June Recap (I read books again!) + Welcome, July

Happy July, everyone!

I hope you’re having a great day, wherever you are. 😉 Welcome back another recap post at Purely Olivia, in which we will be discussing June and looking ahead to July (even though it’s already the second day of the month)!

June has passed in a whirlwind of actually reading books (for the first time in forever) and other summery things.

I ACTUALLY READ BOOKS THIS MONTH!

Because of the wonderful thing called summer vacation, I was able to do a lot of reading this month. After quite a few months of forgetting how to read not reading, it felt so nice to get back in the swing of reading books.

I did reread a few books, but seeing as I took a library trip and also a trip to the bookstore (!!), it was mostly all new books this month for me!

I enjoyed literally every single book I read (does that mean I need to be a more critical reader?), and would love to do some sort of mini reviews on them in July, because I truly recommend them all. 🙂 (Also, I just realized three of them made me cry real tears.)

I’m currently rereading Mother-Daughter Book Camp (just for a light summer reread), as well as reading Emma for the first time.

How I Did On My June Goals:

• Read 10 books ✅
• Go to the library ✅
• Read 5 books from my TBR ✅
• Check a few books off my summer bucket list ❌

My July Reading Goals:

• Read 15 books
• Go to the library
• Read 3 books from summer TBR
• Try something new

Also! I have a very important poll that I’d love for you to take. I’ve been going to the library a little more frequently because of it being summer, and I love doing library haul posts each time I go. However, since I might be doing more of them, I just wanted to make sure the majority of my readers enjoy them.

I’d really appreciate it if you could take the poll above and just let me now if you enjoy my library haul posts or not. Thank you so much!

I started off June super inspired for blogging, and my inspiration slowly ebbed away throughout the month…but don’t worry, it’s back for July. 😉 For some reason I’m always so much more inspired at the beginning of the month.

me @ my uninspired self

I was able to semi-stick to my summer blogging schedule, with only a few breaks because of me going out of town and not planning ahead to post. *thumbs up*

What I Posted:

• Why I Love Multiple POVs + My Favorites // A discussion post about my love for multiple perspectives in books!
• 5 Easy Ways to Spend Time With God Daily // My first Christian post in a while- about how to incorporate time with God into your everyday life.
• Library Haul, ft. Contemporaries & TBR Reads // I shared what I got on my library trip!
• Review: A List of Cages {New Favorite Book} // Y’all. This is my new favorite book and I love it so so sooooo much!
• Mid-Year Freak Out Tag 2018 // Cue a lot of freaking out because it’s the middle of the year and that’s cause for a major freak out.
• The Hogwarts Tag // I share my love for Harry Potter with you all! As if you didn’t already know about it!

I also was semi-active in the blogosphere? I have a lot more time because of no school, but I also went out of town and got very behind on commenting on posts. Still, I read a lot of amazing posts, and below I’m going to share just a small amount of them that I hope you’ll all go read if you haven’t already. 😉

• Lily shared some amazing pride month book recommendations
• And so did Malanie (her list is so long like wow, how did she do that)
• Annie did some amazing mini reviews that you should all check out asap
• May talks about struggles with book rating, and it’s amazingly relatable
• Michelle celebrated her fourth blogoversary (AMAZING)
• And Rose celebrated her first blog birthday (yay!)
• Marie, the nicest human ever, shared tons of summer YA contemporary recs
• Carol talked about how to not read a book in one sitting (super interesting post!)

And that was just a small taste of the posts I read this month! There were so many other great ones, these were just the ones I could think of now.

me trying to find all the posts I read

How I Did On My June Goals:

• Stick to blogging schedule ✅
• Experiment with summer schedule ✅ I’ll stick to it better this month
• Christianity post ✅
• Collab ❌ it’s comingggg
• Special review ❌ it’s coming toooo

My July Goals:

• Stick to summer blogging schedule
• Plan posts ahead of time
• Collab
• Special review
• Post about blogging
• Mini reviews post
• Work on improving featured images
• Blog-hop more! I need to discover new blogs

I’m hoping to mainly just be organized blogging-wise in July, because lately I’ve been writing the posts the night before they’re supposed to be published…THAT MUST END. What am I saying that will never end.

June was the first month all year in which I did not have school! (Except for on June 1st, but that was the last day and a half day. So it doesn’t count, shhhh.)

That made me a very happy Olivia.

A few fun things happened during June:

• I went to the beach! I actually didn’t know I was going until about mid June (I went with a friend), so it was a very last minute and exciting trip. Although I’m quite sunburnt right now. XD
• I volunteered at my church’s VBS, which was so fun, but also really exhausting.
• I had a few summer dance classes, but sadly they’re over now and I miss dance and all my dance friends and I’m just ready for the season to start back up now. ://
• I’ve been binge watching Glee, and I’m so obsessed and in love with it! If anyone else has watched Glee, please scream in the comments about it with me, I would truly love that so so much!

Mostly I just relaxed, and hopefully July will be relaxing, too. (I’m trying not to think ahead to August, because that means the return of school.)

I wish the summer wasn’t going to end, but luckily it hasn’t been going by too fast.  Here’s to hoping July is a great month, too!

How was your June? Are you going on any vacations this summer? What books have you been reading? I’d love to chat with you in the comments.