New clean notebooks, dark cozy evenings, meaningful conversations in the bookstore and a lot of love for the bookstagram community. Here’s a glance at my January 2019 at the moment.

January 2019

I don’t believe in a new start or a clean slate type of thing when a new year rolls around. But there’s something magical about a whole new calendar year. Or maybe that’s just the bullet journal lover in me talking who really likes a new notebook ha! I haven’t set any resolutions. I have set some reading goals which you can read about in this post if you’re curious.

December was a busy month, both with work and holidays. That’s what I do love about January, everything slows down. There’s some time to breathe. I enjoy my peaceful evenings on my reading chair, catching up on some Netflix shows or reading a good book. I do love the darker and colder evenings, there’s something so incredibly cozy about January.

Work has slowed down as well. I’m working less and when I’m at work I love connecting with customers again. Since I’m not rushing to get a million packages Christmas-wrapped, I can slow down and chat with people. Recommend them books to buy for birthdays or chat about favorite authors releasing new books. I definitely love my work more during these days. (Also because I get to sneakily read some first chapters of new releases when the clock ticks closer to closing time!)

Booksandmacchiatos.com

It’s my second month posting on here and I’m overflowing with post ideas! My favorite post this month so far is my Dutch review for Middagzwemmers. A goal of mine is to read more Dutch books and consequently write more Dutch reviews. It was a thing I was struggling with, both the Dutch reading and Dutch writing. But since that review I’ve realized I really like writing in Dutch too, it’s easier to express myself in my mother tongue. So if you’re a Dutch reader, keep an eye out for all the Dutch reviews coming your way. And other readers, I hope you’ll enjoy the pictures. 🙂

For Instagram, I’ve been really aiming to post more content which I’m happy with. I always have so many ideas for Instagram posts and it’s so easy to try them out. Because if there’s one thing I will always love about bookstagram, is how well received new ideas are by the bookish community.

An example of a post like that is me talking about the Goodreads goal for 2019. To recap quickly; I have decided to not set a numeral goal on my reading for 2019. After posting this I just loved reading the replies to this post. Some people agreed, some didn’t. But there were little discussions and different points of view. And I appreciate each and every one of those people sharing their thoughts.

Currently reading

I’ve talked about my goals on this page before. But it’s blowing my mind how much changing my mindset surrounding bookish goals is bringing me so much more reading enjoyment. So far I’ve finished three books in 2019, which includes two big tomes (books with 500+ pages) too. And I’ve felt no pressure to read faster or read smaller books to end up with a big goal. I’m just enjoying the books I’m reading and looking forward to all the tomes still waiting on my shelves.

Anyways, the two books I’m currently reading are; Kate Atkinson’s Life after Life. This book has been on my TBR for ages and now that I’m finally getting to it, I regret not picking it up earlier. I got the so-called ‘5 star-tingles’ pretty early on and I’m so excited to see if they will last.

I’m also reading a Dutch book I got sent for review (thanks lsamsterdam!). Het eindeloze strand (The Endless Beach) by Jenny Colgan is marketed as a feelgood book, perfect to get into the spring mood. It’s an easy and comforting read so far and those are always welcome.

New Purchases

In the new year, I’ve been buying some little things. I’d love to support more independent businesses this year. This started with me getting some tea from yourdailyteacup.nl. (Take a look at my last MATM, if you haven’t yet!)

As a Christmas gift, my brother and sis-in-law got me a print with an Oscar Wilde quote from The Literary Emporium. The print is a beautiful old parchment color and says; “With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?”And I couldn’t be more happy with it. Oscar Wilde is one of my favorite people to turn to for inspirational quotes. I’m so happy to see this quote every day now.

Finally, one more shop to recommend! Oktoberdots is a great, creative website to get lovely bookmarks and post-cards. I ended up getting 3 cards from the shop since I love collecting those. The one in the picture says “Find beauty in small things” and features a cup and some flowers, two of my favorite things!

If you have any good independent shops to recommend, I’d love to hear them! And I will continue to try to feature a few shops I discover and like in these MATM posts.

Have a good month!

Thank you for coming along around this little journey of my month so far, I love collecting little things through the month to write up in this post. It’s a change of mindset to think of small things throughout the month that make me happy. Even if they are small, any shape or form of happiness is welcome.

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