I'm always open to suggestions so please leave it down below are there books that you gave to someone as a christmas gift this year i do generally give books to people the only books that i've given this year honestly are cookbooks because i constantly am recommending half baked harvest recipes and my sister only had the one she had the super simple cookbook so i hope she's not watching this but like she's almost definitely not but watch this is like the one that she will but i got her the like uh her original cookbook because she didn't have that one yet and both of them are so good chef's kiss amazing other than that i got my dad the new john grisham because he enjoys john grisham a lot that was actually for his birthday though so i don't think i've really gotten any books for anyone as a gift rate your overall reading year on a scale from one to ten interesting i feel like i'm going to go with a seven i'm torn between like a six and a seven but i think a seven is solid i had a lot of really great books that i read this year there were some months where i read like a ton of books that i loved most of my books i would say fell within the 3.5 to 4 star range which is awesome it's definitely been better than past reading years and i feel like my most recent past reading years it has been a lot better than that so that might even be harsh maybe an eight i feel like it was it was just a really solid year like nothing completely disappointed me nothing i super hated obviously there are some things that i didn't love but nothing that i was like this is the most horrible thing that happened to me except for coraline actually but you know has your taste in books changed this year i feel like it's always evolving i think i've started to get back into fantasy which is really nice but i think for the most part i've pretty much been reading like similar things to what i normally would i think maybe i'm like learning more of the tropes that i don't like and what does work for me but i think overall it's like i'm pretty boring i pretty much like to read the same things all the time but like obviously different books i don't know

I've been recommending a lot of recipes from Half Baked Harvest, which is one of my go-to sources for cooking inspiration. This year, I got my sister a cookbook by this author, and it's been a great addition to her collection. She only had the simple recipe book at first, but I recently gave her the original book as well, and both are amazing. My dad also received a John Grisham novel for his birthday, which is one of his favorite authors.

For my overall reading year, I'd rate it an eight out of ten. I've been really satisfied with the books I've read this year, and there haven't been any major disappointments. However, I do feel like some of the books I've read have fallen into a similar category, which is between 3.5 to 4 stars. This has actually been an improvement over past years, so that's definitely a plus.

As for my reading tastes, I think I've started to get more back into fantasy novels, which was something I used to enjoy but hadn't read as much of in recent years. However, I still tend to stick to what I know and love, rather than taking risks on new genres or authors. I do feel like I'm learning more about my own tastes and preferences, though, which is helpful for making reading recommendations.

In terms of favorite recipes, there are so many from Half Baked Harvest that I've made this year! One of the most recent ones was a 15-minute garlic butter ramen recipe that was absolutely delicious. My sister also has a French onion pasta bake that's been a hit with everyone who's tried it. Another recipe I've recently discovered is Chrissy Teigen's bacon and egg pad thai, which is somehow both familiar and exciting at the same time.

There have only been two books that I've really regretted reading this year - the Betroted by Kiera Cass was a major letdown, but I'm glad I can look back on it now and see what went wrong.

I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who asked me questions and participated in this Q&A session. It's always a lot of fun for me, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to share my thoughts and experiences with you all. If you have any other questions or topics you'd like to discuss, feel free to leave them in the comments below.

Tomorrow will be Bookmas Day 21, which is going to be an exciting reading vlog featuring Christmas books. Be sure to subscribe to my channel so you don't miss it - and click that notification bell to stay up-to-date on all of my upcoming videos for December.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey everyone it's haley and today is bookmas day 20 so i'm going to be doing an end of the year q a so yesterday was bookmas day 19 and for that i tear ranked all of my 20 20 reads so i will link that down below if you guys wanted to check it out as well as the entire bookmas playlist so you can get caught up if you have missed any videos i've never done a q a for bookmas before but i thought it seemed like a good idea and something fun because i can kind of talk about some not necessarily bookish things there are still like bookish questions here obviously that i'm answering but i thought it would be fun to kind of switch it up a little bit so on instagram i asked you guys if you had any questions pertaining to the end of the year and you guys had some really great questions so let's just get into answering them so the first question is how is your french learning going i feel like it's going pretty well i'm not very confident with languages because i've only ever been able to speak one i never did well in french in school because i didn't have the best teachers for it to be honest so i almost failed when i got to high school and was doing french so i definitely don't have the confidence there i will like probably never speak it in a video but i am still trying like i'm still working on it every single day i do a little bit i haven't had the time to dedicate it to it that i would like to but i do think it's like a an enjoyable thing for me to do although it kind of stresses me out because i'm not great at it but it's something like different i've never tried learning a language before so it's definitely a unique experience and i think to be able to speak two languages is something that i would eventually like to do and hopefully i will be able to like my boyfriend will help me because he does like that's his native language but right now it's just been super busy so i've been doing most of it on my own and i think that's where i'm like nervous about it next is your best memories from 2020 so i really love this question actually because i feel like 2020 has been such a difficult year for a number of reasons so it can be so easy to focus on the negative things and especially because like i haven't been able to do a lot