October Wrap-Up and November Plans

Hey all, Dani here.

I’m still working at getting some of my previously planned October posts written up and posted in the time slot they were originally scheduled. My to-do list was just piling up on me, and the extra stress was just making everything feel worse. But those posts are coming very soon. I’m definitely in a writing mood right now. Blame NaNoWriMo.

• Reading: I finished 26 books this month. Wow, okay, so that’s a lot. Cool. Umm…that takes me up to 191 books read for the year. I will definitely be passing the 200 book mark before the end of the year. My reading for October was definitely helped by a surfeit of manga volumes read, especially because of reading exclusively manga for Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon. Still, there is absolutely nothing wrong with reading manga, and I had an enjoyable time.
• Blogging: Okay, I slumped on this goal. I did not have a post up every day, and even when I catch up on my backlog of posts, I think I will still have two or three days that won’t have a post. But you know what, that’s okay. I honestly can’t believe that I went that long posting every day without really missing any. Of course I can definitely say that missing out on a week’s worth of posts did really hurt my traffic stats. October was only about 2/3 of the views of the rest of the months of 2019. But it’s okay, because my overall views for this October were still higher than last October, so it’s still upward momentum.
• Writing: Another month of Weekend Writer is in the books, and November marks National Novel Writing Month, so I fully expect this goal to have some activity over the next month. You know, aside from all the writing I do for the blog. Oh, and now the writing I’m doing for my work’s daily newsletter. I’m kind of sad that my training will end at the end of November.
• Conventions: The Ohio Renaissance Festival isn’t exactly a convention, but we did go to that one last time for this year, and we had a food and drink day. I have the whole thing documented on my Instagram, so you can check out all the lovely food and drink photos there. Convention season for Damian and I is pretty much over for 2019, but we are starting to browse at potential options for 2020. Of course, we are absolutely returning to Cincinnati Comic Expo in Sept 2020. We also plan to do at least one day of Gen Con (and hopefully the Critical Role Live Show there as well) in August 2020. Other than that we are looking at a couple other possibilities. Of course the big event for 2020 isn’t a convention, but it is our honeymoon to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in October 2020, so stay tuned for more details on all of those events.

Next up is wrap up time. As always, if I have a review posted, then I will include the link back to that post in case you missed it and/or would like to check it out.

Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin — 4.5 stars

The Girl the Sea Gave Back by Adrienne Young — 4.5 stars

Five Dark Fates by Kendare Blake — 5 stars

Teleworld by Rachel E Kelly and narrated by Cherami Leigh, Todd Haberkorn, Brittney Karbowski, and David Wald — 5 stars (I have a review up for the paperback version here)

Frankly in Love by David Yoon — 4.5 stars

Embrace Your Weird: Face Your Fears and Unleash Creativity by Felicia Day — 5 stars

Cursed by Thomas Wheeler and Frank Miller — 3.5 stars

My Hero Academia, Vol 21 by Kohei Horikoshi — 4 stars

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Vol 6 by Hideyuki Furuhashi and Betten Court — 4 stars

Tunnel of Bones by Victoria Schwab — 4 stars

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Illustrated Edition by J.K. Rowling and Jim Kay — 5 stars

The Art of War for Writers by James Scott Bell — 4.5 stars

Waterworld, Volume 3: Xavier by Rachel E Kelly — 5 stars

The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh — 4.5 stars

The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith — 5 stars

Fairy Tail, Vol 7 by Hiro Mashima — 5 stars

The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Vol 3 by Kore Yamazaki — 4.5 stars

Magus of the Library, Vol 2 by Mitsu Izumi — 5 stars

Black Clover, Vol 12 by Yuki Tabata — 5 stars

Black Clover, Vol 13 by Yuki Tabata — 5 stars

Black Clover, Vol 14 by Yuki Tabata — 5 stars

Black Clover, Vol 15 by Yuki Tabata — 5 stars

Black Clover, Vol 16 by Yuki Tabata — 5 stars

Black Clover, Vol 17 by Yuki Tabata — 5 stars

Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey — 4.5 stars

No Plot? No Problem! A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days by Chris Baty — 5 stars (Note: this is the Revised and Expanded Edition)

The next big section for this post is the book haul and OwlCrate unboxing portion. And yes, this is another big haul month. But because of saving up for our honeymoon and for saving up for other future plans, I have come to the decision that I need to go on a book buying restriction, and I have set a few guidelines and rules for my new restriction. The big part is that I’m allowing myself to buy 5 books each month. Note that this does not include the books that I get in my monthly OwlCrate. This also does not include the books I’m allowed to buy if I sell some of my old books first. So if I take a haul to Half Price Books and sell them, then I am allowed to use that money for books. This restriction also does not count what I can buy with the use of gift cards given to me for holidays and such. The other big caveat is that if I sign up to work overtime hours at work, I can use the overtime earnings for whatever fun activities I decide on, even if that’s books. It just means I have to put in extra effort to earn those books.

Okay, it’s haul time.

The OwlCrate this month was great, because there were TWO exclusive hardcover books included, which made me very excited. I’m also looking forward to next month’s book, because it will have sprayed edges. Not, the dragon statue in this photo is one of my bookshelf decorations, and not part of the box’s contents.

Finally, this is where I would normally go into details about my TBR plans for the upcoming month. But November is going to be an exception. I want my main focus to be writing. I’m really ahead on my reading goal for the year, so I don’t have to sit down and try to read 20 books in a month or anything. So I want to focus on NaNoWriMo. I may still pick up some manga volumes, some Middle Grade books, or some contemporary romance, but those will be decided based on my mood at that time. I usually take a book with me to work so I can read it on my breaks, so I’ll still be doing some reading.

Did you have a good reading month in October? Any fun plans for November? Let me know in the comments and I’ll be back soon with more bookish content.