021: just making sure i can make it today

Good evening! Here's another near midnight entry for you, guys.

I have tried my best for me to be able to read my 54 pages quota today and thanks to the help of the two novellas I read, I managed to do so. I was thinking that I won't be able to do that since I didn't read that other book that much. I'm laying that down right from the start. Well, maybe I should also blame the storm and the coldness that goes with it as the rain fell down hard. It made me just want to wrap myself in my thick blanket and sleep. I'm not even joking. That's how cold it is here at the moment.

Now for sure, this is going to be a short entry. But I think it's okay. At least I have something as an entry that details what had happened. You know, I was thinking of doing a throwback of some sort by posting a photo of some very old diary entries of mine and explaining the context of each. As long as they weren't such embarrassing entries, of course. 😳🤭😱 But maybe I should still try to figure out how to do that since I don't have any plans at the moment of recording/making videos about it. Maybe writing the story of the entries would dissipate the embarrassment that could go with it.

As for the books, I ended up reading two more erotic romance novellas. 😳🤭 Sorry. They just really came to me ㅡ the urge to read them, that is. I mean, I don't know why I was feeling sonething like wanting to DNF'd that book I'm currently reading even though I wanted to see through it till the end. Or could it be that I was feeling overwhelmed on the number of pages in that book? Maybe. Who knows. So reading novellas somehow lessen that burden in a way, I think.

Like usual, I gave the two novellas a rating of ⭐⭐⭐. I don't know if I'll even find novellas that I would give ⭐⭐⭐⭐ or ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ratings. Wait! I remember giving "The Exception To The Rule" by Christima Lauren a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating on Goodreads. But I think I should make it an exception since it wasn't so much of a steamy, spicy novella. I don't know if I would still be able to find erotica/erotic romance novellas a higher rating other than ⭐⭐⭐. But maybe I'll just have to continue reading more. I won't be able to know if I don't read more of it, right?

So I think that's it for now. It's already 11:24 PM here and supposed to be sleeping already. And yet here I am, still writing just so I can post something here. In any case, see you tomorrow! Happy reading and stay safe. 😊✌️💕📚📖

020: still reading even when the storm surges

Good evening, guys! I hope you're all safe, especially those affected by Typhoon Julian (international name Krathon) today. They've already placed Benguet (the province where I live) to Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal #1 and since this morning, the rain and wind were hurling crazy around us. And yes, it was also cold that I just want to stay in my bed and get curled up in my blanket.

Yup, that's the ideal life ㅡ especially when you know you have so many books to read.

As for the books, 20 consecutive entries and 41 books/novellas in total (according to Goodreads) just for the month of September... What in the world just happened for me to reach that? Crazy, right? I didn't think I'd be able to read that many in just a month (even though I "cheated" since majority of that 41 were novellas and short stories) after that long reading slump.

Today, I got to finish 4 novellas and 1 light novel. I was required to read 34 pages, and I got to read SO MUCH MORE than what I needed. Yes, I finally finished reading the third volume of "By The Grace Of The Gods" today! I rated it ⭐⭐⭐⭐ in Goodreads even though I wanted to rate it 4.25. Or maybe 4.5. I was torn between the two, to be honest. This was until this volume that the remaining episodes of the first season of the anime version was based on.

As for the rest of the novellas, I gave them all ⭐⭐⭐ ratings in Goodreads. I mean, they were all good stories. But perhaps not that enough to keep me hooked. Then again, they were just short reads. It was the plot that probably got me sort of... bored. Apathetic. Unfeeling in some way. Was that how I was supposed to call it? I don't know. Or maybe that's just me and my personal opinion.

I know I once mentioned that I used a color spin wheel to determine my next read among my pending reads. Or have I? But yes, that was the idea and I finally picked the first one. I based my choices (since I have 5 books that I started reading a long while ago but never got to actually finish them) on the dominant color of the book cover.

The color choices were:

• Fuschia
• Lime
• Green
• Light blue
• Red

The first color picked was GREEN.

Starting tomorrow, I would be continuing to read "Doon" by Carey Corp and Lorie Langdon. I would say, this was a long time coming. I mean, I was already at 38% of the book and I still have a long way to go. There were so many chapters, switching between friends Veronica and Mackenna. And maybe the amount of chapters intimidated me back then. But right now, I'm determined to finish reading the book and finally put it on my Read shelf.

That's all I have for tonight. I still have to write on my journal and maybe continue to do some other things before I fall asleep.

See you tomorrow! Happy reading. 😊✌️💕📚📖

019: an entry before midnight ㅡ for real!