this year so it's kind of you know it's easy to focus on the bad things that have happened but i would say that my best memories one would be getting charlie like that all happened so quickly literally right after christmas what happened was i kind of just ended up looking for a dog unexpectedly and then charlie was like the last puppy left so it just kind of ended up working out we went and met him and his personality was totally perfect for us so literally the next day we had him home so like literally everything happened so quickly but also moving in was a lovely experience it had kind of been like a long time coming but it was really nice to move in i've been having a great time living here with my boyfriend so definitely like different to not live at my parents house but it's been nice to be out on my own and to be with my boyfriend also my favorite memory would be with my boyfriend so we kind of took a mini staycation like a covid safe vacation and it was just so nice to be able to get away because we had never really been able to do that before and that was such a nice relaxing trip and i would like to go again next is if you had to sell all of your books and could only keep five which five would it be so alice in wonderland the book thief and then the other three i don't know the nightingale and then again what would the other two be i don't know i mean i want to say lovely war because it's like fresh in my mind but i'm like blanking on all the books that i love right now like my favorite books can i count a cook book because i would keep half baked harvest super simple because that cookbook is my entire life i adore it so sure let's do a cookbook and now let's throw it in there because i just can't pick between my babies like i i can't i think actually i'll go with the hate u give for the fifth one because that's such a powerful read that i think i definitely would have to keep and want to reread next is a new hobby or passion that you picked up this year so a new hobby is learning french also i feel like i've gotten more into cooking but that was kind of more like last year that i started doing that something that i've started getting more dedicated to i would say is weight training so i hate cardio but like i want to work on getting healthier work on improving myself and i don't mind weightlifting i enjoy weightlifting actually it's like it kind of depends on the day but i like going to the gym and improving myself and knowing that i'm doing something to better myself so that's definitely something that i started getting more into like planning my own workouts and everything also just honestly like collecting workout clothes has also been a nice fun hobby for me that i really didn't need but alaska has been happening my favorite part about christmas apart from books and bookmas so my favorite part about christmas would definitely be the time that i get to spend with my family it's usually my favorite time because it's the only time that both of my sisters are home again so it's kind of like when we were kids everyone's at home obviously that's not going to happen this year unfortunately but it's truly like just the time spent with family i love the festive season and how everyone comes together and just like the joy of the season means a lot to me which genre did i read the most this year and which genre did i read the least this year i think that the genre that i read the most i probably read contemporary the most to be honest but it also feels like historical fiction is up there because i feel like i haven't read many historical fictions in a while i kind of fell out of reading the genre for whatever reason but i started to gravitate toward it a lot this year which was really nice because i found so many new favorites and contemporary i think though i picked up a little bit more but my least read genre would probably be fantasy because i kept on trying to get back into it but it wasn't until later in the year in fall that i really started to read it so definitely fantasy is my least read although some years it's definitely been my most but this year that was not the case which genre do you hope to read the most of in 2021 so i don't think there's necessarily one that i hope to read the most of i definitely hope to keep up with reading more historical fiction because there are so many that i would like to get to and it is something that clearly i love a lot like i'm pretty sure on most of my like favorites of the year lis historical fiction has been at the top i don't know if that's just like me making that up but i feel like generally a lot of my favorite books are historical fiction i don't know why i just i'm interested in history but i would like to make an effort to read more fantasy i have so so so many on my tbr since i really hadn't been gravitating toward it a lot like i didn't read my first one until fall so that's saying a lot but there are a lot that i've had for years now that i just haven't picked up because of that because we've been in a struggle relationship but now that we're getting back to it i want to take advantage of that and try to read more of that next year which book made you feel understood and comforted this year i don't know if any book made me feel understood i would say a book that brought me comfort hmm i feel like i want to go with cemetery boys by aiden thomas something about that story even though it was like really sad and hard to read because it was heartbreaking it also was super beautiful at the same time so something about it just brought me comfort seeing these characters and their families and that beautiful love story and i don't know like the self-discovery aspect of it i guess but that also makes me think like black flamingo by dean ada i loved following michael from a young age as he's trying to find where he belongs i feel like that was really relatable for me and seeing him come into his own definitely brought me a lot of comfort too what was the best month of the year and why january i would say january i will say because we got charlie and it was lovely and also i was able to move in and everything was normal and it was kind of before things changed a lot so january was really lovely other than that like i feel like april was pretty good i think april was fine because it seemed like it was gonna be a short-term thing like what's been happening so i was okay in april i really threw myself into making videos and yeah after that it's kind of gone downhill not gonna lie but 2021 is coming and hopefully that will be better what are you looking forward to in 2021 bookish and personal i would say i'm looking forward to having a whole new set of books to read like there are a lot of really great releases coming out next year that sound amazing i also am looking forward to hopefully hearing back about my book and hopefully that will be good uh personally i'm looking