So I would feel awkward if I just suddenly got back to how I want my blog to be with regular posts etc without writing something to a) apologise for my long, long absence and b) explain where I’ve been and what I’ve got planned.

So… Sorry about my long absence, it should not happen again because I never have exams again. Never has an apology felt so good.

As you can probably guess, I have been doing exams. Nine and a half hours of sitting in silence (except for one of them where a bunch of year sixes were allowed to run riot right outside the door to the exam room, whilst screaming at each other) and I am now free. I have my leavers’ assembly and meal this Thursday, though if I’m brutally honest I’m not bothered about going at all. It’s just something I feel I have to go to. And I need to give my textbooks back.

But yes, come September I will be starting university *cheers*. I have been lucky enough to get an unconditional offer for my dream course so I will definitely be starting at UEA, which makes me extremely excited, as I’ve already met a load of people on my course, and they’re all so so lovely. I will be studying English Literature with Creative Writing (no surprise there) and my course (here’s the exciting bit) is assessed just by coursework. Meaning I won’t disappear for three months. Maybe two weeks if I’m disorganised and don’t schedule any posts (because this is me we’re talking about, and I have the organisational skills of a loaf of bread).

I will, at some point, be starting my youtube channel again, though I think I want to get back to normal with my blog first as I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew as I’d like some reading time too – I need to catch up with my goodreads goal (though I’m only four books behind, which I’m pretty pleased about). Or I may start initially with a video every two weeks. I’m not entirely sure yet (see my previous comment about my organisational skills).

So yes, I think that’s all for now. I do plan (hopefully) on sharing some more of my creative work on here, be it responses to prompts in some of my creative writing books (which I can finally use), or something I’ve written off the top of my head. I also may branch out from books from time to time, though I’m unsure. I’ve made some big changes in my life recently that I’d love to share with you as I’ve been surprised by how easy they have been to make. Obviously come September I will talk about uni, I mean, I talk about it constantly now.

I know it’s quite late to be posting this, but I’ve been watching a few videos or Booktubers talking about the books that they want to reread this year and it got me thinking. I used to reread a lot, but I haven’t for a while now, since gaining a lot more books, but there are some (mainly series) that I would love to go back and revisit, for different reasons.

The House of Night series – P. C. and Kristen Cast

This is one of my all time favourite series. I first read it around seven years ago and I’ve read the earlier books multiple times. I know that it has a lot of mixed reviews, but I started reading it before my decision could probably be influenced and I fell in love with it pretty much straight away. I haven’t reread it for a while now, and I am desperate to revisit the story. I’m considering maybe a book a month as there are twelve, although one month will have to have two, as I won’t get chance to start it this month. I daren’t marathon the whole lot as last time I did that it put me in such a long reading slump because I couldn’t get over the books and I don’t want that to happen again!

The Harry Potter Series – JK Rowling

Need I explain? Believe it or not, I’ve only read this series once, and I have never read the final book. However, since joining bookstagram / booktube seeing everyone’s posts has made me want to read it again. Also my friend (you know who you are because I’m 99% sure you will read this!) has recently read it and won’t stop talking about it and it’s made me want to read it again!

The Fault in Our Stars – John Green

I don’t know why, but I just really feel the urge to reread this one. I’m one of those people who rarely cries at books (and pretty much never at films) but this one had me laughing then sobbing and then laughing through my tears, and I just really want to experience that emotion again (I know, I’m weird, but I think every book lover has wanted to reread an emotional book over and over again).

1984 and Animal Farm – George Orwell

I’m going through a George Orwell phase, I’ll admit it. and I really want to read his two most favourite books again. Adult dystopian is one of my favourite genres and 1984 is the dystopian to read. I read both of these about five years ago, so it’s about time for a reread. When I read Animal Farm I read it when I was thirteen and I didn’t fully understand it, not in the way I would now. So I want to read it and appreciate it now I’m old enough to thoroughly understand what it’s saying.

Holes – Louis Sachar

I recently found this book out as I was rearranging my bookshelf (I made a new one so that I can fit pretty much all of my paperbacks on it) and remembered how much of an enjoyable book it actually was. It’s short and a younger book, but I think it will be fun to sit down and reread a book from when I was 12 / 13.

Three books that I want to reread but aren’t such a priority compared to the others:

The Giver – Lois Lowry

This book is just amazing. It was the first book that I read in 2015 and it has embedded itself in my mind and I just want to absorb it again. Honestly, it’s fantastically written and a wonderful (dystopian) story which is thought provoking and interesting (my kind of dystopian basically) and it’s really short, so it won’t take long to read.

