2015, By the Numbers

Finally, it's here! 2016, the start of a new year, the end of an old one, and the beginning of three months of me still writing "2015" at the top of my school assignments. 

While I'm trying to clean up, clear out, and crack open my planner to the first page, I decided to take stock of some of the reading habits I exercised in the duration of the past year. It's been a bit of a doozy for me: I not only beat my Goodreads Challenge for 2015 - topping my goal of 75 with a solid 79, officially my biggest reading year ever! - I also managed to stick to my 2015 Resolution for the entire year! That's right... I officially spent an entire year of my life without buying any new books for myself, aside from the 5 I used to celebrate my 5th Blog Anniversary. 

While there will be plenty of posts in the coming week or two about achieving those goals - from what I learned from my self-imposed book buying-ban, to my Resolutions for the new year, to what exactly that beautiful planner I mentioned is going to look like - I thought I'd take a breather, and make some time to reflect first. 

So, gaze upon my reading achievements this past year, with my official stats, helped along by Goodreads' Year in Books! 

A lot of habits taking notice of, here... like how the books I slaved over for school still helped me beef out my Challenge, but that I loved reading nonfiction besides them, anyways, or how I am, holistically, a high rater (glancing through my titles for the year, I definitely would change the scores I gave a couple of them!). But through everything - from my significant average page count, to the cornucopia of fiction of all genres I still enjoy reading - I am super proud of what I was able to read this year! 

What did your reading year look like? Did you beat your Goodreads Challenge? Let me know, in the comments below! 

My Bookish Christmas Haul!

I hope you all had an amazing winter season, and were able to spend a lot of time with your friends and family in the past couple of days, as well!

I'm currently on vacation with my family in a gorgeous part of Washington State - we decided to escape the depression fallout from the big holiday being over by fleeing our house at 7am this morning - so while I'm here and taking tons of pictures to show you all, I wanted to check in with a bit of holiday wrap up of my own! Especially, of course, because I wanted to show off all of the pretty books - and one bookish DVD - I found under the Christmas tree with my name on them yesterday.

(And the best part is, quite a few of these titles were taken from my Top Ten Tuesday just this past week!)

• Brooklyn, Colm Toibon
• The Rest of Us Just Live Here, Patrick Ness
• The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo
• Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking, Susan Cain
• Why Not Me, Mindy Kaling
• One Little Spark! Mickey's Ten Commandments and the Road to Imagineering, Marty Sklar (included in the same package as What Color is Your Parachute 2016... we all know I'll end up working for Disneyland someday!) 

And my sister, Delaney, ended up getting one gift that might as well be for her just as much as it is for me, too: a copy of Anna Karenina on DVD, starring Keira Knightley and Jude Law.

Of course, because giving is always better than receiving I have to bring up the bookish gifts I gave, as well: my sisters loved my picks for them, including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's We Should All Be Feminists (Maddie read it on the ferry ride over to our vacation spot), and Delaney's currently engrossed in the new book from Freakonomics authors Steven B. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, When to Rob a Bank!

So I guess this all means that the frenetic energy and constant events of the holiday season are wrapped up for good for this year. Hope you and yours are starting to feel a little rejuvenated after the stress of December, and that you're gearing up for a great 2016!

What new books did you receive for Christmas? More importantly, what books did you give? Let me know, in the comments below! 

Gift Guide 2015: My Mom and My Sisters

Holiday season truth: I LOVE gift guides! True, mainly it's so they can help me figure out what I want for Christmas, but I'm also the kind of person for whom the opportunity to give presents is just as grand as the joy of receiving them. There's nothing better than knowing you've bought someone just the right thing, so even though I've already perfected my gifts for my family back in November, I can't help but daydream what I'd buy them (if I had all the money in the world... maybe one day!). 

My Gift Guides I did a while back in 2014 for Mother's Day and Father's Day got quite a bit of traffic, which makes me think that it was only the perfect time to do another seasonal installment of a gift guide, but out of the five other members of my family, I decided to focus purely on the most important women in my life: my Mom, and two younger sisters! (Dad and baby bro, maybe you'll get your own gift guide some other time.)

