My life in books for the month of February is extremely underwhelming and very uneventful. I’ve been pouring all my extra time trying to organize my messy life and this has been going on since January (well technically last year). Lol. It’s a mystery how I can still manage to read despite this but it’s also my way of distressing, so there’s no way I”m going to give it up.
Well, what have I been organizing anyway? Starting this year, I’ve decided to improve my rating system for book reviews on my blog. So I’m now using a plugin that helps my book reviews be more systematized and organized. But this also means that I need to apply the process on all my previous book reviews MANUALLY to make it work. So… there. Aside from that, I have been reformatting my blog titles as well.
This task may sound taxing (well, it really is), but I think it’s worth it. I managed to get on Google search result for some of the book reviews I have already fixed AND IT’S ABSOLUTELY ALL WORTH IT!
If you are wondering what plugin I’ve been using, I’ve already written a blog post about this together with other book blogging plugins that I’m using on my blog. I just thought that this may be as helpful as they are to me for other book bloggers so watch out for it some time this week!
YouTube Art Channel Resurrection
Aside from my blog posts, I’ve decided to resurrect my dear YouTube art channel. I’ve started scheduling and planning art video content for the channel. I think this is where it will be very hectic for me since I need not only to make art, but also to film and edit the videos. But you gotta do what you gotta do!
And same with my blog posts, I’ve been reformatting the existing video titles as well and rearranging them in playlists. It just gives me freaking anxiety when everything is disorganized! T_T
Anyway, you can check the recent video I uploaded below.
NOTICE!
This post will be long! When 2019 hit, I’ve decided to be more open (but still with reservation) on this blog. Aside from all the bookish and artsy posts that I’m already sharing, I want to make this platform to be a personal space as well. I might share some non-bookish and non-artsy stuff from time to time (IKR, who cares?). So, if you’re here with me now for my bookish and artsy posts only, just ignore the posts that I’ll make about myself (or some other things) in the future. Or really, just deal with it. It’s my space after all. Lol
Anyway, going back to the real topic of this post — here’s a life summary of my February:
On books
Finished reading
- The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf
- Flipping The Script by Danice Mae P. Sison
Started reading
- Field Notes of Love by Jennifer E. Smith
New on my shelf
- Kingdom of The Blazing Phoenix by Julie C. Dao
- By Your Side by Kasie West
- Lucky In Love by Kasie West
- Listen to Your Heart by Kasie West
- Love, Life, and the List by Kasie West
- Vortex Visions by Elise Kova
- Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch
- Ice Like Fire by Sara Raasch
- Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake
- Til the World Ends anthalogy
- Grim anthalogy
Our local bookstore, Powerbooks, had a clearance SALE for the whole February and I went with The Royal Polar Bear Reads (thanks, soul brother!) I spent more than I should. Lol! It’s my first haul for the year and I just really wanted to get the Kasie Wests and finally get my finished copy of KotBP. Then I went to meet my bookish friends. The last two books are from Thriftbooks way back last year but only got them in February.
Check out Gerald’s PB book haul on his BookTube channel. He’s one of my favorite local booktubers!
New on my e-Reader
- Flipping The Script (eARC)
- Field Notes on Love (eARC)
On manga/webtoons
I’m huge manga and webtoon reader, so I thought of sharing some of my manga and webtoon reads every month as well. I’ll be sharing my new reads and favorites, as well as monthly recommendation.
Monthly recommendation:
- The Water Dragon’s Bride by Rei Toma – this is a time-travel fantasy manga about a young red haired girl who fell into their backyard pond and time-traveled to the prehistoric/ancient Japan. Because of her hair color, the village folks offered her to be the bride of the Water Dragon, and she ended up trapped into the past until she grew up.
- Princess in the Prince’s Harem by Zhi Zhen (webtoon) – this is a historical gender-bender webtoon set in ancient China during the time it was ruled by powerful dynasties. YiYi, one of the most beautiful girl in the empire, got called ugly by the emperor so she decided to get her revenge by entering the palace as a painter to paint an ugly portrait of the emperor. She did so by dressing as a man. If you love historical Asian dramas with lots of political affairs, you’ll like this one.
- Koucho no Yumeji by Shima (webtoon) – this is one of my current most favorite ongoing mangas/webtoons. Koucho woke up one day in a Yokai town beside a Yokai named Shirogane. He told her that she died and she can no longer return into the human world. This is perfect for those who love anime/manga like InuYasha and book like Shadow of The Fox by Julie Kagawa.
On the blog
- I talked about Blog Tours on my discussion post and included a list of blog tours organized by Filipino bloggers/authors. This is regularly updated.
Movies/TV series I’ve watched
In my life as an artist
- New watercolor time-lapse video on YouTube after 9999 years: The Great Hall
- Finished a “secret” commission that I can’t reveal yet until March. Hint: It is from a VERY FAMOUS YA series by a VERY FAMOUS YA author.
Rocking it on Pinterest
I’ve also decided to start working on my Pinterest profile. I created a new account last February 6th, and 22 days later, I managed to have 68.1k monthly views! My goal was to reach 50K for February to potentially improve my blog traffic as well. The end result was beyond me!
Interested on what I did to have this statistic? I’ll make sure to schedule a blog post about it. If you’re on Pinterest, let’s get connected!
I think that’s about it for my February, aside from my “real” work and personal endeavors outside my bookish and artsy life. I think this is such a feat! I’ve never been this productive in a while!
And of course, as usual I’m posting this at 2:30AM. Lol
How’s your February? Share your monthly wrap-up on the comment section below.
Erika is a freelance content writer and illustrator from the Philippines. Aside from her love of arts and reading, she loves taking photos, coffee, cats, and fairies. She’s into fantasy, historical fiction, and contemporary, and anything young adult genres.
Lovin’ the book haul! 💜