#reading snake

[agirlnamedhagrid]

Reading Snake Update! - Month 4 🐍

August was another tight month for personal reading - I only finished 8 books and just over 2,700 pages. 📚 Four of those books were by new-to-me authors and I found a couple of series to follow! 🤓 My favorite read this month was A Little Too Familiar by Lish McBride. Even though it had some copyediting issues, the story had a lot of heart and the world of the Uncanny was clever and immersive.

Here's hoping that as the school year gets going I can get back on track with my usual reading speed 🤞 and there are several books I am eagerly awaiting coming out this fall 🍂🥰

[agirlnamedhagrid]

I am VERY excited about my new pet/long-term crochet project that is officially starting tomorrow!

I'm turning 30, which feels a little odd and even though I swore I wouldn't be someone who gets weird about getting older, this year just hit me and it's strange. It is. But whatever. Where there is strangeness there is space for art. I feel like that's something close to some famous quote or another?

Anyways. Temperature blankets have become a really big thing in the crafting community. And while maybe I will do one someday, this didn't feel like the year for that. Plus, I've been way more into amigurumi lately.

And then. THEN.

I saw someone in one of my yarn groups do a temperature snake. And I saw someone else in a different group do an embroidery reading log.

And inspiration struck. 🐍📚🧶

Behold, the beginning of my reading log snake! I am going to track every book I read between my 30th and 31st birthdays. I haven't tracked how many books I have read in a year since the days of Pizza Hut's personal pizza reading incentive program, but since I doubt it's 365, I'm going to do three rows on the snake for every 1 book I finish.

I'll definitely post progress photos as I go. Since I haven't decided on a name for my eventual new friend, I'll be using "reading snake" as the tag.

And behold! My mighty* organizational skills, brought to you by Target's modular bins!

*Author's note: my organizational skills are honestly legendarily abysmal when it comes to home storage, but bins help and this project pushed me to make a portable kit situation to manage it for the year.

Pattern credits: Kelvin the Temperature Snake by CBFiberworks

[agirlnamedhagrid]

December 🐍🧶 Update

My December reading recovered a bit thanks to taking some time off work for the holidays. I started the month with a reread of Nora Roberts's Come Sundown and ended the year with T. J. Klune's Ravensong. I am very impatiently waiting for the rest of the Green Creek series to be re-released so I can pick them up from the library. While I *could* get them on Kindle right now, I am trying to resist in anticipation of picking up hardcover copies of the whole series. We'll see how long I manage to hold out.

I also borrowed Check & Mate from the library. I don't read a ton of YA, but I found this to be really satisfying and delightful. The characters felt true to age without feeling overly juvenile and the emotions were rich and layered. Another great Ali Hazelwood novel 💖

[agirlnamedhagrid]

January 🧶🐍 Update

And now we're officially all caught up on my reading snake!!! January was pretty busy for me - I started the new year with an ear infection, chaperoned a high school trip to England and France, came down with covid, and got another ear infection.

I also finally got around to reading Fourth Wing after the nagging of many friends. And they were right, I loved it. Especially since Violet and I have a lot of health issues in common - it was great to see her be a badass in a magical world without a magical fix erasing her chronic illness.

I also tried a new paranormal author that just didn't do it for me, although I did power through the book in hopes it would get better. It didn't, but I found myself liking the second and third Charming Cove books (by Linsey Hall) even more than the first one! So that's a net win.

My reading has slowed down again in February, but I'm finally feeling well enough to crochet other projects, which means less reading time 🤣

[agirlnamedhagrid]

November 🐍 Update

That's November wrapped with 4 books, which feels low to me (and the data backs that up). It should be noted that I started My Roommate is a Vampire just before Halloween, so it carried me through the spooky festivities quite nicely. It should also be confessed that my "sports romance" category has this far been entirely hockey romances 😂

I've really enjoyed Once Upon A Book Club's Sweet Halloween boxes the past couple years - they're always a treat and well worth it. I found the company when they did a beautifully curated Bridgerton collection, and I've picked up a few one off boxes since that I've quite enjoyed ☺️

[agirlnamedhagrid]

October Snake Update 🐍

Yeah, yeah, it's February. See my last post re: me being sick for months. Right now I'm dealing with what is either my second or fourth ear infection in that timeframe, so chillax.

The three paranormal rereads were Lori Handeland's Sisters of the Craft trilogy, which are pretty fun and a bit of a departure even from her usual paranormal style. Plus, there's some fun Nightcreatures universe connections 😛

[agirlnamedhagrid]

Reading Snake Update! 🐍

Month 3 (July) is over and stitched 🧶 I only read 8 novels and 1 massive anthology due to editing projects and issues with my AC and crawl space.

This is the first month that I read fewer than 4,000 pages - only clocking around 3,200 📚 But while I read fewer books than in May or June, I read works by a massive variety of authors, including several new-to-me authors, and also read across several different genres 🤓 The reread this month was Ali Hazelwood's Love, Theoretically - it really didn't take me long to want to revisit Elsie and Jack 🥰

I really recommend Tricia Levenseller's Daughter of the Pirate King/Siren Queen books and I'm looking forward to the third book releasing in November! 🧜🏻‍♀️🏝️

I've added a "sports [romance]" 🏆 category to the key since May since I've started on a hockey romance kick and have some upcoming releases on the horizon that I'm excited for. I also went ahead and stitched my first book of August (finished on August 1).

[agirlnamedhagrid]

Reading Snake Update: May 2023

It’s official! The first month of my reading-log-snake-for-my-30th-to-31st-birthdays has come to an end! I did actually finish all my rounds for the month on June 1, but Tumblr mobile kept failing to upload my post. Here’s hoping that the fourth time (and my laptop) is the charm!

More context under the cut - I have a top-down picture that will have to come in a later post because Tumblr hates me right now.

I read over 3,000 pages outside of my editing work in May. And actually ended up reading exclusively on my Kindle over the month. I’ve learned that Sorka hates me using my bedside lamp to read physical books at night, and since May was wacky for both of us personally (and me professionally) I respected the puppy princess’s preference. Unfortunately for her, I do have several hardcover editions I plan to read this year, and since I have never found a reading light I don’t find truly obnoxious she’ll have to get over herself on occasion.

I won’t be posting a list of every book I read each month, but I do like the idea of doing one of these wrap-up graphics each month. While I don’t generally read books that I don’t like on some level, this month I ended up reading several that weren’t what I expected and weren’t ones I would recommend, so I’d rather just not mention them at all. If anyone has specific questions or curiousities, I’ll answer an ask about it, but that’s unlikely since this blog is pretty much just me screaming into the void while a few friends stand at various distances within hearing range.

Also, I’m already finding myself feeling weird/guilty about my snake not being “pretty enough” when I read lots of the same genre back to back (like that run of 4 paranormals in May), but I’m going to do my best to let that go and let the snake be whatever is a reflection of my taste and preferences this year. And if he’s mostly paranormal aquamarine, then so be it.