Yikes! It's nearly 11 PM here, currently raining because of the approaching storm and I haven't written anything. What the heck just happened to me?

The answer: I nearly forgot. Today was my mom's birthday and my first sister and her family were here. I call her my first sister since that's how I like to my younger sisters. I have 3 younger sisters, by the way. So I would refer to them as my first sister (the one born after me), my second sister (born after my first sister), and then my youngest sister. I'm the eldest of four girls, just to let you know. 😊✌️

Now back to the topic of my daily reading journey.

I did manage to read today even though it was a busy day because of my mom's birthday. I only need to read 25 pages, according to the random number generator.

Yup, something short. And I needed it, to be honest. Especially when I got tired from helping out with the food preparations.

I only focused on reading "By the Grace of the Gods" since I needed something lighter to read to rest my mind. I managed to read 27 pages, but I might continue reading later after this. I'm at the 56% mark of the book so it might take me a little while to finish reading this. Of course, it depends on what will happen in the next coming days. Let's hope I won't be that busy so that I can get this over with.

Oh! I almost forgot. I also read two erotic novellas (again! *hides*) when I woke up this morning. They were still written by Jessa Kane and I still can't believe I got to read something like this. 😱🙀 Crazy as heck! I gave them ⭐⭐⭐, as well, along with the other stories in the series. Yes, it was a series. I was surprised.

But you know what? Reading novellas like this has made me rethink about how I would want to write some of my stories. Especially the series ones. Of course, I still have to plan them out so I can make it work.

For now, I'm ending tonight's very late entry here. See you tomorrow! Happy reading. 😊✌️💕📚📖

018: merging yesterday and today's reading progress

Good evening! And yes, I know it's already late. At the moment, it's 10:09 PM and I still haven't written in my journal. It sure sounds like I haven't made a good progress in my day in some way.

Okay, now why did that sounds like a rhyme or something?

Anyway, I still read today. I managed to even when things were slightly busy here since my mom and I (as we were the only ones in the house during the day) were preparing for her birthday tomorrow. I had to go to the market twice to buy the ingredients needed for the food that we would prepare for her birthday. So I won't be surprised if I end up writing another entry again tomorrow at night time.

I know I did mention that I read today... but I didn't expect that I would end up reading sci-fi erotica novellas. I mean... what the heck just happened to me? Then again, I would consider this as a genre that was out of my comfort zone. And regardless of the fact that I was uncomfortable in some parts, I did survive. That's what matters. 😂😂 By the way, I've given all of them ⭐⭐⭐. Yup, the uncomfortable part was what made me rate it that way. Of course, this is my personal opinion.

And because I've read these novellas, they covered my page count quota for today. Of course, I know I haven't mentioned my reading progress from yesterday since I didn't reach my quota. I only managed to read 22 pages out of 34. I was way too sleepy that I couldn't keep up and push through. With that, I ended up adding the remaining 12 pages to today's page count quota. So... 86+12 ㅡ that makes it to 98 pages.

Of course, I still continued reading the third volume of "By the Grace of the Gods" when I wanted to give myself some sort of breather from all the erotica I read today. It's seriously a refresher to have this on my reading list.

I changed the number of books on my reading challenge again. From 35, I changed it to 40. I actually might have to change it again, depending on my reading speed. And I also did a reading challenge that I would call "color picker chooses the book I have to finish reading ㅡ finally!" I started to do this challenge because I know I have to finish reading the books that were pending on my currently reading list before I pick a new book to read. But I'll post about the order of the books that I would read in another entry.

It's 10:30 PM, and I think I still have time to write in my journal, even if it's just a few words. So I'll be ending my entry here for tonight.

See you tomorrow! Happy reading. 😊✌️💕📚📖

017: just wrote a late entry and i have books to blame for that

Yes, I know. This is really late since I've started this entry at 9:20 PM. I was preoocupied with fixing my ebook folder the whole day just so I can easily determine my TBR in the next coming days after fully reading my current reads. It did take me almost the whole day to do that.

Don't worry, I still managed to read a few pages. I just haven't reached my page count quota for today which is 34 pages, courtesy of the random number generator. See?

As you can see, I changed the page number range of the pages that I'd read in a day. If I remember, the range yesterday was 20-90. I increased the maximum number today by 5. And today, I did the same to the number of books on my Goodreads reading challenge ㅡ from 24 to 35. I was thinking of making it 40 books, but I backed out. Depending on the actual number of books that I would read this year, I might have to change the number of books to read for this year.

Thanks to the two books I finished reading yesterday, I was supposed to have reached my goal of 24 books this year already. But like what I've mentioned, I added more to my goal, thanks to this daily reading habit I started adapting. Of course, I was able to reach my page count quota yesterday and more.

