a moment a month ✩ // my favourite books, posts, and memories from 2021

Why hello there people, elves, demigods, witches, wizards, crows, and all! Hope you’re doin’ well. 🌻
2021 is already over by the time I’m working on finishing this. And that’s kind of scary. Like, what the heck?!?
But I’m sure about every other blogger has mentioned the time flying in one of their posts recently, so I’ll spare you that. (thank me later)
anywayyyy~ last year I did this post where I shared a special memory from each month of 2020, and that’s what I’ll be doing in this post too. 🙃 oh, and I’ll also be choosing a favourite book from each month, and the best post I wrote that month in my opinion. ✨ (the favourite books part won’t include rereads)
This is probably going to take so long, but I’m prepared. Ish.
Let’s gooo.

✩ favourite book: Bridge to Terebithia by Katherine Paterson
ahh, I didn’t read much at all that month, simply because LoTR was taking me incredibly long to get through (I DNFed the second book, don’t get too excited about the mention of LoTR-). I read this for school, and it’s pretty good~

✩ favourite post: Sól Æsir – Writing Contest Entry
I found a few grammatical errors.. but it isn’t an awful story! It was a pleasant surprise to find a short story post. I really should write more of those…

✩ a memory: my mum’s birthday

aw, I like this photo. It’s cozy~

My mum’s birthday wasn’t too eventful, I think, but we had a good time and there wasn’t anything else going on in January anyway.

Gosh, I barely even remember this; it feels like so long ago, but also like yesterday at the same time.

✩ favourite book: The Cousins by Karen McManus
This was the first Karen M McManus book I read, and I enjoyed it a l o t.
(ehem. thanks to my dad for spotting it~)

✩ favourite post: Q&A (with da answers)
sOmehow, I don’t find most of my answers cringe-worthy.
Good job, past Ray. 😌

✩ a memory: reorganizing my books

There was pretty much nothing going on in February either, so I chose this. It was pretty fun organizing my books (and tiresome). And doing this meant I wouldn’t have to put *that* much work in sorting my books in November, which is when I got my new bookshelf (read the post about my new bookshelf here!).

✩ favourite book: The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart
Not gonna lie, this month was pretty hard to choose from, since I read 14 books.
Which is pretty less, but that’s more than I usually read in a month, so.

✩ favourite post: The need to be productive.
Hmm. I’m not overly happy with my posts in March.
Mayhaps Ray was too busy reading for that~ 🤦‍♀️

✩ a memory:

Guys, what went wrong in the first few months of 2021???? I literally did NOTHING worthy of this section in March. Nothing!!!

All I can think of is playing more badminton, I guess. (also I’m not that tall dude in a red t-shirt. I hope you realised that-)

Awful.
I blame this on the books as well

✩ favourite book: The House of Hades by Rick Riordan
I was t o r n and about to die.
Well, maybe not alllll that dramatic.
But I couldn’t choose between Bookshop Girl and this. And Flora & Ulysses was a strong contender too, until I realised that it was actually a reread-
But oh well. The fourth book of HoO eventually won~

✩ favourite post: Prank Exchange ~ Collab With Diamond
I have a few contenders for this month surprisingly, but I just like how this collab turned out, plus this was pretty fun to write, so I guess I’m going with that!

✩ a memory:

ah, this was the month when we went to Goa!! I love the sea~ and it rained once or twice, which was ✨awesome.✨ Plus, we went to two bookshops there (both on two separate days, and both of them were like an hour away from the hotel. ah, the things we do for books-).
And of course, I met my dear friend (I’m not using dear sarcastically for once) LELAND there!!! (and I do this too much but GO LOOK AT HER BLOG which I made her make.) It was a great coincidence that she lives just about 45 minutes away from our house.

✩ favourite book: Front Desk by Kelly Yang
I remember this being the first book in a while that I read e n t i r e l y in one sitting~ so that’s cool.

✩ favourite post: Answers to books as emojis | Aka. roasting you guys
This was a fun post.
I mean, who doesn’t love being roasted? Or roasting someone?

✩ a memory:

You know, I often accidentally skip over May and September. They feel like weird, filler months to me. 😗
And it seems like my mum skipped over May too, because there are literally s e v e n photos which were taken in May (she’s the main photographer here, most of these photos are probably taken by her ✌). And I have no idea what happened that month???
Help.

✩ favourite book: Drum Roll, Please by Lisa Jenn Bigelow

✩ favourite post: A poem // some books I got
Okay, how could I not choose the first ever rainy day post in existence (on my blog~)? They’re i c o n i c Ray posts. 😌
Well. To me. (and that’s what matters, y’know.)