THE MOMAGER

What she's like and what she likes:

A high-powered hospital administrator who actually graduated from UW with her undergrad in English, Mama loves books when she can actually get around to finding time to read them. She likes nonfiction and women's lit, especially the kind that makes you cry, and likes to pass off the books she enjoys on to me... so I've got to make sure they are titles I'll like, too!

Why I can't buy her any more presents: 

She's notoriously unyielding when it comes to the yearly edict that she really doesn't want anything, and a couple of costly family things have come up recently that has shrunk her list of acceptable gifts to a quite small margin. 

But if I could, I would buy her... 

A God in Ruins, Kate Atkinson
The companion novel to Atkinson's Life After Life - which I've already passed along to my mother, and is currently sitting on her bedside table - this would be the perfect period-set piece to have a good cry about.
10% Happier, Dan Harris 
A book about how little changes in your life and outlook, can result in tangible improvements to your happiness! Even if you don't have much time at all in your busy schedule, you can still find ways to improve your attitude.
The Royal We, Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
There's no one in our family who quite understands my fascination with royalty like my mom... she loves Will and Kate almost as much as me! This fictional account of a whirlwind romance between an American and a future king of England would be perfect.
Inside the O'Briens, Lisa Genova
From the master of conveying the mental state, Lisa Genova - whose work, Still Alice, about a woman coming to terms with her Alzheimer's diagnosis, I've raved about before - comes this moving story about a doting father and police officer, who must face the onset of Huntington's Disease.
Work Rules! Insights from Inside Google, Lazlo Bock 
My mom is obsessed with books about efficiency, specifically in the workplace, so I'm sure she'd be interested as to what goes on at the headquarters of one of the world's biggest internet entities.

SORORITY SUPERSTAR

What she's like and what she likes: 

Primarily referred to on my blog as "The Cheerleader," Sister #1 recently was elected as president of her sorority for the coming year, even though she's only a sophomore! She's a total culture vulture across all forms of media, and has a fond regard for the paranormal (ie, she things her old room in her sorority house is haunted). 

Why I can't buy her any more presents: 

She's spoiled enough as is, and I already spent $25 on her - the most expensive gift I purchased for anyone this year! - so I really can't swing buying her the books I know she'd love. 

But if I could, I would buy her...

The Thousand Dollar Tan Line (Veronica Mars #1), Rob Thomas
When my sister left me for a job at Yellowstone National Park over the summer, I was moribund, but at least I knew she'd be thinking about me, thanks to the three seasons and movie DVD of Veronica Mars that I made her take with her! Thankfully, she loved it, and now I have someone to obsess over Logan Echolls with. They only think I need to do now is get her to read the novel continuations of the story, as well!
Dirty Rush, Taylor Bell
As a sorority women, I can definitely attest the dramatizations you've seen in contemporary media are completely crazy and have almost no foundation in reality whatsoever. However, every sorority girl I know followed the Rebecca Martinson email scandal with vigor... and if she provided the forward for this novel, it's sure to be a riot.
Simon vs. The Homosapiens Agenda, Becky Albertalli
I laughed and cried and died over this super-adorable book this summer, and I was texting her passages from it the entire time. Might as well make her read it!
Think Like a Freak, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner 
Freakonomics is one of her favorite nonfiction books, and economics itself is a topic she has to study in the Foster Business School, so this is a real high-interest no-brainer.
A Dream Dictionary
So, every week, my sister and I try to plan out a tea date at our favorite tea store on the Ave, Tea Republik, and talk about what's going on in our lives. One of our favorite things we used to do with our tea, was make a big deal out of reading the dregs at the bottom of the cup, Trelawney-style, and sometimes we do the same thing with dreams! A dictionary would perfectly aid our endeavors.

DRAMA LADY-IN-WAITING

What she's like and what she likes:

The youngest of the daughters in our family, Sister #2 is a high school sophomore with a penchant for dramatics, both on and off the stage. After an early adolescence spent coming of age in the web-wilds of Tumblr, with an affinity for concerts and the rights of humankind (yay, we raised a music lover and a feminist!), this sister is super cute and super contrary: every instance of, "Ooh, you'd love this book!" releases a tirade on all of the reasons I'd be wrong. 

Why I can't buy her any more presents: 

Like I said, voicing my choice of books for her hasn't worked out very well for me in the past... even though with several of them, she's gone on to buy the book for herself. 

