Scary books to read this month| Books with Fall Vibes!

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Last year there was a similar theme: Books That Give Off Autumn Vibes, so I already shared with you my obsession over yellow books. This week’s TTT [Top Ten Tuesday hosted by Jaine @ThatArtsyReaderGirl] is supposed to be about book covers with fall colors / vibes, but to do something a little bit different from what I did before.

Autumn will always associate with “cozy” for me, but considering that we are in October and Halloween is slowly approaching. Besides, this whole month I promised to share with you tons of Spooky / Witchy / Halloweeny reads. It’s only right that my take on this TTT theme is also centered around Halloween and the spookiest month of the year.

October 2020 Monthly Goals | The ARCs and new releases on my TBR!

I’m so excited for October! It’s going to be a great month, I can feel it! It’s finally getting colder. I started to light up candles around the house, and it’s no longer too hot to cuddle with a book under a blanket. 🍁

My plans for October got kind of ruined but how little I read in September. So instead of focusing on spooky reads as I was planning to, I will have to set other priorities for myself. But it’s totally cool, because I recently got approved for some amazing ARCs that I can’t wait to dive in!

September 2020 Monthly Goals |It’s all about fantasy!

Remember last month I said that I’d take things easy and then ended up reading 8 books? Well, September was going to be the month to read LESS books, but then I suddenly received a bunch of ARCs from NetGalley. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

I’m very close to reaching 100 books on Goodreads so that’s something I will easily accomplish. But I’m still planning to take things slower and focus on larger books. This year I’ve been trying to stay on top of the series I start and I think it’s actually somewhat working. Summer was a little bit hectic, with the Reading Rush, ARCs and just things to catch up on, I put the series aside. I’m about to change this with my new set of monthly goals!

August 2020 Monthly Goals | The month of catching up!

I don’t want to sound exactly the same every single month, but WOW! how is it August already??? Time passes so quickly! Usually, August would mean NEWTs Magical Read-a-thon hosted by the one and only G @BookRoast, however, this year due to the multiple comments made by J.K. Rowling about the trans community, G decided to step away from Harry Potter theme. NEWTs will still happen this month, but very low-key, and there won’t be any usual hosting and activities as before. 

The Reading Rush | The shortest books I could find!

Hi, guys! The last couple of weeks have been so hectic that I feel like I haven’t talked to you in a while. I had a big chunk of my posts written and scheduled for July, so this is the first one I’m writing in a long time! 

My reading has been going pretty well so far. As you know, I’m traveling through books this month, and I already visited 3 out of 4 destinations. I hope to read the final book and travel to Afganistan this week, so I can start The Reading Rush week with a freshly set TBR 😀 

July 2020 Monthly Goals | Four weeks of traveling!

Phew! It’s officially summer in Portugal. The temperature is rising every day, and I still haven’t gone to the beach this summer. I even put it on my to-do list, but there are always more important things to do. 

This year, with everything that is happening, I won’t be traveling anywhere. But I really love visiting new places and I still wanted to entertain this idea. So I decided to create a little challenge for myself. I dug through my large TBR pile and found books set in different countries.

June 2020 Monthly Goals | Getting NetGalley ARCs under control!

 I’m very curious to see your June TBRs!

There are so many amazing books coming out this summer. Of course, I couldn’t resist and requested them all! I never expected for all of my requests to get approved, but that happened and now my ARCs TBR is soooo big that I feel the need to dedicate at least one month to clear it out a bit.

The Stuck at Home Book Tag | Currently reading & future TBR!

Hello! I hope you all are doing well! Are you almost done with college / school assignments? Are you looking forward to the summer vacation?

It’s finally proper summer in Portugal. We went from wearing light jackets and trousers to wearing bikinis in just a day, and I’m still trying to adjust to that sudden change of weather. The good thing is that we are actually allowed to go to the beach [as long as we respect the established distancing rules]. My plan for this weekend is to find the remotest place, bring my book and stay there for as long as possible.