forward to having a fresh start i feel like this year has just been so much for like a number of reasons but i think having a completely fresh start will be really nice being able to kind of work on myself a little bit more i feel like that's something that i really want to try and accomplish next year and i also am hoping to get really fit and strong which i know sounds ridiculous but like like i said i'm really into weight training so i'm looking forward to having that new year to start obviously like i'm gonna start before that but i don't know there's something about a fresh start that's why i always love the new year because it just feels like a clean slate what are your top three favorite books that released this year so that's different than like my favorites list because it would be of the books that released this year so felix ever after by case and calendar i think is so beautiful definitely worth a read and worth all the hype that it gets i'm trying to think of what else came out this year but like i don't know i feel like i'm blanking i need to check my favorites list actually for this past year because i can't remember what was on my favorites list this is what happens when you film like a million videos in a row okay so felix ever after beach read by emily henry that one is just such a beautiful like literary romance i super loved it and then i mean i already talked about the black flamingo and cemetery boys so next i will go to the king of crows by libba bray which is the finale of the diviners series and i did really love that one but i feel like i read so many new releases this year but i also feel simultaneously like i didn't get to any which is tragic if there was one trope you came across in all of the books you read this year what would it be i feel like i come across enemies to lovers often and i'm not a huge fan of that trope but i think a lot of people are that's a lot of people's favorites so i think that's why it comes up so often but honestly i would say that definitely is the one that i came across the most like get a life chloe brown it wasn't that it's in a tweet cute it's in literally so many of the books that i've read this year across different like not just adult romance it's in fantasies it's in like why a it's in a little bit of everything and i have mixed feelings on it because i feel like when it's done right i'm okay with it i mean not even done right but done to my personal taste what i hate about it is a lot of times the enemies part it's never developed beyond that or i don't believe in the foundation of the enemies portion of it it just seems really superfluous and seems like it's just added in so then it can be enemies to lovers it doesn't seem like they actually don't like each other it's just kind of like a thing so then you can get that like angst i guess so i don't know that's where i struggle with it but it is something that i know a lot of people love so i'm fine with reading it too do you go into the year with a goal to read a certain number of books i do personally so i love having a goodreads goal just to challenge myself it is absolutely just about me i will like do it so i know it's something that i can attain like this past year i set the goal to read 100 books i wasn't sure if i would be able to do that but i was able to do it largely thanks to graphic novels actually like entirely thanks to graphic novels so it's just something i use to try and challenge and push myself to read more because i know that it's something i can do so it's something i want to prioritize which is why i try and do that so i also will try and set a page number goal every day i will aim for 100 pages but that doesn't always happen so if that doesn't then i will go with 50. and it is like 100 books isn't that bad it's like three books a week so i know that's something that i can accomplish if i do set my mind to it so that's why i like having a goal just for me it's just for fun what was the weirdest book that you've read this year i feel like wolf by wolf was super weird because the concept is really weird to it but i think overall the weirdest book was my calamity jane by the lady janie's because it's like a mix of western and i mean weird is kind of what they specialize in but it's a mix of western and werewolf hunting so that's definitely an interesting combination but also coraline which i don't want to talk about it anymore but yes that that would be the weirdest book that i read this year probably would be coraline out of all of them oh my god that book was horrifying i still hate it favorite debut author of 2020 ooh this one's kind of hard because i feel like there were so many great ones like aidan thomas's debut caitlyn beyrin's was a debut like cinderella is dead that one there were a lot of great ones bethany c morrow it was a great year for debuts i i know i just talked about it but i am actually going to go with aiden thomas because i think that their debut was so fantastic like they came out on such a high note and i can't wait to see what they're going to come out with next as well but there's definitely like a lot of runner-ups there's some really good ones i'm a lord tweet cute that one was a debut abigail heng-wen with love boat taipei that one's debut like i have a bunch of books next to me that's why i'm looking here but so many great debuts so hopefully 2021 will be another great one of more from these debuts from this year but also some new debuts did quarantine make you read more or less this is an interesting question so in the beginning i think it made me read less because i just kept on getting distracted so whenever i was trying to read my mind would wander and just my anxiety would start spiraling but then i kind of threw myself into my work and making videos and i was trying to get ahead on videos mostly because i was like my roots are gonna start showing so that i was like let's film a bunch but it was also a distraction from everything now it did start to make me read more once it hit i feel like once we got to spring i started well like later in spring i started reading more i don't know the correlation there but all of a sudden i just was very motivated to start picking up books and i think i've kept up the momentum since then kind of fallen off of it a little bit in november and december just because of bookmas like it's busy which is fine but i was able to definitely like read quite a bit in a lot of the months in the latter half of the year which i'm super excited about so i think at first no but now yes it has helped me to read some more although the thing with quarantine is it really hasn't changed all that much for me the only difference was like i couldn't go to the gym and couldn't go shopping and like could get my hair done like different things like that but i've been working at home for a year now as of october i've been self-employed and working