But if I could, I would buy her... 

Rookie, Yearbook 4, Tavi Gevinson
This sister has never been your typical, Seventeen-reading teenager (though she does read Seventeen as well). This Tumblr-child would absolutely be more in tune with the precocious hipster Weetzie Bat vibes of Rookie, an online magazine ran by wunderkind Tavi, whose top online content is printed here in book form!
Audrey, Wait!, Robin Benway
This novel, about a teenage girl who has to cope with the fallout when her ex-boyfriend's band gets famous with a song about her, would definitely appeal to my band-following baby sis.
The Glam Guide, Fleur de Force
She loves all things beauty and makeup - and is far better at applying both of those things than I was at her age! - and she's a fan of quite a couple of YouTubers, so I have a feeling she might like this book (and if not, I've been a follower of Fleur's for like a year now, so I'd take it, anyways!).
Lost Ocean coloring book, Johanna Basford 
Being a fifteen - almost sixteen - year old is a stressful time! Coloring books are a super-trendy way to unwind, and the coloring pages from Johanna Basford are almost pretty enough to frame when you're done.
We Should All Be Feminists, Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche 
Yeah, yeah, one of these things is not quite like the other. As you might have seen, Sweden recently chose to distribute a copy of this book to every 16 year old in their entire country, as a means of instigating conversation in the classrooms of one of the most gender-equal countries in the world. Like I mentioned before, she's turning sixteen soon enough, as well, and I feel like this would definitely appeal to her burgeoning social justice-y tendencies.

Who are the important women in your life, and what would you gift them with this holiday season? Let me know, in the comments below! 

No, No NaNo : Why I'm Not Taking Part in NaNoWriMo this Year

(Alternatively titled, "I Hate Everything: Senior Year is a Trap.")



So, at the stroke of midnight this past evening, with all of the witches and sexy cats and pun-based, indecipherable costumes making their ways back home - all of the freshman Cinderellas looking for the shoes they kicked off when they found it was nearly impossible to dance in heels on a sticky fraternity basement's floor - it no longer was Halloween, but the First of November. 

And y'all know what that means.

Most NaNo devotees were clearing their desks of candy wrappers and rogue costume props, to settle down at their word processors for a bout of writing that would lead their yearly National Novel Writing Month challenge on a preemptive spree. But alas, I did not.

I am, tragically, too busy for living right now: between a work-heavy class load, the ending of my Panhellenic experience, working three and four shifts a week, sorority events and obligations, and trying to find time to even write for this blog, I will be left as a shell of a human being by Winter Break as is! Besides, I've recently fallen behind on my Goodreads Reading Challenge again - after an 8 book lead this past August! - and I can't risk leaving a month of dead reading time in my wake when I honestly need it most.

Originally, I had toyed with the idea of taking part again, anyways. I mean, I was busy last year, too, but I still found the time, right? It's hard to come off of a win in the challenge, and then just not do anything the following year. I crushed #NaNo14, and I wanted the chance to prove my mettle at the hands of the writing gods again! I want another tee shirt, dammit!

However, after considering all possible outcomes of participating this year - on one hand, I'd lose, because I just wouldn't have enough time, and on the other, unlikelier hand, I might win, and thereby allow my other obligations to fall to the wayside and still come out a loser - I've decided I officially can't do it. 

And thusly, I am rendered moribund. *deep sigh*

My NaNoWriMo track from last year:

• Update #1: My Dad is the Best, My Brain Hurts, and We're Just Getting Started
• Update #2: Holy Setback, Batman, and I'm on Top of the World
• Final Update: I've Written Over 50,000 Words and Probably 30,000 Were Run-On Sentences

Anyone else out there with a huge case of NaNo FOMO? Let's talk about it! 

My Bookish Birthday : 5 Years of Blogging

Naturally, I was suitably obnoxious on Snapchat.

This summer has given me a lot to think about thus far... between living on my own in Seattle, getting a job, and entering into my Senior Year of College, there's plenty of huge milestones I'm hitting in a very short amount of time. 

Though the one I was the least prepared for, hit this past Friday, July 24th: My FIFTH Anniversary of starting Playing in the Pages. 

