So Spring 2020 will be forever synonymous with COVID, and the turning to comforts to get us through. For me, I delved into some fun YA books and was very grateful that I still had the Harry Potter audiobooks to provide some stability and familiarity each day.
Here’s a round-up of the 13 books I read during these turbulent months. It may not be many, but I am proud I was able to keep drudging through no matter what.
For the first time, audiobooks made up half of my reading this month. I became obsessed with Stephen Fry’s readings of Harry Potter and raced through book 2, 3 and 4 this month, which was a refreshing nostalgia trip I highly recommend. Has it been a while since you reread Harry Potter? Get to it! You may be as surprised as I was, in just how truly good it still is.
Meanwhile, for physical books, I got stuck into some YA and read an exciting ARC. So, a pretty successful reading month… perhaps inspired by the cold and dreary month of January?!
As the nights draw colder and darker, October was the calm before the storm that is Winter and the related festivities. October has always been a good month for me. Historically it would be the start of a new term, a new beginning, full of bright-eyed hope and expectations. But now, I’m an ‘adult’ there are no summer holidays or new starts.
This year it was more of the same, but that stability meant I could perhaps appreciate what else October has to offer. Those gorgeous autumnal leaves never get old, and now I walk through a park each day on my commute, I get to appreciate them even more.
Oops I did it again…
Starting a full-time job for the first time has had a massive impact on every other aspect of my life. Duh. I had anticipated this, but by September I really felt the brunt of all these life changes. I moved house at the end of August, and as I type this at the start of October, I have yet to fully settle in. I am almost two months into my job and I am still loving it – but have yet to find a routine I am happy with when it comes to work/life balance.
Each weekend I seemed to have busy plans, and so in October I hope to reclaim my weekends, to build habits and routines I feel happier with long-term. This whole adult thing really does take up a lot of time and unfortunately a lot of things had to be dropped in September. I have scaled down as much as I can in many areas, but one area I refuse to is reading. If anything, I want to increase my monthly average back up to around 6-10 books a month.
This month could have been worse! I read some fantastic books. September’s reading was quality over quantity for the most part. So while things were slower than past months, I still had a great month…
A world where instead of becoming President, George Washington was made king. How would present day America look with a royal family? And how do the family cope with all that royalty has to offer them?
American Royals by Katherine McGee explores this fun premise with the predictably you expect, but still keeps its sense of fun.
Read my full review of American Royals.