from home on my youtube channel and on my writing so i've always had that it didn't really change a ton for me it did still obviously change some things but not as much as a lot of other people have gone through so i was really lucky in that regard but i feel like i mean i did still have some more free time so it did make me read a bit more what was your favorite book of the year or top five if you can't decide so this is something that i obviously did a whole video on bookmas day six my favorite book of the year was lovely war by julie berry i have quite a few of the questions that you guys asked i have a specific videos for or specific videos coming out so you guys can check out that for bookmas but i did want to mention that lovely war definitely my favorite book of the year and i will have a link down below for the bookmas playlist if you wanted to see if there was a question that you had that i didn't answer and see if there's a video for it but it might be upcoming as well have you played or are you going to play the new sims 4 pack that just came out i am really excited for it so snowy escape i believe is what it's called it's like this japanese inspired town which is so exciting and it is a mountain town too so they're skiing and everything there's hiking it's so nice to have a different world i think it looks amazing i've been watching some reviews on it too and it looks like it's going to be really great so i will definitely try and play it like i really wanted to play sims because my new computer it has like a 5k screen so sims looks beautiful on it i definitely want to play it but i also use so much cc and mods that i don't want to like bog down my computer which is why i kind of haven't yet i also haven't had the time but i definitely do want to check out this expansion pack or is it a game pack no i think it's an expansion pack i can't even remember but it looks so fun so i'm really excited for it do you know what your next writing project is going to be yes i do i'm just trying to have the time to do it so in january i think i'm going to go down to two videos a week i don't think i'm going to be doing reading vlogs anymore maybe i'm not sure what the plan is but i might try and go down to two videos a week just because three ends up being a lot we'll see nothing is concrete yet but i do want to try and have more time to prioritize my writing so i do have a plan for a rom-com project it involves fake dating i'm really excited about it and diving more into it so i think it's going to be a lot of fun like i'm really excited to plan more of it and everything and actually get into writing it do you think that goodreads reading challenge puts people under pressure to read i think it can like the thing with that is for me it's just about me if i'm not like attaining my goal and i'm feeling way too much pressure i'll just lower the number of books because there's no one like there's no one who is going to hold you accountable for it or like be like you're not reading like i just like having it as a fun little thing to encourage me to read however i do see how like seeing how other people are going with their goals seeing how many books they're trying to read like some people or be like 250 books a year but i'm like what so i get how that would put pressure on you because even for me i'm like i should be reading more like these people are reading 250 books but what i'm not thinking of is that they might be really really fast readers obviously like everyone has their own reading pace but also their situation might be different they might have the opportunity and the time to read more so i would say if it's like just try and ignore it but also if you think it's going to put pressure on you to set a goal for yourself then just don't do it it's totally fine no one is like no one's forcing you to it's just a fun little additional feature is there anything for your videos you plan on doing differently next year now like i said i might do less of them just because i've been doing a lot and it does take a lot of time we'll see i think i also like i do want to try and improve them all the time and i think i'm kind of at a point with my channel where i'm like i don't really know what to do next so i think i want to try and do some more in different things i'm just not exactly sure what that is going to look like yet so i'm not sure if i want to keep the vlogs and do just like one other video that's just a different topic or if i want to do two videos that are just like different topics i don't know if that will actually make sense to you but i'll probably figure that out early in the year maybe not in january because i might still be recovering from bookmas but if you guys have any ideas or anything you'd like to see from my channel i'm always open to suggestions so please leave it down below are there books that you gave to someone as a christmas gift this year i do generally give books to people the only books that i've given this year honestly are cookbooks because i constantly am recommending half baked harvest recipes and my sister only had the one she had the super simple cookbook so i hope she's not watching this but like she's almost definitely not but watch this is like the one that she will but i got her the like uh her original cookbook because she didn't have that one yet and both of them are so good chef's kiss amazing other than that i got my dad the new john grisham because he enjoys john grisham a lot that was actually for his birthday though so i don't think i've really gotten any books for anyone as a gift rate your overall reading year on a scale from one to ten interesting i feel like i'm going to go with a seven i'm torn between like a six and a seven but i think a seven is solid i had a lot of really great books that i read this year there were some months where i read like a ton of books that i loved most of my books i would say fell within the 3.5 to 4 star range which is awesome it's definitely been better than past reading years and i feel like my most recent past reading years it has been a lot better than that so that might even be harsh maybe an eight i feel like it was it was just a really solid year like nothing completely disappointed me nothing i super hated obviously there are some things that i didn't love but nothing that i was like this is the most horrible thing that happened to me except for coraline actually but you know has your taste in books changed this year i feel like it's always evolving i think i've started to get back into fantasy which is really nice but i think for the most part i've pretty much been reading like similar things to what i normally would i think maybe i'm like learning more of the tropes that i don't like and what does work for me but i think overall it's like i'm pretty boring i pretty much like to read the same things all the time but like obviously different