Hey Bookworm friends! Today for the first time this season, I regretted not having gloves on my morning walk. The air is crisp again! September went by in a flash, I think mostly because we had plans every weekend. So there wasn’t a ton of downtime but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I also participated in The Magical Readathon so my reading wrap-up will include a short debrief on how well that went. And now, I’ve been getting ready to go to Spain for a wedding this week. I’m so excited but there’s lots of last minute organizing and planning to get done! I’m hoping to schedule a post or two for when I’m gone but we shall see. But before that, I’m taking a look back at September.
September Highlights
- I started playing the RPG Draw Steel with a group of friends and my husband as the DM or “The Director” as this game calls it. None of us have played it before but we’ve played D&D so we are all learning it together. We spent a lot of time creating our characters and so far we’ve played once but it was a success. It’s been super fun and I’m enjoying seeing the ways it’s different from D&D and actually, I think those changes improve the experience. Looking forward to when we get to play again!
- Another group of friends is hosting what they call Spook-O-Rama: On Tuesday nights they invite friends over to watch horror movies, accompanied by themed cocktails! We attended twice this month and got to watch three movies I never would have seen otherwise. I’ve been telling my friends they are my horror movie education. This is such a fun idea and it’s been wonderful to have an excuse to hang out with friends on a week night—have dinner, good conversation, watch a movie then go home not too late.
What I Read
The Magical Readathon Update: out of the 5 books I had on my TBR, I managed to read 3 of them. In terms of the two I didn’t read, I still intend to read one later but the other I DNF’d the series as a whole. To be fair, I read the recap of book one and realized that I wasn’t as invested anymore.
September Reading Stats
Total Books Read: 10
| Format Read |
|---|
| 📱E-Books: 3 |
| 📚 Physical: 4 |
| 🎧 Audiobooks: 1 |
| 📗 + 🎧Immersive: 2 |
| Genre |
|---|
| 🐲Fantasy: 4 |
 😱Horror: 2 |
| 🖍️Children’s Lit: 2 |
| 💕Romance: 1 |
| 💥Humour: 1 |
| Book Format |
|---|
| Graphic Novel: 4 |
| Novella: 2 |
| Novel: 3 |
| Comics: 1 |
📱E-Books 📱
🖍️ Detective Beans: And the Case of the Missing Hat by Li Chen│Graphic Novel│4⭐
🖍️ Detective Beans: Adventures in Cat Town by Li Chen│Graphic Novel│3.75⭐
💥 Heart and Brain (Heart and Brain #1) by Nick Seluk│Comics│3⭐- Read for The Magical Readathon
📚Physical Books📚
🐲 Chain of Gold (The Last Hours #1) by Cassandra Clare│Novel│4.5⭐
🐲Wynd, Book One: The Flight of the Prince by James Tynion IV with Michael Dialynas │Graphic Novel│5⭐(Reread)
🐲Wynd, Book Two: The Secret of the Wings by James Tynion IV with Michael Dialynas │Graphic Novel│5⭐(Reread)
😱Direct Descendant by Tanya Huff │Novel│3⭐
🎧Audiobooks & Immersive 🎧
💕SOS Hotel: Luxury to Die For (SOS Hotel #6) by Ariana Nash as Adam Vex│Narrator: Michael Lesley│ Novella│3.75⭐ – Read for The Magical Readathon
😱Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle│Narrator: Mara Wilson│ Novel│4.5⭐
🐲All the Horses of Iceland by Sarah Tolmie│Narrator: Ulf Bjorklund│ Novella│3⭐ – Read for The Magical Readathon
What I Watched
The Mighty Nein (Season 1)
I enjoyed The Legend of Vox Machina so I was curious about this one as well. I ended up loving it more than Vox Machina, I thought the story was compelling and I liked all the characters. I flew through the 8 chapters and now I can’t wait for season 2. And I really need to actually get watching Critical Role, something I’ve been meaning to do ever since I read The Vox Machina graphic novels in 2020…🙈🤫
The Mummy (1932)
I’m sad to say I didn’t love this like I expected to. I think my generation was spoiled to have grown up with 1999’s The Mummy because it’s impossible to beat. In contrast, this was slow and boring. Some cool costumes and makeup but otherwise it did not grip me. The most exciting part is that now I can say I’ve seen it 🤷🏼♀️.
Apothecary Diaries Rewatch (Season 2)
My friends and I have been rewatching Apothecary Diaries in order to get ready for the new season and movie! We convinced my husband to join us (a massive win since he was previously uninterested but now he likes it too, hurray!! 🎉) Actually we’re almost caught up—tonight we finish the last episodes! I have caught onto so many details I missed the first time around and I’m even more impressed.
Pantheon (Season 2)
Finished this last night and I’m still reeling. And not in a good way. I was LOVING this show but the last two eps of the show took such a sharp turn into some sort of existential mushroom trip. It didn’t wrap up the core issues that we’d been dealing with for two whole seasons. Instead it was like “You’ve heard of 4D chess, well what about 20D chess?” It felt like the show wanted to tell two different stories and didn’t have enough time for either.
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920)
This was my first silent film and it was really enjoyable. The sets were incredible! In the age of AI, it was such a breath of (old) fresh air to watch something that you can clearly see is hand made. The story was fun and I enjoyed seeing the clear inspirations behind some of Tim Burton’s stuff.
Incantation (2022)
I was very brave signing up to watch this one with my friends as it turns out; it’s the scariest movie I’ve ever seen! There were so many viscerally disturbing scenes, I spent a good percentage of time inside blankets or behind my hands 😂. I didn’t want to like it and yet the story is good, the twist was unexpected, and the found footage aspect is cleverly done. It gave me a lot to think about and in the end I’m forced to concede that I liked it. But I’m never watching it again. And I’m grateful for my friend’s banter during it to help me not internalize it as much as it did keep me up at night a bit.
Gaming Highlights of September
My Top Video Game of the Month
Palia
My husband and I needed a new game to play together and I suggested this free-to-play game on Steam I’ve had my eye on. I’ve been loving it and I think about it a lot when I’m not playing it, I feel like it’s going to be similar to Stardew Valley in the amount of time I spend on it. It’s a fantasy life sim and you play as a human who pops out of the ether into a world where humans have died out long ago. It’s now populated by purple skinned people, animals, and robots and we have to solve the mystery of what happened long ago as well as why humans are suddenly reappearing…but in the meantime there’s a whole life to live! There’s farming, hunting, fishing, making furniture, cooking, and bug catching and more. I literally want to go play it right now.
My Top Board Game of the Month
Alhambra
The number of board games I played this month dropped severely but I did manage to play Alhambra twice. In it you compete to build the best walled city by placing tiles but you can only buy them with different kinds of currencies so you have to make sure you have enough of the right kind to buy what you want before someone else buys it! But, if you have the exact correct amount, you get to have another action so plan accordingly. It’s such a fun game, I can see myself playing this for a long time. The only issue I have with it is in regards to the two-player variant and the dummy character ‘Dirk’ who is there to simulate a third player. It’s necessary to the game-play, I just don’t like the specific rules around it and I’m actively looking for alternative home-brew rules for it. 😉
Let’s chat in the comments!
Have you read any of my September Reads? Or, what’s your favourite game of the month? I’d love to know what you think!
Caligari brings back memories! I watched it as part of a German history course and still remember the trippy visuals.