Beyond finally catching up with my Goodreads Challenge for 2015 (YES!!!), I chose to celebrate this momentous occasion, by taking the time to reflect on my journey so far in blogging, reviewing, writing, and most importantly, reading.

Origin Story: How did I get my start in blogging? 

Let me just set the stage for the presence of BookWorld, in an online sense, back in 2010: Goodreads had been invented only five years previously, and was far from the reader mecca Amazon would later turn it into after acquiring it in 2013. Pinterest had just been invented the past March.

I was a 16-year-old Junior in high school, looking for a means of displacing the boredom that had set in with summer. This was before my sister or I had gotten laptops, and our Dad used his for work... which meant every morning, I'd make a large mug of tea, boot up our lone PC in my parent's room, and do a rundown of every fashion and lifestyle blog I followed, all transcribed carefully into a handwritten list, safe in the back of a composition notebook.

Major Influencers: Who inspired me? 

Absolutely tickled that a part of my Blogoversary shopping included this:
Cupcakes and Cashmere's fashion line, available at Nordstrom!
In these past 5 years, Emily has also produced two books, and a Coach collaboration.
(Her five years might have been a little more productive than mine.)

Back then, Cupcakes and Cashmere and Who What Wear Daily were just getting their start, too. I'd scroll through post after post, sometimes twice, if there wasn't that much new material that morning, and that same composition notebook became a haven for ideas for how to make my life better, according to these women across the world who shared daily outfits, favorite recipes, and makeup tips with me so many miles away.

Like it is with most  tech movements, the first person I knew who had a blog was my Dad. His focused on his job, and was partially an extension of the lectures he gave his students. When I first broached the topic of having a blog with him, it was kind of an off-the-shoulder remark, and I was standing at the top of the stairs while he was still setting his stuff down from work. "What are you going to write about?" he said. Books were honestly the first thing that came to mind.

Changes in Attitude: What has it become? 

I've always been a monster reader, and love to talk about the books I've read. The only thing I had to do now, was put my mind to spelling all those ideas out for other people to see. What it's turned into since then, has given me not just additional experience with plenty of books explored and plenty of words to describe them with, but also new abilities in the fields of website layout, social media design, and networking with other writers.

It also helped me land a contributing editorship position with College Fashion, which lasted for two awesome years, and spanned 53 articles. When I first started my blog, I was a voracious and dedicated College Fashion reader, but I would never have even considered the possibility of being a contributor. I even got college extra credit based around one of the articles I wrote - being that it corresponded to material we were covering in class - so there are real-world benefits to web authorship, too!

To be honest, I told a grand total of six people about my blog for the first two and a half years of its existence: my immediate family, and my awesome Aunt Nancy. The first time I even posted about it on my own Facebook page was when I published a poem I wrote for high school graduation, and then did more a little steadily when I wrote for CF. But for the most part, blogging has always been something for me first, and an audience last. It's my favorite hobby I've ever had, and my longest-lasting, too.

Tough Stuff: Has anything gone wrong? 

I'm loath to say that anything has gotten wrong, per se, because of what this blog has really come to mean for me: a learning experience. Through it, I've gotten so much better at both reading - critically, quantifiably - and writing - reviewing and creatively - that it would be a huge discredit to all that I've achieved thus far to say that any part of it has "gone wrong"... if anything, it makes me think about that one scene from Disney's Meet the Robinsons celebrating failure, because failing is what makes us try harder, and seek out new ideas.

(Thank you, Tumblr, and your seemingly endless sources of gifs.)

It's a growing thing. There will always be a part of it that needs a little tweaking... I know for certain that the Review Library is, like, a year behind on titles, and I'm a couple of posts behind on meeting this month's goal, and I still don't get as many ARC titles from publishers as other bloggers. But no matter how long that unending "To Do" List has gotten, as long as there's room for improvement, there's reason to keep improving.

(And that's why it's gone through about three major makeovers since then, with the most recent version occurring a couple of months ago!)

Fight to the Future: What's up next for the blog? 

I can tell you, for sure, that there's no master plan. I am blissfully umimpeded with any grand schemes or additional 5 Year Plans for how to develop Playing in the Pages.

