March 2018
I’ve known March was going to be a weird reading month since late January this year and it definitely lived up to that expectation.
As I mentioned in my February Recap post, my “big city” library card from my school days expired mid-February. I did my best to read as many books as I could and quite a few carried over into the first two weeks of March. I read a lot of books over those 5 or so weeks. Sometimes averaging 2 books a day–which is crazy even for me! But I managed to get most of them in (even squeezing in some books I already own so I could read the sequels from the library) so it was a great success.
However, that means everything else went by the wayside a bit. My challenge targets for the month of March (and February too to be honest) got neglected and I spent the last two weeks of March (and will be using the first week of April as well) catching up on ARCs I had committed myself too. Luckily, January proved to be more productive than I anticipated so I’m not too far behind on everything and thanks to my speed reading, I’m wayyyy ahead on my Goodreads Challenge.
So April is all about getting back on track! I’ve got some great sequels up next (including one I had to stop in February just as it was getting good) and some hotly anticipated titles I’ve been waiting to dive into. With a slightly more regular work schedule, I’m hoping I get get myself back into my everyday reading routine and checking off those “to-read” titles.
A Notable Change to my Reviews:
On all my reviews, I like to include a “Heat” rating so people know what type of sexual content they can expect in a book.
My Old Scale Looked Like This: (chaste) cold, cool, warm, really warm, hot, smokin’/steamy (very sexy)
I wanted to clean it up a bit because I was struggling a lot with the “cold” & “cool” as well as the “really warm” label. To me, cold and cool are the same thing (chaste kisses if any at all) and if a book has zero romance I just delete the field. I also found that “really warm” didn’t really suit the books I was labelling as such because they are descriptive.
So, going forward, I’ve merged my “cold” and “cool” tags into one (I’d already done that to the “smokin'” and “steamy” tags). I’ve also eliminated my “really warm” tag and have replaced it with “toasty” as I feel it better represents those novels that have your standard 3 sex scenes and not much else. I’m hoping that these more defined parameters will help me label books appropriately.
My New Scale: (chaste) Cool, Warm, Toasty, Hot, Smokin’ (very sexy)
Please note though that some upcoming posts will still have the terms “cold” and “really warm” in the post breakdown itself. I have so many posts scheduled (I’ve got things scheduled into December already!) that I just don’t have the time to go through them all and update them individually. But all the tags on my site have been appropriately adjusted.
Total for March 2018: 27 Books Read + 3 Novellas Read
DNF’d: 1 Books
Last March: 16 Books Read + 3 Novellas Read + 5 DNFs
Standout Read (★★★★★)
Winter Renshaw has become a must read author for me and her latest just reaffirms that statement. In fact, this was the only 5 star review I gave this month!
Biggest Let Down (★★)
I should have listened to my gut when I felt like I should DNF this book. It’s never a good thing when you guess the “big twist” by the end of chapter one.
Every quarter I take a look at my Kobo stats to see how I’m doing. My Kobo is my main reading device, used for personal and library books. My Kindle is used for ARCs but it lacks the statistic features of my Kobo.
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As of: |
March 29, 2018 |
March 31, 2017 |
| Total % of Library Complete |
23% |
20% |
| Total # of Books Finished |
284 |
542 |
| Total # of Reading Hours |
2511 |
2289 |
*Note: After an update midway through 2017, the statistics changed for my Kobo. It no longer counted library copies towards the Total # of Books Finished (though it still counts the hours). Hence, there is a decrease in my current numbers for that statistic!
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Most Viewed Post
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Most Viewed Review
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Previously posted series reviews that got updates:
You can always get the full details on all my challenges on my dedicated page but here is a quick update:
5 Year 5 Book Challenge: 0 books added & 1 DNF’d | 2 of 25 Titles Read
Goodreads Challenge: 30 books added | 83/190 Books
52 Sequel Challenge: Blood of a Thousand Stars & 1 DNF| 13/52 Sequels
Tackling the TBR Challenge: 2 books added | 10/36 Books
View my Challenge Progress Here!
