january 2023 media roundup!

[loveair]

 

why did january span like 2 years,,, the amount of media i consumed,,, genuinely ill. i got super busy this month w school and stuff too, hence why this roundup is so late. i think this month was a lot better than december though lol so thats good at least. 

watching

movies

i watched 2 movies this month yay <3 my goal is just to watch more movies this year than i did last year which honestly shouldnt be bad (guy who watched 15 movies in all of 2022). also want to stop watching literally every random show i come across (im sick of watching every gmmtv show and then being disappointed when its bad)

> knives out (2019): this was so good actually i really enjoyed the way this was filmed. also i love benoit. silly little detective so true of him. 

> glass onion (2022): this was less enjoyable than the first to me only bc i wasnt expecting all the social commentary but also i loved benoit in his little swimsuit that was so cute actually. this was still pretty good, would watch again. 

tv shows

> bad buddy rewatch: made my sister watch bad buddy for the first time and had such a good rewatch like i did enjoy this ! i fear this only reignited my hatred for wai like that man is so evil. 

> summer strike: watched this for siwan and instantly fell in love with seolhyun like she is soooo pretty,,, i loved this show for the most part like introverted librarian siwan ??? right up my alley… i hated the murder mystery part of it though like T___T i wanted to see more about bom and jaehoon and daebeom’s struggle with academia like we did not need poor grandma to be murdered. 

> the director who buys me dinner: i need to stop watching bad tv. honestly i feel like this would’ve done so much better as a full length show,,, the concept was actually pretty interesting but it wasnt fleshed out like at all so it was kinda bad in that aspect. 

im still tuned into my school president every friday! got my sister to watch it too so i rewatched the first 6 eps w her!! she’s loving it too and im fr so obsessed… the goofiness and lightheartedness are so endearing <3 im a huge soundwin fan as well they are everything.

reading

um i read 10 books this month. that’s like 25% of what i read all of last year. this is what a good reading month should fr be,,, im actually so happy w this!

> the fortunes of jaded women (carolyn huynh): this was pretty entertaining! i liked that all the women were all grown up and had established lives and everything, and the curse was pretty enjoyable to follow. this was pretty easy to get through so it was a good first book of the year!

> highly suspicious & unfairly cute (talia hibbert): i fear im a talia hibbert stan like her books are just so comforting and easy to get through! i ate this one up like i think this is my fav book of hers now. i loved brad and celine’s characters and their whole trope of being ex best friends is literally my fav thing ever!

> the six deaths of the saint (alix e harrow): i jumped on the bandwagon just like everyone else and read this this month. it was good!! i liked it,,, but honestly i dont like 2nd person pov at all and this didnt change my mind. but the prose was really good and i was impressed w how much the author was able to fit within 30 pages. 

> age of vice (deepti kapoor): i was soooo excited for this and i loved the first half. ajay was such an intriguing mc and i loved hearing about his background and his time in prison and everything. the second half w sunny and neda was wayyy less interesting. it became more of the rich ppl’s woes and struggles,,, which i just didnt have that much sympathy for. i had to honestly force myself to finish the last 200 pages of this which sucks bc the first half was sooo good. when sunil came in things got interesting again but the whole middle part of this book was so bad for me. 

> the very secret society of irregular witches (sangu mandanna): this was my first 5 star read of the year and i loved it ???? this was so warm and comforting and i ate it up. i loved mika’s character and i loved ken and ian,,, everything about this was so warm. just an instant fav

> svsss vols. 1-4 (mxtx): i read svsss lol. jan/feb have been my danmei months for years now,, like 2020 i was reading mdzs, 2021 i read tgcf and last year i read golden stage at this time. so i decided to read svsss and i enjoyed it ! def not my fav danmei or mxtx book but still enjoyable!! i am lbh’s biggest defender he did nothing wrong ! at all ! the humor was good and i found it to be a great balance between the heaviness of the actual plot and comedy,,, i did like this a lot!!

> do i know you? (emily wibberley, austin siegemund-broka): i liked this ? it was decent ig. i read it bc i love second chance romances and this was decent but nothing super memorable. i got through it pretty quick and i felt like both graham and eliza’s problems were really realistic so i did enjoy this for the most part !

listening

total scrobbles: 2,177
avg daily scrobbles: 70

top artists:
1. sza (149)
2. seventeen (91)
3. bibi (82)
4. onlyoneof (64)
5. tilly birds (64)
6. cix (56)

top albums:
1. sos - sza (147)
2. underground idol #6 - nine (52)
3. the name chapter: temptation - txt (42)
4. smcu palace - smtown (41)
5. lovers in seoul - off the menu (40)
6. incense - moonbin & sanha (37)

top tracks:
1. beyond - nine (50)
2. hot & cold - kai, seulgi, jeno, karina (40)
3. lovers in seoul - off the menu (40)
4. ponytail - yugyeom ft. sik-k (33)
5. you’ve got ma back - fourth nattawat, ford arun, satang kittiphop, winny thanawin (32)
6. merry go - dpr ian (31)
7. desire - moonbin (31)
8. kazino - bibi (28)
9. bad sad and mad - bibi (27)
10. throwback tears - valley (23)

this was a goofy listening month like what even is this. idk how svt gets so high up on my artists list when i have no recollection of listening to them this much !! what was i listening to. anyways music this month was pretty mid i love the msp soundtrack and i randomly got obsessed w tilly birds’ same page so that was fun. 

writing

i finished the seokgyuhao i was writing ??? i wrote 8k this month which is soooo good i havent seen a wc that big since 2021. but anyways ive really been slacking on editing it but i really wanna just get this posted bc i def wont be able to write for the next few months. so getting this fic posted will make me feel like i actually posted something before i inevitably cant write for a few months. 

overall

i started classes again this month and its insane that i only have 1 sem left after this. thats insane. my classes are pretty good this sem! biochem and anatomy are sooo useful for me this sem for my mcat studying but they’re already so hard lol. my sociology class this sem is about mental health and its pretty interesting ! im enjoying it so far. i had a pretty good month and i know im gonna be super busy in february so im glad i was able to consume a lot of the media i wanted to get through. i hope everyone is staying warm and has a good february <3