December 2025 Breakdown

I know we in the bookish community sometimes joke about wanting to escape into the plot of a book, but the end of 2025 feels like we’re sliding into the plot of a certain dystopian trilogy, and I don’t think that’s what we mean by wanting to escape into the plot of a book.

But hey, we survived another year! May we survive another year, even if the horrors persist. I hope the holidays have been good to you all if you celebrate, and if not (like me), then I hope you had some days to rest. May 2026 bring good vibes, reads and games to you all. I’ve been a little busy putting together the 2025 Blogging Stats Transparency post the past few days, so it’ll hopefully publish soon.

December Musings

Hard to believe I essentially wrote a post a week for December! (Okay, some of these I worked on during my hiatus, which still counts IMO.)

• [2 Dec] My 2025 Stationery Shop Faves/Discoveries
• [12 Dec] November 2025 Breakdown
• [16 Dec] Mini Reviews: Katabasis, A Forgery of Fate, The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea
• [26 Dec] 2026 Washi Tape Usage Challenge
• [30 Dec] 2025 Planning + Journaling

Book Hauls and Reading

I got 5 books (1 last minute surprise ARC), but if we count a set of books in the same trilogy as 1, then I really only got 3 books. 🤪

The first book was Hazelwood by C.G. Drews, which I won from Booktrovert and frankly didn’t believe until I logged into my Booktrovert account and actually double-checked.

The second book was the Fairyloot edition of Julie Kagawa’s Iron Fey: Call of the Forgotten trilogy, which is the second series set in her Iron Fey world*. I got the original trilogy and the spin-off trilogy years ago, and honestly after a few years of no news, I thought Fairyloot wouldn’t finish the trilogy and my collection wouldn’t ever be complete. But it’s finally here!!! They’re very pretty, though I do wish this one had the reversible dust jackets like the other two sets. No photos since they had to be packed away with the books I’m not decluttering, and my room is kind of a mess, so I don’t want to mix them up.

*If you’ve known me long enough, Julie Kagawa is an author whose books I will always have a soft spot for as she’s one of the first Asian authors I came across in my formative years when I wanted to be an author and saw myself represented in her.

I still need to read The Iron Vow, which is the most recent and last book in the Evenfall trilogy, but I think after a couple of years, I might reread the rest of the books sometime in 2026.

I also got a surprise ARC from Entangled: Dragon Cursed by Elise Kova. Kova’s books have been on my radar from all the way back when Air Awakens first released, so I’m super excited to actually get the chance to read her newest release. I started it as my first book for the year and I’m absolutely devouring it (though by the time this post goes live I’ll probably have finished the book and may or may not have brought a copy depending on if my feelings have changed…)

As for reading, I spent a fair amount of time reading graphic novels, mostly because I finally saw the Magic Tree House graphic novel adaptations were available for borrowing and had to take a little detour to live my best childhood life.

I also found the Junie B. Jones graphic novel adaptation for the first two books, too?

What I’ve been Reading:

• Ex Marks the Spot by Gloria Chao – Nothing like reading an ARC like a year later, though I read the final version at this point since my library had it available on Libby. 🫠
• The Legend of Brightblade by Ethan M. Aldridge
• Millie of the Manor by Karina Evans
• The Ojja-Wojja by Magdalene Visaggio
• Every Summer After by Carley Fortune – Let’s just say I prefer One Golden Summer.
• Magic Tree House: The Graphic Novel 1-8 adapted by Jenny Laird
• 107 Days by Kamala Harris – You know the famous monologue from Barbie? That’s pretty much what it felt like while reading 107 Days. That, and feeling mad on her behalf for so many reasons, but especially how you can work twice as hard, have all the qualifications and then some, and you’ll still be overlooked or unsupported or even both.
• Ship of Spells by H. Leighton Dickson (DNF)
• Junie B. Jones: The Graphic Novel 1-2 adapted by Colleen A.F. Venable
• Rebis: Born and Reborn by Irene Marchesini, translated by Carla Roncalli Di Montorio

I spent most of the month sick so I didn’t bother keeping up with music too much unless they popped up into my daily playlist randomly.

