#ShelfLove Discussion: Mid-Year Challenge Recap + Summer TBR Wipeout Update

I usually do a mid-year recap of my reading progress and/or resolutions for the year in my Monthly Inventory recaps but I liked the #ShelfLove‘s Discussion topic for June/July to do a mid-year recap. For this post, I wanted to do an actual post to break things down and see where to go next.

I’ve also included by first update for my Summer TBR Wipeout Challenge as well since they were due at the same time!

>>My 2017 Reading Challenge Homepage

I started 2017 with a bang in terms of reading. I was meeting every challenge goal and even managed to get ahead for my Goodreads total. But once school finished and I entered the working world, I feel like a girl just keeping her head above water. Luckily, I’ve been able to take advantage of my days off and have finally reached a point where my reading is back on track but I still have some damage to repair in terms of my challenges.

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This one is all about reading those titles that have been sitting around before January 1, 2017. (Though truthfully, I include some titles I bought this year to finish series)

Goal	41 – 50 titles
Where I’m at as of July 17	37 of 50
Where I Should Be	28 of 50

I’m really happy that I’ve been able to pull this one back because March thru May was pretty brutal. It has definitely helped that I’ve thrown in some serial novella reads along the way (which are shorter than full novels), meaning I can power through them quicker.

Moving Forward: Just keep doing what I’m doing! Being smart about ARCs requests and library copies has really helped. Instead of searching the library or Netgalley for a title, I immediately go to my TBR jar and pull out a new title.

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This was a personal challenge I created for myself to get some of those “hotly anticipated” reads of the last 5 years off my TBR.

Goal	25 titles
Where I’m at as of July 17	8 of 25*
Where I Should Be	14 of 25

*I have DNF’d one of the 25 I have selected.

Those numbers are a little heartbreaking. I’m hoping that the Summer TBR Wipeout Challenge I am currently doing will help me decrease the number a bit. (See below for that!)

Moving Forward: Perhaps trying audiobook versions or not always choosing a Kobo or Kindle title when looking for something to read.

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The classic Goodreads challenge!

Goal	175 titles
Where I’m at as of July 17	139 of 175 titles
Where I Should Be	94 of 175 titles

 

Admittedly, I probably low balled the total of books for this year; however, when I made my goal in December, I wasn’t sure what my life would be like once school was finished and I started working. But, as I said above, I’ve taken advantage of my work breaks and days off to keep my reading at my usual levels–even if it doesn’t feel like that at the time.

Moving Forward: Make sure I’m picking titles to contribute to my reading challenges.

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You can read all about the titles I’ve selected to be a part of this challenge here!

My Reading Time Frame: July 8 – August 19, 2017

Tell us how your reading has been going so far.

It has not been a great week and half so far for my reading. I work shifts for my job and I was on nights when the challenge started and my reading always takes a nose-dive when I work this shift. I find my reading gets super dragged out because I’m only reading parts at a time. My shift this week is so much better for getting reading in so I’m hoping to make up some much needed ground.

What books have you read?

    

Arcana Rising was on my list for sequels so it was nice to get that out of the way. Retrieval and In Too Deep are for my ongoing #ShelfLove Challenge so it was nice to add those. It was just a coincidence that my hold on Everything Everything came in (I had a great time reading that!). And Goliath was the finale for my second totally audiobook series. I also read one of the ARCs I had selected, Royal Replicas, before the challenge started so I didn’t include it here.

What’s next on your TBR?

The Shatter Me Trilogy (guess I can’t call it that now that there are going to be more books) is the series I plan on binge reading and I just got all three books from my library. I’ve started Shatter Me and I hope to get them all done by this time next week!

While I started this one before the challenge started, it really lost its momentum for me just past the 30% mark. It’s unnecessarily long (IMHO) and so I’m just reading bits at a time until I have to return it to the library. I really just want to finish this inaugural trilogy up. Though I will say, I enjoyed the last few chapters I read so maybe it’ll get better.

  

These are the sequels I hope to start in the next week. The Thirteenth Gate is for a blog tour so it will get priority but the other two are on the shorter side so I should power through them quickly.

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I’m not sure if I will do Update #2 next week or not but we will see how it goes!

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How has your yearly reading gone? Are you using the summer to catch-up?