Spring Cleaning! | Reading Update 4.16.22

Hey hi hello friends, and welcome back to my blog! 

It's been a while since I've done a reading update, mainly because there isn't much happening in my life to talk about. But I've been super productive this week so I thought I'd talk about it a bit! 

This week I really dug into the whole "Spring Cleaning" thing. I'm sure everyone has their own little rituals when it comes to spring cleaning, but I've never really been the kind of person to clean everything all at once. If something is dirty or messy, I clean it. Time of year has no relevance to me. However, this week I've been obsessed with watching spring cleaning/decluttering videos on YouTube, and that made me super motivated to do my own declutter. I figured I would finally tackle my mess of a closet. 

Now, I've lived in this house with my parents for about seven years now. We moved from California back in 2014 and rented for a while, and then moved here. And I've had boxes from the move in my closet, unopened and gathering dust, since then. I told myself, "If the stuff in these boxes hasn't been needed in six years, why would I need to hold onto it?" And that was that. I took everything out of my closet - clothes, accessories, boxes, etc. - and purged 90% of it. I've got six trash bags to take to Goodwill, and plenty more trash bags of, well, trash. And now, the only things in my closet aside from clothes and accessories are my compound bow, a folding chair, and a storage bin full of crafting stuff that I will be giving a sorority sister as soon as I can. I have a closet floor again! And the shelf above the clothing rod is empty too! I feel so much lighter. My closet was jam-packed before, and every time I had to open it to grab something, I felt so much anxiety. Now I don't have that feeling, and it's wonderful. 

I've also cleaned under my bed, another place that hasn't been touched since the move. As you can imagine, there was a lot of dust. I managed to get most of it but I still need to remove my mattress and really get in there with a dust cloth. Also my desk was cleaned out, and I removed some of the bulkier decor in my room, like my jewelry wall rack and the corkboard above my desk. My room is finally starting to feel my age, instead of the 17 I was when I first decorated it. 

Alright, now that that's out of the way, let's talk about reading! 

I'm slowly but surely working my way through The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. I started it on the first of April, and I'm a little over half-way now. I'm confident I'll finish it by the end of the month. I like Erik Larson's writing style, he makes nonfiction feel very accessible, however I'm not super interested in the chapters about the World's Fair. I find H.H. Holmes's story much more interesting. Though I'm sure now that I'm at part 3, with the Fair finally opening, it'll pick up in pace a bit. 

I'm also reading Han Kang's The White Book, which is absolutely beautiful. I'm definitely feeling in a poetry moment right now. I've got several poetry collections out on loan from the library. I'm also reading Hunter x Hunter but I'll talk about that more in my next Manga Monday. 

I haven't bought any new books this month, but I am probably going thrifting with my partners next weekend, so maybe I'll pick up some books then. 

Okay, that's all I have for today. What are you reading right now? Are you doing any spring cleaning this year? Let me know in the comments or tweet at me @AllyEmReads.

Until next time!