2021 Year End Recap

(If you have a short reading attention span, feel free to just skip to the actual ranking, which you'd have to click into the blog post to view >:3)

This particular blog post is to first document what was actually published in 2021. I've learned my lesson from the 2020 Year End Recap, and started the documentation when applicable, so this time round, there's no ambiguity about the actual publishing order.

Note: Notice two font sizes below? The regular size matching this sentence and paragraphs above, are my makeup work for before. The smaller size (like this) are the ones that are posted extremely closed to, if not in fact on the exact published date. Those, should there actually be casual viewers of my blog, are hard to miss, since the Blog Archive function reflects them quite well, and the backdated ones are what easily gone unnoticed, hence the emphasis.

1. Manga Reading List: Completed Works (First Read before 2010)
2. [Publishing Recs][公開信] 請考慮出版這些漫畫♥︎ Ver. 親愛的長鴻出版社
3. [Publishing Recs][公開信] 請考慮出版這些漫畫♥︎ Ver. 親愛的台灣角川
4. [Publishing Recs][公開信] 請考慮出版這些漫畫♥︎ Ver. 親愛的青文出版社
5. [Publishing Recs][公開信] 請考慮出版這些漫畫♥︎ Ver. 親愛的東立出版社
6. Manga Reading List: Works that are Adaptations
7. [Series Overview] The Poppy War trilogy - R.F. Kuang
8. [Series Overview] The King of Scars Duology - Leigh Bardugo
9. 2020 Year End Recap
10. 2019 Year End Recap
11. 2018 Year End Recap
12. 2017 Year End Recap
13. 2016 Year End Recap
14. [Fan Fixes] 《獅子藏匿的書屋》第一集 - 封面改造
15. [Fan Fixes] The Lunar Chronicles #1-3 mini-review + Playlist with a Twist
16. [Discussions][Fan Fixes] 《哈利波特》角色名稱翻譯狂想 - Part 2: 花花草草
17. [Series Overview] Renegades trilogy - Marissa Meyer
18. [Series Overview] Empirium - Claire Legrand
19. [Series Overview] Serpent & Dove trilogy - Shelby Mahurin
20. [Series Overview] The Winner's Trilogy - Marie Rutkoski
21. [Series Overview] Forgotten Gods - Marie Rutkoski
22. [Series Overview] Captive Prince trilogy - C.S. Pacat
23. [Series Overview] Skin Books - Alice Broadway
24. [Series Overview] A Charm of Magpies - K.J. Charles
25. [Series Overview] Cassidy Blake - Victoria Schwab
26. [Books in Books] Cassidy Blake - Victoria Schwab
27. [Series Overview] All the Stars and Teeth duology - Adalyn Grace
28. [Series Overview] The Shadow Game - Amanda Foody
29. [Series Overview] ゴーストハント - 小野不由美 (Ghost Hunt - Fuyumi Ono)
30. [Series Overview] Into the Crooked Place duology - Alexandra Christo

That said, while I did studiously track all my post, sadly, this very post itself is once again actually published later, in 2022, and again backdated. And I'll explain to you the exciting reason as to why:

• I was doing so very well, and this post had the chance to actually be published on time.
• Then, on 2021/12/22, I got a phone call confirming I'd be getting a job interview the next day, which I nervously and desperately went.
• During dinner of 2021/12/24 (Christmas Eve!), I received yet another call, informing me that I got the job! (For those who are interested, I'm now a full-time Librarian at a branch of the city's public library.)
• I was told the official start of post date (2022/1/2) two days later. A day after that, I was informed to show up on 2021/12/29 with my two other colleagues (who turned out to also be newbies), in order to learn what to do from the then-Librarians who were leaving by the end of the year.
• On December 29, as I learned what I'd be doing from my predecessors, my boss very unsubtly suggested myself to take advantage of my predecessors' remaining days, since that'd be the last chance I could ask questions and get answers in person. So basically, I was informed on-spot that I'd be interning (unofficially, as in not getting paid) for the next two days as well. (Interestingly, my co-workers, one showed up but already had plans so didn't stay long that day, nor was she available the next two days. The other was a completely no-show, and my boss ended up having to interview someone else that very afternoon after I left, in the hopes to fill the much needed third person for the branch. IDK if that other person was offered the job on-spot or not, or whether she was told about the next two days, alas, she also wasn't present.)
• So, from December 29-31, while I wasn't working full-time, my time had been mostly spent on my RL job. I managed to finished some series due to having them on iBooks on my phone, reading them as I commute.
• I also decided to finally take action, and opened a separate GR account to solely document publications with heavy sequential-art, as in manga, picture books, graphic novels, and comics... and obviously got carried away a little with the much needed book-shelving. (That is STILL on-going.)

Anyways, as of 2022/10/15, according to the Blog Archive function, I have 16 posts published in 2021, some, like this one, are backdated, but most weren't, and I did try to maintain being productive. I basically had everything sans the bulleted list above ready to go this entire time, and the bulleted list wasn't really what delayed the publication of this post. I had a couple of posts I thought I could make it before the year ended, one in particular was more than 90% done. Alas, days turned into weeks then turned into months, after I actually started working, I just couldn't find time. And it'd no longer make sense to wait for that post, since it now would just belong to the 2022 post instead of this one. Spoilers alert, because of my RL job, 2022's post def. won't be as lengthy as this one! lol

2021 Reading Challenge

Sammm has completed her goal of reading 75 books in 2021!

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76 of 75 (100%)

view books

It's because of 2020's unusual circumstances that continued in 2021, and the late RL happy surprise, that resulted in the first part being rather large. I hope people are patient enough to reach this part, lmao. On Goodreads, there's the My Year in Books function they provided that give some statistics, [check out mine for 2021!] (My GR profile is set for GR Users only, so this one, you'd have to login in order to view.) There's also the Goodreads Year in Review, [read mine!] (no GR account required.)

