Thursday, August 25, 2016

August Currently . . .


Here’s what I’ve been doing in August.



I’m Currently . . .




Reading: More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera. It’s finally time to read the books that have been sitting on my TBR shelf for over a year.




Watching: 90 Day Fiancé and Bachelor in Paradise. Yes, I feel like trash for watching these shows. For some reason, their train-wreck-style drama entertains me.




Stalking: Shattering Stigmas on It Starts At Midnight. If you’re not reading these posts about mental illness representation in books, you totally need to. I kinda want to write my own Shattering Stigmas post, but I’m not sure if I’m ready to share my bizarre mental health history with the Internet. Maybe next year. (I’m not lying when I say it’s bizarre. You guys will seriously cringe at me.)


Discovering: Did you know there’s a calculator that will tell you how long it will take to read all the books on your TBR? If you’re brave enough, click here to go to the calculator. If I don’t add any new books, it’ll take me 3 months to get through all my unread ones.


Enjoying: New challenges. My grad school thesis is done (holy crap, guys), so now I get to experiment and try out some new types of writing I’ve never done before. I’m currently working on a lecture about nonlinear narrative structures.


Learning: That making videos is hard. I now have a whole lot more respect for YouTubers. I have to make a video of my lecture, and I’m way too self-conscious and awkward to do it. Once the lecture is done, I’m never making a video of myself again. Making videos is awful in every imaginable way.




Goal setting: Goals for the rest of 2016: read at least 30 more books, run 5k without dropping dead, acquire a master’s degree.




Thinking about: How much a person can change in 10 years. Also, how you can’t assume you know everything about a person’s life just by looking at it from the outside.


Wishing: I had time to reread all the Harry Potter books. I’m not sure if I’m feeling nostalgic, or if I just need to get the taste of Cursed Child out of my mouth.


Photographing: Books! I’m so envious of people who can take awesome bookish photos.





What did you do in August? 






21 comments:

  1. More Happy Than Not is one I have had for a while so I am looking forward to your thoughts. Good luck with your goals!!

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  2. So...it will take me seven years to get through my TBR list, according to that calculator. And it assumes that during those seven years, I will not ADD any books to the list. Ha!

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    1. Yeah, that calculator is a little depressing. Basically, it says I’ll never get to read all the books I want to read. I’m constantly adding new ones.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  3. I love the TBR calculator. Thanks for sharing! Also, I'm honestly now interested in your "bizarre" history with mental illness.

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    1. Or mental health, not illness, if that distinction is important to you!

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    2. The distinction isn’t important to me. I’ll probably end up telling the story someday. It’s kind of devastating, kind of embarrassing, and kind of hilarious.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  4. I'm so impressed with your August accomplishments! Compared to this list, I feel so behind... I completely understand the envy of other people's bookish photos. I am also working on that! I wish you all the best with your improvements there. Perhaps we can share some tips as we both progress. :)

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    1. I know! I don’t understand how people take such awesome photos. Photographing books is hard.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  5. OMG Bachelor in Paradise!! I had no idea you watched too! I love Daniel so much!! XD I was thinking about how much I've changed in the last 10 years recently too. It's really insane how much I am not the same person.

    Tracy @ Cornerfolds

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    1. I love Bachelor in Paradise. Daniel is my favorite, and I’ll be sad when he goes home. I also like the twins, Evan, Carly, and Nick.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  6. I really do need to reread the Harry Potter books myself soon! I have been meaning to for so long.

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    1. I haven’t reread all of them since the 7th book came out. I’m way overdue for a reread.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  7. Yay, you're finally reading More Happy Than Not! I hope you enjoy it. Eagerly awaiting your review.

    You finished your thesis??? You're such a fancy academic, AJ! Giving lectures and what now. I follow the smartest bloggers! :)

    About your comment on how people change in 10 years. That's obviously very true when one is a kid or teen, but it becomes very noticeable after your twenties as well. I am not the same person today as I was when I was 20. And I imagine I will have grown and changed, hopefully for the better, by the time I am 30! I welcome this change because if we didn't grow and learn, life would be very boring.

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    1. Thanks! I loved More Happy Than Not, but the review won’t be up until December. I’m going to be insanely busy at the end of the year and am blogging ahead right now.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  8. First of all, I would encourage you to share about your mental health struggles - just the fact that you're worried about what people will think about your "bizarre mental health history" shows the stigmas surrounding these types of issues and how we need to get past them!

    Secondly, I am super jealous of people who are fabulous bookstagrammers too - I wish I had the eye for it.

    Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

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    1. Thanks. I’ll probably tell my weird story someday. I have to find a way to write it that’s short and not too confusing.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  9. Congrats on finishing your thesis, AJ, way to go! How long is a master's program where you live? I'm sure you can do it if you really want to :)
    I want to read More Happy Than Not, too, I'm going to have to look for your review :)
    If that calculator is correct, it'll take me over four years to finish my TBR pile, but we all know I add loads of new books every week :D
    Have a wonderful week ahead and happy reading.
    Lexxie @ (un)Conventional Bookviews

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    1. Thanks! Where I live, a master’s degree is 2-4 years. I finish mine in November, and it will have taken me 2.5 years.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  10. This is such a fun post, I think I'm going to do one myself! :P Ugh I know all about those shows and yet they are my guilty pleasure! According to the calculator (I'm including my wishlist too :P), I need approximately 31 years and 11 months to clear the 958 books I shelved as my "Want to read" in GR - that's what you get when you're too greedy :/ Congratulations on your thesis! I know how tough it can be, months and months of research and crammed into a single 20k words thesis. On the bright side, we published our first hardcover! Goodluck on pursuing your masters too ;) I'm super envious of book photographers too, how did they do it?!

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