May 2015
May was a busy-busy month for me! I moved back home for the summer, went on vacation, and started my summer job. So it’s been a lot of adjusting and sadly, not as much reading as I had hoped. But that’s all good! I have a big plan set in motion to tackle my TBR this summer plus some to-dos with my blog and I really hope I can pull it off!
- 15 Books Read + 3 novellas
- 0 nonfiction novels
- 1 standalones
- Started 8 new series
- Finished 0 series from start to end
- Finished 1 previously started series
- Read sequels for 4 previously started series
- Dropped 1 series
| Favourite Read(s) | Least Favourite Read |
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*Note: just because I read a series/book this month doesn’t mean that the review was also published. Due to the nature of my blog (ie I review whole series) it often takes me a few weeks to publish a full review (pending book availability) so look forward to seeing some of these reviews in the upcoming weeks/months!
| Most Viewed Post |
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Throwdown Thursday: Vampire Diaries Show vs Books and
Series Review: Arcana Chronicles by Kresley Cole Click to View this month’s archives for more posts & reviews! |
Previously posted reviews I updated this past month:
This month wasn’t as successful as I had hoped considering school is over. But I started my summer job, caught up with friends and had to do some serious purging of my room so I really didn’t have much time to sit down and read! But, I managed to read some books I had been dying to read: like Rogue and The Court of Thorns and Roses.
Book Bingo–Canadian: 0 books added
Bookish Bingo–Ready for Spring: 2 books added
Everything YA Challenge: ✖ Mini Challenge + ✔ 2 YA reads
Goodreads Challenge: 18 books added (I’m more than 72% complete! YIKES!)
Monthly Key Word Challenge: ✔ “Ash”, “Road” & “Prince”
Prequel & Sequel Challenge: +25 points added
SERIESous’ Personal Classics Challenge: 0 books added
SERIESous’ Personal Nonfiction Challenge: 0 books added
View my Reading Challenge Progress Here!
The idea behind the feature is to pit two books (or other themes) that are always compared to each other in a battle of three rounds to see who the winner is. Of course it is completely subjective to my own opinions so I added a poll feature to get your take on everything. Thanks to those who participated!
This month’s final poll results:
Vampire Diaries: The TV Show 5 | Vampire Diaries: Book Series 0
Next Battle: Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy vs Crossfire Series
Just a brief update on my crusade to tackle my TBR list this summer. You can find part 1 of my plan in my original post here, but the basic idea is to read some of the books I’ve purchased over the years. For the months of May and June, I created four rules that I hope will get me to a place where I can read mostly purchased novels. Here’s how I’m doing in the week since I created the post:
- No more putting books on hold at the library!
- I was actually really successful at this! I only put one book on hold, but it’s Katie McGarry’s latest (Nowhere But Here) and I’ve been dying to read it so I let myself cheat on that one 😉
- I also staggered my suspended holds so that they don’t all come in at once.
- I kinda goofed with putting the Grisha Trilogy on hold at my local library this month because they became available much quicker than I expected–however, this has been on my TBR for YEARS so I’m not going to make it a negative thing rather a positive
- No more buying books!
- The books above that I listed as May purchases were made earlier in the month so they don’t really count 😉 I’ve thought about buying a book here or there because they were only $1 but I haven’t pressed the purchased button yet!
- No joke, as soon as I posted my plan, Kobo came out with another contest period which means promo codes for discounts! I don’t plan on buying anything unless I get a really great promo code (30%+) and so far I’ve only got one 30% so it doesn’t look like it’s going to be so bad!
- No grabbing freebies!
- I’ve been pretty good though I definitely picked up one today. I’ve stopped browsing the bestseller list and have just been going by my book sale email subscriptions so it seems to be working! But I’m definitely going to pay more attention to this in the coming weeks!
- Read at least one book from my TBR Jar a week!
- That definitely didn’t happen this past week! Work and catching up with friends and family took priority so I really didn’t have a chance.
- I also have a ton of eBooks out from the library that need to be read before they expire next week so I don’t think I will be meeting this goal for another two weeks.
- Recently updated reviews will be noted on the side menu. If you hover over the cover you can see what date the review was updated
- I’ve decided to add Conclusion cards to older reviews when they are updated.
- I haven’t posted a Toonie Tuesday post in forever, so I think that feature/review theme is on the kaputs! It’s so hard to find books for $2 (most I get are because of a coupon & prices are always fluctuating)
- Plus, I’ve been doing the Top Ten Tuesday Memes and I think that’s a great feature to continue 😉
- I’m contemplating getting Twitter and/or Tumblr for my blog
- Posted my first Netgalley reviews! I’m loving this review outlet so far!
- Non-review features will be limited to 1 type per week (in most cases)
- It can become so overwhelming to do each meme feature every week and I felt like they were slightly taking away from the purpose of my blog
- I think I’m going to create a book discussion feature that will be more of a seasonal/whenever I feel like it type of post. It’s going to be a bit of a rant driven post about an individual book 😉
- Update the following:
- review directories
- Series Recaps for G-L — I SWEAR it’s going to get done!
- Possibly Twitter or Tumblr
- Participate in Booking Through Thursdays meme
- Finish some blogger tags and award tags (thanks everyone!)
Gah! I really didn’t listen to music very much this month–really just whatever was on the radio when I was driving to work (which is like 5 minutes away). BUT I did listen to some Ed Sheeran because I am seeing his concert in 4 days! I’m also in love with Marianas Trench’s latest single, Here’s to the Zeros <3
What were your biggest reading or personal accomplishments of the past month?
Leave a comment below!