• Little Miss by GIRLSET
• LABOUR by Paris Paloma
• Red (Beggin’) by VERIVERY
• The Reason by Yim Siwan
• Breath by Purple Kiss
• I’m Home by EXO
• Nothin’ ‘Bout Me by Yeonjun

As for movies and shows, I didn’t watch as much despite my plans to knock out the remainder of my checkouts (mostly because I was sick and just didn’t feel like pulling out my laptop and its external DVD drive — it truly was a crime to society having that removed from laptops), but I did get through a couple! I spent most of my watching time watching drama shorts on FlickReels. They’re quite corny and predictable, but it’s pretty much all my brain could handle at the time.

• Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs
• The Lion King (live action)

The Breakdown

A breakdown of what the universe had in store for the month (or longer).

December was not a fun time for me; I ended November sick and therefore started the month a little sick. And then I got sick again about a week later, got better and caught something yet again to finish off the year. Basically, I spent most of the month fighting for my life something off and feeling absolutely miserable.

And if I wasn’t sick, then I got relegated to doing virtually nothing because of sweaty hands (pretty sure I have hyperhidrosis, albeit not as severe as some). For reasons only my closest friends know and I won’t disclose, this isn’t going to work out too well for me later this year. 😭

(I mean, it doesn’t work out for me any year, really. I’ve forgotten that journaling becomes much less fun in the winter because I’m worried I’m going to smudge the ink. I’m more worried my Sterling Ink Daily Planner is going to bleed because of my sweaty hands than the paper itself.)

I did get to do some gaming, though! Wizard101 has their 12 Days of the Spiral during December and usually has free membership during the timeframe, so I took advantage of it to catch up on the recent two worlds that were released since last year before going back into my off season that will last for who knows how long. I also played For the King II since I got it during a Steam Sale since my Xbox Game Pass Trial that came with my laptop expired (I didn’t get a new one; I just never got around to using that trial until it was about to expire), and I don’t really plan on getting it at the moment.

I also had my wisdom teeth removal consultation, which turns out that all of them need to be removed rather than two, but that seems like a Future Hannah problem (along with a meal forecast of mostly mashed potatoes for a week or two probably) since it’s going to cost a limb. And one of my hoodies died, but at least replacing a hoodie is way less expensive than wisdom teeth removal.

No Buy

December’s No Buy was actually successful for the most part? I got some stickers from Meow Amor Creative early in the month and that’s really about it stationery-wise.

I did purchase some binders and accompanying pockets secondhand since I’ve been looking for a few binders to organize my stickers better, but I consider that a need* since I still have some stuff scattered about in cardstock pockets I reused from older orders. I’d really prefer them to be less scattered and find that I’m less forgetful about using them when I can see the items, which is probably why I run through my STICKII sheets so quickly since I have an organizer that I can see all the sheets.

*I was never a binder girlie in school, and when I had to use a binder, let’s just say I was freely aggressive with them and they did not survive beyond two years at most, haha. Also, they were like $1 and made from really flimsy material, so half of the binder kept getting detached versus the ones I got, which are less prone to getting detached.

I also got a fabric cover for my journal even though I hate how bulky it is, but the thing I hate more than bulk is a destroyed/bent journal from carrying it around after a month or two. And it was definitely getting a little bent up traveling around with me throughout the month despite the plastic cover I got so I decided the suffering was worth the protection. One of my friends has a similar cover and it didn’t feel too bulky so I might be fine (I have a cover for my commonplace book and I don’t mind it at all since the cover blends seamlessly with my notebook) but I can always take my journal out when I find it bothersome.

Let’s talk!

Anyway, happy new year, friends! Hopefully, you didn’t spend most of your December sick (11/10 would not recommend) like I did and therefore running behind in all the things (though maybe that’s just January in general). Tell me how your month went! What have you been reading, playing, watching, etc.?