BOOK CHAT || New Year, New Books! || 7 Books I Want to Read in 2017 + Round up of 2016's reads

Hi Guys! I've been mostly doing these posts as videos, but it's been a long time since I updated on the books I've been reading, so I didn't want to wait to film. What I want to do in this post is quickly go over the books I've read since my last Book Chat video (spoilers: there aren't many), as well as show you 7 books I'd like to read this year!

You may remember that I did something similar last year, with 6 books I wanted to read in 2016, so I thought it would be fun to do a similar post this year, since one of my resolutions this year is to work on reading more, since I miss it when I am not reading. If you want to see the rest of my 2017 Resolutions, make sure you check out that blog post!

What I've read since Sept 2016:

1. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

2. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

3. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

I told you there weren't many! I didn't even make it to 10 books last year! I'm pretty disappointed, but I'm really happy that I managed to reread the Twilight series, because I really loved it in highschool, but was worried it wouldn't stand up to a reread so many years later... but I loved it all over again! It's such a quick easy read with (I think) really interesting characters and quick plot. I wish Meyer would stop writing other books I don't care about and give me some more of her vampires, but alas, that seems unlikely. She's probably told all the stories she had to tell there... I didn't include Breaking Dawn, because I'm currently still reading it, I didn't manage to finish it before the new year, but it will certainly be included in my next round up!

MY 7 Books To Read in 2017

1. The World of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin

This one was on my list for last year, but obviously I didn't get there, though I still really want to! This is basically a history book slash encyclopaedia of the Game of Thrones world written by a maester, and full of beautiful art depicting famous people, events, and places in the World of Ice and Fire.

2. Tale of the Body Theif by Anne Rice

Another book that I didn't get to last year, though it was on the list. This is the fourth book in the Vampire Chronicles series from Anne Rice, and I loved the first 3, and I love Vampire novels, so hopefully the Twilight series will have helped me spring back into this series this year!

3. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

This one has been pretty big lately, I think, and aside from that Rothfuss seems pretty active in the nerd communities, which is fun. It feels a bit like Game of Thrones, and maybe it's riding on the coat tails of ASoIaF, but it's just a big fantasy series, and I love me some big-ass fantasy novels. Aside from that, I've opened it up before in stores and read the prologue or first chapter, and the writing style is just beautiful. I'm hopeful that the writing will help to launch me into this world, because I love in depth fantasies, and I love series.

4. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I read The Great Gatsby for the first time a few years ago now, and I fell head over heels in love with Fitzgerald's style. I'm not even sure the novel itself was all that compelling, but the style with which Fitzgerald shares his ideas, and the way he strings his thoughts together was mesmerizing to me. Immediately afterwards, I bought my own copy of Gatsby, as well as a book containing This Side of Paradise, as well as The Beautiful and Damned, and I want to get through at least one of those novels this year, so I can feel better about claiming Fitzgerald as one of my favourite authors.

5. Beowulf by J.R.R. Tolkien

I actually have read Beowulf before multiple times for different classes in University and high school. I actually really love the story, and wish there was more to it. I'm a huge fan of medieval writing, and Beowulf is obviously one of the oldest written examples of such. This particular book is a translation by J.R.R. Tolkien, not a retelling or anything original, but as I am a huge Tolkien fangirl, as well as a fan of Beowulf as a story, when this came out I found it super compelling and asked for it for Christmas. However, I haven't even tried to get into it yet! It's quite short, so I really should, so I'm hoping this will be the year. There is also Tolkien's attempt at a retelling included in this book as well, though: the Sellic Spell.

6. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

For a long time I have had no interest in reading this particular novel, after managing to avoid it somehow in middle school. It did not interest me, despite how much it seemed to have affected even some of the less bookish types in my classes. However, it is a very short novel, and often pops up in other things, since the story is such a part of our collective consciousness. Also, my sister really enjoyed it, and although she is sometimes a reader, she doesn't often make recommendations, but she adored this story and has insisted I should read it. So here it is, on this list.

7. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Finally, a bit of a weird one, which is a huge part, I'm sure, of why I've always wanted to read this one. It's been such a controversial but popular novel, and I've heard that Nabokov's writing style is really beautiful, even when the subject matter in this book is a little... creepy? Also, this one was written in English, though Nabokov was Russian, so it's nice to know you're reading the author's words, not the interpretation of a translator. Or maybe that's only something I worry about as an English student?

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There are lots more books I want to read, of course, as my extensive GoodReads to-read list will show, but these are just 7 I would really love to get through this year. As I mentioned in my resolutions, my goal this year is 15 books, so if I read them all, these will be only about half of my 2017 books!

Let me know in the comments the best book you read last year, and one (or some) you want to read in 2017! Oh, and also let me know if you prefer book content like this, or in video form!

Thanks for reading!

GRWM || My New Year's Eve Makeup || #goodbye2016

Hey guys! I know I posted 2 other NYE looks already, but this is the one I actually wore on the day myself! I really love how it turned out, so I'm happy to share it with you all. I hope you like it too. I think it could be great for any type of party or clubbing makeup, and you could easily change up the look with a wing, falsies, or a different lip, if you like!

Click here to watch in HD, or watch below:

Thanks for watching!

