Today, I’m going to talk not about what’s on my reading list, but about how I organize my reading list to make sure that I don’t just read what I want to, but that I read often and don’t get burned out from reading, which is something that I’ve experienced in the past on a few occasions. In some cases, a reading burnout has led to months or even years of me not reading (and is a big part of why I think that most lists of required reading for literature classes are dreadful and poorly optimized, at least from what I’ve both experienced and heard). So, how do I organize my reading list to make sure that I’m getting the most out of my experience? Let’s get into it!

Boy, did I get some reading done this winter. I read more between late November and March than I had in the entirety of 2021—at least, in terms of word count. So, today, I want to reflect on the books I read over the winter months!

My previous book review was for John Gwynne’s Malice, the first book in the Faithful and the Fallen series. I thought that it was good, but not great, and didn’t really stand out to me as a unique and impressive work. However, I found the ending to be a really compelling and well-written contrast to the first chunk of it, so I was excited to get into Valour, the sequel. In this spoiler-free review, I’ll talk about whether Valour met or even exceeded my expectations for the book!

This is going to be a bit of a rant, so strap yourselves in and get ready for some… angry content.

Today I’m going to be… diving into the lions’ den. I’m reading five reviews that should be hilarious but will probably just hurt me, because they’ll be disparaging my favorite author and some of my favorite books. I’ve picked out five that I want to read and talk about in this post, but it’s gonna be hard. A few of these are really painful, but I’m going to power through.

Over one hundred and twenty hours of play later, I’m ready to bring you my spoiler-free review of Elden Ring. I have been excited for Elden Ring for so freaking long, it’s unbelievable. I’m going to cut the chase and just say that this is my favorite Soulsborne game to date, just barely beating out Bloodborne. It had everything I wanted, though I do have a few small complaints that I want to mention in this review. Everything’s going to be spoiler-free, so you can read this review and make a decision without worrying about having the story ruined for you!