How I Read Seasonally

Hello again! 👋🏻 It’s been a while since I last posted and I do want to get back into posting regularly, so hopefully this is the first in a lot of regular Saturday posts.

For almost the whole time I’ve been blogging, I’ve been a seasonal reader rather than a mood reader. There’s nothing wrong with being a mood reader, especially since most book bloggers are mood readers, but I’ve just never been that way. I’ve always had a very methodical way of reading that has seen different phases (when I was in school, I read two chapters before bed, then in sixth form a quarter of a book every day, now I do about three a day or I divide a book into sevenths to read) so mood reading is something that doesn’t pop into my brain very often.

I guess that my seasonal reading could be considered a form of mood reading since the seasons tend to dictate what kind of mood I’m in, but I’ll just stick to ‘seasonal’ for now.

Before we get into the post, I have some housekeeping: first of all, I got my Twitter account back! I learned about a little “hack” you can do if your account gets completely suspended like mine was, and it worked.

Secondly, my domain is being transferred from Google Domains to a different provider and my fingers are crossed that it all goes well without any problems.

Lastly, at some point this month I’ll be giving the blog a bit of a makeover because a lot of the plugins that came with my current theme don’t work anymore and I would rather have one that’s from a website that didn’t get in trouble for violating GDPR.

🌸 spring 🌸

Spring is an ‘anything goes’ season when it comes to reading. This is when I’m more likely to be a mood reader and don’t have a specific genre that I gravitate towards.

There have been moments in the past when I’ve tried to get some themed reading in during the spring, such as reading queer romances during February (which is LGBTQ+ History Month here in the UK) but that’s fallen by the wayside in recent years since I’m just going towards whatever I’m in the mood for.

This year, however, I do want to take part in Wyrd and Wonder, which is a month-long celebration of fantasy books, similar to Sci-Fi Month. Fantasy is a genre that I do like but it’s not one that I always read since I do find it intimidating sometimes (especially high fantasy like The Lord of the Rings or grimdark fantasy like The Poppy War).

☀️ summer ☀️

In the past, summer was the time for YA contemporaries and romance but I’ve grown out of those books in recent years so for now, summer is another ‘anything goes’ month for genres. Since working in a library, I’ve found myself reading less in the summer because we are so busy with summer reading challenge things and my commute leaves me all gross and sticky so holding a book is the last thing I want to do when I could be holding a fan instead.

In a way, Homer Simpson was right, when you become an adult with a job, you don’t have summers anymore.

🍂 autumn 🍂

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll know that autumn is my time for horror and science fiction. I’m one for spooky books all year round, but October is the time for me to devote everything I read and watch to horror. I have my Spooky Month posts in October (which will have a twist this year) and have been taking part in the 100 Horror Movies in 92 Days challenge for two years now and I’m going to participate again this year.

November is the time to dedicate myself to sci-fi with Sci-Fi Month taking place all month (as the name implies). I don’t go as hard on sci-fi in November as I do for horror between August and October, so I’m not exactly doing a ’30 Days of Sci-Fi Movies’ challenge unless I feel up to it.

Autumn is the perfect time for these two genres but I do throw in the occasional thriller before September is over because the cooler weather puts me in the mood for darker stories and thicker books.

❄️ winter ❄️

Although I did say that fantasy isn’t a genre I always read thanks to me finding it a little intimidating, I do try to read more fantasy books in winter, especially around Christmas.

My go-to fantasy books are more on the lighter side of adult fantasy or just YA fantasy. It’s very unlikely that you’ll see me lugging around one of the Witcher books or A Song of Ice and Fire because I am but a wee baby who can’t handle books like that. Maybe I will someday, but for now I’m comfortable where I am.

I may read some contemporary books too, but that usually depends on how fluffy of a mood I’m in.

talk to me!

Do you plan TBRs or are you a mood reader?