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Bookish other,  Wrap-ups and TBRs

March ’20 wrap-up

5 April 2020 / 20 Comments

Good morning bookworms!

Let’s talk about March… ooof. I am telling you, someone needs to pull the plug on 2020 and let’s just restart this year, because between fire, floods and worldwide pandemic, I am done with 2020, and we’re only one quarter through. On a happier note, let’s talk about all the GOOD things from last month.

 

what i read

I read, a surprising, 9 books in March. Now, I know 9 isn’t normally a surprising number for me; however, up until the 28th of March I had only finished 5 books – one of which was a graphic novel – so imagine my surprise and delight when I smashed through 4 books in an entire weekend. So, here’s what I read:

Book

Author

Series

Format

Rating (/5)

Cover
Havenfall Sara Holland Havenfall #1 Paperback

4

 Havenfall
Saga Vol 3 Brian K. Vaughan Saga #3 Graphic novel

3

 Saga Vol 3
A Ferry of Bones and Gold Hailey Turner Soulbound #1 eBook

4

 A Ferry of Bones and Gold
All Souls Near and Nigh Hailey Turner Soulbound #2 eBook

4

 All Souls Near and Nigh
A Crown of Iron and Silver Hailey Turner Soulbound #3 eBook

4

 A Crown of Iron and Silver
Camp L. C. Rosen Paperback

4

 Camp
It Sounded Better in my Head Nina Kenwood Paperback

5

 It Sounded Better in my Head
Emma Adapted by Nancy Butler
Original story by Jane Austen		 Marvel Jane Austen series Graphic novel

3

 Emma
The Start of Me and You Emery Lord The Start of Me and You #1 Paperback

5

 The Start of Me and You

 

The stand out book for the month was It Sounded Better in my Head by Nina Kenwood. It’s probably going to make my top 10 books for the year (yep, I’m calling it now). It’s an amazing debut and I honestly can’t scream about it enough. Review coming soon!!

 

what i did

Honestly, I can’t really remember what I did last month. I definitely started isolation – we had our first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Canberra and my boss and I were like “that’s it!”. I’m immunosuppressed, and so is her son, but we’re fortunate to be able to work from home, so that was it for us. I’m currently on like day 24 of being home, and it’s starting to wear thin… but I know I have to stay here for my own health, so I’m trying not to let it get me down.

I guess the only downside is that I’m starting to feel the lines blur between work and home, which isn’t great. And because we’ve been so busy I’ve done the occasional late night or weekend stint – which I would never had done before. It’s definitely having an effect on my ‘relaxing’ time.

I must say, there was a weekend in March that I purely devoted to Stardew Valley!! I finally caught the last fish I needed to complete the Community Centre, so that was really cool.

 

on my blog

Hmmm… not much happening over here… except, you know…

I WENT SELF-HOSTED AND REDESIGNED THE BLOG!!

Yes, I was very surprised with this too considering I actually had to google what plug-ins were. But all in all, I think it went pretty smoothly!! (Except for that 72 hours where it all transfers over and my theme looked like a mess and I was basically crying from stress…)

So, I need to give two very big shout-outs because I would never have done this without these two amazing people providing (sometimes unknowing) assistance.

Firstly, massive thanks to Kal @ Reader Voracious. If you didn’t know, Kal was the one who inspired me to actually go self-hosted to being with. She published a blog series last year detailing her experience on going self-hosted, and I basically used it as my step-by-step guide on how to do it myself. Seriously, it was so easy (and I would place money on Kal’s stats going up last month because I think I looked at those posts about 15 times each).

Secondly, my everlasting thanks and gratitude to Kat @ Novels and Waffles for designing all of the beautiful graphics on my blog (and insta and twitter and email). Kat was an absolute dream to work with – mostly because I was probably very annoying!! When I first approached her I had no idea what I wanted my blog to look like, but she came back with samples and ideas and eventually (after thinking very long and hard about it), I went back with a list of things and a colour palette that I thought really showed who I was. And Kat, with all of her magical abilities, JUST GOT IT. She understood my aesthetic probably better than I did, and I am so in love with all of the designs. Like, I cried when I got the final files.

So, thank you to both of these amazing people. My blog would not look like this (literally in Kat’s case) without your assistance.

There’s still some more changes I want to do, but these will come with time (and likely more googling…).

