Things I Read in February

Oh heyyyyy everyone! Did you all see that one review I posted in February where it seemed like I might become a functioning blogger again and then I.. failed to do that? Yeah. Sorry. Or something. 

February felt both incredibly long and incredibly short, which is to say that the weekends flew by in mere seconds whereas the weeks were just... Incredibly long. Work has become a bit (more) insane and even though I don't get paid nearly enough to worry about work in the slightest, I forgot my general policy of go in>do a good job>get paid>don't stress for a little while last month and worked many extra hours and maybe burnt out a little bit.

I'm trying to do better now, in that it's the first of the month, I left work as early as is allowed and I have spent my evening doing yoga and washing my hair and cooking and and and all the things I usually don't have time to do (like blogging!) and it has been excellent AND I have a whole day off in lieu for all the extra time worked last month so yeah. I'm doing ok.

A thing I am doing less ok at is the not buying books thing. SO I was doing so well and then... The bookshop crawl happened and it was excellent and I should have blogged about it but obviously didn't and now it's now, but let's just say that I bought 10 books in February and not even all at the bookshop crawl because I got on a bit of a roll. Another way of saying that is that this month I bought more books than I have read all year and OH DEAR WHOOPSIE.

But what did I read this month, I hear you cry?

These things! Photo unfortunately taken in the morning with the curtains drawn cause I'm stupid and anyway moving on...

The Outsiders by S E Hinton
I have already reviewed this one, extremely surprisingly, but if reviews are a little bit TL:DR for you then this was even better than I was expecting and insightful and interesting and sensitive and kept me occupied all the way from Loughborough to London which is a really good thing. Two enthusiastic thumbs up.

Just After Sunset by Stephen King
As this is a Stephen King, I will definitely be reviewing it at some point because that's how I roll but this was short stories and I don't know if I just haven't read his short stories in a while or if these were especially good but they really did seem especially good! Scary and moving and excellent and yes. Yes.

Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
O.M.G. You guys. Do you know Rupi Kaur? I found her on instagram somehow, and was totally charmed by her excellence and awesomeness and poetry and feminism and omfg, how do I like this so much when I don't even like poetry? Anyway, my papa bought me this after I had my operation last year cause he likes stalking my amazon wishlist and then my best friend got it for (I think) her birthday and kept sending me photos of it which totally inspired me to read it and IT IS SO GOOD OMG. I just... It made me cry and nod in agreement and also quote it to my best friend so that she could go 'I KNOW' and yes. Just yes.

Did I mention that I don't even like poetry and this is still my favourite? Yea. That's right.

The Vegetarian by Han Kang
This was a weeeeeird book. Weird weird weird. I don't know how to process how I feel about it, but I do think it's a very good book, if that's any help to anyone. The story centres around a woman who decides to become a vegetarian because of a, frankly, terrifying sounding dream she has, but when I say 'centres around' I really do mean that because we don't really get the viewpoint of the vegetarian at all in this book. Instead, the book is in three parts, each narrated (in the third person) by a character who is affected by this woman's choices, and her story is told via them. Narratively it's awesome and it's so interesting and also it's fucking weird as fuck and I don't even know how to cope with it, to be honest.

But it's good! I think. Give it a try, we'll compare notes. (*whispers* I clearly don't have any notes...)

Soppy by Philippa Rice
Philippa Rice is an illustrator who I also discovered on the internet and she is excellent, as is this book. Soppy is formed by the sometimes adorable and sometimes waaaaay too real moments that make up relationships, and it is basically the cutest book I've read. It's not really narrative based, although it follows Rice through meeting and moving in with her boyfriend, but it's more centred around all the tiny everyday moments that make up a life together like who's going to make the tea and cooking together and sleeping together and and all the cute and real things (have I said cute enough times yet, let me just add one more... CUTE!)

Basically I loved it and am so happy to own it. If you want to throw up, then I would like to let you know that I read this whilst cuddling my very own boyfriend, and if you think that's why I like it so much then you are at least partially correct, but it is really rather excellent by itself, I promise.

TA-DA! I know it seems like a lot of books, but if we're being realistic then Milk and Honey and Soppy each took about an hour to read (if that) so I really spent a negligible time reading this month. I'm trying to be a better human this month and spend at least a little bit of time at night and in the mornings reading, but usually my brain is too lazy so my eyes just look at instagram for hours instead. But I'll do better, I tell myself. Maybe.