Books I Was Reading On This Day Over the Last Ten Years

The best part of keeping any sort of log is being able to look back over time to see the different things you did, how you changed, and what things stayed the same. I don't keep a log of everything (mostly due to time constraints lol) but I'm very glad for the logs that I do keep.

This week's Top Ten Tuesday prompt, inspired by Anne @ HeadFullofBooks, is such a fun idea: "share what you were reading on August 11th of 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2016". I tracked my reading on Goodreads and Storygraph but mostly just the "finished reading" dates, not always the starting dates, so I'll assume and pick the next book I marked finished. Well, to be fair, I don't read every day so I may have not read anything on that Aug 11th. The same assumption works anyway.

I've already done a post about looking back on 10 Years of Reading overall. I loved writing it. This is similar but looks at a random specific day so I'm excited to dig through the archives and find out. I don't usually read multiple books at once (other than a brief periods a few times) so I wonder if any of the years will have 2 books for August 11th, it'll be a rarity 👀 Grab your favourite drink and settle down, this post might be a bit chatty because I'm in the mood to ruminate and chat 😃☕️

2025: I Hope This Finds You by Ann Liang

Going in the reverse order, so Aug 11th of 2025 is up first. I don't think I read anything on this day exactly because I marked Spells For Forgetting by Adrienne Young as finished on Aug 10th. The next book is I Hope This Finds You (novella sequel to I Hope This Doesn't Find You), marked finished on Aug 13th. This is a short book that I read in one sitting so it must have been on 13th itself.

I love Ann Liang. I wrote a post talking about all of Ann Liang books too. All of her books have been bangers. I read all of them in one sitting each. It's so cool how the writing doesn't fail to pull me into the story and into that world. The author writes so well.

2024: If You Give a Billionaire a Bride by Ann Einerson

Again, I did not read on 11th Aug exactly but I read the next day. I apparently finished this book in one sitting/day (I marked started and finished on Aug 12th). I honestly don't even remember this book. It's a romance. I apparently rated it 3/5 stars. But what is it about? No clue.

This is bound to happen. I read a lot of books and a lot of romance. Unless they do something different and do it well or do it too badly, I won't remember them. Looking at my Aug 2024 wrap-up, it looks like the book made such a small impression on me that I forgot about it by the time I wrote the wrap up itself. It's not surprising I don't remember it now then 😂

Funny story: I once picked up a book, HATED it, decided to drop it quickly and went to Goodreads to mark it as did-not-finish only to find out that I had already marked it as DNF a couple of years ago 😂 I had a good laugh at myself when I saw that. And a silver lining: I gave up quicker the second time which signals growth, lol.

2023: Jade War by Fonda Lee

We have a proper winner! I marked Jade War as finished on Aug 11th, 2023. Finally an exact date match.

Jade War is the 2nd book in the Jade City trilogy. I'll be honest, I vividly remember my thoughts on books 1 and 3 (3 was my favourite). Actually, I think Jade War was my "least" favourite, even though it was really good too. It was a 600 page book full of growth and intrigue and great world building. I read it as a paperback and finished it in 6 days. It was great.

I highly recommend this trilogy if you want a great fantasy series. It's written so well and the world building is done so well. It spans decades following several characters and kept me engaged throughout. Seeing the character growth of one of the main characters was so special and made me emotional at the end.

2022: Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

A non-exact match again. I read 5 books in one day on August 5th—the entire Mindf*ck series by S. T. Abby. I loved it and I've reread it multiple times since then. That took me out of reading for over a week haha.

The next book I read was Klara and the Sun on August 13th. I can't believe it's been 4 years since I read this book. It's so weird how a book from a few months ago can feel so far away but a book from years ago feels like just last year. I still remember the hype around Klara and the Sun and I still remember some specific scenes from this book.

And soon we'll have a movie adaptation of this! Coming out in a couple of months starring Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams, if you didn't know about it. I'm interested to see how they depict the story. The story in the book is so interesting because of how emotion is portrayed through an "artificial human" i.e. robot and reading from Klara's perspective creates a whole new perspective and adds a new layer of meaning. It was beautiful how it added emotion through a robot that technically doesn't/isn't supposed to experience emotion. I really wonder how it'll be done in the movie.

2021: The Dating Dare by Jayci Lee

I don't remember if this is an exact match. I marked The Dating Dare as finished on August 14th but I listened to it on audiobook and I usually take multiple days to get through audiobooks. So it's possible I listened to this on Aug 11th too.

I very vaguely remember this story. Funnily enough, I did not remember that I listened to it but I remember a couple of details from the plot. I remember that I didn't enjoy it. It was okay for the most part but the end messed it up. My short review says it had TWO third act breakups?! It's a good thing that I forgot about it then, lol.

Romance is my easiest genre—I can breeze through romance books on good days and it helps me get out of slumps on bad days. I usually manage to get through average or annoying books too. Romance books on audio somehow don't work for me, maybe because I can't skim and skip the parts that I'm not interested in or that I've already predicted and has nothing new or important to share. Nowadays I don't usually pick up romance books on audio, preferring other genres for this format.

2020: Guarding Temptation by Talia Hibbert

A non-exact match. I marked Guarding Temptation as finished on Aug 13th, 2020. Since I usually read romance books quickly, I'm assuming I wasn't reading this on Aug 11th. This was also during the pandemic when I was either drowning in long work days since there was no "logging off" or inhaling books quickly.

I remember bits of Talia Hibbert's other books but I don't remember anything about this book. No clue. I was still on my previous blog at this time (before I went self-hosted and started over) so I searched my old archive to see if I wrote anything about it. I wrote, "While it was nice, I wasn’t really wowed by it. It did have some good parts but the end felt rushed and I didn’t like it as much as the author’s other books."

