Reading wrap-up + Favourites | October 2018

Hello, beautiful people!

We're already eight days into November and I'm only publishing my October wrap-up now. Oops. October felt like a really long month, mainly spent studying and waiting for/taking the subway, but I'm still really enjoying what I'm studying, so it's all good! Most importantly, Fall settled in Paris and it made me so happy, I even went to Montmartre to see it in its autumnal colours, I adored it so much. While I barely can't remember what I did, I know I enjoyed every moment I had when I was outside of uni and I even got some days off at the end of the month!

W H A T  I  R E A D

I quickly realised in October that because of uni, I was getting less and less time to read... To the point that I stopped reading altogether during weekdays, until I started listening to audiobooks again! I spend so much time in the subway or walking outside to either go to uni, meet up with people or going grocery shopping, that I can easily listen to three hours of an audiobook per day, when I'm motivated. On October 30th, I also did a 24 hour Halloween readathon with my best friend, which was amazing, and that's why I managed to read the same amount of books as usual (I read five books in one day, everything is fine)! Otherwise, we'd have been lucky if I had read more than five books, oops. 


Anyhow, here are the books that I read:

• Before the Devil Breaks You, by Libba Bray, 4.5/5 stars
• The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays, by Oscar Wilde, 3.5/5 stars
• The Woodlanders, by Thomas Hardy, 4/5 stars
• The Rules of Magic, by Alice Hoffman, 3/5 stars
• The Mill on the Floss, by George Eliot, 3.5/5 stars
• Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray, 4/5 stars
• The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson, 3.5/5 stars
• City of Ghosts, by Victoria Schwab, 4/5 stars
• Toil and Trouble: 15 Stories about Women and Witchcraft, edited by Jessica Spotswood and Tess Sharpe (anthology), 3/5 stars
• Melmoth, by Sarah Perry, 3.5/5 stars
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, 3.5/5 stars

My favourite read of the month was Before the Devil Breaks You, it was a great Halloween read and I adore the Diviners series so much, they get better and better with every instalment. I cannot wait for the fourth book to be published! I also participated in Victober this month, which is why I read so much Victorian literature. It made me so happy, for I had missed it so much! My favourite Victorian book was Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, it surprised me and Becky Sharp was so much fun to read about. The last five books I read all were perfect for Halloween and I'm glad I kept them for that time of the year!

F A V O U R I T E S

HALLOWEEN

I was on holidays for the last few days of October and I spent them with my best friend. On October 30th, we did a Halloween-themed 24h readathon, which was a lot of fun and I managed to read even more than I wanted in the first place. For Halloween, we went to the pumpkin patch and later carved our pumpkin Erik, we dressed up (me as the Phantom of the Opera, her as Luke from Gilmore Girls), we baked a lot of Halloween-themed food and I also watched some of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. It was such a great day and October couldn't end on a more positive note.

TV SHOW // How I Met Your Mother

I think I deserve a round of applause, because... I finally started watching How I Met Your Mother! I had been putting it off forever because a) I know part of the ending... b) it's so loooooong. However, I like having a comedy show to watch, without really binge-watching it (so be warned: it might take me an entire year to watch the whole show). I just watch episodes here and there, when I feel a bit down, or while I'm eating breakfast, 20 minute-long episodes are perfect for that. I'm in the middle of season 2 at the moment and it's been so much fun to watch! My boyfriend is thrilled I'm watching it, as he tried to make me watch it for so long, and now I watch it in part with him.

READING // Scribd and audiobooks

After seeing Romie @ Romie We Deserve Love talk about Scribd, I was curious to give it a go and had my free trial in October. If you don't know Scribd, it's a digital library, e-book and audiobook subscription service and I adore it. As I was mentioning at the beginning of this post, I mainly read audiobooks when I'm at uni and it's all thanks to it, because I can listen to many of them each month (I listened to four audiobooks in October). I can also easily find ebooks and have everything in the same place, as I don't have an e-reader at the moment. As I've been exploring it, I've also read several articles they host, I really like this subscription service! I might write an entire blog post about it in the future, if some of you are interested.

TV SHOW // Peaky Blinders

In October, I also started yet another period drama, because everyone is always talking about it and there were signs everywhere for a week that I had to start it. So... I did and I became obsessed with it. Peaky Blinders is set in 1920s, Birmingham and follows the Peaky Blinders gang, led by the ambitious Thomas Shelby. I wasn't sure what to expect when I started it, but once I start watching an episode, I can't stop, because it's so gripping, I'm fascinated by the characters and I have to know what will happen. The episodes are an hour long, but you don't see that hour pass and as there are only six episodes per series, it's quick to watch. I'm in the middle of season 3 at the moment, I can't wait to catch up, before waiting for series 5 in anguish like everyone else.

APP // Memrise and learning Danish

In April, I travelled to Copenhagen and fell in love with the city and Denmark. Since then, I've been so curious about Denmark and its culture in general, I want to discover everything. I also really wanted to start learning Danish, because why not? In October, I finally did so with the app Memrise, which I used a few years ago for English classes (it's perfect for learning vocabulary, you can enter the words you want and it'll help you learn!). As you can of course find online courses, learning one word at a time, I tried it out and can't praise it enough. It makes you learn one word after another, then entire sentences, so you understand how the language works. It's quite good for a free online service (there is also a premium option, but I don't have that)!

FOOD // Porridge with soy milk

As I was saying in my fall bucket list, I wanted to find the perfect autumnal breakfast and... I did! For various reasons, I don't use cow milk often now and have switched to soy milk for so many things in the past two months (yoghurts, Starbucks drinks, and so on). I was curious to cook porridge with soy milk and it's the best thing ever. It gives me such a cozy feeling, it makes me feel so good, so I've been eating porridge with soy milk almost every morning in October (typing this, I just did too) and my days always start better off with it. I also always put honey in my porridge and often added bananas and walnuts for the past month.

L O O K I N G  A H E A D

It feels a bit weird to look ahead to November considering we're November 8th, but well, let's go. November usually is my least favourite month of the year, because I'm always drowning in uni work and it's quite gloomy, but I'll try to make the most of it. Like in October, I have a ton of studying to do, because I have many assignments due, but I got this! I do have some good things to look forward to, Alison Sudol just released new music, some books are coming out and most importantly... It's Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald time. As you're reading this, I'll be at the Parisian premiere of it, waiting to discover what will happen next to the characters and it feels surreal. I was only sure to go last minute, but I did it! I am both excited and terrified for this movie, because the first one and its cast (minus one person......) mean so much to me, but also because of all the problematic aspects of it. Still, I'm hoping for the best and I cannot wait to see my favourite characters on the big screen again, I have missed them so much!

How did October go for you? Any exciting plans for November?

Lots of love,

Lucie