November Wrap Up – The weird month where I feel like I’m not reading, then end up reading more than usual

Posted on by Ashleigh

november-wrap-up

November. The month that begins with an onslaught of sporadic fireworks. The month where winter begins to settle in, grabbing the bones of us here in the UK, and lies with us for the long run. Fog and frost become a daily occurrence. We have only 6 hours or so of real daylight. Step outside and instantly your cheeks are flushed, fingers stiff, and you’ll be glad for extra layers of clothing.

But inside is a different matter. Inside is where I (and most bookworms) thrive on these freezing days. November was the month where my bedroom became my cocoon of warmth. At some point every day, you could find me wrapped in 5 layers of blankets, cuddling a hot water bottle and cat simultaneously while reading a book by fairy-light.

And so, November was a true bookworm month for me. Even if I didn’t read any more than usual, every comfort my heart longs for – blankets, hot water bottles, warm drinks while fog smothers the outside world – was available to me once again. Every moment of the day I wanted to get cosy and read. And now here we are – getting closer to Christmas, might I add.

So let’s see what November brought…

There’s also a video version of this post if you’d like to see, combined with my December TBR! Click here if you want to see!

PS. Do you like the new intro? Thought I’d try the scenic route rather than just throwing you all in. Let me know if you like!

*ahem* anyway

wrap up - books

I read SEVEN books in November! Which is great for me! 😀 It was a weird month. I felt like I was reading really slowly, and not getting anywhere…and then ended up reading more? Someone please explain to me how that works.

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Frostblood

by Elly Blake

frostblood

Rated 3/5 stars – [Review coming 12/12/16]

I received this ARC a while ago, but decided to keep it until we were closer to the release date. That time finally came. So. This was a good read. It was entertaining. I’d have even liked a little more from it, you know like little details? But one thing put me off, and that’s the fact it was SO similar to another popular series to me…but you’ll see in my review.

Amazon | Goodreads

Illusion

by Nadette Rae Rodgers

illusion

Rated 4/5 stars – [Review]

I loved this one as a quick little read. Short, snappy and interesting, I really liked the concept behind this book. There’s a lot of mystery and confusion between what’s a dream and what’s reality – and for once it’s actually a good thing to be confused. Trust me. Though admittedly, I did want just a few more answers. But that’s what the next book is for!

Amazon | Goodreads

After You

by Jojo Moyes

after-you

Rated 1.5/5 stars – [Review]

Aaaaaand disappointment of the year award goes too…After You! Actually wait no – you can’t be that disappointed if you didn’t have high hopes in the first place, right?

Bit bleak, but I didn’t like this book. It wasn’t a bad book, I just thought Me Before You should definitely have been left as a standalone. And quite frankly, this ruined the first book for me.

Amazon | Goodreads

Stars Above

by Marissa Meyer

stars-above

Rated 4/5 stars – [Review]

I finally read this book and finished The Lunar Chronicles!

I really enjoyed this little novella bind-up. It was nice to revisit the world and get those small snippets more of the characters we all love. Though not all of the stories were necessarily needed (in my opinion), it was a quick read and it definitely wasn’t a bother to get to those stories.

Amazon | Goodreads

Between Shades Of Gray

by Ruta Sepetys

between-shades-of-gray

Rated 4/5 stars – [Review]

This is such a heartbreaking book. I both loved it and hated it for that reason. All the emotions.

I felt like I actually learned something with this book, because this showed a side of war I’d not heard much about beforehand. And I’m really appreciative of that, even if it did leave my heart heavy afterwards.
Amazon | Goodreads

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

by Laini Taylor

daughter-od-smoke-and-bone

Rated 4.5/5 stars – [Review coming 05/12/16]

I finally got round to starting this series, and I don’t know why I left it so long because I loved this first book! It had such a complicated sounding world, with different places woven together inside each other, and yet managed to stay interesting. I loved Karou as a main character, and how there’s such a huge focus on art. There’s not enough of that in books!
Amazon | Goodreads

Emma 

by Jane Austen

emma

Rated 3.5/5 stars – [Review coming 09/12/16]

I quite liked this one. I read it alongside an audiobook, which I think is a method I’m definitely going to stick to when it comes to reading classics. This one made me laugh, brought out exasperated sighs at the annoying characters, and left me smiling at the sheer ridiculousness sometimes. It was modern day drama – who likes who this time? – but a lot more sophisticated, and very entertaining.
Amazon | Goodreads

wrap up - currently reading

the-retribution-of-mara-dyer

Right now, I’m currently reading The Retribution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin. I actually started the month off with A Quiet Kind Of Thunder by Sara Barnard, but I finished it within two days so that’s already done.