The Book Thief – Markus Zusak

This is one of my favourite books and I just want to relive the story again and again. I love the interesting narration and the setup of the book and it’s just brilliant. Also, the film is actually really good for this book – I’m not normally a film person and I had such low expectations as I wasn’t sure how they’d work with the narrator but they did such a great job in my opinion and I’d highly recommend it.

Fangirl – Rainbow Rowell

This is such a cute book and I love Cath as a character (I love all of the characters to be honest) and I repeatedly see it on bookstagram, booktube and blogs which have all made me want to reread it and fall in love with it again. (But first, I want to read Carry On).

Are there any old favourites that you want to reread at some point this year? Do you reread books a lot or not so often?

I finished two books and read three others in December which I’m pleased about as it’s an improvement on what I read in November!

Bronze – This Song Is (Not) For You – Laura Nowlin

This was a really fun read and I loved all of the characters. The romance was really different in this and where I was expecting a love triangle it was thankfully avoided.

Silver – This Is Where It Ends – Marieke Nijkamp

This was thought-provoking but gripping and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It also gives an insight into events that are coming increasingly common, unfortunately. A really important read.

Gold – Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

This book has made me fall in love with Dickens’ work and now I just want to read all of his books. I really enjoyed this book and still cannot fathom how Dickens managed to include so many links between events and characters, but he did, and it was fabulous.

This list could be so, so long, but I have managed to pick 16 books that I really want to get to this year. I haven’t really included classics as I usually read those when I’m in the mood, and so I don’t want to feel like I should read one when I don’t want to. Anyway, these are just 16 of the books that I aim to read this year.

A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess

Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

Everything is Illuminated – Jonathan Safran Foer

The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Elizabeth is Missing – Emma Healey

Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro

The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath

The Virgin Suicides – Jeffrey Eugenides

Between Shades of Gray – Ruta Sepetys

The Chimes – Anna Smaill

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey

A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing – Eimear McBride

Soundless – Richelle Mead

Keep the Aspidistra Flying – George Orwell

Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury

Instead of resolutions, I’ve created some goals that I want to achieve in 2016. I always fail when it comes to resolutions and never complete them, which only leads to disappointment at the end of the year and so I feel that setting these goals gives me something ambitious but realistic to aim for.

1. Finish my first novel. (The first draft of it that is!)
2. Reach a total of 2,500 views on here. As of the end of December I’ve had 1,254 views, so I’m aiming high. If the views keep as they have been for the past few months though this is easily achievable.
3. To write and publish 100 blog posts. That works out at about two a week. I do aim for three but that’s not always possible so I think two is better as then there will be some weeks with three and others with none.
4. To read 75 books. In 2015 I read 57, and I want to beat this as I read barely anything at the start of the year so I’m hoping next year will be even better (I’m pretty pleased with the amount I read as I achieved my goal of 50).
5. To gain 15 new followers on either WordPress or Bloglovin’. That’s a push, but anything can happen I suppose! I’ve gained more this year than I thought I would and so why not set one target which is slightly more ambitious?!

Have you set yourself any goals this year? I’ll try to do an update either halfway through the year or after three months, it depends how much has changed.

Thank you to everyone who has added to my views, or followers or has commented. I’m so grateful. And to everyone who reads this – Happy New Year! x

I haven’t disappeared completely, but I have been inactive and I’m terribly sorry. I’ve just been so busy at the moment – November was NaNoWriMo and this month I’ve been drowned by essays (honestly I’ve had four and then I’ve had to plan another and my coursework, on top of other homework) but I’ve got half of one left (which I’m putting off doing by writing this) and then my coursework plan (ditto) and then I’m done.

Next week I should be able to read, write and plan / write blog posts (and take photos in this atrocious light), which will be great. I’m getting so many books for christmas / my birthday (the 29th – I cannot wait to be 18!) and I want to get my TBR down.

I have set up an Instagram / bookstagram account for my blog which is @bookographic if you want to follow! I’m trying to do a couple of the challenges on there but they aren’t going so well due to lighting when I get back from school and the amount of essays I’ve had.

I’m already planning my goals for next year in terms of my blogging, reading and writing, and I’m very excited. I’m also starting uni and I cannot wait. This year I aimed to reach a thousand total views on here by the end of the year and I’m on 1,200+ and I’m so grateful to everyone who has viewed / commented / liked / followed this. It means a huge amount.

Anyway, I’m hoping to get back to the normal 2-3 posts a week schedule soon, once I have the time to sit and write reviews again (and actually read books so I can review them – 2 books last month was awful!) It may be January by the time that happens, but I’ll be writing them over the christmas holiday to at least cover January, if not part of February too!

