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%)

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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....!

Note: First books of series represent said entire series. I know the cut-off was the final book, but I believe people are usually more familiar with the cover and title of first installments so.

1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 
5. 
6. 

Right... Not fun since not enough series meet the criteria I set, thus unable to let me accurately depict how much I loathe some of them lmao. Because the pool is too small (despite the number of books I read overall in 2021 being a decent number, objectively speaking), I'm going to include series ending a year ago that I read this year into the mix; ta-da:

1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 
5. 
6. 

Right... (lol) In case people didn't feel like counting, the total is 9 series. The reason why some now have been stacked, is because, 1 per slot made the ranking list lengthy, which in itself isn't too big of a deal, however, I feel bad for the ones closer to the bottom. It really wasn't like "it's the second to the last place"; trust me, certain gaps are super huge. Since it's still not reflecting well enough, I figure grouping what I feel the similar amount of like, would make me feel less guilty, haha. There you have it!

Hope despite the crisis in 2021, you'd still have a fruitful year! What series concluded in 2021 do you like the most? Feel free to share!