But yeah, I’m finally going to finish this trilogy! Another series I’ll soon be able to tick off the extraordinarily long list of series I need to finish. I’ve picked this one up because I feel like I’m starting to go off the series…which sounds a bit odd. Why pick up a book you think you won’t enjoy anymore? Because I might catch it in time to still be interested. Hopefully I’ll enjoy this one as much as the first two, though with my dwindling interest and the mixed reviews, I’m very intrigued to see if that’s so.

wrap up -posts

Run-Over Posts from October

– The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich | Is it paranormal? Is it psychological? Well, it’s up to you to decide –

Discussions

– Let’s Talk: Can you rate a favourite book 5/5 stars if you find a problem with it? –

– Let’s Talk: The stages of our reading lives – your reading story –

– Let’s Talk: When are you classed as a “reviewer”? How do you decide which books to review? –

– Let’s Talk: Has book blogging and booktube become competitive? –

– Let’s Talk: Do you read reviews of books you haven’t read? Or haven’t heard of? –

Random

– The new fandom merchandise store you all need to know about (I mean just look at how suave the bear looks. Come on. How can you not?) –

– Rainy Day Reads: Recommendations of books to read when the weather is dismal & your inner bookworm can shine –

– Unanswered Book Questions: Because no matter how much we read, we don’t always have answers –

– *Shout after me* Don’t cringe away from hyped books…read them! –

wrap up - life

November was a difficult month for me, anxiety wise.

Quite a few events happened that are huge triggers for me. I’ll not go into it much, but basically I had to go to a couple of university open days in different cities (panicky because trains & getting lost), and I also had a mock interview (which shouldn’t have been panicky at all considering it was a mock, but hey-ho, I don’t control it).  I was basically wishing away November because all these came mid-way through and I just wanted them to be over. But you know what? It actually went fine.

One of the open days was in York. Which went better than expected because I absolutely adore it there.  I seriously want to make it a thing to go every Christmas – you know, once I can get over the train thing. The mock interview went fine, though there was lots of uncontrollable shaking beforehand. The other open day was at Leeds. That went fine too. Though getting lost numerous times, we made it back.

When getting home that day, I was sort of confessing my struggles of that week and explaining how proud I was of myself on snapchat & my instagram story…and let’s just say it got a bit emotional (meaning I cried from relief saying “I did it” over and over again). And the amount of people who sent me messages of support was so overwhelming to me

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Onto happier/less emotional things. 

One of the articles I wrote on my course at college was published on the local newspaper’s website! So that was exciting 😀

Another exciting thing, my booktube is well and truly up and running! By the time this post is up, I’ll have uploaded a Series I need to finish video, My Favourite Standalones, and of course my November Wrap – Up & December TBR video. I’ve come up with a whole bunch of video ideas, and I’m so pumped.

On the creative side – I added a few new photos of my book cover recreations to my art page, so feel free to check them out if you’re interested.

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Things I’m looking forward to!

I decided to add this little section in because there’s a whole lotta stuff that’s getting me excited 😀

1. CHRISTMASSSSSS

2. Seriously though, I love how festive everyone gets in December. I’m so excited to put up my decorations and start the countdown.

3. Filming my december videos!

4. The chance to start learning to play the piano (well, keyboard). I’m getting a keyboard for christmas and I’m so incredibly grateful that I can finally try my hand at it.

5. Bullet Journalling! Another thing I’ll be trying towards the end of December.

So there we have it! My month of November, all wrapped up!

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Have you read any of the books I read in November? What did you think?

How many books did you read this month? Which was your favourite of the month?

Did you buy any new books? How many and which ones? (feel free to link your haul!)

Did any interesting events happen this month for you? Visit anywhere nice? 

What are you currently reading, going into the month of December?

Also, let me know what you thought of the new intro!

Let me know in the comments!

Until next time…

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35 thoughts on “November Wrap Up – The weird month where I feel like I’m not reading, then end up reading more than usual”

  1. I liked After You slightly more than you did, but still agree that Me Before You should have been left as a standalone. I’m also dying to read the Mara Dyer series – how are you liking it so far? And in terms of your anxiety, just keep fighting and you can get through it. I know how it feels and it’s horrible sometimes, but you can do it 🙂

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    1. At least you enjoyed After You a bit more than I did, I’m glad for that! But yeah, some authors need to know when to just leave their books alone.
      So far I’ve really enjoyed the first two Mara Dyer books (I’m pretty sure I have reviews of them both on here if you’re interested further) and I found them both quite addictive, so I’m hoping the third will be the same for me 🙂 I’m only about 40 pages in so far so I can’t really say!

