some highlights of 2021: Of my pathetic attempt at bujo, reading record, music discoveries, and new habits for 2022

Random Failure of the Year

• I tried the Bullet Journal Method. I lasted about 21 days. I’m honestly lazy when it comes to daily habits and serious life-health things came up and interrupted my flow so I didn’t keep up with my daily entries.
  • BuJo actually works for me way better than all the other methods I’ve tried, since it’s formatted in such a way that I can pick it up anytime without any guilt about skipping days.
  • However, I love all the lists I was able to compile in it throughout the entire year. Most of them being book lists. And movie lists. And shopping lists. And new words I’ve come across and learned while reading the City Between books by W.R. Gingell.
  • I can’t tell you how nice it is to be able to pick up ONE book and find everything in there. It’s like my personal Wikipedia. ❤

Books-Related

• This is the first year that I’ve read indie published works. And let me tell you, I was pleasantly surprised and delighted and grateful that I entered this world. In the spring Lemon Duck sent me a list of the best in the indie published field and I’m forever indebted to her now.
• I’m in the process of compiling a year-end list so you can see specifically which books/authors I’m referring to. You can probably already guess part of it, due to my comment above. I’ve been flailing speechlessly about it for months. 😉
• I’ve found a lot of new authors to add to my favorite and/or autobuy lists – many from the indie pub world as well as some that are traditionally published.
  • I’ve honestly never read so many newly released books in my life.
• Comics/manga/Webtoons can be legit storytelling. (Siren’s Lament; Purple Hyacinth) I have H.S.J.’s informative reviews and recommendations on GR to thank for this.
• Naturally, I’ve been the more active on Goodreads, and even wrote a few reviews that I’m rather satisfied with. It’s hard finding a balance between not letting it take over my free time and using it appropriately to discover reads and connect with other readers.

• Buddy-reading is the best! I get to bookrant with someone who’s reading/read the book recently or now in real time. Thanks to Isabelle for reaching out to me and being the first person ever to buddy read with me. Also thanks to Sarah Seele @ Sixty Something Trees, SJ, and Leon, for the reading we are doing/plan on doing together. ❤
• One huge highlight for me is getting the entire set of Red Rising by Pierce Brown on my bookshelf. I haven’t read the entire series yet, but the first two books that I’ve read fully are 100% fantastic. Brown’s writing and story execution is the style that I adore and model after in my own works. I am forever grateful to Maya for this recommendation.
  • I will be reading the entire saga this year, and I plan on taking notes during my rereads so I can post them on here as well as on Goodreads.
• Book subscription boxes are The. Best.
  • I’m talking exclusive covers, reverse cover artwork, signed, bookdom related items such as book tins, candles, artwork, tea, etc. I’m specifically speaking of OwlCrate. And The Bookish Box, though it took about two months to ship out.
  • Alison in Bookland has been a perfect reference/resource for me while choosing which boxes to try out and her monthly book guesses are amazing. 🙂 They help me decide which month/s to skip and which to keep.

A Brief Aside: While I’m writing this, I know that I promised a comprehensive year-end book post for later but I cannot stop thinking about Dreams Lie Beneath by Rebecca Ross. It was in my November Owlcrate Dreaming in the Dark Box and is one of my favorite reads of last year. It’s a standalone, and the storytelling is utterly perfect: it’s divine, beautiful, mysteriously atmospheric, mesmerizing, glorious in its characterizations. I love that each of the main characters are unique and competent in their own right. Clem + Phelan is one of my top ships of the year. Some of my favorite tropes are featured: Enemies-to-lovers, Hidden identities, There’s only one bed, Dagger to the throat, and court intrigue. But in all the best ways and cleverly and tastefully executed. (Plus. Considering it’s general market YA. I have to be grateful for the overall clean/PG-13 rated content.) I’m very grateful that I was able to catch up on the signed edition because Ross is now my autobuy author. I wanted to reread it as soon as I finished. It’s THAT good. ❤

• I’ve found that signed books are my thing. Been collecting them. Or else writing letters and emails to authors asking for bookplates. ^_^
• Unfortunately, I’ve been loosing a lot of sleep due to all of this book craziness/addiction in my life. There has been more stayed-up-till-2-AM reads than I can count. So that certainly needs to be changed in 2022, because it’s obviously detrimental to my health.

Music-Related

• Winter-Spring: Dimash. Lara Fabian. 2CELLOS. Musicals. Soundtracks.
• Spring-Now: Above. Plus BTS. And more BTS. And I streamed BTS’ “The Truth Untold,” DAY6’s “Sweet Chaos” & AILEE’s “Breaking Down” WAY too many times.
• In short, I got into international music. And I’m too tired to add links right now. But I’m also planning on doing a year-end best music post alongside the best books post here. So look for them! 🙂

Movies-Related

• Watching TENET for the first time on my birthday was a dream. I still cannot get over how epic it is. And deep. I still don’t quite get everything. Christopher Nolan never disappoints me.
• Saw The Wolverine for the first time since watching it in the theaters back in 2013. That means it’s been eight years. Turns out I’ve forgotten a lot of the details, but some of the main scenes I remembered correctly. It was a lovely experience – watching as well as thinking about everything that has changed for me in the past eight years of my life.

2022 Habits/Goals

• Bible reading following the Legacy plan, which gives me some grace period for doing the readings
• Active for 20+ min. daily
• 8+ Hrs. of Sleep daily
• Write anything for 15 min.+ daily
• Vocal exercises for 10 min.+ daily
• Fill out a Reading/Watching/Listening log daily
• Post at least once a week (Ha! Watch me fail, you guys. :D)
  • I’ve come up with a little solution for myself: shorter posts. Since I tend to set my bar too high and expect to come up with this elaborately long post the length of a Hebrew scroll.
• Comment on at least 5 blog posts per week. (I was going to say one comment per day, but then some days just doesn’t work. While other days I have the time to catch up, more or less. I’m doing this in hopes of catching up on reading all of my favorite blogs. Because I KNOW their content are GOLD but I’ve been neglecting them. Plus I know I’ve missed some tags in the past couple of years… so I need to dig them out. Somehow. 😉
• If I reread a book, make sure I post a review. I’ve found that I can better write a review if I read it twice.
• BuJo. Of course.

Here’s to a great year!

How about you? What are some some your year end thoughts for 2021? Do you have any failures you learned from or accomplishments you’re grateful for? Any favorite moments/highlights from the 2021? How about goals for this new year? 2022 only happens once, after all. 🙂 Let me know in the comments!