Bookwyrming Thoughts

Musings from bookwyrms

Weekly Wrap-Up: I’m Attempting a Pinterest Contest

Hi bookwyrms and friends!

did you miss me sherlock

I feel like I’ve been using this GIF a lot lately because it has been a time and a half since I last wrote a weekly wrap-up back in March? Yep, March indeed. So I figured I’d slide in this week to talk about books, things and life because why not?

Also, hey look, there’s a new weekly wrap up header! Some rebranding has been happening.

This Week’s (and Last Week’s) Posts

Um, I have no clue where my UBB Wrap-Up option went, so this took a few minutes to find the shortcode. I’m doing great.

Also this week I’m launching a Pinterest contest for those who have always wanted to choose a topic for Bookending Winter but never hosted (or are not hosting this time)! Come share with me what you’re hoping to get this holiday season and enter for a chance to choose a topic when I kick off the quarterly event.

Book Haul

I definitely did not go ham on books because I’m on a book buying ban until I’m financially secure (which will hopefully be before or by May 2020), but I did get some books for review!

  • Parting Worlds by Kaitlyn Davis – The Once Upon a Curse series is by far one of my favorites of all time, and definitely a favorite retelling series of mine! I’m super excited to dive into the final book for the blog tour in the next few weeks.
  • The Raven and the Dove by Kaitlyn Davis – I snagged this on Netgalley! I’m ready to see what Kaitlyn Davis is up to next after her Once Upon a Curse series.

Other Books Hauled Recently

If I go back months at a time the list would be horrendously long (not as long as my TBR thankfully). I’ve been taking full advantage of the library and getting books… even though I now have about 8 books I due in about 4 weeks I should get around to.

falling stack of books
Live footage of me with way too many books

So we’ll just stick with review copies.

  • Don’t Read the Comments by Eric Smith – Um this book has a gamer protagonist and therefore that definitely interests me as someone who occasionally games.
  • The Iron Will of Genie Lo by F.C. Yee – *bangs keyboard with incoherent screeching noises* On a serious note, The Epic Crush of Genie Lo is one of my favorites from 2017 and I want to find out what happens next with my favorite tall and angry Asian.
  • The Seventh Sun by Lani Forbes – I was kind of hesitant to request this, but then I decided why not because 1) it’s a 2020 release I totally got this reading thing down and 2) mythology!
  • Find Me Their Bones by Sara Wolf – Um… somehow I’m in a fantasy reading slump so even if this is the sequel to one of my favorite books from last year… I’m a struggle bus. Actually, I’m a struggle bus in general since July.

Reading Life

Do genre reading slumps exist? Apparently, they do and I’m currently in a fantasy one. Honestly, that kind of sucks horribly because two of my upcoming blog tours are most definitely fantasy. You’d think that being some of my favorite authors would make it easier, but uh… look what happened with Soul of the Sword by Julie Kagawa.

Okay, that one is actually valid. But I am struggling with The Never Tilting World. Also, I’m reading six books right now. I thought it was less, but Goodreads does not necessarily lie. And to make things worse, there’s a book I started in May — May! 2019! — that I did not, in fact, get around to continuing. And to top that off, I definitely have not written a review for a review request from July or started two books from July. I actually feel really bad about this.

Everything is fine.

this is fine everything is fine

Narrator: Everything was, in fact, not fine.

Real Life

The whole big reason I dropped off blogging from like June (?) through September is I got an internship over the summer! And I also worked my regular job, so it was really my first year of college all over again as a senior because two jobs are not fun at all. Either way, I’ve never dropped below 6 posts a month since I started blogging and it felt weird.

But it was also necessary because a mean little rock from a highway decided it was time for my car to be replaced and decided to break my windshield. So we kind of spent the rest of August (um, that’s why there’s only one and it would be nothing if I didn’t have a blog tour) searching for a replacement. And it would’ve been nice if someone told me that I should’ve gotten a credit card to build my history back in freshman year, so do yourself a favor and read Tiffany’s post about what she wished she knew before she started college. Because I wish I could have known this. (Also please use any credit cards responsibly.)

I’m still salty about that rock, though.

spongebob sad crying

And then the whole big reason why I’m suddenly writing 3-4 posts a week is that I’m now using Bookwyrming Thoughts for a class. Otherwise, I would’ve turned into a fried bookwyrm for the rest of the semester because while I finished my internship in August, I only published 3 posts in September. I have a hard time getting back into a blogging routine after I drop off, so this is definitely a nice thing to try and get back into blogging (even if by force).