      And thank you! – don’t worry, I’m fighting it off every step of the way 😀

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  2. Learning the piano sounds like an excellent idea! I experience anxiety as well (starting to struggle again after some very stressful months) and playing piano is one of my absolute lifelines when I’m having a bad day, as well as reading of course. The music drowns out my thoughts and I have to concentrate when I’m learning a new piece, so the focus helps me a lot. Good luck and I hope you enjoy it! Also congrats on your train ride, you did it!

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    1. Thank you so so much ❤
      I never actually thought playing the piano might help me with that too! I just absolutely adore piano music and have wanted to play for years, so finally getting the chance to is making me incredibly happy to think about. Here's to hoping I get the hang of it!

      I hope your anxiety doesn't get too bad. Fight it off and be proud of yourself for those small moments ❤

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  3. Whoa, congrats on the published article!~
    And I’m glad that everything went fine for you ❤ University open days, interviews and everything like that can be so stressful, so it's good that everything was good in the end ❤
    With Daughter of Smoke and Bone – it's been so long since I read it that I don't remember much of it, but I do remember thinking it was AWESOME, so I'm glad you thought so too! 🙂

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  5. It seems like you read a lot of interesting books last month. The Ruta Sepetys book has caught my eye before… Maybe nows the time to read it!

    Also congrats on your article getting published! 😊

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  6. How have I still not watched your youtube videos? Heading over as soon as I send this comment to catch up. I’m currently in my final year of university and suffer from Anxiety, I decided to commute from home to a uni an hour away from me so I could be close to my family etc but if you have any questions then i’m here if you would like to talk. 🙂

    You had an amazing blogging and reading month! I need to up my game XD. x

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    1. Ahhh thanks for checking my channel out – it means a lot!!
      I hope your final year is going well 🙂 I’d probably end up commuting too if I lived that far away…though I’d have to get over the train panicking first aha! My first choice uni is literally 10 minutes away from my house though so if all goes well I shouldn’t have to move out anyway!

      And you don’t need to up your game just because of this 😆 I just have a lot of spare time on my hands ahaha!

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      1. Ah 10 minutes is wonderful! I still live at home too and whilst travelling the hour is sometimes a pain honestly coming home after a stressful day is great. Fingers crossed for you lovely, like I said if you have any questions or want to talk about your anxiety or anything i’m here! 🙂

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  8. Ah, I do love the chilly months. Like you said, many bookworms thrive in this weather because they get to snuggle indoors with a hot beverage, a cozy blanket, and a great book. That is certainly true in my case!

    Also, congrats on having your article published!

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    1. Chilly months are the months for bookworms! ❤ Even though I HATE the cold, I do appreciate the excuse it gives me to stay inside all snuggly 🙂

      And thank you!!

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  9. Oooh, I love this time of year too. I’m taking a trip to York at some point before Xmas (hopefully), it does look lovely. Also, I used to work in recruitment so if you have any questions about interview processes I might be able to help 🙂 although it sounds like you did pretty well on your own!

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  11. I loved watching your videos! I’m so glad you are enjoying Retribution of Mara Dyer! I loved the Mara Dyer trilogy and can’t wait to see your final thoughts! I love Christmas and I can’t wait for it to be Christmas! I haven’t read After You yet, despite the fact that I’ve read Me Before You. I might not read it because like you I might hate it and find it disappointing. I hope you have a great December!

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    1. Thank you so much for watching them! 😀
      I’m very intrigued to see what my final thoughts are too – and to finally finish the trilogy! I’d say unless you REALLY want to read After You, just skip it. Though of course I would say that since I didn’t like it 😆

      Christmas is just the best time of year ❤ I hope you have a lovely December too!

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  12. YOU’RE TOO PRETTY. We can’t be friends. I’m too jelly. Bye.

    ❤ jk Also, I'm so glad that you were able to go out & your anxiety didn't get in the way. I already messaged you privately about it but still, YAY<333

    Molly @ Molly’s Book Nook

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  14. Pingback: December Wrap Up – The one where I fly through books quicker than usual | A frolic through fiction

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