Big Book Energy

I purchased a PDF of Occult Needlework (available here if you're interested), and decided it would be a good first unsupervised binding project. Currently I only know a saddle stitch binding (but new methods coming soon), which works just fine for a short book/pamphlet like this. So I fiddled around with the PDF in adobe until it printed in a booklet. Each page has to be folded individually and slotted into each other, which is what I did today.

Back again for another installment of recording the new and fun things I do in my personal life each month! This month was very film-heavy, for whatever reason, but I had lots of fun

Solo:

Lots of reading!

Started catching up on the many seasons of Bake Off I missed

Went to a writing workshop

Many cups of coffee and sweet treats

After over two years of mulling over the idea, I finally bought myself a pair of roller skates on Vinted (you can catch my first time taking them for a spin in my March edition!)

Lots and lots of journaling

I made a zine out of one of my short poems

Learned a new zine fold/structure

Started getting more into Substack (currently just reading, but considering posting my own stuff at some point)

Friends & Dates:

Saw a screening of Happy Together (1997) at a small cinema club with a friend (this was our first time hanging out together outside of our volunteering gig)

Played an RPG one-shot in a system designed by my friend

Watched a special screening of Jennifer's Body for Valentine's Day

Called a friend from the states

Went back to my monthly Blood on the Clocktower group

Went to a zine launch event

Went to a friend's birthday party (we watched DCOMs and ate loads of classic American cinema snacks)

Went to a collage social

Saw two student plays - one tragedy, one comedy (and my friend directed one of them!)

Highest recommended reads:

Equal Rites & Mort by Terry Pratchett

The Penguin Book of the Prose Poem, ed. by Jeremy Noel-Tod

Signs Preceding the End of the Universe by Yuri Herrera, trans. by Lisa Dillman

The only one I personally wouldn't recommend was My Name is Maame by Jessica George. It just personally wasn't a genre I enjoyed, and I felt it lacked depth and complexity.

The breakdown:

8 books total (again!)

2 fantasy

1 realistic fiction/coming of age

1 speculative/literary fiction

2 poetry

1 informative nonfiction

1 essay collection

All were from the library this month

I thought it would be nice to wrap up new things I tried or fun things I did each month. I try really hard to build hobbies, dates, solo dates, and friend hangouts into my regular routines, and I think this is a nice way to show that these things don't have to be high-effort or expensive, and that I'm actually doing a really good job with that!

Solo:

Went to a poetry reading

Played Blood on the Clocktower (one of my favourites) with a new group of people I didn't know

Got a new haircut/style (year of the fringe!)

Went to a workshop to learn simple bookbinding (saddle stitch) - this was so fun!!

Kept working on my first full zine

Wrote & edited some poetry + submitted to magazines

Lots of reading

Friends & Dates:

Visited a new city!

My first escape room (I've been wanting to do one for ages but just haven't made the time)

Saw a chill local gig from an artist I like

Saw a friend and met her baby!!!

Saw a really great play with my partner and friend

(I will also give the slight disclaimer that I really love my job and find it very fulfilling, which means I find myself relatively refreshed/energised in my off time, so it's pretty easy for me to pursue these things. I also have a relatively flexible schedule at work, which also helps - but a lot of this is also done in the evenings after work and by using my off days to actually do things that I enjoy)

The first installment of Books of 2026!

My highest recommended:

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (5.0)

Authority by Jeff VanderMeer (4.5)

None I wouldn't recommend this month - all pretty solid reads.

The Breakdown:

8 books total

4 sci fi

1 horror

1 fantasy

1 nonfiction

2 short story collections

4 borrowed from the library, the rest were already owned