I finished my last book of 2018, Dread Nation by Justina Ireland, on the last day of the year and promptly went into searching for what books I would be choosing from for 2019. I made a single purchase but otherwise refrained from pre-purchasing books until I’m actually ready to read them.

I switched to reading a single book at a time for the rest of the year. I feel as if I like reading one book at a time a bit more. I can get through it a bit faster and can focus more. (Though, I’ll go ahead and say I already plan on ignoring this preference at least once in 2019.)

As July neared its end, I searched for more books. Again, the same authors were continuously suggested to me, over and over and over, mainly N.K. Jemisin and Octavia Butler. Since I was already one book into Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy, I decided to try another from Butler: Wild Seed, book one in the Patternist series. I also continued my off-and-on theme of reading two books at once and decided to take a chance on Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova, a book without a black lead. Instead, Labyrinth Lost stars a Latina girl who happens to be a bruja (a witch) but doesn’t want to be.

On June 5th I purchased two books, still following the theme set forth in my earlier reads. I was excited to read The Root by Na’amen Tilahun and The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin. I think I remember coming across both books after searching for some LGBT storylines, as I was feeling a bit underrepresented.

The Root excited me. Our main character is gay, and there’s some past relationship with a guy that I’m desperate to learn more about. And there are these creatures? Oh man. Tell me more, tell me more. The Fifth Season, on the other hand, confused me out of the gate. The prologue intrigued me, but then I came to realize that the first chapter is told not in first-person, not in third-person, but second-person? Who thought this was okay?????

After finishing Pangaea: Unsettled Land and Superhuman, I let a few good Google searches lead me to my next book. I knew I needed another black cast with some magic. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi DELIVERT. I was supposed to find a book to read alongside it, one I could switch back and forth with while on the metro to work.

Nope.

I’ve been reading a lot this year. It was a favorite hobby of mine when I was young. I used to devour each and every Goosebumps book I could get my hands on; Matilda was very, very different from the movies; and the second Carrie movie matched the book perfectly. But, then technology came and “ruined” my life. (This is a lie. I’m actually an Android developer now. It was just setting me up for future success. But I needed something dramatic there. Carry on.)

I really wrote 50,000 words this month.

Holy shit.

So, I got laid off.

Definitely not what I expected when I walked into work earlier this week. Actually, wait, this was yesterday. Time is moving very funny right now, excuse me.