If I were to consider the remaining 274 pages of the second volume of "The Weakest Tamer Begins The Journey To Pick Up Trash", it was a lot more than I was expecting to read. I changed the rating of this book from ⭐⭐⭐⭐ to ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. Maybe because I loved it more the second time I read it compared to the first time I read the light novel. Especially since I also watched the second half of the anime version. This is actually the volume that made me love and root for Ivy and the adventurers that stayed with her till the end of that really hectic and dangerous mission with the enemy.

As for the novella "With Any Luck" by Ashley Poston, I rated it ⭐⭐⭐⭐ since I love the banter between the two leads. Well, minus Audrey's drunken version and I would not deal with her when she's like that. I really thought she did it with her best friend. Who would've thought it actually happened with that guy? Crazy, right? It's the switching of timelines that I didn't like a bit since it happened in every chapter. I wouldn't mind if there was like 2-3 chapters gap for the timelines, but that's not what happened.

I just read 11 pages of the third volume of "By the Grace of the Gods" yesterday since I was not in the mood to continue reading it. That's worth two chapters, by the way. And if I were to base it on the titles of the chapters, this volume will cover the remaining episodes of the first season of the anime version. And I still have a lot of chapters to read, to be honest.

Okay. It's now 9:42 PM (🇵🇭 standard time) and I think I should continue reading so I can finally reach that page count quota. Oh, yeah. I still have to write on my journal, as well. So I think this is where I end my entry. Hopefully, I won't be as late as I am today when I write my blog entry tomorrow. 😂😂

See you tomorrow! Happy reading. 😊✌️💕📚📖

016: what the heck? i actually read steamy novellas? 😱😮🤯

Here we are with another... really late entry. As if there was something new with that. I didn't sleep through when I woke up at 5 AM. But it seemed that my mind was still in dreamland the whole time and all I did was to contemplate about a lot of things.

I watched some reading vlogs yesterday ㅡ reading challenges, mainly. This time, I came across a reading challenge about reading 60 books in 60 days. That means 30 books in 30 days. Right off the bat, it was crazy. Without a doubt. But if I really want to tackle down my insane amount of TBR in a (somewhat) desperate manner, then this challenge could seriously be the one for me. And as I want a challenge, I want to choose the books I'd read using a generator or something. By author or series or just some random standalone book. Oh, yeah. Even novellas and Christmas stories. Let's see how I'm actually going to do this.

015: did i cheat on this?

Yes, I know. What a title for today's rading/book blog. I don't know, but I couldn't help feeling that way just for me to catch up with my reading challenge. I mentioned that on yesterday's blog entry, I know. But I couldn't help feeling frustrated about my reading journey as I keep on seeing the number of books that was behind schedule. So I did what I considered to be the weirdest thing ever ㅡ at least for me.

I read short stories and novellas. And thanks to that, I finally got back on track on my reading challenge. And maybe I went a little overboard on that one, now I'm 3 books ahead of schedule. Just so you know, almost half of them were novellas. Should I call that cheating? Maybe. But I think this is just helping me read more, regardless of the length of the book.

014: crunch reading just to be back on track

Good afternoon!

Yes, I know. This is a lot later than my usual blogging time. You could say things had gotten busier around here since I woke up this morning. It's 3:46 PM here as I'm writing here. But I did read for today. I think that's a good thing. I tried to read as much as I can while doing things around here.

As for my reading update from yesterday,  I got to finish reading several books! What do you know? Then again, three of them were just the shortest books from my old currently reading list that were added since the early 2024, to be honest. You could say I'm in a hurry to be on track with my Goodreads Reading Challenge for this year. And what better for me to do that?

013: Blogging Plans And Just Reading One Book

Good morning!

This is actually a blog entry at past 8 AM here in 🇵🇭 since... sleep keeps winning. Urgh! Of course, there is a reason. I really couldn't sleep last night and I ended up sleeping at past 1 in the morning. It's a good thing that it's weekend. I don't have to wake up early to help my sister prepare for work. Maybe that's why I ended up sleeping that late. I just know I don't have to wake up way too early. 😁✌️

One more day before I reach my second week of daily reading. What do you know? I made it! Well, I did fail at reading as soon as I wake up. Sleep always wins on me. So the challenge that I chose to keep up was to reach my reading goal and write about it the next day to give updates. And so far, I was able to do both. Maybe I should do a weekly recap blog entry? Or not. I mean, I've been writing my daily thoughts about what I've read here on my blog. So doing that would only feel repetitive. But I seriously think I should write something different each week that may or may not have something to do with reading. As a way to make this blog a little diverse, in my opinion.