I really need a vacation.

Talk to me, bookwyrms! How was your week? Have you ever done a Pinterest contest? Are you on a book buying too?

weekly-wrap-up-attempting-pinterest-contest-pin
Sophia
Blogger at Bookwyrming Thoughts · Website · Read More Posts

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.

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31 comments

  1. I’m sorry about your car, Sophia! And I don’t understand American credit scores – they are very different from how they are here in Europe. Here, they look more at how we spend the money we earn, and if we’re able to save anything… Not if we have a credit card we hardly ever use and always pay the bill on.
    Genre slumps are real – I agree with you. For the longest time, I didn’t read anything YA, and suddenly, I’ve started again. I hope the fantasy books you have to read will appeal to you – maybe clean your reading palate in between?
    Have a wonderful week ahead and happy reading.

    • I wish it were that way here! I got taught that if you don’t have the money, you probably shouldn’t be buying it in the first place (although in the case of a house or a car, most people don’t have the money).

      Thankfully the two books I have to read for a blog tour are from two of my favorite authors and I’m hoping the slump won’t carry over to them. Hope you have a great week, Linda!

  2. Oh no sorry to hear about the rock and the windshield! Glad no one was hurt though. I think you can be forgiven for not posting much, you sound like you’ve had a lot going on! And yes I get genre reading slumps too. I hate it because it takes me forever to get over them too, seems like. Anyway, hope yours is short- lived! And have a great weekend!

    • Haha, I did! Thankfully it’s died down somewhat and it’s more of, “here’s a lot of schoolwork try to keep up, now, yeah?” as usual during the school year. I’m hoping it’ll be short-lived as well! Unfortunately it’s been going on for about a month?

  3. If it makes you feel any better, I put down Terry Pratchett’s “Going Postal” a couple of years ago, and just haven’t picked it up again. One of those situations where you want to take the remaining books in a series slowly once the author dies because you’ll never have a first time reading that book again…and there won’t be any more after you reach the last one.
    Sorry to hear about your financial issues! Working two jobs plus school sounds almost impossible. I did two jobs over a summer once, and that was bad enough without having to juggle a course load over top of it. I hope things get better soon so you can relax!

    • It was! I think doing it my first year (and part of second) in college brought my grades down a little. (I’m still surprised I even survived and it was intact as well it was.)

  4. It has been a long time since I spoke to you Soph and am loving the new header. I hope your school is treating you well. Will catch up soon. I hope you have a great week ahead.

    • Gayathri! We haven’t spoken in ages! I hope you’re doing well and life isn’t throwing you any lemons. <3

  5. Good luck with both jobs AND school. Juggling both while still trying to make time to blog is hard but I hope you put what’s best for you first and it’s okay to take a step back to balance things in real life and online YOU CAN DO IT! And yes, genre reading slump is definitely a thing. Like you, it’s fantasy for me too. I’m scared to click the link to Soul of the Sword because I picked that one up and had to put it on pause at 40-something-ish% because I wasn’t enjoying it as much as the first book

    • I don’t think you’re the only one who had trouble going through Soul of the Sword! I didn’t enjoy it as much as I hoped I would and if I recall, 40% was a rough patch for me too. I’m thankfully down to one job now (learned to cut my other one after my grades suffered) and finished my internship back in August.

  7. Hey, long time no see! Welcome back to The Sunday Post. 🙂
    Genre slumps are a real thing. I tend to read genres until I’m completely burned out on them and then move onto something else – rinse and repeat forever (I imagine).

    Sorry to hear a rock broke your car! That sucks utterly. I hate it when my car breaks especially when it’s not something you could have avoided. I have the worst luck with things puncturing my tires but it hasn’t happened in a while… Oh look, I’ve probably just jinxed myself! lol

    • Hey Nicci! Hope everything is going well for you and it’s good to be back (sort of). I’m the exact same with genres outside of my preferred ones, which is kind of why I try to mix them up occasionally. I guess I’m back to square one with a new strategy to combat this, haha.

      Oh no, let’s hope you didn’t jinx yourself! I have the worst timing usually – the day before I fixed my wiper motor (but of course the universe isn’t nice to my wallet).