However, I do remember that I was deep in the romance genre at this time. The days were anxiety-ridden and I found so much comfort by losing myself in romance books for a few hours at a time and not having to keep new worlds or information in my head because I did not have the space for that. Actually, now that I think about it, I think this was during or right before my final exams for my last semester of college? Hold on.

Okay it took wayyyy too long to scroll far enough back on my Instagram stories archives (because I'm using the website on the laptop) but I confirmed it: it was right during my finals! My college seriously called us back to write exams in person in a 3-day sprint even though the pandemic was still in force and the number of active cases was reaching new heights in my city. They delayed the exams because it had to be in person which delayed graduation and delayed all of our full time jobs which we had lined up (I worked as an intern for an extra month, even though I transitioned to full time workload, because I wasn't technically a graduate yet to be a full-time employee). We all frantically studied so that we could be done with college. It was such an uncertain and stressful time between exams and work and being in college for the last time while wearing masks and being unable to hang out or stand in a group, unable to say goodbye to that chapter properly. No wonder I was sporadically reading romances haha.

Also, scrolling back took me through so many memories. Wow. I lowkey want to start documenting that way again, by posting about books I read and places I visit, but I don't want to use Instagram again. Those were good times, though. I was so enthusiastic and energetic. I posted so much. I would not be able to do that now.

2019: Fumbled by Alexa Martin

An exact match! I reread Fumbled by Alexa Martin from Aug 10th to 12th, 2019. I read it for the first time in May 2019 so it shows how much I liked it that I read it again a few months later. I've reread it multiple times since.

I still remember so much from the book and so much about why I loved it. I haven't read it since my 3rd read in 2020 but it still has a fond place in my heart. It was the first book which ticked all the boxes for me. It had a trope I loved, characters I loved, great romance, great friendships, and showed me something new.

I've read a lot of sports romances and all of them only glorify or romanticise the sports lives. This was the first book I read which highlighted the negative affects of a professional football career. It was new and fresh. It intricately showed how it affects the player and the people around them. Actually, now that I think about it, it's still the only book I've read that has done it.

I haven't reread it in a few years now and thinking about it makes me want to pick it up again. Such a good book.

2018: The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

An exact match again! I read The Hating Game from Aug 11th to Aug 12th.

Do you remember how popular this book was? If my memory serves me right, it took a while for the book's popularity to rise and then it was everywhere. It was very debated once it became popular too. A lot of people liked and a lot of people hated it. Eventually, it felt like the haters were more, talking about how it was problematic. It was especially prominent when the movie released in 2021. I didn't participate in the discourse because it was so noisy and I had forgotten the details of the book to think about it.

I loved the book. I rated it 5 stars. I was still young enough at this time that I hadn't learnt what was "problematic" and I was reading anything and everything. I just remember it being really fun to read. I liked the writing and the characters. I barely remember the story but I remember how I felt after finishing it—happy.

I was quite excited for the movie because I liked Lucy Hale (from her role in Pretty Little Liars, yes, but also A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song). The movie wasn't as fun, though. I remember finding it average. They tried. I think I disliked the male lead's casting? A couple of plot things seemed different too. 🤷🏻‍♀️

2017: This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

While scrolling through the books to find a match for the date, I could see a stark difference between the books in 2018. I was 18 years old in 2017 and I was discovering New Adult books while also reading a bunch of Young Adult. Seeing the book list, my age at the time is very evident haha.

I read This Savage Song from 10th Aug to 13th Aug so it's another exact match! I read this and immediately read the sequel. I apparently loved the series—I rated the books 4 and 5 stars. I do NOT remember it 😂 At all. I remember nothing. I didn't write a review on Goodreads for it. I didn't write anything about it on my first blog either. I have no idea what I liked it about.

I won't be surprised if I read this again in a few years (maybe even forgetting that I read it once before) and experience it as if I'm reading it for the first time 😂

It's really cool that the author is still writing books that are well-received. I haven't read all of her works but I have one of the recent ones—Bury Your Bones in The Midnight Soil—on my TBR now and hope to read it soon. Schwab is one of the few authors whose works still catch my interest even after a decade. The only other such author on this list is Kazuo Ishiguro.

2016: P. S. I Like You by Kasie West

I was 17 years old and firmly still in the "read everything I could get my hands on and read every spare moment of the day" phase. I read 200+ book in 2016, mostly Young Adult. I marked P. S. I Like You by Kasie West as finished reading on August 11th.

I remember really liking this book but I don't remember anything about it. I apparently reread it in 2018 too. Wait, I just read the synopsis and it has an epistolatory young adult romance?! No wonder I liked it. It's still one of my absolute favourite tropes (current favourite being Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez).

I didn't write a review for it on Goodreads but I found one on my first blog! I wrote a full review for it. I can't share it since I made that blog private but I will share the summary: apparently I loved the synopsis so much that I waited for its release and read it between classes, while walking, and while commuting to college. I'm pretty sure I read it under the desk during class too, I just never admitted to it in the blog during those years because I thought it made me seem like a bad kid lol. Funny how I used a pen name and overshared a bunch of personal things but hesitated to say that I read books in class 😆

what did you read over the years?

This was so fun! I loved scrolling through the books again and picking out books I read on this day. It's unsurprising that most of the books were romance. It's a fun coincidence that the first and last books are Young Adult.

Do you maintain a reading tracker? When did you start? Do you remember books even 10 years later or is your memory like mine? If you've done this post too, share your link in the comments!