Thank you for staying with me, I promise I’ll get my act together soon! 🙂

  
Last month was appalling in terms of reading, but I was doing NaNoWriMo  so I feel that that’s a fair excuse! (I’m just going to keep telling myself that). I want to continue working on my novel throughout this month as I’d like the first draft finished before 2016, but it’s not going to be a priority in the same way that it was through November. I’m going to try to read more though this month as well, and I’m sure I can get some more read through the christmas holidays. A lot of these books I’ve started, many a while ago, so I would like to finish some of those off this month, but I’ll list those separately at the end I think as there are some books that I definitely want to read this month.

Ones I want to read this month:

1. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens. This one can fit into both lists, since I’m a third of the way through it and started it I think over a year ago (I put it down because I didn’t feel like reading a classic at the time, but I was really enjoying it). I just feel as though it’s the perfect novel for this time of year and I’m in the perfect mood to curl up with a classic like this.
2. Let It Snow – John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle. I got this last year for christmas and I’ve had to wait a year to read it, as I didn’t realise it was actually a christmassy book, instead of a wintery one. (I’m that person who doesn’t do christmas at all (except buying a few presents) until the first of December).
3. Burial Rights – Hannah Kent. Again, this just fits my mood and seems the kind of book to curl up with on a cold evening. It’s set in Iceland too and I fell in love with the place when I visited with school just over two years ago.
4. Boy 23 – Jim Carrington. I don’t know if I’ll get to this, it depends how long it takes me to read Great Expectations, as that’s the first one I plan to read. This was out last month and I was supposed to read it in time, but NaNoWriMo meant I neglected it and I feel so bad for not getting to it soon enough.

Books that I’ve started and want to finish:

1. The Light That Gets Lost – Natasha Carthew. This is the same scenario as Boy 23, except that I did actually start it (but didn’t get far). Also I nearly fell into a reading slump and nothing could suit my mood except a fluffy romance so I picked up Lola and the Boy Next Door instead to prevent the dreaded reading slump.
2. On Chesil Beach – Ian McEwan. This is so short I don’t know why I haven’t finished it. I will at some point though, because I’m enjoying it so far.
3. Unflattening – Nick Sousanis. This is a review copy of a graphic novel, and I’ve been trying to read this for ages as it’s philosophy, which I like. I’ll tell you why I haven’t read it yet though, it’s because BlueFire Reader is awful but it’s the only app I can use to open the file. Honestly I have to re-download it each time because it won’t open and it takes so long to load each page I will read like five and then give up.
4. The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde. Again, this just wasn’t suiting my mood at the time I started it. The writing style is absolutely stunning though, I just want to read it when I’m in the mood for it because I’ll enjoy it more.
5. Rook – Shannon Cameron. I don’t know what it is with this book, it’s really good and I’m enjoying the story but I’m just not motivated to pick it up.
6. The Children Act – Ian McEwan. To be fair, I’m about five pages into this one, so I can hardly say much about it. I picked it up and changed my mind. It wasn’t that it’s not good or anything, I just wasn’t in the mood for it (I’m very much a mood reader if you can’t tell!). On my Goodreads it’s under Currently Reading and so I want to get it read though, and get that number down.

I currently have ten books marked as Currently Reading on Goodreads, the others are The Divine Comedy, which I want to take my time with (but it’s SO good), Les Miserables (which I have to take my time with because it’s so long) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which I’ll just pick up when I’m in the mood for it and probably finish it in one sitting!

What do you want to read coming up to christmas? Are you a mood reader like I am and take several books before you find the one that you’re in the mood for or are you one of those lucky people who can pick up anything?

I read a total of 5 books this month, so definitely not as many as I wanted to get to *sighs sadly*. This was mainly because Lady Chatterley’s Lover took me 10 days to read as I really struggled to enjoy it and so it took me longer than a book that I enjoyed would have. But that’s the end of my reading for school (for now) so hopefully I can read more enjoyable books soon!

Bronze – Take it as a Compliment – Maria Stoian

This graphic novel is out next month and there will be a review coming soon, but I absolutely loved what this book stood for. It was a collection of people’s experiences about abuse and harassment, created in order to show to other victims that they are not alone. I think things like this are so important and so that’s why it’s in my favourites this month! I read this as an ebook, hence why it’s not in the picture.

Silver – More Than This – Patrick Ness

Well, I still don’t know what actually went on in this book, but I do know that it was so good. It’s the first Patrick Ness book that I have read and I was not disappointed, despite the hype because it was amazing. Everything was so abstract and ambiguous and this is like nothing that I’ve ever read.

Gold – The Invasion of the Tearling – Erika Johansen 

This book. If you haven’t already read The Queen of the Tearling then you really need to because these books are utterly fantastic. I can’t wait for the next one, even though it’s next year when it will arrive. The Invasion of the Tearling is the sequel to The Queen of the Tearling and the second of the trilogy (I believe it’s a trilogy) and it is easily one of my favourites now.