 

on your blogs

I am still dreadfully behind on blog-hopping (I did get down to 900, but then it went back up to 1,500!!). I’m relatively caught up if your blog name starts with A-G, but after that it all goes downhill rather quickly. BUT, I’m getting there now that I can sit again without being in worlds of pain!!

Ok, so some of these may not be for last month, but some of my fave posts of yours I’ve seen lately are:

And finally, Sam and Clo have also launched Book Ending Spring for 2020!! Sam was the first host for the month (which I’ll scream more about next month, I’m sure); however, you can still sign up for Spring (link above), or just check out the blog-hopping masterlist – AND I’ll be hosting a couple of days later in the month too!!

How was your March?

until next time, happy reading! Meeghan xo

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20 Comments

  • Sofii @ A Book. A Thought.

    5 April 2020 at 2:27 pm Reply

    Sweetie!! Congrats on going self-hosted!! ??? it must have been something stressful and scary for you at first, but I LOVE how everything looks and I’m sure you’ll be very successful as always, I’m here to support you! ❤️✨❤️✨
    Thank you SO much for highlighting my post!! makes me SO happy that you enjoyed them. ?
    I hope that despite all that’s happening in the world you have a great April, love ?

    • meeghan

      5 April 2020 at 5:37 pm Reply

      Thank you!! I’m so glad you like it!! ?
      Sending you all the love and wishing you a great April too!! xx

  • Mere

    6 April 2020 at 9:24 am Reply

    what is march what is life what is ANYTHING is how I feel about last month. somehow I read a lot, but feel like I did nothing?!?!

  • Birdie

    7 April 2020 at 1:17 am Reply

    Thanks so much for the shout out, but also I’ve wanted to switch to self hosted for so long but I’m so scared! (You’re blog looks amazing! I thought that last week. I love all your art!)

    • meeghan

      7 April 2020 at 7:45 pm Reply

      Naww, thank you!! It was actually much easier than I had imagined possible. But I pretty much stuck to Kal’s guide. The hardest part was picking a theme from the actual thousands you can choose from, and then playing with it until you get it right.
      I should have shouted you out months (and months) ago for all the recs I get from you… I just keep forgetting ?

      • Birdie

        8 April 2020 at 12:33 am Reply

        That’s another area where I’m worried. It took me forever to find my theme. I’ve looked at others, but it’s my favorite. I’m nervous it won’t be an option, lol. I’d love the ability to control my site more with plugins, and obviously saving money, but on the flip side I also like that I don’t have to do my own updates, and since I pay for premium wordpress hosted, I can use their techs for advice on using the CSS. I keep going back and forth.

  • Rukky @ Eternity Books

    10 April 2020 at 4:41 am Reply

    Congrats on going self-hosted, and as I’ve screamed before, it looks absolutely beautiful!! Kat is so amazingly talented! Hopefully April will be just as awesome and even better for you! Stay safe & happy reading ❤

  • may

    10 April 2020 at 7:14 am Reply

    you’re crushing your tbr!! look at you go!! im so happy to see so many high rated books. especially ‘it sounded better in my head’ and ‘havenfall’ i’ve been really interested in those books lately.

    i absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE your graphic design, it’s so adorable and i feel like it’s so unique and memorable. kat is an absolute darling and so freaking skilled in her art!! hope you’re having a great month!!

    • meeghan

      10 April 2020 at 8:25 am Reply

      Thanks May!! Kat is such a wonderful person, and I LOVE all the designs!! I haven’t even shared all of them yet!!
      Also, I’d really love to scream about how AMAZING It Sounded Better in my Head is. Natalie (the MC) is the girl that we can all relate to and I feel that in my whole being!! I hope you get to read it soon, it’s such a great story!!

  • Veronika @ Wordy and Whimsical

    15 April 2020 at 2:15 am Reply

    I’m really looking forward to your review of It Sounded Better in my Head!! I definitely relate to being behind on blog hopping, although in my case it’s mostly my bloglovin feed that’s overwhelming. I managed to keep up with wordpress blogs that I’m signed up through wordpress, because I get a weekly delivery to my email. I’m glad you have the choice to work from home, though I understand how work and home-life can merge together. My friends and family who are working from home have been experiencing this as well. 🙁 Hope your April has been going well! 🙂

    • meeghan

      15 April 2020 at 8:30 am Reply

      Thanks Veronika!! I really need to finish that review… maybe I’ll do it on my lunch break today!!
      Sending love ?

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