So what's different here is that I'm going to rank what I've read, but limited to series that concluded in this year. 2021 does not make a great example but it's a start lol. And, ladies and gents, drum roll....!

[Series Overview] Into the Crooked Place duology - Alexandra Christo

I started this series on: December 29, 2021
I finished this series on: December 31, 2021
Cover editions here updated on: December 30, 2021
Written content here updated on: December 30, 2021

Disclaimer, one you'd see on multiple posts As I struggled to decide which book series to cover overviews for, it dawned to me that I'd never get started at this rate. It became clear to me that, it's rather unlikely for me to use this blog as my "main" reviewing spot since I have Goodreads for that, and chances of someone miraculously stumbling across this blog out of the countless ones out there, is just rather slim, therefore, I'd put up links to my GR reviews (in English,) and this post would be in Chinese for people who are curious about the series but either aren't comfortable with or just don't prefer reading in English. Please also note that, sometimes I don't have time to write actual reviews, HOWEVER, I do always put down thoughts when I document my reading status updates, so for GR desktop users, remember to scroll down if it appears to contain little, it'd be under the quotes I liked from that book (when applicable lol;) for mobile app users, remember to switch to "Reading Activity," which would not be the default as "Review" is.

The actual review is, as usual, WIP, but like I said above, getting the post out there first.

GR stats (linking default edition)	Editions I'm privy to
[Read My Review!]
[Read My Review!]

Author:
Series:

Disclaimer, one you'd see on multiple posts The following section, basically a gallery of editions around the world with different book cover art, is largely inspired by treatments of fellow blogger Amethyst, who unfortunately hasn't done those types of blog posts for a while. Please DO NOT mistaken the following to be all existing editions; I'm only including completed sets with matching designs. All clickable images are linked to respective editions on GR; people, shelving correct editions ain't that hard. Highly recommend accurate shelving. =D

British English | 英式英文


American English | 美式英文

[Series Overview] The Shadow Game - Amanda Foody

I started this series on: December 24, 2021
I finished this series on: December 29, 2021
Cover editions here updated on: December 24, 2021
Written content here updated on: December 24, 2021

Disclaimer, one you'd see on multiple posts As I struggled to decide which book series to cover overviews for, it dawned to me that I'd never get started at this rate. It became clear to me that, it's rather unlikely for me to use this blog as my "main" reviewing spot since I have Goodreads for that, and chances of someone miraculously stumbling across this blog out of the countless ones out there, is just rather slim, therefore, I'd put up links to my GR reviews (in English,) and this post would be in Chinese for people who are curious about the series but either aren't comfortable with or just don't prefer reading in English. Please also note that, sometimes I don't have time to write actual reviews, HOWEVER, I do always put down thoughts when I document my reading status updates, so for GR desktop users, remember to scroll down if it appears to contain little, it'd be under the quotes I liked from that book (when applicable lol;) for mobile app users, remember to switch to "Reading Activity," which would not be the default as "Review" is.

The actual review is, as usual, WIP, but like I said above, getting the post out there first.

GR stats (linking default edition)	Editions I'm privy to
[Read My Review!]
[Read My Review!]
[Read My Review!]

Author:
Series:

Disclaimer, one you'd see on multiple posts The following section, basically a gallery of editions around the world with different book cover art, is largely inspired by treatments of fellow blogger Amethyst, who unfortunately hasn't done those types of blog posts for a while. Please DO NOT mistaken the following to be all existing editions; I'm only including completed sets with matching designs. All clickable images are linked to respective editions on GR; people, shelving correct editions ain't that hard. Highly recommend accurate shelving. =D

American English | 美式英文


American English | 美式英文 （有聲書）

[Series Overview] Crown of Coral and Pearl duology - Mara Rutherford

I started this series on: December 18, 2021
I finished this series on: December 22, 2021
Cover editions here updated on: October 11, 2022
Written content here updated on: December 18, 2021

Disclaimer, one you'd see on multiple posts As I struggled to decide which book series to cover overviews for, it dawned to me that I'd never get started at this rate. It became clear to me that, it's rather unlikely for me to use this blog as my "main" reviewing spot since I have Goodreads for that, and chances of someone miraculously stumbling across this blog out of the countless ones out there, is just rather slim, therefore, I'd put up links to my GR reviews (in English,) and this post would be in Chinese for people who are curious about the series but either aren't comfortable with or just don't prefer reading in English. Please also note that, sometimes I don't have time to write actual reviews, HOWEVER, I do always put down thoughts when I document my reading status updates, so for GR desktop users, remember to scroll down if it appears to contain little, it'd be under the quotes I liked from that book (when applicable lol;) for mobile app users, remember to switch to "Reading Activity," which would not be the default as "Review" is.

The actual review is, as usual, WIP, but like I said above, getting the post out there first.

GR stats (linking default edition)	Editions I'm privy to
[Read My Review!]
[Read My Review!]

Author:

Disclaimer, one you'd see on multiple posts The following section, basically a gallery of editions around the world with different book cover art, is largely inspired by treatments of fellow blogger Amethyst, who unfortunately hasn't done those types of blog posts for a while. Please DO NOT mistaken the following to be all existing editions; I'm only including completed sets with matching designs. All clickable images are linked to respective editions on GR; people, shelving correct editions ain't that hard. Highly recommend accurate shelving. =D

American English | 美式英文


български | Bulgarian | 保加利亞文


русский | Russian | 俄文

特意放大些是因為真的跟原版是不一樣的！雖然長得爆像讓人懷疑到底為何要另外請人做封面😂

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Cover editions update log:

• 2022/4/22: Russian
• 2022/10/11: Bulgarian