My First Blog Post In Like Forever

Hey there fellow Bookworms and Book Bloggers!

I know it’s been a while and I’m not even sure anybody’s still hanging around this blog, but I just wanted to let you know:

No, I didn’t get swallowed by a beast or thrown into the sea by a long lost evil twin sister (you get extra points if you get those references) and I hope neither of those things will ever happen to me.

I’d like to sum up the past couple of months and explain why I’ve been absent, so you’ll understand that I didn’t just ditch my blog without a “good” reason.

1. University stress

So in mid February my second semester at Uni started and I was just as invested in it as the first semester (actually even more so). I got swamped up in all my work right away and barely had time to read any comics on the way to lectures. The freetime I did have, I spent dancing or sleeping (whilst watching series - win-win I would say). Then when the end of semester exams came up it all started to fall apart. I was really stressed out, spent every waking minute studying (emphasis on the dying part) and in the end it wasn’t enough. More about this further down in the text..

2. Work

Next to my academic studies I also had an energy-consuming job where I spent as many hours as possible to earn money for you know … BOOKS! (Which just stacked themselves up on my floor as I currently have not one single space left on my shelves.)

3. Dance

In addition to my job and Uni I continued with my full-time dance training (5 times a week á 3 hours a day). Guess who’s starting therapy now for her back problems. But I'm pretty sure that this is going to sort itself out quickly so I'm actually looking forward to all that back-muscles-workout.

4. Summer Holidays

So as I hinted at above, turns out all my hard work during the semester wasn’t enough, and I failed my exams. Which means I can’t study computer science anymore. At the beginning of my summer vacation I was dreading those results and trying to distract myself with things to do (festivals, concerts, cinema & friends). Then when I got the bad news I needed further distraction because at the beginning I just couldn’t cope with that. Now things are turning upwards again and I’m looking at other options. But basically, I have no idea what I want to do with my life.

5.  Dissatisfaction

Although I managed to read quite some books and comics through this time (I squeezed them in whenever possible, every 5 minute break was worth opening a book) I never got to actually writing the reviews. I made tons of notes and squiggles everywhere, writing down my thoughts because I knew this would become useful later when I’d finally have time to write them. But every time I went on my blog I was so dissatisfied with how it looked I just couldn’t bring myself to post something.

What's going to happen now?

I was - well, let's change that to am kind of fed up with myself for not blogging in such a long time. First of all because of the commitments I made with NetGalley. I read most of those books and graphic novels I signed up for, but didn’t review them yet (which is really unfair and I apologize to the publishing companies who gave me access to all those ARCs and reviewer copies!!). I definitely plan on reviewing every single one of those copies, but it’s going to take time because I don’t want to just post the reviews on my blog and be done with it, I'd rather give it a little more time and put enough energy into writing the reviews those books deserve.

So whilst I’m going to write those reviews one by one, sometimes two by two, I’m also going to overthink my blog website. I’m kind of tired of the layout, but am not quite sure yet what to change, so I'm going to have to spend a lot of time and energy on deciding that.

I’m really going to try to keep up blogging because it was something I really loved and put so much time and effort in it and don’t want to throw away. I hope this will help distract me even a bit more from all the happenings in my live right now and maybe help me decide on what I actually want to do.

I’m going to take things slow though. I do not want to be overwhelmed with my blog again and lose interest after a short time and go on another hiatus. So I’m going to do this in a pace that I’m comfortable with. There may be one post every day, maybe even two posts a day, but it might even be just one review a week.

So here’s to a new blogging start! (I’m actually taking a sip of Rosé right now in celebration! Oh and by the way: I turned 21 this month! So I’ll have to go and change my bio up a little, too).

Blogaversary! Swissbookworm Turns 1

One year ago today, I created this blog with an outburst of excitement. I can’t believe that already twelve months have passed! So much has happened and I’ve met so many wonderful people in the book blogging community.

I don’t know what better way to spend this day than lying in my bed, eating, reading and surfing on other people’s book blogs! That’s exactly what I’m doing (because I’m on study break I can literally do that without feeling bad about it).

In the past year I was able to read so many books and share my reviews here on my personal blog. I’ve joined a few readathons and other bookish events and I can’t tell you guys how grateful I am for this. Although my recent hiatus just came to an end, I’ve got big plans on posts and reviews for this blog and can’t wait to publish them all.

Thank you all for being here! I’m grateful for every single follower, commenter and friend I’ve got in this community!

Kicking off 2017

Happy New Year! I hope you all enjoyed New Year’s Eve and started with the right foot into the new year. I had a blast on the 31st. A couple of friends and I went to eat dinner in my favourite restaurant in Zurich and then we went to a club to celebrate the new year. It was fun, but I’m still so tired (yes I know it’s been two days already, but all I can do is lie around in bed the whole day).

2017 Reading Challenges

New year, new me, right? Nopes. This year I decided not to get too excited about the new year because I realised it doesn’t really change that much. Except in the bookish world. So I decided the only goals I want to set are in my reading habits.

All of the reading challenges I’m going to try to participate in this year will be updated with every book as always on the official 2017 Reading Challenges page. The official challenges I signed up for are:

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 30 Books
2017 Dystopia Reading Challenge: 6 Books
Flights of Fantasy 2017: 10 Books
2017 Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge: 26 Books

This year, I've set some extra goals for myself, too.

Re-read 5 books
Read 3 Science Fiction books set in space
Read 1 Auotbiography
Read 5 Books from my TBR Pile (see TBR Pile Reading Challenge 2016)
Read 10 New Comics (Trade Paperback)

Lovely Letters

To kick off 2017 (and to enjoy my semester holiday) I decided to join the Lovely Letters program by Claudia (MySoulCalledLife) for the second time. Back in September (I think?) I joined for the first time and I really enjoyed it. So I hope to get to know another awesome person this time around. If you’d like to find out more about this, or even sign up (wink wink), go to Claudia’s Sign Up Post. Lovely Letters is a Snail Mail pen pal program and it’s really fun to participate in.

