january wrap-up // we’re one month into 2022 (EH WHAT?)

Greetings people, elves, demigods, witches, wizards, crows, and all! hope you’re doin’ well. 🌻
I know we all do the “oMG where’s the time going I need to GET MY LIFE TOGETHER AHHH” thing, but I mean, January’s only got a couple hours left and I still feel like it’s 2021, honestly.
But then, don’t we all?
I think it’s time to get into the ✨wrap-up!✨

1. Start learning barre chords on ukulele.
   Eh.. I didn’t really do much of ukulele this month, sadly. 😭 I mean. I did play ukulele, but I didn’t exactly do much learning~
   I only learnt a couple songs, and wrote one as well (EHEHEHE you read that right!!).
   So yeah. I didn’t start learning em. oops. 😬
2. Read at least nine books
   This I did do! 👌 I read ten.. which you’ll get to know more about very soon heh. ✨

Yeah. I only had those two goals. And guess what? I didn’t even accomplish both.
Ghastly, Ray, ghastly. The people expect much more from a rat. 🐀

this picture ain’t perfect BUT I WORKED HARD TO GET THIS SO APPRECIATION MUST BE GIVEN.

The World Ends in April – By Stacy McAnulty
sO halfway through this book I was like, “okay wait do I really want this to be the first book I read this year mate~“, (talking to myself of course), and then I realized it’s PERFECT because what’s more ironic than reading a book called “The World Ends in April” first in the year for goodness sake. 😌🤟
*cough*
Did I actually like the book? Yes! (Thank goodness.) I’ve read another book by Stacy McAnulty (The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl) and I really enjoyed that, so no surprise there I suppose. 🌻

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The Stonekeeper (Amulet #1) – by Kazu Kibuishi
Honestly I don’t care for the characters, and the plot is just okay I guess, but I’m still going to get the whole series slowly because I LOVE the art. 😍 (I hate this emoji but you gotta do what you gotta do~)
I’m going to recreate some scenes soon maybe, like I often do with graphic novels. ✌

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The Boy Who Accidentally Got Famous – David Baddiel.
Ehhh. I started this back in like, November, and it should’ve been a rEALLY quick read but I sort of DNF-ed it.
Either this book is just not as good as his other ones, or I’ve grown out of his books. Hm. 🤷‍♀️

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Two Can Keep a Secret – Karen M. McManus
EEEE. This was (sadly) the last book by Karen M. McManus that was left to read.. until August or something of this year of course. I forgot the name of that upcoming book already.. oof. 🤦‍♀️
Anyway, apart from the two One of Us is Lying books, this is my favourite by her! 😌

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Loser – by Jerry Spinelli
I found this to be quite a boring book honestly. Like the writing style, the plot. Meh. The characters too. *sobs* This is by the author of Stargirl, a book I want (or wanted?) to read, mostly because Grace Vanderwaal plays Stargirl in the movie adaptation.
But now I don’t think I want to read it anymore because of this. 🌝🤔
And there’s also some other book by him, Jack and Lily I think? Yeah. The synopsis sounds good. But again, do I really want to read another book by him?
Mayhaps I’ll give it a shot sometime.. but I’m not sure. Moving on!

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Anne of Green Gables – by L.M. Montgomery
I watched Anne With An E earlier in the month as well (yeah, shamefully before I read the books ehehehe-), and since I quite liked it, I will now be reading the books!
And I do like this first one. It’s just like, very different from the series. 😬

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Anne of Avonlea – by L.M. Montgomery
Ah, the second Anne of Green Gables book. I don’t have much to say; this was alright! A tad bit boring in some places, but oh well. 😗
I’m definitely continuing the series.. as soon as the bookshop I go to gets the third book. 😬

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The Stonekeeper’s Curse (Amulet #2) – by Kazu Kibuishi
I think maybe this one was slightly better than the first one.. but I still don’t care for the story really. Heh. 😬 (I’m using this emoji so much? Why??)
Like I said though, I like the art enough to keep getting these. And okay, maybe I do slightly care.
Slightly. 🤏

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Radio Silence – by Alice Oseman
aAAAAh. I think this is so much better than Solitaire, which is also by Alice Oseman. I also think this is better than Heartstopper.. but that’s a graphic novel so I’m not really comparing~
anyway. I kinda love this book now. 😌

Roller Girl – by Victoria Jamieson
Okay, so for the second time I accidentally started reading this book.
How, you may be wondering, do you accidentally start reading a book, dearest ray??
Well you see, this is a graphic novel which I LOVE. And the art style is awesome too. So I used it for a reference, but then I stopped drawing and started reading- so there’s my very uninteresting story.
I’ve probably read this like eight times now.

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Whew. That’s all of them – and I wouldn’t blame you if you skimmed honestly. 😳

Hmm.. I’ve never really liked most of the songs on Speak Now, but I realized I actually like this one a lot. ✌ (and I may just learn it on ukululu~)

ahhhhh, is that another Speak Now song? Indeed it is. Honestly, same story, different song. What more do I say?
OOH but if the rumours that Taylor is rerecording Speak Now next are true I can’t wait to hear these two songs aHHHHH. 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼

ah. What a lovely song to have on repeat, eh? 🙂

This song is actually playing at this very moment. 😂
So yeah, I listened to some more Conan Gray songs this month (I’d heard like, five earlier?), and for some reason I took a particular liking to this one~
Another favourite (by him) is People Watching. That was the first song I’d heard by him I think, actually. And I’m pretty sure it was in the songs on repeat section once. 😌✌
Also I just have to do this… JIGSAW JIGSAW JIGSAW JIGSAW~
*cough* next song!

Ehehe. Someoneeee watched Encanto this month.
Which is pretty normal behavior for people right now. 🤷‍♀️
Anyway yeah. It’s fun singing along to this. (But then, I sing along to pretty much every song in my playlist, so.)

This got like, SO popular recently, didn’t it?
And clearly I see why.
sEvEn fOOt FrAmE RATS alOnG hiS bACk~

There wasn’t a whole lot going on in January. It was an alrighttt month~
We were supposed to go to Bangalore.. but you know, Omicron and all. ☹ There was a weekend lockdown for most of January (I think that was lifted at the start of last week?), and apart from my parents I didn’t meet any human civilization. Oof. 😬

Oh, and did I mention I got sick? It’s incredibly rare that I get sick, but well, I guess I just had to get fever and a cold at the beginning of the year. 🙂👌 My cold just went a couple days ago. (Guess how I celebrated~ by having my much craved for ice cream haha.)

Also, how could I forget? There was my mum’s birthday too. But you know what? We completely forgot to take photos. 😃👍🏼 lovely.

Honestly, that’s about all I have to mention – and it isn’t very optimistic, I know. Sheesh. But here are some photos from the month! ✨

I feel like I went to the bookshop a lot~ Which of course, is awesome.

I visited these doggos after what feels like a while <333

aWwWw

like I said (at least I think I did-), I had a pretty good reading month~

You can see Radio Silence over there.. and then me working on a song? ehehehehe

this is from when I was sick haha- fun.

I did something different with the photos part than usual~ and just the entire life section I s’pose.
Like it? Or do you not even see the difference haha- 🥲

Oh my goodness. It’s 11:03 pm where I live BUT I’ve still gotten this wrap-up done ON TIME!!!!!!! #biggestmilestoneeveramiright
I hope you enjoyed reading! I know these can get long and tiring to read~ although I personally love reading and writing wrap-up posts as much of an absolute pain they can be sometimes. 💀
Hope you have a great rest of your day (mine’s just going to end hehe), everyone!

How was your november January? Did anything exciting? Was it just a relatably meh month (lol)?