books i don't know favorite recipe you cooked this year oh okay so i have made so many it's probably it's gonna be half fake harvest one because that's all they make but i feel like i started like really making her recipes just this year so she has a 15 minute garlic butter ramen which is so amazing also a french onion pasta bake which was really good oh oh my gosh her stuff is so good i don't even know which one to pick oh actually okay this one's actually a chrissy teigen recipe but it is her pad thai but it's not just pad thai it's a why can't i think of it a bacon and egg pad thai i feel like is what it's called but that is so amazing i've made it so many times this year it is delicious like now i'm really craving it and i'm gonna have to make that soon but oh my god that is really really good but also honestly any of the half-baked harvest recipes that i've made because her stuff is so incredible i have been let down like not very many times there's very few recipes that i haven't liked anything that i haven't liked i've just been like i wouldn't make it again it's nothing that i was like this is disgusting do you regret reading anything except for coraline so obviously coraline would be my answer for that i think other than that the one book that i regret reading would probably be the betrothed by kiera cass because it was such a letdown for me but i mean what are you gonna do at least now i know so i don't like fully regret reading it so those were all of the questions from you guys i hope that this gave you a little insight to my year and what is going to happen going forward i hope you guys enjoyed it i really like doing q a's i think they're a lot of fun so thank you to everyone who asked a question if you ever want to participate in those things i often ask those things on instagram in my story so you can follow me there it's just at haley and bookland but tomorrow will be bookmas day 21 so it is a reading vlog with christmas books that's exciting but don't forget to subscribe so you won't miss that as well as any of the other videos that i will be putting out for the entire month of december there will be a video every single day so you can also click that notification bell so you won't miss any of those but thank you so much for watching and i will see you in my next video tomorrow bye youhey everyone it's haley and today is bookmas day 20 so i'm going to be doing an end of the year q a so yesterday was bookmas day 19 and for that i tear ranked all of my 20 20 reads so i will link that down below if you guys wanted to check it out as well as the entire bookmas playlist so you can get caught up if you have missed any videos i've never done a q a for bookmas before but i thought it seemed like a good idea and something fun because i can kind of talk about some not necessarily bookish things there are still like bookish questions here obviously that i'm answering but i thought it would be fun to kind of switch it up a little bit so on instagram i asked you guys if you had any questions pertaining to the end of the year and you guys had some really great questions so let's just get into answering them so the first question is how is your french learning going i feel like it's going pretty well i'm not very confident with languages because i've only ever been able to speak one i never did well in french in school because i didn't have the best teachers for it to be honest so i almost failed when i got to high school and was doing french so i definitely don't have the confidence there i will like probably never speak it in a video but i am still trying like i'm still working on it every single day i do a little bit i haven't had the time to dedicate it to it that i would like to but i do think it's like a an enjoyable thing for me to do although it kind of stresses me out because i'm not great at it but it's something like different i've never tried learning a language before so it's definitely a unique experience and i think to be able to speak two languages is something that i would eventually like to do and hopefully i will be able to like my boyfriend will help me because he does like that's his native language but right now it's just been super busy so i've been doing most of it on my own and i think that's where i'm like nervous about it next is your best memories from 2020 so i really love this question actually because i feel like 2020 has been such a difficult year for a number of reasons so it can be so easy to focus on the negative things and especially because like i haven't been able to do a lot this year so it's kind of you know it's easy to focus on the bad things that have happened but i would say that my best memories one would be getting charlie like that all happened so quickly literally right after christmas what happened was i kind of just ended up looking for a dog unexpectedly and then charlie was like the last puppy left so it just kind of ended up working out we went and met him and his personality was totally perfect for us so literally the next day we had him home so like literally everything happened so quickly but also moving in was a lovely experience it had kind of been like a long time coming but it was really nice to move in i've been having a great time living here with my boyfriend so definitely like different to not live at my parents house but it's been nice to be out on my own and to be with my boyfriend also my favorite memory would be with my boyfriend so we kind of took a mini staycation like a covid safe vacation and it was just so nice to be able to get away because we had never really been able to do that before and that was such a nice relaxing trip and i would like to go again next is if you had to sell all of your books and could only keep five which five would it be so alice in wonderland the book thief and then the other three i don't know the nightingale and then again what would the other two be i don't know i mean i want to say lovely war because it's like fresh in my mind but i'm like blanking on all the books that i love right now like my favorite books can i count a cook book because i would keep half baked harvest super simple because that cookbook is my entire life i adore it so sure let's do a cookbook and now let's throw it in there because i just can't pick between my babies like i i can't i think actually i'll go with the hate u give for the fifth one because that's such a powerful read that i think i definitely would have to keep and want to reread next is a new hobby or passion that you picked up this year so a new hobby is learning french also i feel like i've gotten more into cooking but that was kind of more like last year that i started doing that something that i've started getting more dedicated to i would say is weight training so i hate cardio but like i want to work on getting healthier work on improving myself and i don't mind weightlifting