January 2021 Wrap-up

Wow. I haven't posted anything in 2 years. To put it shortly, those 2 years were rough. Last year was COVID and more. The year before that was a string of events that bled into one another. But things are a little better now. I don't remember how I used to find time and write blog posts before, so here's me trying again with some stolen time.

But something's never changed. I kept on reading and writing. With reading, I managed to achieve my 50 books goal last year because I included volumes of manga and short stories. Broken Throne by Victoria Aveyard was the last book I read for 2020. It seemed fitting. The true end to the Red Queen Series. The happy ending I was hoping for.

For 2021, I'm also aiming 50 books. I don't want to pressure myself and just take it easy. If I surpass it then that's good. If not, then it's also good. 

I like planning what I read and how many pages/percentages I have to go through everyday. It's satisfying to hit those. I found that it's easy to spread out hard books daily and that I could finish contemporary/romance novels over the weekend. 

I also finally caved in and bought a Kindle last December. It's just the kindle basic but reading on it is less distracting plus the screen is bigger than my phone. I want to make a separate post about it and I probably will in the future. But I just want to say that I now prefer ebooks than physical books because it's cheaper and it has built-in dictionary, I can change fonts size (big plus); it has built-in lights.

For January, I've finished 8 books! Okay, one was a poetry book and the other was a short story but still. It's double of what I was going for.

The Start of Me and You is a YA Romance, a bit heavy (grief) but good ending.  It's currently on sale (the ebook version) for $1.99 (around P100) only. It's definitely a steal.

I got this for free last December. It's not that good. Intriguing and sensual but I'm a little bothered because the girl is barely legal. Lots of sex but not much romance. It's currently $2.99. A very quick read.

I've been putting off finishing this series because I was mad at the ending of the second book.
After I got past the first act, I couldn't put it down.The ending was satisfactory. I love this series.

I've never been a fan of historical romances but I guess I haven't read enough of that genre to say much. I loved this book. It makes me want to explore other books. It's just $4.99 on Kindle.

This book came at the right time. I'm beyond glad that I got this book when I saw it on twitter. 

The art was also beautiful. It's only $0.99 on Kindle. Just around more or less P48. 

This book is still free on Kindle. The first book in the Briar U series but it's a standalone. 

I liked The Deal better but it's a quick, funny, steamy read.

I liked Book 2 the best. This is the last book. 

Ally Carter is still awesome tho.

This book surprised me. It made more sense than the other writing craft books I've read.
I got this on sale because I don't think I'll ever buy a $14 ebook.

As for my writing, I haven't posted any new chapters online because it's still a very rough draft. I didn't finish writing a book last year. I've only written for a few months and then stopped again for three months. I started writing again this January. It wasn't much. Just 5090 words. But it's still something.

I found that I can't write after every quarter because of too much deadlines. I also discovered that I write faster during 20 minutes sprints. I'm not aiming but I want to (maybe in the future) write at least 30k words a month. For now, my goal is not to have long gaps without writing anyway and to finish the draft of ULF2 and another book by year end. Writing is not a sprint but a marathon. 

That's it for my January Wrap-up. See you on my February Wrap-up next month! Hopefully. Have a great weekend. 

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