Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus — Happy St David’s Day! I can’t believe it’s 1st March already, and time for month #2 of my reading wrap-up. For now it’s mostly the same stats and format as last month, but still excited to hear if anyone has any fun ideas for additions.
February in general:
February involved quite a bit of gaming, so a quick shoutout for the new-to-me games I was really loving: Loophole (a fun puzzle game with time travel and tricky paradoxes) and The Chef’s Shift (a typing game that’s also a restaurant management sim). I’ve been trying to do better at getting 100% achievements in the games I pick up and not consigning games to oblivion half played, so I really got stuck into those and got 100% on both, plus a few games I’d been neglecting for a while, like Fossil Corner (a game where you sort fossils, and find fossils matching people’s requests).
My wrist was pretty painful and stiff early in the month, but I kinda figured out why and gave myself a bit of a break, and was able to get back to physio without too many problems. I don’t know if it’s helping, but I’m giving it a bit more time before I go back to the GP, since I know I was (accidentally) doing some stuff that hurt my wrist in the last couple weeks.
I also sorted out my attendance at both my graduations: I’ll be graduating with an MSc in Infectious Diseases from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine at the end of March, and then from the University of London at the end of April. I’m in one of the last few cohorts to do so, since University of London shut down the course and LSHTM decided to keep it going by themselves. It’s kinda nice that I still get to graduate from both, as it means I’m graduating from the same university as my mum did (albeit in different subjects/from different schools, as she’s a doctor).
Alright, now let’s talk about the really important stuff: books!
Reading stats:
Total books read: 37
Total pages read:Â 8,660
Rereads: 1
ARCs: 6
Series finished/up to date:Â 2
Books owned pre-2026: 8
Books owned from 2026: 18
Borrowed books: 10
Fiction: 24
Non-fiction: 4
Poetry: 9
Comics, manga, manhwa, etc: 12
I’m ending the month ahead on my yearly reading goal, wooo. One major cause of that was mainlining the manhua adaptation of Mo Xiang Tong Xiu’s Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation. I read the light novel recently, but reading an adaptation is always a little different, and I found it helped bits and pieces of the story come together for me that hadn’t really clicked before. Volume 13 should finish off the story, and is out in March, so I’m looking forward to finishing the series.
I read less non-fiction than I expected, but more poetry. I’m still enjoying exploring more poetry!
Progress on reading goals:
Overall total books read: 68/400 (2 books ahead)
Overall total pages read:Â 15,966/100,000 (472 pages behind)
Books read from backlog:Â 21/100
Books owned since 2026 and not yet started: 12/20
Good progress here, really! I was a few books behind (and further behind on pages) until I did a marathon of reading yesterday to finish off my BookSpinBingo card. I actually managed it, finishing nine books in a single day, which was a lot of fun but not something I want to do often, ahaha.
I need to work more on getting the number of books I’ve bought this year and not started doooown, since my graduation this month means a trip to London and therefore to a bunch of bookshops.
Blogging stats:
Views: 13.7k
Visitors:Â 11.9k
Likes:Â 353
Comments:Â 389
Reviews: 28
Other posts: 16
A busy month! I’m not entirely sure why, though I’m sure bots are a part of it. Still, all the numbers are up, including likes and comments, so I don’t think it’s just bots. It’s probably also the fact that I took part in Top Ten Tuesday and added a new weekly meme I participate in (Fantasy with Friends), plus trying to be generally active and add fun blogs to my own RSS feed.
Most viewed posts:
- Review – Heaven Official’s Blessing, vol 3 (63 views)
- Top Ten Tuesday: Cool Typography (57 views)
- Review – The Correspondent (56 views)
- Top Ten Tuesday: British Library Crime Classics (50 views)
- Review – The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter (LN), vol 3 (48 views)
I continue to get a fair bit of traffic to reviews of The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter, which I guess is due to the anime. I wonder if I’ll see more for Heaven Official’s Blessing, given the release of the new short film, though I think the audience for the short films are already pretty locked in and don’t need to read book reviews to know that Hualian invented love…
My own favourite posts:
- Discussion: Book Covers
- Review – Eat Me: A Natural and Unnatural History of Cannibalism
- Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Made My Wife Read
- Review – Food for the Dead
- Fantasy with Friends: Tolkien
- Review – Hedonism
- Fantasy with Friends: The Chosen One
Posts I loved from elsewhere:
- From Reactor Magazine: How to Uphold the Status Quo: the Problem with Small Town Witch Romances, by Jenny Hamilton
- From Books, Bones & Buffy: NIGHTSHADE & OAK by Molly O’Neill – Review, by Tammy
- From Books, Bones & Buffy: STRANGE ANIMALS by Jarod K. Anderson – Review, by Tammy
- From The Bibliosanctum: Book Review: Strange Animals by Jarod K. Anderson, by Mogsy
- From Book’d Out: 2026 Non-Fiction Award Announcements, by Shelleyrae
- From Books, Bones & Buffy: A FOREST, DARKLY by A.G. Slatter – Review, by Tammy
Alright, that’s me for February! Time to go and start on that March reading.
I really like cooking games so The Chef’s Shift sounds so fun, I feel like my husband would be good at it but I probably can’t really play it well on my Steam deck . Loophole also sounds intriguing, very timey-wimey! Hurray for getting 100% on both of those, I find I used to do the same thing, leave games half finished but I’ve been trying to finish the ones I play too and have been better at it lately. Also, congrats on your graduation(s)!
Veros @ Dark Shelf of Wonders recently posted…Book Blogger Community Links: Jan & Feb 2026
It was a lot of fun, but definitely a game to play with a keyboard, haha. I’m not sure the display would even be big enough on Steam Deck.
Loophole was really good; no tutorial, so lots of trial and error, but each puzzle does steadily help you think things through and introduces new mechanics slowly.
Thank you!
Great reading stats! And thank you for linking some of my reviews AND the two graduations are definitely something to celebrate. I hope March is a good month as well!
Thank you! And you’re welcome — your reviews are always so helpful.
wait, how do you find time to play games, study, and read 37 books??
https://wordsandpeace.com/2026/03/01/2026-february-wrap-up/
Emma @ Words And Peace recently posted…The top 7 books to read in March 2026
And work full time, and contribute to my household. 🙂
As for the how, I just make time according to my priorities. I’m not studying anymore, though — my degree is already complete as of July, because I didn’t do a thesis (I just still had to wait and graduate at the same time as those who did choose to do a thesis).
I didn’t know there was a short film coming out for Heaven Official’s Blessing! Do you know how much content of the series it covers? Don’t want to spoil myself for the bits of the light novels I haven’t read yet!
Keira @Keira’s Bookmark recently posted…March 2026 TBR
It’s a very small segment from volume… 3, I think (in the English translation’s numbering). But it’d make more sense in the context of the donghua (covering roughly vols 1 and 2) and the other two short films, anyway.