May 2020 Monthly Goals | I will never learn how to make small TBRs

May the force be with you! I hope you’re having a wonderful Star Wars day! It’s time for me to share my reading, blogging, and life goals with you for the month of May! And uuuuh, I’m so excited! 

Do you remember me saying that this year I was going to read less than usual? Yeah… well, that’s not happening. I’ve been reading way more than usual, and I’m going with it for now. I think in May things will slowly get back to normal, which means crazy work hours, but I’m being hopeful that I can find some extra hours in my days to consume all of these books. 

7 Books I want to read because… | Book covers inspired by Russian Folk Art!

There is something so appealing about Russian folk art inspired covers, isn’t there? The very first book done in this style that caught my attention was «The Bear and the Nightingale» by Katherine Arden. I was lucky to get the ARC of the first book through NetGalley, but when I fell in love with the story and saw the final book cover from Del Rey (Penguin UK) I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep if I don’t buy the book immediately to display on my shelf.

April 2020 Monthly Goals | Excited to read all books for O.W.L.s Magical Readathon!

Hello, fellow booklovers! I hope all of you are doing great and are ready to dive right into O.W.L.s Magical Readathon in April! 

O.W.L.s and Booktube-a-thon are my favorite read-a-thons out there and I always make time for them. This year I wasn’t sure about OWLs as I had a deadline for the deliverance of reports at the end of April, but with COVID, social isolation and Courts not working full time, the deadline and my exams are pushed for the end of this year (maybe?). We don’t know quite yet what will happen, there have been a few decisions here and there from the Lawyers’ Bar but nothing concrete just yet. This definitely gives me more time to read and blog, and also gives me more time to study. I can now include some books I was planning to read for the internship but didn’t think I would have time for them. 

How to Find Motivation & Fight your way out of a Reading Slump!

Hi, friends! As promised in my yesterday’s post – March 2020 Wrap Up, where I talked about the reading slump that has been haunting me since the end of February, here is a list of things I’ve been doing to try and fight my way out of this horrible feeling! 

This is still work in progress, but considering that I’m planning to finish my 11th and 12th books of this month, I think it’s actually going well and I hope that before OWLs begin I will be fully excited to emerge myself in numerous magical worlds! 

O.W.L. Magical Readathon 2020 | A very analytical approach!

Following one of my New Year’s resolutions (i.e. read less study more), I planned to skip as many read-a-thons this year as I could, but I couldn’t make myself skip O.W.L.s Magical Readathon that takes place in April! O.W.L.s and Booktubeathon are the only two reading events I usually participate, and it felt wrong breaking the traditions.

To make my life a little bit easier, I decided to go through each career guide and pick one profession that requires fewer books. This resulted in me doing all the math so you wouldn’t have to! 😀 My career choice will also impact my “Spring TBR”, so I will be joining Top Ten Tuesday theme (partially) as well!

The Reasons why I don’t Re-Read books anymore!

Every time I see someone re-reading their favorite books, I get transported to my teens when all I did was re-read books over and over again. To the point that I knew them all by heart. The most notable re-reads back then were (1) the Harry Potter series, (2) The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, (3) children’s detective novels and (4) some witty and funny adult crime fiction. 

I wanted to justify my re-reading phase with the fact that I didn’t have that many unread books on my shelves, but that’s not entirely true. My grandfather spent most of his life collecting books, which was very difficult to do in the URSS. Most of the available books were propaganda, and foreign authors were forbidden for many years. There even was an “underground” book trade business. 

The Worst Books of 2019 | And why I didn’t rate some books on Goodreads!

Christmas is officially over. I hope you all had a wonderful time, ate tons of delicious food, yummy chocolates and found books under the Christmas tree! 

From incredible Christmas Eve dinner surrounded by friends and family to thoughtful gifts that made me tear up, this Christmas was incredible! We then spent Christmas day in the most chilled way ever, ate some more food, went for a walk in the sun, watched the Harry Potter movie and I even managed to read the first book AND play the first Video Game. 😀