What I will say, though, is that I'm glad it's here. I'm glad it's been five years, and I'll be overjoyed to spend another five years reading plenty of good books, and writing about them here. There may always be less blog posts per month than I'd like, or less page views per day than I want, but having a creative outlet and place for personal expression is always going to be something I need... just like that 16-year-old version of me needed it five years ago.

Here's a hint about that big Blogoversary celebration...
but you'll have to wait to find out more!

Pop Quiz

I've had a total of 4 authors comment on posts in which I've discussed their works. Can you name any of them?

Wow, that's a lot of words. Interested in seeing how I celebrated my big Blogoversary this past weekend? Keep posted for a new post up tomorrow! 

Got any guesses?

Planner Progress and a Mid-Year Checkin : Planner-ed Out Perfect, Part Three

The last time you heard me expostulating on all the reasons why owning a journal is vital to my life, was back in August, when I had whittled down the selection process to exactly which kind of journal I was going to be investing in for the coming year. 

Dissatisfaction with my first foray, resulted in the purchase of a Whitney English Day Designer the following December, and I've been giddy ever since.

(The last time you heard me talking about journals in general, was only a little while ago, when Finals Week had so finely riddle my brain capacity with holes like Swiss cheese that I found myself tumbling headfirst down the rabbit hole of the YouTube planner enthusiast community, instead of actually studying.)

I thought that since about half a year has past since I've had the planner, and therefore, I've had plenty of time to give it some use and figure out the ways I like to use it.

And unexpected water bottle explosions inside my backpack aside, it's held up super well!

That's right, my old Camelback flooded my backpack!
But it's still kicking. :) 

SO IN LOVE WITH YOU AM I 

There's a lot to be crazy about in the Day Designer. I don't know how I ever got along with just a weekly-spread planner, because the page-a-day layout is where it's at. No pesky to-do lists on my phone for me! I've got it all in one place, and plenty of room for adding in other things I'm thinking about. 

What I mean by "Quarter at a Glance."
I just fit everything important onto one page!
Thankfully, the Day Designer has a handy pocket in the front.

Two things I've started doing that I didn't think about before, was tracking my blog upload dates on the monthly calendar, and tracking my meals. 

Beforehand, I just used a separate journal to figure out upload dates and blog posts for the month, but I would always end up forgetting it, and it wasn't laid out in a way that I could easily switch things around depending on the business of my schedule. I noticed that I wasn't utilizing my monthly spread for much of anything - because I like to be able to see my whole Quarter-At-A-Glance for that sort of thing - so I've just started keeping my update schedule there! It's made a world of difference in helping me decide what post to upload when, and seeing it all in one place has made it a lot easier to visualize what kinds of things I'm uploading each week. 

Tracking meals wasn't really a thing for me, until I saw YouTube user MaeBad using her Day Designer as a Fitness Journal. It's super effective, because it allows you to see at what times of day you're eating (about every three or four hours), and what kinds of stuff you're being tempted to eat at, say, 11pm (peanut butter and oreos). Now, I just scribble in a sort of meal plan in the mornings, and revise it throughout the day as needed. 

But yeah, the Day Designer is still the best thing ever, no matter how many YouTubers I watch exalting the holy grail of the Erin Condren planner. I'm a Whitney English groupie for life. 

Besides, you can always still use fun stickers and washi tape in your Day Designer, too!
(Don't be mean; it's not for you, it's for me. And I happen to like a lot of color. And tiny animals.)

... AND YET...

So, yeah, I'm in love. You'd think that I'd be happy and confident in my choice and that I'd never have to worry about picking out a new planner ever again, so long as Day Designers were still around? Unfortunately not. It's by no means a worry that they'll somehow fade away... it's that they're evolving.

That's right. A couple of days ago, just in time for this post, Whitney English and the rest of the Day Designer team made the grand announcement that they were entering into a new partnership with Blue Sky Planners, to release a special line for Target.

That's right! Now the planners that I love and cherish and have changed my life are now not just as adorable and functional as they have always been... but they're available at much cheaper prices and in twice as many cute styles and sizes.

DARN. IT. I guess that makes this to be continued...

What planner do you use? What did you think of Whitney's big announcement? Should I buy a Target  version of the Day Designer, or stick with my trusty Daily format? Let me know, in the comments below!