I had so much fun with this month-long challenge! It worked out really well that I lot of the titles I binge-read at the start of March were titles that met the challenge guidelines as well as my self imposed ones. (We were to read books that were published before March 1, 2018 but I also gave myself the stipulation that they had to be books I had on my TBR before that date as well.)
My goal was to read 15 books that met these requirements and I ended up surpassing that!
>> See everything that I read here!
In February 2017, I created a challenge for myself to bring my Want to Read Goodreads Shelf to 500 books. By the end of December 2017, I had brought the shelf down from 1205 to 511 books! The ultimate goal for 2018 is to get that number lower than 500 and also bring down my “sequel” shelf as well. I’ve decided that every quarter I will check my stats to see how I’m doing when it comes to cleaning up my TBR
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Currently |
December 31, 2017 |
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Want to Read (New) |
502 |
511 |
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To Read (Sequels) |
316 |
301 |
It’s nice to know that my “new” TBR shelf hasn’t grown. I know I’ve added a few titles to that category since the start of the year so I’m pleased that I seem to be reading more items than I’m adding. As for the “sequel” shelf, again, I’m assuming that it is increasing due to the fact that I’m starting new series (and want to read their sequels). My hope for April is to get a few more sequels (especially finale ones) in to reduce that shelf.
I’ve seen this meme floating around and thought it was a great idea to help me tackle my TBR list and reach that less than 500 goal. The idea is to go through 5-10 books on your Goodreads TBR list chronologically and decide if they should stay or go. I usually do a big Goodreads Purge twice a year but I like the idea of doing a little bit at a time and have decided to do this on a monthly basis.
This month (7 New-to-Me Series + 3 Previously Started Series):
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Pass: 7 | Keep: 3
Grand Total since January: Pass: 14 | Keep: 16
Did I make any mistakes? Let me know in the comments below!
I saw this meme the other day and thought it would a great way to keep track of my ARCs and keep me more accountable. While this is a monthly meme hosted by Avalinah’s Books, I will only be updating every quarter.
Every month I give myself the allowance of requesting 3 ARCs as per my 2018 Reading Plan. Now, that doesn’t always happen (as you’ll see below). I’m a member of a few street teams and there are always surprise releases or opportunities so I end up reading more ARCs than I plan. Honestly, I mostly use that 3 ARC limit for requests on my blog so I can pace myself and give authors/publishers an approximation.
My Progress for January to March, 2018:
ARCs Read: 31 | ARCs Overdue: 4* | Upcoming: 12
*Some of these books are from my Street Teams and they are “read ASAP” but I consider them to be overdue.
Going Forward:
I’m imposing an ARC hiatus for April and May. No more impulse clicks for this girl! I’m really overwhelmed with all the review copies I’ve signed myself up for this month. And while I love helping with the promotion of books, I feel like I’m not doing a very good job of saying “no” or reading those challenge books I’ve prioritized.
So for the months of April and May I’m not going to sign up for any future review copies or blog tours or take requests. I’m going to make a few exceptions for the Street Teams I’m a part of and the Publishers I work closely with, but otherwise, I want to focus on books I already own and utilizing my library more to read already released novels.
How am I going to accomplish this? Basically I’m going to be deleting all the review opportunity newsletters I subscribe to as they come into my inbox. I also will not be browsing the Netgalley catalogue for the next two months. Out of sight and out of mind is my philosophy for accomplishing this.
You can still join in on these discussions:
- Movie Mondays: Love, Simon
- Trope Thursdays: My Family Member Hurt Yours
- SERIESous Discussion: How Novellas Stop Reading Slumps
Here are some of my favourite posts that I’ve come across the past month:
- Kelly @ Another Book in the Wall talks about Platonic Relationships in books
- Marie @ Drizzle and Hurricane Books asks Is Book Blogging Still Relevant?
- Rashika @ Xpresso Reads teaches us How to Support Diverse Books
- Rain City Reads gives an overview of the awesome annual Canada Reads Competition
Each month I have a list of 11 books I’ve selected to read for that particular month. These books include review copies and reading challenge picks. Here are some of the books I have ready to go for April:
What were your biggest reading or personal accomplishments of the past month?
Leave a comment below!
