Hello bookworms! Hope you have had a wonderful month in August. For me personally last month was a month of teeny tiny personal accomplishments, most revolving around me trying to improve my time management skills so I can finally get the hang of juggling my real life with my reading/online life. And what do you know? I did it! I managed to squeeze in 7 books last month while still being able to prepare for all my assignments, presentations, group works and class tests in advance (in our university we have individual Powerpoint presentations every alternate day and assignments and class tests every two weeks). For someone who hasn’t been able to find time to read more than 2 books a month for the past two years, my reading progress in August came off as a surprise.
This September, I plan on making things a tad bit harder on myself, but not by much. Besides continuing my goal to read 6-8 books a month and completing every university related work in advance (a huge struggle for a professional procrastinator) I plan on doing the following as well:
Writing
Last month I managed to outline my WIP novel almost everyday. It wasn’t exactly a personal goal for me, but this month it is. I plan on working on three drafts: a poetry book, a “just-for-fun” book, and my actual WIP which I hope will see the light of day one day. If you have any tips on outlining, plotting and characterization, send them my way!
Bookstagram
In Bangladesh, very, very few bookworms were aware of the bookstagram community. In fact, back in 2016, there were only 15 bookstagrammers who were Bangladeshi including me (14 of us are born and raised and living in Bangladesh while one of us is Bangladeshi-American). Naturally, when we found each other, we became extremely close, to the point where we are practically family now (lit fam, get it?), and earlier this year, we all decided to open up a Facebook group so more Bangladeshis can learn about the bookstagram community and feel encouraged to join.
It’s been 8 months since then, and I am beyond happy to say that the Bangladeshi Bookstagrammer community (or as we call it, BD Bookstagrammer community) now has over 500 bookstagrammers, when only a year ago there were only 15 of us. #BookstagramBD now has 3000 posts, and to celebrate this very new community we are hosting the photo challenge #BookstagramBDSeptemberChallenge. As someone who has always been a rather inactive bookstagrammer, posting photos only when I felt like it, I am hoping that participating in this challenge will help me become more active in the community.
Blogging
My book blog is turning out to be more of a bookish-neglect blog–you know the kind of blog that is about books but you still neglect it and only post once in a blue moon. While I appreciate how supportive the community is for welcoming me back every time I return from a hiatus, I think it’s high time I start taking my blog a little more seriously. So get ready for bookish posts from me every few days, and send me links to your post in the comment section!
What goals/challenges have you set for yourself this month? How do you fight procrastination? I love hearing your thoughts so share them with me!
Yay, congratulations on being able to read so much while handling all of your personal assignments and, well, life! I hope you’ll be able to accomplish all of your goals for this September. trying to set aside some time to write every day is…well, hard, I’m so happy you managed to outline a little bit every day, that’s so great 🙂
All the best for the coming month! xx
Thank you Marie! Writing really is tough, but I am aiming for small progress instead of setting word goals. My theory is that if I take baby steps I will eventually learn to run a marathon XD What about you? Any plans for September?
This is a FANTASTIC theory, I’m doing the exact same thing with my writing. Baby steps, whenever I can. We’re making progress and that’s what matters 🙂
Oh, nothing much is happening this month, the routine, work, blog, maybe try to plan a weekend away, trying to finish my WIP as well 🙂
A weekend get away sounds nice! I am on Eid break at the moment and it feels good to have some time off from adulting responsibilities 😂
Ohhh I get it 😂 Adulting is so hard, it’s good to get away from it all sometimes 😂
Oh my gosh! It sounds like the both of us had very intense August’s. I hope September will be a little bit better for us.
I had no idea about the Bangladeshi Bookstagrammer community! I’m definitely going to give you a follow. And also, congratulations on that milestone! That’s so wonderful and I cannot wait to see you all grow and grow!
As for my own goals – I plan to finish my dissertation a few weeks early so I have time to work on my other two research proposals! And I also hope to draw every day so I can practice more.
Thank you CW! We are still very small and have a loooong way to go but it’s nice having our own distinct presence in the bookish community 😄
Best of luck with your dissertation and research papers! Uni work is so hard. And I am only an undergrad–I shudder to think of what I’ll have to face when I go for higher studies 😣
Your drawings are wonderful and I absolutely loved your most recent one where you talked about making a change. Looking forward to seeing more breath-taking creations from you!
It seems like you had a great month! Congratulations on reaching 500 followers! And also welcome back! I’ll look forward to your bookish posts and I hope you have an awesome September! 🙂
Thank you so much! Our FB group at the moment has nearly 1000 thousand people but we are hoping to make a stronger presence on Instagram 😂 I look forward to your posts as well 💙 It feels good to be back in the blogosphere