HOW IS FEBRUARY OVER? No, seriously. I feel like this month FLEW by. Maybe it’s because we’ve just been seriously busy… Shane and I started FINALLY staining the bookcase (hey, home improvement projects are hard. Don’t judge that it took us this long!) and we’ve been coming along with the wedding planning too! We booked our chapel and are very happy with it! It’s 130 years old, looks incredibly rustic but at the same time has some awesome stained glass. We’re not really religious so it’s totally us with just the right amount of a sort of spiritual touch. I’m actually really excited for it!
Reading-wise, February actually went pretty well! I felt constantly overwhelmed until I had a heart-to-heart with Estelle and lowered my reading goal by just five books and instantly felt relieved. I don’t need to pressure myself so much because this is FUN, right!? RIGHT! Now let’s get to the recap for the month that practically passed me by!
- Number of Books Read In February: 10! Not too shabby!
- Popular Search Terms: “lunar chronicles quiz” and “what lunar chronicles character are you” (leads you back to my Lunar Chronicles quiz!) || “book addicts guide” and “the book addict’s guide” (Fair enough!)|| “if i stay online free” (tsk tsk! No piracy here!!!! But I DO giveaway books from time to time…)
- More Amusing Search Terms: “readlide.area.barely.in” (What!?!? I legitimately Googled this and I got NOTHIN) || “tom mison” (still love it)|| “snape hodge mortal instruments” (so you see it too?) || “is it me or does the girl on the cover of vampire academy look like angelina jolie” (It’s not just you!)
- Most Referrals (non-social media): The Librarian Who Doesn’t Say Shhh, Gayle Forman’s Tumblr (EEEE! She reblogged my post from Top Ten Tuesday where I made a minimalist poster for Where She Went!), The Broke and the Bookish
- Where My Blog Most Often Leads You (non-internal/social media): The Perpetual Page Turner, he Librarian Who Doesn’t Say Shhh, Tripping Over Books
- I surveyed you lovely book bloggers about social media use and I turned your results into an infographic (and gave away some books!)
- I shared my top ten books to make you swoon and made some fun minimalist-style posters for them!
- You guys were still loving my CRESS review from January!
- I LOVED the spine poetry I came up with for the Book Blogger Love-A-Thon!
Other Reviews Posted
- I enjoyed CRUEL BEAUTY but still had a couple issues…
- I absolutely loved DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT, our On the Same Page read for January!
- NIGHT OF CAKE AND PUPPETS, a DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE novella is a must-read! I adore Zuzana and Mik so much <3
- I read AFTER HELLO and felt like it had so much potential but just didn’t work for me.
- STARDUST is a Neil Gaiman classic and I really enjoyed it!
- UNFORGOTTEN, the sequel to UNREMEMBERED was exciting and thrilling and fast-paced!
- Time travel! Loved it. ALL OUR YESTERDAYS totally worked for me.
Goodreads Reading Progress
Bloggers featured on Book and a Beverage
- 2/6/14: Jamie from The Perpetual Page Turner
- 2/13/14: Amanda from Off the Book
- 2/20/14: Amanda from Appraising Pages
- 2/27/14: Merin from Read and Reviewed
Other Features & Discussions
- I had a few DNFs I needed to share and did so in my first DNF Digest
- I joined the Book Blogger Love-A-Thon and did an interview swap with Kim from the Nomadic Book Hoarder
- I did another Love-A-Thon post in which I mashed up travel and some of my favorite books!
- The Selective Collective featured BETTER OFF FRIENDS and I shared my own best-friends-to-boyfriend-to-friends-agian story!
- I was on the NIL blog tour with a great interview with author Lynne Matson!
- I was also on the UNFORGOTTEN blog tour interviewing Jessica Brody and the giveaway for UNREMEMBERED and UNFORGOTTEN is open until Monday 3/3!
- On the Same Page featured VICIOUS by V.E. Schwab this month and I discussed why I love the antihero!
WHAT’S IN STORE FOR MARCH?
- My birthday! Oh you know there will be a giveaway so keep your eyes peeled on March 11th!
- Reviews. So many reviews. I was so behind on writing my reviews BUT am hoping to catch up really, really, really soon!
- I actually have almost nothing planned and… it kind of feels awesome! I had so many things up in the air in February and blogging-wise, things are calming back down. More reviews, more books!
16 thoughts on “February 2014: Recap & Wrap-Up!”
Congrats on your upcoming wedding! 😀 That chapel looks beautiful!
Dang, girl! Ten books? I really need to start reading more. I only made it through three and a half (one was a novella) in February.
Seriously, I feel like I just blinked and February was over! It was a COLD month for me, but otherwise, it turned out okay. Your bookshelves looked awesome in your Instagram photo AND that chapel looks beautiful — as your wedding will be! 🙂
Yay for staining your book case – I had no idea you were building one! – and picking a wedding venue! So pretty! Looks like you’ve had a great February and I hope March is just as fun for you. 🙂
I love the stats you provide. And everything looks so pretty!
We are almost birthday twins! Mine is the 14th! 🙂
Beautiful chapel!
What a busy month! I can’t wait to read NIL! Great interview with Lynne!
Yay for Wedding Planning! You had a great month. I love recap posts, really puts a month in perspective! There’s some fun stuff going on in March, like Bloggiesta and I’m doing a couple of March challenges. Hope you have a great March and happy almost birthday!
That chapel is so pretty!! I remember this big weight being lifted when we finally locked down on our location!
The Love-a-Thon was easily the best blogging thing I’ve ever participated in – and your book spine poetry was AMAZING!
10 books in one month is awesome!
I feel like February flew by too. I was also busy and as a result and a little behind on everything – reviews, commenting, responding hah. But it happens. Although March is crazy busy too (I celebrate my birthday as well – yay March babies!) so I’m hoping for some productive days!
I LOVE the chapel – it is GORGEOUS. And 10 is an awesome number of books for the month. Don’t stress your out with meeting a goal. Reading is supposed to be fun, WHO CARES ABOUT A READING CHALLENGE 🙂 You are juggling so much so be proud of yourself!!
Now I have to go stalk all these awesome posts I missed.
Happy early birthday! Now I am going to take your Lunar Chronicles quiz. 🙂
What a pretty location 😀 Interesting to see what type of searches lead to your blog ‘is it me or does the girl’ is definitely not her! I actually mention it in my post today, haha. I’ve always thought the girl looked like Angelina Jolie. Happy reading this month!
That chapel is GORGEOUS. I can’t wait to see pictures of the big day. =)
Beautiful chapel! It’s exciting when wedding plans come together!
That chapel is gorgeous. I sort of want to lay down in the middle of the aisle and stare at the ceiling(I have no idea why this is the first thing that came to mind, but hey. . . it’s pretty!)
Hah, your search terms made me laugh. Sometimes looking at the terms that led people to my blog can be the highlight of my day/week because they’re so often just COMPLETELY random and never fail to amuse me.
The chapel sounds lovely! Will you be sharing photos?
Ten books is fantastic! I managed to read eleven in February, which was a huge improvement on previous months where I didn’t get to double figures.
Of course!!! How silly of me. I just updated the post with a picture of the chapel 🙂