Books and Backpacks

Everything I read, watched, played and did in January.  Anyone that knows me knows that I don't really do much — I'm very much a homebody and I'm more than happy with that. But even as an introvert, there are still a handful of things I like to do. Many of those things are just done at home. My partner and I are both pretty sentimental people.I blame both of us being eldest children for that. We have a little storage box that we keep mementos from all of our dates in. In a kind of similar way, I was thinking about how it could be interesting to keep a kind of virtual diary where I can keep track of all our important (and some non-important) life events and look back to see what we were doing at this time in our life. An in-depth wrap up that focuses on not just what I'm reading, but also what I'm playing, watching, and doing each month. I think doing this monthly wrap ups will help me both to post on my blog more and to keep track of what I'm doing at different ...

A hand-picked selection of spookiest books being published in February. There are so many superbly spooky books coming out this month. From vampires and ghosts to more natural terrors, February's releases promise something for anyone. I found a lot of these releases from Read Jump Scare's masterlist of horror fiction releases. So please enjoy this list of my anticipated releases of February 2024. A lot are horror fiction, but there are some thrillers, a short story collection, some sequels, historical fiction, and so much more! February 1:  We Ate the Dark - Mallory Pearson In this haunting novel, four women come together to investigate the murder of their friend Sofia Lyon, whose remains are discovered in an abandoned house. As they grapple with grief and pursue justice, they unearth dark secrets, both about Sofia and the mysterious woods surrounding them. Bound by a haunting connection, the women face not only the truth about Sofia but also a shadowy presence that threatens...

Taking a moment to reflect upon my 2023 in books. Happy new year, book friends! Don't worry about the fact that it's almost February. I read quite a bit in 2023, specifically in the last half of the year. I ended the year having read 83 books overall. My goal was set to be 50 books, so I definitely got well past that. Another goal for the year was to read at least seven non-fiction books, which I also achieved but just barely. I ended up finishing my final non-fiction on New Year's Eve, so I did get that one on a technicality. But I still completed it, so that counts.  I also got really into audiobooks this past year. My summer job involved a lot of driving and during that time, audiobooks became my reading format of choice. I think during July and August I was finishing an audiobook pretty much every day or two.  Speaking of the summer, August was my best reading month. I read nearly 20 books that month with 50 per cent of those being audiobooks.    1. What was your...