Plans in January

I’m going on my first vacation in the new year on Friday. We’re going to Rome (my best friend, the same one who went on the month long vacation with me last summer). I’ve never really been to Italy and I can’t wait to see that beautiful city that has been on my bucket list for years now. Also I can’t wait to eat tons of pizza and pasta. :P

Currently Reading

And finally I want to tell you about the book I’m currently reading. I picked up Gemina by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff yesterday and I’ve been really fighting against putting it down because it’s so incredibly good. I read Illuminae last year and couldn’t await the sequels’ release and now that I’ve finally got it, it’s kind of surreal. The story is just as adventurous and fascinating, also a little terrifying, as the first book in the series, and it’s been ages since I’ve read 400 pages in one day. Continuing this pace I’ll hopefully finish it tomorrow and I’m really happy about Gemina being my first read in 2017.

I'd like to know

What did you do on New Years' Eve? Did you get to celebrate with your friends or family? Have you had a good start in 2017? What are your reading goals for 2017 and what Reading Challenges are you participating in? Also, have you read Gemina and what are your thoughts on it? (No spoilers please, I haven't quite finished it yet.)

How 2016 treated me (and all about my recent hiatus)

Hey there! It's been a long time since my last post, and I really want to apologize about that!

We’re already at the end of 2016. It seems to me the older I get the faster time goes by (which actually doesn’t make me feel good at all). 2016 had a lot in store for me and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one that was shocked about everything happening in the world this year. But I’m just going to concentrate on the good stuff that happened in my life.

While I am writing this I’m dog-sitting the cutest dog ever! My friends let me watch him when they both have to work so I get to spend time with him a lot (although today I regretted that a little when I had to shower him and clean the staircase of the entire building because I let him play in the mud). Van Damme (that’s his actual name… my friends are big fans of the actor Claude) is also a big part of 2016 because he appeared in our lives in March (I think.. It could also have been April or May, I'm not that good in keeping track of months). When I’m looking after him I get to read a lot and actually many blog posts of mine were written during that time.

The Early Months Of 2016

Sooo.. I can hardly remember what I did in January and February. I remember that I was sick a lot during that time because in March I had my tonsils (the literal translation from German would be Almonds, but I don’t think you call them that in English…) taken out, following by the most agonizing painful two weeks of my life. Seriously, I hope to never have to experience such pain ever again (and I don’t wish it anybody else, either). In March I also started a new job where I could work until I started Uni. Oh I nearly forgot (how could I?)! Before starting the job I got to go on a wonderful vacation with my family to Singapore and Phuket!

The Best Summer Of My Live (so far)

Before the actual summer started (the weather in Switzerland was really bad) I went to two awesome festivals, which marks the first time I actually slept in a tent (and by sleeping I mean awfully flipping from one side to the other trying to fall asleep whilst nearly freezing to death until I gave up).

After working real hard and saving up a lot of money I got to travel through the UK and Ireland with my best friend. We had a lot of fun and I discovered so many awesome new places that I hope to revisit soon. (If you want to read more about this, check out this post: A Very Potter Vacation.)
Then I spent more time taking care of Van Damme and preparing myself for University which leads us to…

My Underestimated First Semester At University

Oh how promising that title sounds, I imagine you thinking. Starting University in September for the first time hit me like a truck. Well maybe more like a snail truck (I just invented this, but I hope you get the picture). At first all was well and the exams (insert here the truck metaphor) were far far away and I got to meet new friends and a lot of awesome people. And then suddenly, out of nowhere, the “far far away - exams” were two weeks away and I startet panick-learning. Seriously, I’ve never studied so hard in my life. And it still wasn’t enough. We had 6 exams in four days and I just wasn’t prepared for it all. I took it quite well, though. I didn’t stress out during the exams too much about it, because my expectations weren’t too high anyways and I will just have to repeat some classes next year again, which I'm not as sad about as I think I should be.

So yeah, I think that explains my absence from the blogging world, doesn’t it? (I hope it does, because if you still don’t believe me … well, you’re just going to have to live with it, ‘cause I’m not going to upload my study schedule to prove it to you.)

My Top 5 Favourite Moments Of 2016

This is a very shortened list, because it could be endless and basically I just want to show off with some cool pictures. No, just kidding, but I’d love to share some of my favourite moments with you guys.

Nr 1: The Cursed Child

I waited so long for this moment and I still can’t believe how amazing the play was. I wish I could see it all over again for the first moment.

Nr. 2: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

What an amazing film! I have to honestly say that this is now by far my favourite movie in the Harry Potter world. It’s incredible how good it was done and I’m really glad that all of my fears of it being terrible were totally contradicted.

Nr. 3: Halloween

I’m such a Halloween person! It’s my favourite day (night) in the year. I went out as a skull and got to party with my friends at an awesome location. It was a really great night. (Oh by the way, what did you guys do this Halloween? Since I wasn’t online during that time..)

Nr. 4: October Fest

For the first time in my live I went to October Fest in Munich. A bunch of my friends and I had a blast and it was a cool trip. (We took the bus there in the morning and got back home at night. We had to drive for 4 hours every way).

Nr 5: My 20th Birthday

I feel old. My back hurts, I don’t get asked for my ID anymore and I have to pay all my own bills (well, some of them..).

I'd like to know

So how was 2016 for you guys? What did you do? What adventures did you take on? What have you achieved in your personal life? I'd be very interested in hearing your stories in the comments!! :)