  8. I hate it when random events like a rock damaging a windscreen happens! I hope the reading slump over the fantasy books eases up very soon – they are always horrible to endure – and you find during the coming week you start to get back your blogging writing rhythm, again:)).

    • Thanks – I hope so as well. At least, I hope I’ll be back blogging regularly after the class project is over. 🙂

  10. Hey, 6 posts a month are great. 4 are great, for that matters. I’m aware that you used to be more productive, but that’s what happens to us sad little adults. Well, I mean, not ALL of us (*looks at Sam’s blog*).

    I hope things will smooth out soon – hopefully before May!

    On a side note…your blog thinks I’m someone else. I had to replace Shelleyrae’s name/email/blog with mine, and I’m still seeing a list of posts among which I should choose one that I suppose are HER posts LOL. First the emojis, then this. Your blog hates me *cries*.

    • Ahahaha, Sam is a Queen and Legend however will us adults compare to them in blogging stamina.

      Oh no, that’s just rude of the blog. You’re very much not Shelleyrae; you’re Roberta, the one I bid good morning/afternoon/night every time I get the chance to. (Secretly, blogs are trolls sometimes. Did I say that too loud?)

  12. I hope you get more balance now. Credit is a rough and crazy thing. Also when if you ever marry make sure they don’t just drop you off the face of the earth and put everything in your husband’s name. That happened to me and I owned the house and had been there 10 years before I met him and he was not an owner of the house! But the utility company acted like I didn’t exist and wouldn’t talk to me. Sorry, rant over.

    I am also having some of the reading slump of which you speak. I have multiple books at like, 60% on Goodreads, which is not typical. In fact I was having a format slump in only getting through audiobooks and not ebooks, because I feel asleep at night and it’s worse with the time change.

    Have a lovely week and enjoy some of your reads! (Also I get tons of books from the library which I don’t put in my post, like 10 a week or so)

    Anne – Books of My Heart Here is my Sunday Post   

    • Ooooh, interesting to know! Thank you for that. That’s so rude of your utility company and I’m sorry you had to go through that.

      Hope you get through your reading slump soon! I feel the exact same way at night lately with falling asleep and I don’t think the time change is helping me that much either.

  13. Yay for the class where you get to use the blog because it means we get to read more of your wonderful posts. But yeah, I can see how working two jobs would definitely be plenty enough to keep you busy! I hope you survived in one piece. Ooh, all the lovely review copies. I haven’t heard of any of them, but I have not been up to speed on new releases as I mostly am reading my backlist titles. And I am so in a fantasy slump too DD:

    Olivia-S @ Olivia’s Catastrophe

    • Aww thank you. I did! Kind of. I’ve been trying to read backlist titles as well, but it’s been a little difficult due to my slump… all the titles I’ve been getting are fantasy. Here’s to hoping both of us get over our slumps soon!

  14. I am excited about Don’t Read the Comments and Iron Will. I hope we both love them. And, yes! I went through an SFF slump, and now really only read anything SciFi or Fantasy sparingly. Glad you can blog for class, and two jobs and school is definitely a valid reason for not having the time to blog.

  15. Oh, you’re using your blog for a class? fun!! Nice to hear from you though. I am so excited about Find Me Their Bones…I need to get a copy ASAP, as I loved Bring Me Their Hearts, and I’m not always a huge fantasy fan. Sorry you’re in a bit of a genre slump though.

    -Lauren

    • I am! I’m enjoying what I can of Find Me Their Bones outside of the slump and I hope you’ll get around to it soon.

  16. The Iron Will of Genie Lo!!!! SO excited for that one. I feel like I’ve been checking when it will come out FOREVER.

    That sucks about your car. We live near a lot of rock slide zones and I’m terrified this will happen to me.

    I’m well beyond my college years but that’s a great post you linked to.

    Karen @ For What It’s worth

    • ME TOO. I think at one point it was supposed to come out this year but then they pushed it off and now it’s finally coming out soon in January 2020! Oh no, I hope that doesn’t happen to your car one day!

    • You are NOT a horrible friend, Kal. 🥺 You are amazing and you have been dealing with personal issues for the past few months, so I definitely don’t expect you to realize! Also, even if you weren’t dealing with personal issues, people are forgetful and that is completely okay. That doesn’t make you less amazing. ❤

      Plus I didn’t exactly announce it to the entire world and maybe mentioned it once or twice.