For the Love of Words

For the Love of Words: February Recap + March Look

I know I’m a few days late with this post, but happy beginning of March! While January was a stellar start to the year, February seemed to sputter out in the writing department. The reading, however was pretty incredible.

For the Love of the Words

 

February Recap

Books I Read

While my goal was to read five books this month, I read nine. Almost double my goal. The five books I had on my list were all done by February 16th (I keep track in my Day Designer!), and I found myself wanting to read something familiar. My final list of books I read in February was:

 

Now the last five books were all in a series, The Heather Wells series. There were two main reasons to turn back to a series I’ve read multiple times. Reason 1: After so many dark books, I wanted something a little more lighthearted. Heather Wells is a murder mystery series, but Meg Cabot is a chick-lit writer and there is definitely that in these books, too.

Reason #2: I wanted to get back into that lighthearted mind frame as I planned my stories. Of course, I ended up just reading the books instead of utilizing them for the right frame of mind. Oh well.

Given that these were re-reads, I clearly love those book series, but what about the rest of the books?

Well, I’m still loving the In Death books, even nine books in. So those are solid for me.

The Woman in the Window was a two and a half day read. I wasn’t sure how I liked it, but after a morning at work where our systems were down, I read more than half the book that morning. It had some interesting turns, but there were a few times I wanted to throw the book at the ridiculous plot twists.

Bonfire, though, was by far my least favorite read of the year to this point. And that’s a shame because I was really interested to see how Krysten Ritter did with debut but I didn’t connect with any of the characters and the main character was a bit ridiculous for me.

Nine books is a lot of books to read in twenty-eight days, and looking back, I could swear that I read Holiday in Death back in January, not February.

Books I Wrote

In February, I finally finished my draft of Hit List. Then I started working on Airtime and Alibis, my short story. Though I suspect that it won’t be very short. It’s been a struggle, trying to get everything figured out – the plot, the story, the tone, the characters.

It’s a challenge, but I’m loving it.

March Look

Books I’m Planning to Read

Happiness for Humans will be an interesting read for me. I picked it up at the local library totally based on the cover, because I loved the technology aspect. The premise sounds good, and since I read a lot of dark books, it’s good to sprinkle in some happiness!

 

The Wife Between Us is a book I snagged in my Book of the Month subscription box and it has patiently sat on my bookshelf for a few months until I was ready to read it.

I only have about 50 pages left of The Bride Wore Size 12, so that practically doesn’t even count. After, I’ll dive back into In Death after finishing.

Given that I gave myself a full year to read this book series, I might have it all done by June. These books are definitely fast reads.

Books I’m Writing

I want to finish the first draft of this short story. I know that if I sat down and gave myself a weekend, I could probably knock most of the story out. I’m just lacking the focus lately. After I finish the first draft, I’d actually like to write the second one. Ideally, I’d like to write three of these short stories and release them back-to-back later this year.

Given that it’s already March, I’m not sure how well I’ll do.

Even if my writing is struggling, I’m so happy to be back into reading. For a long time, I didn’t read a lot, but reading is what started my love of writing. Reading is a wonderful feeling, always.

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