012: Two Books Done And Started A New One!

Good morning! Here we go again with another daily blog entry about my reading journey, if it's actually right to call it that way. I'm trying my best to stay awake, to be honest. But maybe doing this will help in some way.

I removed my "Want to Read" book list in Goodreads yesterday. That's more than 300 books in the list that I declared to read over the years since having an account there. But looking at that list had ㅡ sometimes ㅡ give my mind some pressure and that sense of wanting to catch up with people reading so much who could "devour" books so easily. This shouldn't be, and yet it happened. And to be honest, deleting that list is better. It was like... giving off a sense of mystery, no matter how small, about what to read next (or even more so, what to finish reading next).

011: Started Reading New Books And A Realization

Good morning! Though in my case, it's a rather late, and also a rainy morning here in Baguio, 🇵🇭. It's nearly 7:30 AM as I'm writing here, just so you know. I'm pretty sure it was also raining in some other parts of the country because of the storm that, according to the internet, it already exited PAR (Philippine Area of Responsibility) since yesterday. But it would still bring rain to other areas for affecting the habagat (southwest monsoon).

I wasn't planning to make this blog entry a weather update or something. But I can't help it. The fogs and the rain was what greeted me when I woke up at 5:40 in the morning earlier and look out of the window. And since it was also cold, I also ended up sleeping a little more. Yes, as you guessed it, I slept late once again. Past 12 midnight while watching Youtube reaction videos and some reading challenge vlogs (again).

010: Another Novella Done While Trying To Figure Out My Blogging Pattern

Good morning! Welcome to another day of my daily blog. I hope that you have a good day, wherever you are in the world while reading this.

Oh, geez! I'm still sleepy. This is what happens when you end up sleeping at almost 1 in the morning even though you know you have to wake up at 5 AM. Seriously insane, if you ask me. I didn't think I'd end up writing this a little later than usual. But drowsiness got the best of me. Can't beat that at this point, so I let it.

009: 2 Books Down, Even Though They Were Just Novellas (⁠◠⁠‿⁠◕⁠)

Good morning, y'all!

Oh, gosh! I feel like I'll have a headache any time soon. It's 5:12 AM as I'm writing here and I still feel sleepy. Then again, can you blame me? It's cold outside, woke up again at past 1 AM and didn't get to sleep at past 3 AM. That's the third time already, you know? It's crazy, to be honest. I didn't realize that this kind of pattern would start to emerge. I couldn't help wondering what brought this on, though. But I think I might be able to figure something out sooner or later. We'll see.

On the other hand, I have a good reading session yesterday that I couldn't even believe I did that. And the surprising thing for someone who was dealing with a major reading slump like me? I got to read a total of 214 PAGES! *internally screams so loud* That's insane, you know. Okay, maybe I was exaggerating what I was feeling here. But to think I would be able to actually read that many pages in one day, that's a lot. That's 257% more (thank you, percentage calculator) than my page count quota from yesterday.

008: Done Reading Another Book While A New Mental Debate Started

Gosh! I hate waking up like this when I only slept for an hour or so after waking up in an ungodly hour, if I say so myself. Shorter explanation? I was awaken at past 1 AM and didn't get to sleep until 3 AM, even when I tried my hardest. And to think I have to wake up at 5 AM... Urgh! I am not liking this at all.

On the lighter side, I GOT TO FINISH READING A BOOK! Yes, I have to write it in caps lock for emphasis. I'd rather do it that way. 😁😁 I'd still consider it a book even when it was just only a short amount of pages and it was meant for kids. I finished reading the 11th book of Hardy Boys, "While The Clock Ticked" in 3 days. It's a little slow for a middle grade (was it categorized there?) book. But I was only reading what was in my page count quota and would only add more if I have both the energy and the time to read more. I'd like doing my reading that way for now. No pressure, you know.

007: 6 Chapters To Go... And Then Some

Good morning! It's time of the week again where I have to wake up at 5 AM and I'm doing what I can not to fall asleep again after that. Maybe I should've fixed that other alarm clock so that I won't have to fall back asleep even on the weekends.

I don't know what to think about yesterday, to be honest. It felt like... everything passed by in a blur or something. I can't understand why I felt that way when I was just at home all day and doing my own thing. Thankfully, I got to finish my page count quota even with all my mind's craziness.

my thoughts on reading vlogs after watching a lot of them lately

It's too much for my brain to comprehend. It's a lot for my "reading urge" to keep up.

