Hey guys.
So, in the month of May, I took an unintentional reading break.
I just didn't feel like picking up anything, I didn't feel like talking about books or
really watch BookTube videos.
I put up a TBR for the Bout of Books readathon and just didn't end up participating and,
just quite frankly, I wasn't in the mood to read.
Now, I'm not going to call it a reading slump, mainly because the way people here on BookTube
use that term, it just has real strong negative connotations to me and I don't think there's
anything wrong with not wanting to read.
Sometimes you just feel like doing other things, which is kind of what I felt like in May.
That being said, I obviously don't have anything to wrap up for you guys for the month of May,
so instead I thought I would check in with my reading goals and channel resolutions for
2016, seeing as we are about half way through the year now.
My kind of overarching challenge and goal for the year was that I wanted to read 50
books and I guess I should be kind of closer to 25 books by now, since it is about six
months into the year, but I'm actually only at 16.
Within the 16 books that I've read, I have broken down the different star ratings.
So, I have had zero 1-star reads, one 2-star read, nine 3-star reads, which is no surprise,
this is like my generic, go to rating, 3 stars.
I've had five 4-star books and I've had one 5-star book and that was A Drifting Life by
Yoshihiro Tatsumi, which I finished at the beginning of May.
I'm not going to talk about A Drifting Life because I have mentioned it in several videos
already and I've had to return the copy I was reading to the library, but I don't know
if this would be everybody's choice for a 5-star read.
It's kind of a slow burn, nothing much happens.
It's really just a graphic memoir told in manga style and I guess for me, really, the
main difference between a 4-star read and a 5-star read is that a 5-star read is a 4-star
book that, at the end of it, you just, you know, or at least I just know that it has
to be 5-stars.
And that's kind of how I felt about A Drifting Life.
My second reading goal for the year was to make half of those 50 books that I want to
have read by the end of the year books that I already owned and were still unread as of
the beginning of 2016.
So I wanted 25 books off my shelves to be read by the end of the year.
Now, as of right now, I have only read four books that I previously owned going into 2016,
which is probably not the greatest number in the world, but I attribute that mainly
to the fact that I've been using my library a lot more, I have been purchasing more books
this year than I have in a while, and that's probably the reason for that.
My third reading goal for the year was to complete a Back to University challenge, in
which I planned on reading books that I had read previously in both high school and college
and just didn't really like when I first read them because I am a huge fan of rereading
books.
I have actually found quite a few favorite books by rereading books that I didn't really
enjoy in the first place, so I thought this would be a cool challenge.
But so far it's kind of not going to plan.
I will link my TBR video for the project in the cards in case you would like to see the
full TBR, but so far I'm not making very good progress.
I originally picked out 12 books assuming or hoping that I would read one book a month
and then just totally have not stuck to that at all.
I started by picking up Anna Karenina, which I knew was going to be the hardest book to
make myself pick up and, sure enough, I ended up DNFing it after about 300 pages.
I do feel like I gave it a second chance because I got 300 pages into it, but I just couldn't
make myself keep reading.
It was slightly better than the last time I read it, but I didn't have the motivation
of, you know, getting an actually decent grade to make myself finish the book this time.
So I ended up putting that aside and currently I'm in the middle of my second book for the
project, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
I'm only two chapters into it, so I just, it's not that I'm disliking it, again, I just
wasn't in the mood to read in May.
To check in on some channel goals really quick, I first wanted to post more reviews and I
do think I have been better about that this year.
I haven't been the greatest, I think I've only posted a total of four individual reviews.
But that is still better than last year, which just says how horrible of a reviewer I was
last year.
Why is that so hard to say?
I've also been posting longer, more in depth reviews on my blog, which I've actually really
enjoyed because there are just some books that, for whatever reason, I can't articulate
in video format and it just works better to write those reviews down.
So I've been enjoying using that as well.
Then we have the revival of my #YearofMiyazaki project, which has been going well so far.
I am a little behind at the moment.
I'm supposed to have watch Only Yesterday and done a review video, like, last month,
but for whatever reason I just have not had a spare moment to sit down and actually watch
the film, let alone record a discussion video.
So hopefully that will be coming soon.
I think my favorite thing about the project so far has been the response.
I've been getting fantastic comments on those videos, those are probably some of my favorite
comments on any videos on my channel because people are really passionate about Studio
Ghibli films and are really willing to engage in discussion with me and it's just been so
much fun.
And I can't wait to keep watching more of their films and making more discussion videos
for you guys.
And, lastly, I did away with the monthly favorites videos and wanted to do one kind of more vlog-style
video a month and I've really enjoyed doing that so far.
It's really let me play with different kinds of videos, so I've done some just, like, montage
videos, I've done some more talking vlogging, and I've done some original fiction on here,
which was really fun.
And this month you'll see something completely different because I'm going to be doing a
hobonichi or fauxbonichi journal flip through, which I'm super excited about.
So all in all, I feel like I'm doing pretty well with my reading goals and channel resolutions
for 2016.
I just think I need to step up the reading a little bit, because I would really like
to hit 50 books this year.
I think that would be super cool, 'cause I don't think I've read 50 books in a year since
I was a kid and I was into picture books and teeny little chapter books.
So if you guys had any goals this year, let me know how you're doing on those in the comments,
but otherwise that's all I have for today's video.
So thank you guys so much for watching, I hope you enjoyed it, I hope you are having
a good 2016 so far and I will see you next time.
Bye!