New Years Resolutions for 2017 || 2016's Resolutions Revisited

Hi Guys! Happy New Year! I hope you all had a great New Year's Eve, no matter how you celebrated, or if you went to bed early and slept through the change. Either way, this is always a great time to look at what you accomplished in the last year, and make goals for the year ahead. Of course, it's always a good time to make goals and put them into action, so never let the time of year stop you from making good life changes! But it is such a clean break and new beginning at the change of the years, so that's why so many of us think about setting resolutions. I thought I would share my look back at last year's resolutions here with you guys, as well as setting some new goals for 2017.

Last year I did my New Year's Resolutions post as a video, but I feel like text is a better vehicle for this type of content. Let me know if you disagree, and I can do a video again for next year. But until then, let's start by taking a look at how I did on last year's resolutions:

1. Drinking more water, more consistently — I think overall I've done pretty well on that this year. It's still something I'm working on, and I'm never perfect, but I would say that I get to the 6-8 cup mark more often than not. Something I do think has helped is an app I downloaded a while ago, which is Hydro Coach PRO. There is a free version, but the paid one has more features. Of course, for basic tracking, the free app would work just as well, and I love that it lets you input different amounts of water, as well as set the length of your day to get good reminder notifications... whether your day runs from 8 am to 12 am, or more like 12 pm to 4 am... like mine.
2. Read More — I did horribly on this one. I did not even end up finishing 10 books in the year. Granted, many of the books I chose over the last year were big chunky things with at least 500 pages, so maybe it evens out, but still, I feel I let myself down a little here, no where near my goal of 26 books.
3. Post more pictures — I think I did really well on this one in particular. I did do a 365 day challenge, where I tried to post a picture a day, and while I was not strict with that, I did complete my goal within the year, and even had some days where I posted more than one picture.
4. Being more positive — Granted, this is nearly impossible to actually quantify, I do think I've made some progress here. I think for the most part this year I've been happier, not necessarily because anything so great has happened, but I've just not gotten as down about little things I couldn't change or beaten myself up over my failings. Interestingly, I've also taken some chances I would have been more scared of in the past, and maybe those have helped as well. These have actually all been in the last 6 months or so, and include getting my septum piercing, getting my first tattoo, and dying my hair. Maybe those are silly reasons to be happier, but it's kinda like doing things I want just for me, and that feels pretty good.
5. Move more; I think I've done alright here in some ways, but also kinda failed in others. For example, I've actually changed my focus on exercise in the last little while to more weight and floor exercises, versus cardio, which is easier for me to do with where I am and what I have, rather than trying to make myself go out for a walk or whatever every other day. I just don't want to go outside all the time, alright? So that's been good, though I've also had a car in the last year, so places that I would normally have walked and bussed, frequently I will end up driving, which is obviously not helpful for moving more. Still, I think I'm in a place where I'm improving at the moment, so I won't be too hard on myself.

So that was last year. Could have been better, but definitely could have been worse! Now that we've taken a quick look at those goals, let's set some new ones. Here are some of my goals for 2017:

1. Read more for realz — You probably saw this coming, but since I failed this one so hard last year, I really feel like I need to give it another go this year. Last year's gold was 26 books, and while I still feel like that should be reasonable and achievable, I'm going to make this year's goal 15 books. That should give me more than 3 weeks per book, which sounds acceptable. I'm setting the bar lower than ever before this time, and I'd love if I could surpass this goal, but maybe this is all I can do at the moment.
2. Get tidier — you probably have no idea how messy of a person I am. In some part, I don't think I'm as bad as I used to be, but I used to be way worse, and since I've never got my shit under control and really tidied the fuck up, I feel no reason to act tidier now. I'd like to try to take more control of my mess and get it to a more acceptable and managable level. Part of my problem is I just have too much shit, and part is that I don't have enough storage for the stuff I have and love or the new stuff I like to buy. So yeah, organization, tidying, decluttering... hopefully all of that I can manage to find the time and willpower to work on this year.
3. Become a better cook — don't get me wrong, I'm already a pretty good cook, but I'm largely unpracticed, since I still live at home, where my mom generally cooks, or else I go out with my family or with friends. You may have seen some of the food pictures on instagram though (you can follow me as @glitterOCD), using the hastag: #KristyandDavidsCookingAdventures, which is how I share our home cooking adventures. And we're good, but I want to be better. I want to have more things I just know how to make without having to bust out a recipe. I am pretty good at figuring out what flavours are needed or lacking in something like chilli, but I want to get good at all types of food, especially Chinese and Italian, and I need to learn to make good Persian and Indian food, since they make some of my favourite dishes!
4. Stay on schedule — This wasn't really an issue in the earlier half of the year, but more recently I've been getting more lazy about filming, editing, and writing, and the regularity of my blog and YouTube have suffered when I just don't have content ready to go up on time. This is really frustrating for me, because this is something I love doing, and I really want to get back on track if I can. I've taken a look and think that the best schedule moving forward will be a M-W-F schedule, with videos going up on Mondays and Fridays, and blog posts on Wednesdays, at 6 am PST. After posting one at that time a few weeks ago, I've realised it seemt to be a good time for traffic. I'm going to try to keep a small pre-filmed bank, and edit and schedule my videos as quickly as I can, instead of filming the bare minimum so it's easy to run out and procrastinating on editing until the last minute.

And I think that's everything! I have other ongoing goals, but nothing I feel is interesting to put up here. Let me know some of your 2017 goals with me in the comments, or let me know why if you've chosen not to set any!

Thanks for reading!