At least, that was the initial reaction, by the way. In this case, I've watched quite a number of reading vlogs since the start of the month and I have no idea why I decided to do that when I rarely (and I mean VERY RARELY) watch any reading vlogs until... this month of September. Strange, right? But here's the thing. I only choose certain topics when watching reading vlogs. In my case, I chose to watch reading challenges. Like:

006: Surpassing My Page Count Quota. A New Reading Plan.

Good morning! I honestly just woke up and it's already 7:03 AM here. Still feeling quite sleepy. But I know I should've done this when my alarm went off at 5 AM. Yikes! Done it again. I guess I was just too sleepy. It doesn't have to be this way, you know. I put a reading challenge to myself just so I can get over my bad reading slump.

Though the random number generator was helping in some way, I also want to do this early in the morning. Or was it because my body knew that it was a Sunday and I don't have a task to do on an early weekend? I'm not sure. But I still want to do something productive as early as possible.

005: Finished A New Book! And Started A New One...

Good morning... from a way too early riser (ish). Not really. 😕😕 I actually woke up at 1:52 AM for some reason, and I don't know what else to do since my brain just say that I don't want to continue sleeping just yet. So I'm doing a REALLY early blog entry for my daily blog. Maybe it's because not being able to write anything... is crazy. That's the only problem I have from yesterday. Okay, maybe even reading, as well. I mean, I didn't reach my page count quota for the day. 😔😞

On the bright side, I was able to finish "Daddy Long Legs" because of that page count goal. And I was shocked when I saw that I've been reading that book for more than two years already (since May 2022, according to my Goodreads data). Yikes! Just what the heck was I doing all this time? Then again, the same goes to the other books in my reading list. So who was I to complain? This is what happens when a lot of books keep enticing me to read them. Yup, blaming the light novels I kept seeing and been wanting to read. And more new books coming out every chance I get. 😬😬

004: Celebrating Small Wins: Reading, Writing, and Morning Struggles

Good morning! And as per usual, I didn't get up even after my alarm at 5 AM went off. This is what happens when I know I don't have to get up early to help my sister prepare for work since she wasn't here. 😂 It's crazy, I know. It's 6:55 AM and I only woke up when my mom called for me to check on her blood sugar since she has to leave a little later for her own errand. I ended up sleeping right after that alarm went off. Yikes! 🤭

But for a reading update, of course I was able to reach my quota and more. My reading pages quota yesterday was 15 pages and I was able to read 28 pages of (still) "Daddy Long Legs". I still have 27 pages left to read for that book before I can finally say that I finished reading it. Finally! Anyway, I think I'll celebrate when I actually did finish reading it. That's better, right?

003: Daily Update: Reading Triumphs and Writing Fails

Now where was I? Oh, yes. Another daily update of what I've been doing since yesterday. I didn't get to do much since I have to go out twice and I was tired because of that.

I managed to reach my reading quota from yesterday, which was 26 pages. That's short and doable, so thankfully, I managed to reach that page count. I'm still reading "Daddy Long Legs" and I think I might be able to finish reading this before the week ends. Who knows. And it also depends on the number of pages that I would end up reading every day. As much as I want to write my thoughts about the book right now, I don't want to. But I've already reached the part where Judy is a sophomore and had spent time with Jervis Pendleton. Wow, right? Honestly, every letter was too much for me. But I did dream of writing a story like that one day. An epistolary one.

002: an update from yesterday, and more...

So this is an early morning post that I decided to place here, just because I can't concentrate on continuing to write that one-shot I started last night or continuing to read "Daddy-Long-Legs". Yup, that's the book I'm trying my best to finish since I've been reading it on and off since last year. 

It's crazy, right? Just what the heck happened to me all this time for me to have such a bad case of a reading slump? In any case, I'm putting up a little update from yesterday before I formally start my day today. It's a bit weird writing here in the early morning. But I think this is better than not writing anything here at all. I might be able to do this on a daily basis. Of course, that still depends on whether I want to actually write about a certain topic or not.

001: a short update since i haven't been posting here

So I finally finished reading one book this year... after setting it up since the start of the year. Like what the heck? Are you kidding me? I'm seriously in the middle of a bad reading slump right now. And to think that has been going on for such a long time. Urgh!

In any case, I just finished reading "What Happened At Midnight" by Franklin W. Dixon. And as you guessed it, this is just a pending reads that I seriously wanted to finish reading already. It took me a long while to finally finish reading the entire thing ever since adding it on my Goodreads shelf back in March 2023. You're kidding, right? Apparently for me, that's not the case at all. It took me that long to read the whole thing even though it's only 191 pages.