November 2020
I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to get around to posting this recap of the month. I mean, there isn’t a whole lot to say about the dismal month of November when it comes to my reading and blogging.
Like it has been for many people, 2020 has been a challenging year.
For me, I feel like I am at a crossroads of my life. When it comes to my career, I’m trying to navigate my long term goals with some new job opportunities but feel absolutely lost. And because I work at a hospital in the lab, there’s no escaping COVID and our current realties.
My reading habits have been on a decline for the last two years. Even though I no longer commute 2 hours a day to work, my priorities and commitments have shifted since I’ve moved closer to work. I’m tired all the time and go to bed before I can finish a single chapter. And if I do find the time to read during the day, my mind begins to wander and I can’t focus on what is in front of me. The bulk of the books I do finish in a month are audiobooks I listen to when I walk my dog.
In November my domain name was up for renewal and I started to wonder what my long term goals are for the blog. I’m behind in my ARCs because it feels like a catch-22 (they feel like work and I don’t want to taint the review with my horrible mood). I’m rarely logging in to blog and don’t blog hop like I used to. I opted to renew my domain name but self-hosting is up for renewal in February and I’m on the fence about keeping it.
I’m leaning more towards moving back to the free WordPress.com setup. However, it isn’t overly expensive to keep my blog as self-hosted either. I don’t want to disband the blog entirely–I don’t think. I suppose that is the question I need to answer for myself.
Total for November 2020: 7 Books Read + 0 Novellas Read
DNF’d: 0 Books
Last November: 13 Books Read + 0 Novellas Read + 0 DNFs
Standout Read (★★★★)
I just thought this book was so much fun to listen to. I loved how body-positive it was and how Sweetie was such a boss.
Biggest Let Down (★★★)
This isn’t a bad book by any means. I just went in with high hopes that this book would restart my love of reading by sucking me in. And while it started great, it lagged in the middle and just needed to fine tune some aspects to make it an epic read.
Once again for Black Friday, Kindle had a promotion for new Kindle Unlimited Subscribers where you got 3 months of reading for only $0.99!!! I was hoping this deal would return after I had such a blast taking advantage of it last year.
Like I always do when I resubscribe, I wanted to see if I got my money’s worth and so I will be keeping track of all the books I read via the service. (Just like I did when completing the free trial.)
- NONE
I’ve been doing terribly with this! There was a really good deal to extend my subscription for another 3 months so I’m hoping I can get my reading mojo back and finish some series off!
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 | 18 of 31 Titles Read
Goodreads Challenge: 7 books added | 168/155 Books – Completed!
Tackling the TBR Challenge: 0 books added | 22/24 Books
View my Challenge Progress Here!
Created by Lia @ Lost in a StoryI used to do a big Goodreads Purge twice a year but I like the idea of doing a little bit at a time and had great success last year doing this on a monthly basis. The idea is to go through 5-10 books on your Goodreads TBR list chronologically and decide if they should stay or go. My 10 titles consist of 7 “new to me” titles and 3 “previously started series” titles.
This month:
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Pass: 5 | Keep: 5
Grand Total YTD: Pass: 50 | Keep: 60
Did I give up on any too soon? Let me know in the comments below!
I’m hoping to get to my yearly wrap up posts in the next two weeks! I’m also going to be making some hard decisions when it comes to the blog so we will see where things take me in December! Stay safe!
What were your biggest reading or personal accomplishments of the past month?
Leave a comment below!
