial, I haven’t really been getting any books.

• The Last Fallen Star by Graci Kim (ARC) – So I told myself I wouldn’t request an ARC until I catch up on all of my overdue ARCs before I end up with 300+ somehow, but here I am requesting one ARC. (To be fair, I’ve actually been pretty good about not requesting any ARCs; I only have a handful for 2021.)
• The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna – I’ve been pushing this off for the past month or so trying to find a good time to read this but I think I finally caved. I can’t say the same for the rest of the holds that tried to break free, though…
• A Pho Love Story by Loan Le – So I have this habit of starting books when I’m hungry.
• The Ones We’re Meant to Find by Joan He (ARC for blog tour) – I enjoyed Descendant of the Crane, so I’m excited to see what Joan He has in store with her sophomore novel!
• You’ve Reached Sam by Dustin Thao (ARC) – Thanks, Jayati, for enabling me to not go down on my ARCs (but no one’s going to convince me to ever have more than 20 at a time). Honestly, though, the synopsis reminds me of Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds and that book made me want to cry.
  • *whispers* But also so far everyone who’s read this has had their heart destroyed and I too want my heart to be destroyed sometimes.

Books Devoured

Unlike February, I got quite a bit of reading done in March… and by a bit, I really mean I got carried away and read way more than I would on average*, with a total of 21 books being read.

Me @ me: who the hell are you and what did you do to the real Sophia?

*Average for me is 3-6 books a month.

We won’t talk about my ARC progress (none, but I won’t beat myself up over it), though. Let me enjoy my moment. But like in January, due to the number of books I’ve read this month, I’ll list only a few.

• Poisoned by Jennifer Donnelly (Audiobook) – I enjoyed Stepsister a lot, both the first time I read it and the second time recently in audiobook form. But Poisoned wasn’t as enjoyable as Stepsister.
• I Love You So Mochi by Sarah Kuhn (Audiobook) and Smoke and Key by Kelsey Sutton – both of these were rereads and I think I’ll probably read them for a third time at some point if I’m up for it.
• Tell Me No Lies by A.V. Geiger – Enjoyed it, but I feel like there were loose ends that didn’t feel 100% satisfactory for me. I think I mainly read this for the sake of finishing the duology.
• A Pho Love Story by Loan Le – Part of me wanted to listen to the audiobook, but another part of me decided against it (I might reread it later this year though). Either way, I did enjoy this (especially the food, which honestly, I haven’t had Vietnamese food in a long while), but I personally felt like it was too long.
• Hex Hall and Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins (Audiobook) – I can honestly say I don’t remember jack shit but my Goodreads said I read them this year.
• Apprentice by Rachel E. Carter – I just realized I’m ending my Kindle Unlimited membership in favor of Scribd (because I use that way more) so uh… I’m trying to make the most of it by reading the rest of The Black Mage series after First Year.

Fandom Assemble

Media we’ve consumed and enjoyed, or what we’re looking forward to that’s been announced lately.

March has been a really good month for music (at least in K-Pop) since there are a lot of bops that were released. I’m still a little stuck listening to Kingdom’s debut mini-album with my favorite being Night Air (although I actually like the entire album), and I’ve roped Clo into listening as well (because why not be the cause like I was the cause of ATEEZ and K-Pop being in her life). But I’ve also been listening to other songs as well from older faves like TVXQ! and U-Kiss. Here are some favorites:

• Paranoia by Kang Daniel (technically it was a February release)
• Seoul by Ghost9 – Not going to lie, I actually like Seoul better than their debut.
• Get Away by Verivery
• Bad Habits by Cravity
• Not Over by MCND
• Ponzona by Purple Kiss – I think I might have their debut mini-album on repeat next 💀

The Breakdown

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

A repeat of my usual routine of being a potato consisting of playing games, napping, working and watching maybe too many YouTube videos. I don’t think there’s much to say beyond that other than I’ve been slacking on Korean and I haven’t touched a single lesson since…

*checks notes*

December 2020. Oops. But I’ve been keeping up with bullet journaling and playing with different layouts now that I’ve sort of found what works for me (I even got mildliners finally).

Let’s talk, bookwyrms: How was your March? Have you also been possessed by reading somehow?