Hello!

Being totally honest, I’ve been feeling a little uninspired with blogging recently and I think this is exclusively tied to the fact that I’ve been slogging my way through one of the longest books in my collection for over a month and it’s not that I wasn’t enjoying it, but I think it just made me feel a little bit like I had nothing to update!

But I’ve been looking to other book bloggers for inspiration and I’ve seen lots of updates from dinipandareads, allithebookgiraffe and hardcoverhaven engaging with these discussion posts that are referred to as memes and I definitely don’t have the time to write five to six posts a week, but there’s one called ‘Sundays in Bed With…’ or ‘The Sunday Post’ which is like a weekly reading wrap up.

And I do weekly reading wrap ups on my TikTok, but in these posts they go more into what they’ve been doing with their week, any other content they’ve posted and basically anything else they want to share and that sounds like a bit of me, so I decided to hop right on to that bandwagon!

So here we go – my first book blog meme! Kind of?

I actually managed to finish TWO books last week!

In May, I started trialling this ‘three book system’ where I would have the audiobook I listened to in the car, an upstairs book I would read before bed and a downstairs book I would read during the day if I had time, but after a whole month it just turned out I took even longer to finish books than usual (and I keep accidentally finding books that have parallels even if they’re completely different genres and it’s confusing).

So I’m strictly back to two books and I managed to finish one audio and one physical this week.

I finished the next book in the Maximum Ride series in my reread of one of my favourite series from my teenage years and I had a wonderful time – I don’t know what it is about this series but I can get through it about twice as fast as any other book I read. It definitely gave me a little reprieve from the ‘active slump’ that I feel I’ve been in.

This series is about a group of kids who’ve been genetically modified to be part bird and they’re ongoing escape from the scientists who don’t see them as people – they’ve got wings, they’ve got teenage hormones, and our main protagonist Max has enough sassy sarcasm that it explains where my sarcastic streak comes from.

It’s dated, a lot of the dialogue is quite cringy, but for me this series is like the physical manifestation of nostalgia and I’m so glad I decided to include the first book in my 25 in 2025 list.

It’s only in making these graphics I realised both of these authors are called James… Anyway.

I FINISHED SHOGUN.

I started this book on May 9th. The audiobook was 53 hours and 34 minutes long. My physical edition had 1,125 pages. 44 days later, I listened to the last of it.

Now this is a book I chose for my May TBR from my Wedding Library – tl;dr, when my husband and I got married we asked our guests to gift us a copy of their favourite book to have a little library of our favourite people’s favourite books and in an endeavour to read them all I’ve been reading one a month. I use a spinner to choose which books I’m reading next because it’s completely random and means I don’t have to decide. Shogun was a gift from my mum and the second longest book in the collection (that scares me a lot). Although she claims that it’s obvious, my mum kind of spoiled how it was going to end, except…

This is book 1 in a series of 6.

The thing she told me doesn’t happen in book 1.

So the ending was really unsatisfying considering I’d put more than two literal days of my life into listening to this book. But overall I did find it somewhat interesting – to learn about some of the culture in 1600s Japan, England and Portugal, but also the perception of that culture in 1970s England. It’s definitely one I would consider re-reading if I was going to read the entire series, but I would need a notebook, an array of coloured pens and an assortment of sticky tabs.

Full reviews of both of these books will be in my monthly wrap up!

I got to choose a new audiobook and a new physical book this week which is exciting but also I hate making decisions in equal measure.

So for my physical book, I essentially chose based on which book I don’t want to listen to as an audiobook and landed on After The Forest by Kell Woods – this is one that I picked out of my TBR Jar for my 25 in 2025 and I didn’t make any effort to read the summary before I went in, but I know I got this book from Illumicrate in 2023 and the bookish merch that came with it was great, but my experience with Illumicrate books is generally kind of mid.

Now that I’m just over 10% of the way through it, I can say it’s a kind of extension of Hansel and Gretel’s story, it feels a bit cosy fantasy but with darker undertones and it’s very heavily honouring the Germanic roots and I think I like it. At first it felt a little bit distant – like when an author tries to be whimsical and mystical but comes off a bit aloof and detached, but now that I’ve had some more time with the characters (and I’m not just reading in bed when I’m about to fall asleep) I’m intrigued as to where the story will go.

I’m definitely looking for romance at every turn and there are a few potential suitors so far, but I don’t even know if the story is going to take that route so we’ll see if I can finish it next week and let you know!

The new audiobook I decided to start at the gym this morning is my June Wedding Library pick which is The Glass Lake by Maeve Binchy – the cover of this book is very much giving mass-market paperback romance, but considering this book came from my aunt and the other book she gave me is The Silence of the Lambs, I think maybe not! Storygraph tells me it’s a… oh actually it does say romance, but the summary (that I know I read but I can’t really remember) implied a mystery, so I have no idea!

