Favourites of 2020

Well it’s a week or so later than I originally planned, but finally it’s here. My wrap up of 2020. Life wise all has been well here, where I live we have managed to avoid, for now, Covid affecting our lives too much. The kids had a couple of weeks off school and a lot of business was closed for a while. I was off work for six months, but a lot of other people were affected way more than us. My daughter and I have started volunteering at a wildlife hospital, my son has taken up a new sport and I’m looking forward to trying new things in 2021 (Well maybe saying that I’m looking forward to new things is a bit strong lol). I also fell in love with reading middle grade books and they kept me reading while I was teetering on the verge of a massive slump.

June

As someone who normally reads 8-15 books per month, the last couple of months have sucked reading wise. Not the quality, but the quantity has been low, recently I only got through one book in the entire month. I have had stuff on, I know that your reading pace can change, life changes and you change. Mine was very much a case of I lost my mojo. In June, due to some rereads, I feel some sense of satisfaction with the amount that I have read. The joy that I have gotten from it. I’ve been inconsistent with blogging and such, I always will be, I think its part of my personality. But I had fun with it all.

2018 – Best reads so far….

Six months in and I’m way off target for my reading goals, but I’ve still managed to read some great books.

March… the month I pretty much stopped reading.

I average between five and ten book most months. Sometimes its higher and sometimes a little less. But March, it was a slumpy, illness filled month. My gallbladder decided to play up and it was some of the most intense pain I’ve ever been in, by the 3rd day I was rat shit, totally exhausted. It took two weeks for a full recovery, I still haven’t got my appetite back properly. On the upside I lost 3kg in a week, and I reckon I’ve lost another 2kg since then. I had a week of feeling good, but still no urge to read and then I got my arse kicked by a basic cold. Its been over a week now and I still sound like a man. It’s not a good sound haha.

February wrap up

February, the runt of the months.

I read a mixed bag of books this month, some were great, some were shit and others were ok. I watched some tv and headed to the movies for Valentines Day. Lets look at the books.

Riverkeep by Martin Stewart – I didn’t love it. My ‘starts as a review, but turned into a rant’ is up, if you want more info click the link. 2 stars

My challenge check-in

 

Reading challenges. I love them, I commit to too many of them and then drown in them and don’t complete many of them. This year though, I vowed to be different, to keep on top of them and stop committing to more than I can handle. We are now one month in and I have set myself up to fail a little. I discovered NetGalley… Can’t stop requesting.

I’m aiming for 102 reads for 2018. 8/102 for January which is about the pace I need to hit my goal. Success. 

My clear the TBR challenge – 5/75 completed

1. The Painted Man
2. The Outsiders
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
4. They Both Die at the End
5. Alias Grace

January wrap up.

 

I started this month with the best of intentions, I was going to knock out a heap of books from my shelves, get some challenge books ticked off and you know, just be awesome at posting, taking bookish photos for Insta and as it’s School holidays here, so enjoy some time with the kiddies.

Within the first week I pretty much killed my chance of hitting my tbr goals for the year. I finally worked up the courage to sign up for NetGalley and whats even more crazy is that I have been accepted for over 10 books. Um, not going to lie, this was such a bloody thrill. I’ve been wanting to do it since I first heard of it several years ago and I finally did it. I really didn’t think I had a hope, lets face it, my audience isn’t huge, but by some miracle I’m in and its all looking good…. Just not for all the unread books on my shelves.

December 2017 – Books, Music and Kittens.

This has not been much of a reading month. Life has been distracting me and I think along the way I lost my mojo. I haven’t really felt the need to pick up a book for most of the month. As someone who reads 3-5 hours most nights I found it a bit weird to start with, but then I decided to go with it. I watched tv, harassed my husband more, paid a bit more attention to the family and completely ignored this blog.