Thursday, December 31, 2015

2015 ~ A Year in Review


HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE! I can't believe we are approaching 2016 already. I say this every year but seriously: time flies!

2015 has been a very good year to me and I wanted to reflect on all the awesome that happened - bookish and otherwise.

In February I ventured properly into the real world and became an adult with a proper full-time job (no more uni!!!) and I've met some great people. I've learnt so much and I think I've matured a bit more as a person.

I thought that by working full-time and saying goodbye to uni meant I'd finally have time to blog more and read a LOT more. Alas, this was not the case. Working 9-5 makes Jaz very tired and something something by the time I get home.

Looking back on my 2015 blogging goals post earlier in the year I realised I didn't really achieve much -
Catch up on review copies – have the guts to realise when enough is enough and DNFI did manage to review all the books I request this year, but still haven't caught up on the ones requested from previous years (oops). 
Write posts that aren’t just reviewsI did some discussion posts and features which is all right - but definitely not enough. 
Introduce some new featuresAgain as above. 
Read more diverse booksI'm really happy about this one. I read SO many diverse books this year - I went to expand my horizons and read quite a few LBGT (and Q) books as well as some on mental illness. I'm also happy that quite a few books that came out this year had POC (Winter, The Wrath and Dawn, Magnus Chase just to name a few.) 
Connect with bloggers and non-bloggersI've met so many more people via twitter and bookish events this year so yay for new friends!

I'm actually really terrible with goals so I'm not too fussed about this - we do what we can given the circumstances you get me?

I got the opportunity to participate in fabulous blog tours this year for some of my favourite books
  • The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon hosted by Bloomsbury
  • A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas hosted by Bloomsbury
  • Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas hosted by the Maas Thirteen - this is our pride and joy and we're so happy that this is the second year we're doing these tours!
There were also many gems discovered through unsolicited copies like Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard, The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey, Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli, Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan, Mistletoe and Mr. Right by Lyla Payne.

Thanks to the lovely Bloomsbury I had the privilege of interviewing Sarah J. Maas for the ACOTAR blog tour, and meeting and interviewing Lyla Payne in person, 

Then there were the amazing bookish events this year
  • Insurgent red carpet premiere thanks to BTCYA (HarperCollins Australia)
  • The DUFF screening thanks to Date a Book (Hachette Australia)
  • TeenCon2015 where the publishers battled it out in the Book Boyfriend showdown AND CHAOL SHOULD TOTALLY HAVE WON but I'm okay with Dimitri winning
  • Paper Towns red carpet premiere with Cara Delevinge thanks to BTCYA (HarperCollins Australia)
  • Hachette YA Bloggers Night with special guest Holly Black
  • Illuminae launch party with Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
  • BTCYA Sydney with special guest Jamie Curry
  • MEETING SARAH J MAAS - this was the icing on my cake for an amazing year

And all the cool meetups
  • Dessert with Jess
  • Movies with Joy (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl and a few more I can't even remember lol)
  • Catch ups with Kat, Catriona and Amie

Non-bookish stuff wise I saw two ballets this year - Sleeping Beauty which was ok but Swan Lake was AMAZING. I somehow managed to go to 3 K-pop concerts - BTS, Big Bang and my personal favourite BEAST. I got to hi-5 BEAST - ALL THE MEMBERS. Life complete because I touched my bias Yoseob *creyyys*

Special thanks to Mel (your present so gorgeous I love you so much) and Ellis for making my birthday special with your presents *hugs and kisses*

SEE YOU IN 2016!!!

2 comments:

  1. Whoa, looks like you had an awesome year :)
    I'd totally forgotten that TeenCon only happened this past year...so many bookish things happened.

    All the best for 2016!!

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  2. Sounds like you had an awesome year! I should probably do one of these review things as well...I'm so behind lol. All the best for 2016, lovely <3 <3 We'll have to meet up sometime!

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