i enjoy weightlifting actually it's like it kind of depends on the day but i like going to the gym and improving myself and knowing that i'm doing something to better myself so that's definitely something that i started getting more into like planning my own workouts and everything also just honestly like collecting workout clothes has also been a nice fun hobby for me that i really didn't need but alaska has been happening my favorite part about christmas apart from books and bookmas so my favorite part about christmas would definitely be the time that i get to spend with my family it's usually my favorite time because it's the only time that both of my sisters are home again so it's kind of like when we were kids everyone's at home obviously that's not going to happen this year unfortunately but it's truly like just the time spent with family i love the festive season and how everyone comes together and just like the joy of the season means a lot to me which genre did i read the most this year and which genre did i read the least this year i think that the genre that i read the most i probably read contemporary the most to be honest but it also feels like historical fiction is up there because i feel like i haven't read many historical fictions in a while i kind of fell out of reading the genre for whatever reason but i started to gravitate toward it a lot this year which was really nice because i found so many new favorites and contemporary i think though i picked up a little bit more but my least read genre would probably be fantasy because i kept on trying to get back into it but it wasn't until later in the year in fall that i really started to read it so definitely fantasy is my least read although some years it's definitely been my most but this year that was not the case which genre do you hope to read the most of in 2021 so i don't think there's necessarily one that i hope to read the most of i definitely hope to keep up with reading more historical fiction because there are so many that i would like to get to and it is something that clearly i love a lot like i'm pretty sure on most of my like favorites of the year lis historical fiction has been at the top i don't know if that's just like me making that up but i feel like generally a lot of my favorite books are historical fiction i don't know why i just i'm interested in history but i would like to make an effort to read more fantasy i have so so so many on my tbr since i really hadn't been gravitating toward it a lot like i didn't read my first one until fall so that's saying a lot but there are a lot that i've had for years now that i just haven't picked up because of that because we've been in a struggle relationship but now that we're getting back to it i want to take advantage of that and try to read more of that next year which book made you feel understood and comforted this year i don't know if any book made me feel understood i would say a book that brought me comfort hmm i feel like i want to go with cemetery boys by aiden thomas something about that story even though it was like really sad and hard to read because it was heartbreaking it also was super beautiful at the same time so something about it just brought me comfort seeing these characters and their families and that beautiful love story and i don't know like the self-discovery aspect of it i guess but that also makes me think like black flamingo by dean ada i loved following michael from a young age as he's trying to find where he belongs i feel like that was really relatable for me and seeing him come into his own definitely brought me a lot of comfort too what was the best month of the year and why january i would say january i will say because we got charlie and it was lovely and also i was able to move in and everything was normal and it was kind of before things changed a lot so january was really lovely other than that like i feel like april was pretty good i think april was fine because it seemed like it was gonna be a short-term thing like what's been happening so i was okay in april i really threw myself into making videos and yeah after that it's kind of gone downhill not gonna lie but 2021 is coming and hopefully that will be better what are you looking forward to in 2021 bookish and personal i would say i'm looking forward to having a whole new set of books to read like there are a lot of really great releases coming out next year that sound amazing i also am looking forward to hopefully hearing back about my book and hopefully that will be good uh personally i'm looking forward to having a fresh start i feel like this year has just been so much for like a number of reasons but i think having a completely fresh start will be really nice being able to kind of work on myself a little bit more i feel like that's something that i really want to try and accomplish next year and i also am hoping to get really fit and strong which i know sounds ridiculous but like like i said i'm really into weight training so i'm looking forward to having that new year to start obviously like i'm gonna start before that but i don't know there's something about a fresh start that's why i always love the new year because it just feels like a clean slate what are your top three favorite books that released this year so that's different than like my favorites list because it would be of the books that released this year so felix ever after by case and calendar i think is so beautiful definitely worth a read and worth all the hype that it gets i'm trying to think of what else came out this year but like i don't know i feel like i'm blanking i need to check my favorites list actually for this past year because i can't remember what was on my favorites list this is what happens when you film like a million videos in a row okay so felix ever after beach read by emily henry that one is just such a beautiful like literary romance i super loved it and then i mean i already talked about the black flamingo and cemetery boys so next i will go to the king of crows by libba bray which is the finale of the diviners series and i did really love that one but i feel like i read so many new releases this year but i also feel simultaneously like i didn't get to any which is tragic if there was one trope you came across in all of the books you read this year what would it be i feel like i come across enemies to lovers often and i'm not a huge fan of that trope but i think a lot of people are that's a lot of people's favorites so i think that's why it comes up so often but honestly i would say that definitely is the one that i came across the most like get a life chloe brown it wasn't that it's in a tweet cute it's in literally so many of the books that i've read this year across different like not just adult romance it's in fantasies it's in like why a it's in a little bit of everything and i have mixed feelings on it