march madness

welp. this month is FINALLY over. 
hallelujah. 
because this was a ridiculous time for the world.
in both good and bad ways. 

but honestly, yes I was more careful
but i didn't freak out like many people did 
unnecessarily 

so
with everything being cancelled 
i got to stay home 
and read 
which, lets be honest, work was taking up too much time anyways 

i got sick with a yearly cold 

so my reading wasn't as great as the past few months 

which is fine by me 

but i managed to get these beauties read: 

- ruthless

- girls made of glass and snow 

- fix her up 

- into the woods

- daughter of smoke and bone

- red hood 

- unexpected reality 

- a heart so fierce and broken 

- unexpected odds (arc) 

- straight on till morning

- tweet cute 

- midnight at the electric

- harry potter & philosopher's stone

- down and across

- knife of never letting go 

- crazy rich asians

- the ask & the answer 

- subtle art of not giving a fuck 

plus i'm in the middle of an ebook and little women. 

so overall, 19 done. 

putting me at 70/200 for the year 

yay ! 

as long as i don't get sick again

i should be able to read 

- monsters of men 

- is it just me 

- MMPR: pink (graphic novel) 

- ghost spider (GN) 

- spider gwen collection (GN)

- someday, someday, maybe 

- days of blood and starlight 

- stain 

- land of stories V2 

- kingdom hearts

- satisfaction / revenge 

- the library of lost and found 

- suggested reading 

however

 i've noticed that since manfriend is living with me during this nonsense 

that i've been reading less

and playing more mario party 

so we will see ! 

i also wana do camp NaNo ... but my motivation is not there to keep to a schedule. who knows. my mom keeps bugging me to edit my 2017 NaNo book and it's been in my head lately so there's a good chance i get to it.  fingers crossed. (anyone else doing it? i want a good cabin!) 

other than that, nothing really is going on. work getting cancelled was not fun (for anyone) because it gave me an excuse to get out of the house. sigh. my life is really boring. 

i also want to be crocheting but i don't have a project and i hate making things just for the sake of it. it's fun having a reason to make it, y'know.  if anyone wants a blanket or scarf, let me know! 

april is going to be quiet, which is fine. hopefully those who celebrate easter will be able to use technology to do it (i'm just in it for the chocolate) 

i hope you're all being safe and using your best judgement (or ask someone in a different house for a second opinion) on how to take care of yourself and your family in this difficult time. 


- A

How I keep my TBR organized...

... well, slightly.

We bookworms know that TBRs have us under control 102.4% of the time, but there are moments where we read a whole book in a day

or TWO!

and feel like we are gaining the upper hand *round of applause and cake for us*


Now,

because I actually like that feeling

and I like paperwork

(because what is the point of having all this stationary - besides looking at it's prettiness - if we don't use it?)

so I've come up with a few tricks that help me keep track of my books and I'm going to share them with you lovelies.


Step 1:

I have a notebook with *all* the books I own written down.
Now, this started when I was 13.
However, I have written them out again and again
because I have lost books *sobs* when moving
and evil do-ers of the world who have borrowed my books and not given them back (I've bought Life of Pi 3x in my life because of this reason) and so on and so forth so this list is constantly being updated.

Keep in mind I currently have over 400 books
i used to have almost 700
so I feel the pain in writing them all down!

but this is what my notebook looks like:

  

*forgive the blurriness. I have awful lightning in this room and my phone didn't like me. My coffee isn't finished yet, okay?! 

and so, in no particular order, I break the notebook into "series" and "non series" and when I get a book, I add it. However, it's been annoying when I think a series is over and then YEARS later the author goes 'hey guys, I'm going to write one more" LIKE, YES! but REALLY?!  so then I need to redo a page or two.

or just get a new notebook - which is how I ended up with this current one (but then it happened again so I ripped out the pages last night actually and spent this morning redoing them - hence why there's some incomplete titles *winks* I'll fill them in when I cuddle up with Netflix)


Step 2: keep track of what you read:

For this, I do a few things:

thanks to pinterest, I have started doing some colouring of my checklist:

 

which always makes me feel productive! and happy, because COLOURS!  (i also have one of "i wants" but it isnt updated as often as it should because there are SO MANY BOOKS)

also, I keep an actual list because sometimes I go off of what I have in my colouring page of shelves:

 

*this was 2016's. Also, because I read for TDC Book Reviews I don't write down each title, just a #/month. 

and finally, this year I have started keeping a "monthly goal list" to try and stay on track. It has helped a little bit. But I have yet to finish a month yet .. *looks at imaginary spot on ceiling* LOOK, WORK HAS BEEN BUSY AND THE BOOKS ARE GIANT and other books are distracting. 

and so is netflix. 

but, this is an example:

 

so it's helpful but it's also sad to not see checkmarks. but they're coming, okay!? I think I am devoting August to playing catch-up because... well, yes. I REALLY WANT TO READ LORD OF SHADOWS BUT I CAN'T until I finish the rest. SIGH!



So that is all I do. It helps, it really does.

I also keep a list on my phone (and a papercopy in my wallet) of missing books from series 

for example, Christine Warren wrote a 15-book series about werewolves and such and i have like, 7 of them. in NO order. 

so i keep a list of titles for when I am on an adventure and come across random books. 

R. L Stine needs his own notebook because all his titles are so confusing - they all sound so alike and I can never remember which ones I have. probably easier to take a photo but WHAT IF IT GETS DELETED or i cant zoom in enough. or I forget my phone in the car (that happens a lot too). 

OKAY RANT OVER.

Would any of these techniques work for you? Do you do any of them? Do you do something else?
Let me know in the comments!