✩ a memory:

I don’t exactly have a picture for this..? But June was the month I did this fundraiser thing for children who lost a parent (or both) because of COVID. And to whoever donated 5000 or more (or mayhaps it was 2000 or more; I don’t remember), I’d send them a painting made by ✨me.✨
The fundraiser is over now, but it raised over 70,000 Rupees, which is really awesome!!

✩ favourite book: Indigo’s Star by Hilary McKay
I loved the Casson Family series, but this is my favourite book out of the five.

✩ favourite post: Sarcastic Summary Collab with Sep (da blogger, not the month)
I wrote 13 posts this month. Aka. the best number ever.
Anyway, I don’t really like some of my posts in July, but the Sarcastic Summary Collabs with Sep are always awesome (we did three). ✨classic✨

✩ a memory:

I went for a sleepover at one of my friends’ house! (I mean I know there are two other girls in that photo but one wasn’t there for the sleepover-)
I think.
I mean, I’m quite certain this was in June~
The queen photos app doesn’t lie, does it? 😶

✩ favourite book: Worth a Thousand Words by Brigit Young
I had pretty high expectations for this book, and I think for the most part they were lived up to (isn’t it always awesome when that happens?).

✩ favourite post: August Monthly Wrap-up 🌻 // reviewing goals // books I read // and more!
To be honest, I didn’t really like any of the posts in August. But this one was alright! I love wrap-ups. Writing them, and sometimes reading them too.

✩ a memory:

AUGUST WAS THE MONTH, GUYS.
You know, when I started learning ukululu! aaaHhHHhhhh~

Oh and also, there was my dad’s birthday.

Was it quite as important as my ukululu?
Well. Maybe. Not really. Heh. Although we DID meet my favourite Lodhi Garden dogs on his birthday, so…

✩ favourite book: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Well. Duh. How could I even think of choosing something else?
of course, thanks PBS for making me read this gem ✨

✩ favourite post: Sarcastic Soap Collab with Sep!
I took a blogging break in September, but I did post this first, and thank goodness, I do like it. Especially that last roasting. 😂
not me laughing at my own joke

✩ a memory:

I met one of my blogging friends in real life this month!! It was super cool to finally meet one of you~
We met at a Starbucks.. she had dreadful hot chocolate and I had lovely cold coffee. 😌

I had to mention that. Because we have this ongoing debate about which drink is better.

Obviously, it’s cold coffee. (just wait for her to shout ‘NO, HOT CHOCOLATE IS’ in the comments-)

✩ favourite book: Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
And there comes the sequel~
I think the first book was better, but this is still AWESOMEness.

✩ favourite post: art tips from someone who’s absolutely, 100% a pro.
I’m actually pretty happy with the posts I did in October! That break from blogging seemed to help.

✩ a memory:

Um so I actually wanted to include meeting LELAND for the first time since we met in Goa. But we didn’t get any good photos because of the horrible lighting in the restaurant. 😐

And therefore you just get this lovely photo from the day I got my hair cut!! (by about two inches. But still. Two entire inches.) 🙂

✩ favourite book: That’s What Friends Do by Cathleen Barnhart
Again, I had some expectations for this book, which I think it lived up to. And this is just a sweet one~

✩ favourite post: a rainy day post, without the rain.
another rainy day post! I bet you’re not surprised. 😌

✩ a memory:

Okay, I went to a birthday on 2nd November, and then another one on 3rd, and then there was Diwali on 4th.
Nice three days. 🙃

This photo is from Diwali, and it’s got to be one of my best poses yet. Covering my face like that~ 100 points, Ray, 100 points.

(I’m only being slightly sarcastic. It truly is a wonderful pose.)

✩ favourite book: One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus
I read three Karen M. McManus books in December (and now only one remains), and I liked them all very much, but this one has to be my favourite. Although the sequel is pretty good too~

✩ favourite post: november wrap-up 🍂 // actually on time for once? haha nope!
ahh, don’t we all love wrap-ups? Or maybe that’s just another weird rat thing~

✩ a memory:

Well, we all know what’s coming. MY BIRTHDAYYYYYY. 🥳 I did a whole post on it already, so you can go check it out over here if you want~
Oh and that’s me and Leland in the top left photo. We finally got good pictures together. 🙂

Yikes. I just realized how many pingbacks I’m going to be getting when this gets published- Not excited about that. 😳

But anyway. I hope you enjoyed this l o n g post that took a crazy amount of time to write. (it’s also close to 2000 words.. is that normal? I have no idea~)
I also really like the layout of this post, and although all those month title graphics took a while to make, it was worth it. I guess. 😗
(and thank you, Maggie, for telling me about that super cute font I used for those! It’s Lazydog on Canva, in case anyone was wondering. Now enough about the font-)

If you skimmed the post, oh well.
At least future me will have this to look back on. ( ͡ಠ ʖ̯ ͡ಠ)
Have a great day, everyone!! And have… a year, I guess. Hopefully it’ll be good enough. 😌