because i feel like when it's done right i'm okay with it i mean not even done right but done to my personal taste what i hate about it is a lot of times the enemies part it's never developed beyond that or i don't believe in the foundation of the enemies portion of it it just seems really superfluous and seems like it's just added in so then it can be enemies to lovers it doesn't seem like they actually don't like each other it's just kind of like a thing so then you can get that like angst i guess so i don't know that's where i struggle with it but it is something that i know a lot of people love so i'm fine with reading it too do you go into the year with a goal to read a certain number of books i do personally so i love having a goodreads goal just to challenge myself it is absolutely just about me i will like do it so i know it's something that i can attain like this past year i set the goal to read 100 books i wasn't sure if i would be able to do that but i was able to do it largely thanks to graphic novels actually like entirely thanks to graphic novels so it's just something i use to try and challenge and push myself to read more because i know that it's something i can do so it's something i want to prioritize which is why i try and do that so i also will try and set a page number goal every day i will aim for 100 pages but that doesn't always happen so if that doesn't then i will go with 50. and it is like 100 books isn't that bad it's like three books a week so i know that's something that i can accomplish if i do set my mind to it so that's why i like having a goal just for me it's just for fun what was the weirdest book that you've read this year i feel like wolf by wolf was super weird because the concept is really weird to it but i think overall the weirdest book was my calamity jane by the lady janie's because it's like a mix of western and i mean weird is kind of what they specialize in but it's a mix of western and werewolf hunting so that's definitely an interesting combination but also coraline which i don't want to talk about it anymore but yes that that would be the weirdest book that i read this year probably would be coraline out of all of them oh my god that book was horrifying i still hate it favorite debut author of 2020 ooh this one's kind of hard because i feel like there were so many great ones like aidan thomas's debut caitlyn beyrin's was a debut like cinderella is dead that one there were a lot of great ones bethany c morrow it was a great year for debuts i i know i just talked about it but i am actually going to go with aiden thomas because i think that their debut was so fantastic like they came out on such a high note and i can't wait to see what they're going to come out with next as well but there's definitely like a lot of runner-ups there's some really good ones i'm a lord tweet cute that one was a debut abigail heng-wen with love boat taipei that one's debut like i have a bunch of books next to me that's why i'm looking here but so many great debuts so hopefully 2021 will be another great one of more from these debuts from this year but also some new debuts did quarantine make you read more or less this is an interesting question so in the beginning i think it made me read less because i just kept on getting distracted so whenever i was trying to read my mind would wander and just my anxiety would start spiraling but then i kind of threw myself into my work and making videos and i was trying to get ahead on videos mostly because i was like my roots are gonna start showing so that i was like let's film a bunch but it was also a distraction from everything now it did start to make me read more once it hit i feel like once we got to spring i started well like later in spring i started reading more i don't know the correlation there but all of a sudden i just was very motivated to start picking up books and i think i've kept up the momentum since then kind of fallen off of it a little bit in november and december just because of bookmas like it's busy which is fine but i was able to definitely like read quite a bit in a lot of the months in the latter half of the year which i'm super excited about so i think at first no but now yes it has helped me to read some more although the thing with quarantine is it really hasn't changed all that much for me the only difference was like i couldn't go to the gym and couldn't go shopping and like could get my hair done like different things like that but i've been working at home for a year now as of october i've been self-employed and working from home on my youtube channel and on my writing so i've always had that it didn't really change a ton for me it did still obviously change some things but not as much as a lot of other people have gone through so i was really lucky in that regard but i feel like i mean i did still have some more free time so it did make me read a bit more what was your favorite book of the year or top five if you can't decide so this is something that i obviously did a whole video on bookmas day six my favorite book of the year was lovely war by julie berry i have quite a few of the questions that you guys asked i have a specific videos for or specific videos coming out so you guys can check out that for bookmas but i did want to mention that lovely war definitely my favorite book of the year and i will have a link down below for the bookmas playlist if you wanted to see if there was a question that you had that i didn't answer and see if there's a video for it but it might be upcoming as well have you played or are you going to play the new sims 4 pack that just came out i am really excited for it so snowy escape i believe is what it's called it's like this japanese inspired town which is so exciting and it is a mountain town too so they're skiing and everything there's hiking it's so nice to have a different world i think it looks amazing i've been watching some reviews on it too and it looks like it's going to be really great so i will definitely try and play it like i really wanted to play sims because my new computer it has like a 5k screen so sims looks beautiful on it i definitely want to play it but i also use so much cc and mods that i don't want to like bog down my computer which is why i kind of haven't yet i also haven't had the time but i definitely do want to check out this expansion pack or is it a game pack no i think it's an expansion pack i can't even remember but it looks so fun so i'm really excited for it do you know what your next writing project is going to be yes i do i'm just trying to have the time to do it so in january i think i'm going to go down to two videos a week i don't think i'm going to be doing reading vlogs anymore maybe i'm not sure what the plan is but i might try and go down to two videos a week just because three ends up being a lot we'll see nothing is concrete yet but i do want