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September 2017 Reflection



Happy Friday everyone! How was your September? Good, I hope? What about your October? Can you believe we're already in October, and that we're even approaching our first complete week of it...? It's now the sixth of October and the first Friday of the month, which means it's time for yet another monthly reflection, in which I pretty much just ramble on about what happened this month as well as what's to come. Oooo... be excited. (It's okay you do whatever you want to do!)

Looking Back Into September

The Blog

Blargh. Blargh blargh blargh. So, the blog. It didn't do horribly, but things could have been better. (At least it was better than the bookstagram, but I'll get to that in a bit, heh heh...) I had to switch over to my school posting schedule, even though I would have liked to try to keep up two posts a week for at least one more month. But, alas, school is just too much. I mean, I couldn't even handle posting once a week. That's right, I missed a posting day... Pageviews for the blog also decreased by about 8.94%. Just another thing to add on to the (unpleasant and mildly upsetting) list. Sigh. :/

This Month's Posts








Bookstagram

WE POSTED ONE PICTURE ON BOOKSTAGRAM!! This might seem rather lousy to you, but I'm actually surprised and happy... I thought we didn't post at all! Just like last month when I even finished the whole monthly reflection and didn't realize that we had posted until a day or two before the publishing date. (Go here to see what I'm talking about.) We still lost around 17 followers, though... (We currently stand at 1,577 at the time I'm writing this post, but I know we lost some at the beginning of October, so I'm not sure of the exact number lost during September.)

Goals

I always like writing down if I remembered my goals or not, so, um... I think I remember two? And I don't think I really did either one, oh boy.


Oh gosh this was a really unproductive month...
  1. What is posting? I'm honestly fearing that we'll never post again on our bookstagram. Although, I will tell you this: fall is our favorite time to take bookish pictures, so who knows?
  2. Nope nope nope. You kidding? I wanted to be more prepared by drafting posts ahead of time, but I hardly even got my posts done. I wrote most of them last-minute on Fridays or weekends, and I didn't even post one week. Even this post is being written on the day before... heh heh.
  3. Sorta maybe kinda (not really). So, I did try to do this in the beginning. I asked people for their book blogs on our Instagram story and I even created a WordPress.com account so that I could like and more easily follow other book blogs, as the majority of book blogs seem to use it over Blogger. And yet, I didn't really do much after that... I didn't go on the WordPress.com account because it took up extra time, and I didn't make much of an effort to find new book blogs. I did, however, read some a bit form other ones I already knew about.

Comparison — September 2016 vs. September 2017

September of 2016 was the best month I've ever had for the blog. The number of pageviews in this past September is only a third of what they were in September 2016. I was on a two-posts-a-week posting schedule, and even though I missed five posting days, I still posted five times (one more time than what I would have done if I only posted every Monday) and managed to receive large amounts of pageviews. One of the posts published during that month is the sixth most popular on the blog. Our Instagram was also thriving, with the beginning of our more fallish pictures coming in.

Coming Up in October

The Blog

I'm hoping to publish a few book reviews on the blog this month, as I recently finished four books. Even though I only want to write reviews on two of these four books and I've already published one of them, I still have one to write a review on. I'm also hoping that, since I've been better about reading lately, I'll finish at least two more books that I can write reviews on.

Bookstagram

We recently held a poll on our Instagram story (yes, yes... they're very popular now but will they die out?). It asked if we should start posting again on our bookstagram. Most of you said yes... And fall's our favorite time to take pictures, so... Maybe. Maybe...

Goals


  1. Publish a post every Monday. I didn't even do this last month...
  2. Post regularly on bookstagram. I know that I've had this same goal for the past few months, but I still want to do it... Especially now that fall is approaching us!
  3. Draft and plan posts in advance. I feel like that by at least accomplishing this goal, I'm taking steps in the right direction to complete my first goal. Besides, this is just good time-managing practice for me.



That's all for today! Sorry if the ending seems a bit rushed... At the time that I'm writing this, it's getting a bit late, and I'm already tired from four days of school. But only one more to go before the weekend, and maybe the weekend's already here by the time you're reading this! Is it nice? Take me with you... ;) Have a good day and keep on reading!



Comments

This Month's Popular Posts

Quotes: The Nightingale

I realized that, over a year ago, I wrote a post called "Quotes: Audacity" , and that this post did really well (it's actually Reading is Inevitable's most read post!), and yet I never wrote another post of quotes from a book. I liked writing that post, too. I like sharing quotes I like from books. That's why I started doing it on our bookstagram page . So why did I never write another one of these "quote blog posts"? I don't know. But I intend to write at least another one. And that's why I'm here today. Well, there's that, and then there's also the amazing book that is The Nightingale.  If you've read some of my recent blog posts or have poked around a bit, you would know that exactly a month ago I published my book review on The Nightingale , in which I explained my love for it and why you should read it yourself. And while I actually have another post in the works on that book because it definitely deserves more than on...

Book Review: Made You Up

Title: Made You Up Author: Francesca Zappia Rating: 5/5 Genre: YA fiction Reviewer: Emily "'But-but what if this whole place"-I had to suck in air again-'what if everything is inside my head? East Shoal and Scarlet and this bridge and you-what if you're not real because nothing is real?'" This book is told from the point of view of Alex, a high school senior with schizophrenia, which is a mental disease which causes you to have hallucinations, or see or hear things that are not real. She constantly struggles with trying to figure out what is real. Starting her first day of senior year at a new high school, she takes pictures of possible hallucinations, and hopes that no one will ever find out about her. However, there's this boy that looks exactly like her childhood friend, but she had surely made him up, hadn't she?

Book Review: The Nightingale

Title:  The Nightingale Author:  Kristin Hannah Genre:  Historical Fiction Rating: 5 out of 5 ★★★★★ Reviewer:  Julia If you know anything about books, I'm sure that you've heard of this one, Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale . It was popular on bookstagram around the time of its release and is actually the author's favorite book that she has written. It's so good that there's even going to be a movie adaptation that will be released a few days shy of the book's four-year anniversary. (So it's coming out in 2019. A bit of a wait; drats.) BUT, that does not mean that you should hold off reading this amazing book. Because you shouldn't. You should read it right now. Do you need some more reasons? The Nightingale  tells the story of two sisters in Nazi-occupied France. After a difficult childhood and years of healing and trying to forget, Vianne has to watch as her happy life is uprooted. Her husband leaves to fight in the war. The Nazis invad...

Book Review: Audacity

Title: Audacity Author: Melanie Crowder Genre: Historical Fiction Rating: 4 out of 5 Reviewer: Julia Credit for the picture of the cover goes to www.penguinrandomhouse.com. Hello, everyone! First of all, how do you all like our new look? The old one was a little too dark and we wanted something more "light" and "fresh". So say good-bye to the old pink flowers and hello to this new gray-purple-blue theme! (I think of it as the "Iceberg Theme".) Anyway, moving on, I don't know if you recall, but about three weeks ago I published a post on this book:  "Quotes: Audacity" , and has somehow hit #1 for this month's most popular posts, so thank-you for that! It shared a few of my favorite quotes from this lovely book. I quickly finished the book after writing the post, so now I am writing a review on it! One of the reasons why I loved this book so much was because...