I’ve been using audiobooks as my incentive to go to the gym more and I listened to chapter 1 (there are only 16 chapters in a 22 hour audiobook, so they’re quite long!) and I’m getting a kind of Derry Girls vibe, so I have no idea where it’s going to go. I was doing some very generic mental maths on the treadmill and I don’t think I’ll be able to finish it this week, but I’ll be about 70%-80% of the way through so I can let you know definitively whether it’s more romance or mystery, or both!

On YouTube this week, I posted a nearly mid-year journal flip through, talking about all the spreads I made at the beginning of the year and how I’ve been using them nearly six months later!

Then on TIkTok, I’ve managed to post nearly every day this week! Here’s what I made:

Weekly Reading Check In

A Journal Flip Through (much like the youtube video!)

Men who get frustrated with women who read romance

Reshuffling my bookshelves (this one was really satisfying)

Does this count as a blind date with a book?

A reminder to close TikTok and go read (lol)

Absolutely just an excuse to share pictures of my cat.

We adopted Mango in March because I followed this rescue on Instagram and fell in love with her. I know how wishy washy it sounds, but I just feel like she was meant to be mine – I’ve never had a cat before, my husband has never not had a cat before, and I haven’t felt like that about any cat since. I couldn’t stop thinking about her so we took the plunge.

Now she’s my little shadow, I often send picture updates to my husband telling him how I can’t cope with how cute she is and she’s taught me that I’m way more capable than I thought! So here are just a few pictures (I’ll try to limit these… a bit)

I LOVE when she does the upside down head thing! This little spot on the stairs she likes, we refer to as ‘baby jail’, she still loves her worm toys, but has also discovered a new favourite spot in the overgrown weeds in our little garden, but the last picture is just further example of how she wants to be near me but not within touching distance – seeing her little paws sticking out of the lounger I was reading on gave me a good giggle.

I’ve learnt a lot of life lessons on the internet and whilst I still share a lot of what I”m doing, I’m definitely better about it than I used to be, so this feels little strange!

Things have been good this week though – I’ve been quite unsettled for the last two or three years and I feel like I really am starting to find my feet again. I’m better at keeping myself to a routine, like I said I’m using audiobooks as a way to get myself to the gym and already it feels like way less of a chore to go.

I’ve been doing some work for my final deadline for my Level 3 Dance Teaching Assistant course, because who doesn’t need a complete career change after an undergraduate degree, a post-graduate certificate and a master’s degree? I was the kid that spent half their life in a dance studio and I usually explain it that no one considered a career in dance, whether that be teaching or performing, an option for me, though in hindsight I don’t know if I’d have considered it even if my teacher’s did think I was good enough, but that’s too many ifs and maybes! I have a plan to become a fully qualified dance teacher within a couple of years and I’m slowly but surely working on how to make this grow into a more sustainable career. But then the other part-time job I do to support the dance teaching is going really well at the moment too, so I can’t complain!

Other than that it’s been relatively quiet – my husband works in TV broadcast so he’s away a lot with whatever sport he’s working on. This week he’s been gone for most of the weekend on a cricket match and it’s been quite nice to just be me and the cat! Don’t read too deeply – I love spending time with my husband, but not having to listen to him play video games and/or trying to mentally block him out while I’m working has it’s pros!

I had a lovely catch up with some friends on Saturday – we were intending to have a little craft club and do some colouring, but we spent about 5 hours just chatting, which was equally as nice. We had a little picnic, as it was meant to be over 30 degrees, and it was hot but it ended up raining on us! We were under a gazebo and it was actually really lovely to hear the pitter-patter of the rain and get a cooler breeze whilst still being outside. I spent a lot of time trying to match what I felt I ‘should’ be doing in friendships, especially pre-realising I’m autistic, but having people on the same wavelength who I don’t see for six months and we pick up right where we left off is so healing for me. I feel very, very lucky with the friends I have and don’t intend to leave it six months again!

As per, I have managed a good old ramble so thank you very much if you’ve read this far!

Is this going to be a new weekly format? I don’t know. I do like this kind of structure and in lieu of doing more formal book reviews, coming up with something relevant that I have enough to say about and actually feel like I have some experience on the topic is just difficult! This is a hobby and I know I need to give myself structure in my hobbies or I don’t do them, but I do find I can get bored very quickly.

This whole concept is very ego-centric of me but it’s my blog, so at the end of the day, I’m going to post what I like haha!

I hope you’ve had a great week and you’re reading a great book!

Thank you so much for reading,

Sophie xx