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Keira's Bookmark

December Wrap Up

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Keira @Keira’s Bookmark

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December Wrap Up

2026 may be here but I still haven’t posted by final wrap up for 2025, so please excuse this interruption in my lovely end of year/new goals posts to give December some closure! It definitely wasn’t my most fantastic reading month of the year, but I did complete a couple of books that had been floating around the current read pile for a while.

  1. TBR Check In
  2. Overview from the Storygraph
  3. Books Read
  4. Books Progressed or DNF’d
  5. Books Acquired
  6. On the Blog
  7. Around the Blogosphere
  8. Music of the Month

Disclaimer: Clicking on any of the book covers will take you to their Bookshop.org UK page (if the book is available there). These are affiliate links and I earn a small commission if you buy through them – this doesn’t affect the price you pay. If you can’t purchase via Bookshop.org UK, I encourage you to use the US equivalent or purchase directly from an independent bookshop (or use your library!) Let’s keep our bookshops and libraries in business!

TBR Check In

I didn’t read a ton this month so I didn’t make much of a dent in my TBR either, but I did manage to finish one book that I’ve been “currently reading” for quite a few months now.

Italics = I read some of this book this month but didn’t finish it.

  • The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
  • The Everlasting by Alix E Harrow
  • Chinese Literature: A Very Short Introduction by Sabina Knight
  • Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction by Jonathan Culler
  • The Legend of Lady Byeoksa: Die Perlen des Todes [Pearls of the Dead] by Esther Park
  • 이상한 나라의 스물셋 [The Strange World of 23]
  • 불편한 편의점 2 [The Second Chance Convenience Store 2] by Kim Hoyeon
  • 魔幻時刻 [Magical Moments] by Jedit

Overview from the Storygraph

As you can see, there were quite a few days where I didn’t read this month.

Books Read

  • Heart on Fire (Kingmaker Chronicles #3) by Amanda Bouchet | ⭐⭐⭐ [Reread]
  • 불편한 편의점 2 (The Second Chance Convenience Store #2) by 김호연 [Kim Hoyeon] | ⭐⭐⭐⭐
  • 魔幻時刻 [Magical Moments] by Jedit | ⭐⭐⭐.5

I also read a couple of miscellaneous things including two Eileen Chang novellas/short stories that I reread for an essay I was writing, and a Snoopy graphic novel and a children’s picture book that I flipped through whilst bored at work because they happened to be near the tills.

Books Progressed or DNF’d

Despite not finishing many books, I did make a lot of progress in various books – mostly books that I was reading bits of for writing the essays and research proposal that I had due in the first half of the month. I also read half a short story from The Strange World of 23 (이상한 나라의 스물셋), which I had really intended to finish before my birthday but alas, it shall have to be finished in 2026.

I also DNF’d one book this month – Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey. I usually really like sci-fi books set in space, but this really wasn’t doing it for me. It felt a little more like a dystopia novel in terms of vibes (which I don’t particularly enjoy) and I didn’t really enjoy reading from a lot of the POV perspectives, especially the men. Like what do you mean the person you love just died and now you’re talking randomly about sleeping with one of your other crewmates?! Where is the emotional payoff? Anyway, I decided to just let myself skip this one and move on to greener pastures. It’s not awful, just not worth my time reading so many pages.

Books Acquired

December is one of the few months of the year where I feel it wise to do a separate post on this topic – not only is it Christmas, but it’s also my birthday! Therefore, I tend to get quite a few books in December. If you’re interested in what I got – please check out my post here.

On the Blog

I didn’t post a huge amount this month unfortunately because uni and work were both so ridiculously busy. The only upside to that is it means I have a lot of time-critical posts for the end of the year/new year to post, so there should hopefully be lots of posts coming your way in January!

Around the Blogosphere

Some of my favourite blog posts from the month!

Music of the Month

I’ve not got a huge number of songs to share with you this month, but I am quite liking ‘All That I Hold, All That I Offer’ by 4BOUT.

What was your favourite book of the month?

If you did a wrap up post of your feel free to link it in the comments and I’ll check it out!

Keira x

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Hello,

I’m Keira

Welcome to Keira’s Bookmark, my more personal blog where I talk about my book reading and language learning.

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