My 2019 Reading Challenge was all about the base numbers. There's lots of different types of challenges people can participate in but the past couple of years I've been trying to chip away at my "to be read" pile and I haven't even attempted any other challenge. Granted, I could probably source a full challenge from my hoard but eh. I'm a mood reader like no other. 

My goal was 200 books. I had hoped to finish early and read some of my thicker/slower academic type books (I have one on super-string theory that I know is going to hurt my brain in the best way). I had more reading slumps this year than I had before plus an expanding and volatile work schedule so while I did make (and surpass my goal) it wasn't like the years before when I had easily hit 250+ books. 

Also, Goodreads is backlogged with the yearly reading page so my home page shows my current number, my "year in books" page shows the previous weeks number. It's kinda odd. I saw in the troubleshooting section that someone else had the same issue so I assume the backlog is heavy. 

I don't quite know how I'm going to put up unboxings for the rest of the year onto next year but I'm hoping to get it all organized during the vacation...which I might work through anyways. it's the stupid cold I had. It's put me way behind at work. 

Macy's box is a new box for me and it's what I wished Sephora (with all it's connections to LVMH) would have been. I wanted new brands, brands that were established and brands that I might not pick up but that would have my next holy grail. I'm not sure there are any "themes" for the boxes but the pamphlet talked about clean beauty. 

There was no bag in this one, but that's okay. Instead Macy's included a Muslin facecloth. I like them because I use them on occasion (like how you would use them with the Liz Earle face wash and hot cloth method). I thought this was a nice little add on and it's thin enough to breathe through but it's been good to use. It's the one thing I've tried from the box! 

I managed to catch the most ridiculous, drawn out cold. It lasted for two weeks! I've never taken so much time off work but I did get full use out of my ridiculous adult onesie collection (I've got a shark and a panda, get jelly). I wish I could say I read a ton more books but I was so miserable I couldn't get lost in any book. I did manage to finish a few by the end of the cold, including the Tami Hoag book (Night Sin) I've been keeping in my purse. I'm not rushing to reach any reading goal as I've reached it so I don't know how many more books I'll get to before it's 2020 (!!!). 

Ice Blue is a re-read for me. I have a physical copy, an e-book and the audio book. I like audio books but my mind wanders so I tend to only get the versions where I've read the book so it's not a stress. I will say the audio book narrator is really decent in this one. One of the characters is Japanese and the book before had a strong (and not sure if it was correct, it threw me when I first heard it) accent whereas this one is not strong and not verging on a trope). 

I'm still behind! Yikes. September's theme was Extraterrestrial Highway. This is a okay box because I've used one item. Yup. I've finally brushed off my heater so I can take more comfortable bubble baths through the winter. I kept everything in the box except the Alien Ooze, which went to my friend's younger sister who loves jelly soap. 

At the moment, the box is still available in the Lavish shop. It's about $39 before shipping. 

I realise that it's not quite the end of the year (being at the beginning of December) but quite frankly I'm not sure today is going to be my day. I can feel the migraine coming on through my neck and it's been an all around fucker of a morning. My jeans ripped, I didn't sleep well and I dropped an eye shadow palette all over my carpeted floor. 

So I decided to do something less intensive (mentally) than a book review.