Etcetera OG ✎ COMPLETE

; books i read this year

            So, you might be thinking, "Carissa. Update your stories. I don't care about what you read this year." And you have a point. But I care what I read this year, because all through college I suffered a major reading slump, which I believe directly impacted my ability to write.

The oldest proverb in every how-to-write bible an author or teacher will spew at you is that in order to write well, you have to read. A lot. I've even given this advice myself. It's the truth, and that's why you've probably heard it a million times before. If I'm not consuming another person's writing, world-building, sentence structure, character arcs, etc., I struggle doing all of that on my own.

Thankfully, in 2018 I decided that I was going to read 50 books. I want you all to know that I absolutely failed. I did not come close to reading 50 books. But! I got over halfway there, and considering the fact that I'd maybe read 15 books total in the past 4 years, that's pretty darn special.

I clocked in at 28 books this year. A few were re-reads, but hey, I read them. And I've decided to chat about them here, so if you don't care for this kind of content, that's cool. I'll see you later when I post something you want to read. Otherwise, hi.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

I don't remember if the movie was already out or just about to come out, but I knew I wanted to read this book before I saw it. So I picked it up, and it ended up being the first book I read of the year. Bottom line: I loved it. If you don't already know what it's about (it's the Love, Simon movie), it follows teenager Simon, a closeted gay boy who is afraid to come out to his friends and well-meaning parents and takes comfort in emailing another closeted gay boy from his school, who goes by "Blue", though neither knows the other's real identity.

Autoboyography by Christina Lauren

You guys, I loved this book so much. More than I loved Simon. I can't even explain what it was exactly that I loved so much, especially since it's been a while since I've read it, but it's definitely something that I'm going to re-read. If there's anything you need to know about me, it's that I am a re-reader for sure. If I love a book enough, I'm going to re-read it. If you don't know what this story is about, it follows Tanner, who meets a boy in a writing class somewhere in Utah, and though his own family is very progressive (they recently moved there from somewhere else), most everybody else – including this guy in his class – is Mormon and not quite so progressive. Tanner is bisexual, so yay for that representation!

A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

After those first two books, I was really on a roll with the LGBTQ+ stories and I wanted to keep on with it, so I picked this up. I heard a lot of great things on Booktube, and every single one of them was right, because this book was so much fun. Monty was a flawed but ultimately super entertaining character, and I loved every second of reading about his adventure. Basically, it takes place in an earlier time period, and Monty is about to embark on a "grand tour of Europe" with his best friend and current crush Percy, as well as his younger sister Felicity, and a bunch of chaos and flirting ensues. It was wonderful.

A Darker Shade of Magic, A Gathering of Shadows, A Conjuring of Light by V. E. Schwab

Yes, I finally read this trilogy. The first time I ever encountered it, I was somewhere in South Carolina in a small bookstore. While perusing the shelves, I came across the first book in paperback, and I remember being intrigued by the cover and also by the different Londons, but I didn't end up purchasing it. That was in March of 2017. Then, after hearing about this series over and over again on Booktube and hearing loads of people sing its praises (as well as Victoria Schwab's praises), I finally picked them up. And no surprise, I loved them so much. They were fascinating and fun, and every character totally captured me (though none quite as much as Holland, who deserves the WORLD). The series follows Kell, who comes from Red London where magic exists, and cross-dressing Lila, who comes from Gray London, which is essentially our world (though a different time period). There is also a White London, and before magic destroyed it, there was a Black London. Cool, right?