to try and have more time to prioritize my writing so i do have a plan for a rom-com project it involves fake dating i'm really excited about it and diving more into it so i think it's going to be a lot of fun like i'm really excited to plan more of it and everything and actually get into writing it do you think that goodreads reading challenge puts people under pressure to read i think it can like the thing with that is for me it's just about me if i'm not like attaining my goal and i'm feeling way too much pressure i'll just lower the number of books because there's no one like there's no one who is going to hold you accountable for it or like be like you're not reading like i just like having it as a fun little thing to encourage me to read however i do see how like seeing how other people are going with their goals seeing how many books they're trying to read like some people or be like 250 books a year but i'm like what so i get how that would put pressure on you because even for me i'm like i should be reading more like these people are reading 250 books but what i'm not thinking of is that they might be really really fast readers obviously like everyone has their own reading pace but also their situation might be different they might have the opportunity and the time to read more so i would say if it's like just try and ignore it but also if you think it's going to put pressure on you to set a goal for yourself then just don't do it it's totally fine no one is like no one's forcing you to it's just a fun little additional feature is there anything for your videos you plan on doing differently next year now like i said i might do less of them just because i've been doing a lot and it does take a lot of time we'll see i think i also like i do want to try and improve them all the time and i think i'm kind of at a point with my channel where i'm like i don't really know what to do next so i think i want to try and do some more in different things i'm just not exactly sure what that is going to look like yet so i'm not sure if i want to keep the vlogs and do just like one other video that's just a different topic or if i want to do two videos that are just like different topics i don't know if that will actually make sense to you but i'll probably figure that out early in the year maybe not in january because i might still be recovering from bookmas but if you guys have any ideas or anything you'd like to see from my channel i'm always open to suggestions so please leave it down below are there books that you gave to someone as a christmas gift this year i do generally give books to people the only books that i've given this year honestly are cookbooks because i constantly am recommending half baked harvest recipes and my sister only had the one she had the super simple cookbook so i hope she's not watching this but like she's almost definitely not but watch this is like the one that she will but i got her the like uh her original cookbook because she didn't have that one yet and both of them are so good chef's kiss amazing other than that i got my dad the new john grisham because he enjoys john grisham a lot that was actually for his birthday though so i don't think i've really gotten any books for anyone as a gift rate your overall reading year on a scale from one to ten interesting i feel like i'm going to go with a seven i'm torn between like a six and a seven but i think a seven is solid i had a lot of really great books that i read this year there were some months where i read like a ton of books that i loved most of my books i would say fell within the 3.5 to 4 star range which is awesome it's definitely been better than past reading years and i feel like my most recent past reading years it has been a lot better than that so that might even be harsh maybe an eight i feel like it was it was just a really solid year like nothing completely disappointed me nothing i super hated obviously there are some things that i didn't love but nothing that i was like this is the most horrible thing that happened to me except for coraline actually but you know has your taste in books changed this year i feel like it's always evolving i think i've started to get back into fantasy which is really nice but i think for the most part i've pretty much been reading like similar things to what i normally would i think maybe i'm like learning more of the tropes that i don't like and what does work for me but i think overall it's like i'm pretty boring i pretty much like to read the same things all the time but like obviously different books i don't know favorite recipe you cooked this year oh okay so i have made so many it's probably it's gonna be half fake harvest one because that's all they make but i feel like i started like really making her recipes just this year so she has a 15 minute garlic butter ramen which is so amazing also a french onion pasta bake which was really good oh oh my gosh her stuff is so good i don't even know which one to pick oh actually okay this one's actually a chrissy teigen recipe but it is her pad thai but it's not just pad thai it's a why can't i think of it a bacon and egg pad thai i feel like is what it's called but that is so amazing i've made it so many times this year it is delicious like now i'm really craving it and i'm gonna have to make that soon but oh my god that is really really good but also honestly any of the half-baked harvest recipes that i've made because her stuff is so incredible i have been let down like not very many times there's very few recipes that i haven't liked anything that i haven't liked i've just been like i wouldn't make it again it's nothing that i was like this is disgusting do you regret reading anything except for coraline so obviously coraline would be my answer for that i think other than that the one book that i regret reading would probably be the betrothed by kiera cass because it was such a letdown for me but i mean what are you gonna do at least now i know so i don't like fully regret reading it so those were all of the questions from you guys i hope that this gave you a little insight to my year and what is going to happen going forward i hope you guys enjoyed it i really like doing q a's i think they're a lot of fun so thank you to everyone who asked a question if you ever want to participate in those things i often ask those things on instagram in my story so you can follow me there it's just at haley and bookland but tomorrow will be bookmas day 21 so it is a reading vlog with christmas books that's exciting but don't forget to subscribe so you won't miss that as well as any of the other videos that i will be putting out for the entire month of december there will be a video every single day so you can also click that notification bell so you won't miss any of those but thank you so much for watching and i will see you in my next video tomorrow bye you\n"