September Wrap Up ft. exams and readathons

Welcome to another post, today I’m going to talk about September: the month of college, exams and stress. But also the start of autumn!

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My September

As I anticipated in my August TBR post last month, I’ve been very busy! College started again and it was comforting to have an actual routine but I’m still not used to my 6.30 am alarm. Then, we had dreaded mocks. Thankfully, it was only one week of torture and apart from one or two exams I’m happy with the results! They also determine our UCAS grade (I’m applying for uni this year) so I was definitely more focused on school than anything else.

Another thing I’ve done this month except studying is running! I don’t know what I was thinking because I hate cross country, but at least it’s a good way to relieve some of my stress after college, and maybe one day I’ll be able to run the whole way.

I caught up on some Netflix shows and finally started The Umbrella Academy! I also started using Notion and I’m thinking of using it as an online bullet journal because I carry around my phone everywhere. This page is just from a template, so I’ll make it my own soon.

Reading Stats

Somehow, I did manage to squeeze reading in, thanks to using some of my own tips from my how to read more post! Here are some reading stats:

I read 7 books and 2780 pages this month.

• 1 audiobook, 2 physical books and 4 e-books
• An average rating of 3.8
• 1 contemporary, 1 romance, 1 sci-fi, 3 fantasy; 1 graphic novel and 1 play
• 3 young-adult, 4 adult

Books	Becca’s bookoplathon prompts	Stranger things readathon prompts
The Dragon Republic	E-book	Joyce: a book you feel magnetised to
Othello	Community shelf: read a play	Lucas: black main character
Time’s Convert	Cover with fiery colours	Alexei: red cover
Clap When You Land	Community shelf: latinx author	Upside down: book outside your comfort zone
Titan	–	Dustin: sci-fi
The Kiss Quotient	–	USS Butterscotch: sweet contemporary
Six of Crows	Community shelf: 3 word title	Steve: popular book

The Books

Five star reads

The Dragon Republic: I didn’t know it was possible but this was even better than The Poppy War! Since it’s a series I won’t reveal too much about the plot, but I loved the character development, plot twists (!!) and exploration of Westerners and colonialism. I think the historical aspect was more pronounced too, and it encouraged me to look up modern Chinese history. And Kitay is still precious.

Four star reads

Clap When You Land: I was surprised by how much I liked the verse form, and there are so many great themes explored. As you can see from my favourite quotes post, the writing style is beautiful too.

Othello: I’ve finally picked up another Shakespeare play! I gave myself lots of time to read (and translate!) and analyse this one, because I don’t think I would have appreciated it as much if I didn’t. The themes of deception and feeling like an outsider were explored really well, and I can’t explain how much I HATE Iago.

Six of Crows: Another one that I’ve needed to read for ages. I loved the found family vibes and hopefully in the next series there will be more perspectives from my favourite characters (Jesper, Inej) and more romance. I didn’t think I’d like a heist type plot but I could follow along and there was still time to explore the characters.

Three star reads

Titan: This was a quick, fast paced read and I really liked the artwork but I think it could have been a bit more developed. Here’s my full review if you’re interested!

The Kiss Quotient: I didn’t hate this romance but it dragged on a bit for me and I was considering DNFing at one point. I think I didn’t like it as much because I was reading it via an audiobook on Spotify and you can’t speed it up, so I’m pretty sure anything would have dragged if I did the same.

Time’s Convert: So this is part of the same universe as the All Souls trilogy, which I haven’t read. Yeah, I probably should have done read the trilogy first but I’m impatient. I really like the historical aspect of this even if I don’t know the characters in as much detail! I’ve got about 100 pages left so I might change my mind, but right now I think it’s a 3.5 star book. 

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Thanks for reading! How was your September?

—ella♥