March 2020

Given the current state of the world right now it almost feels trivial to recap my reading for the month. But as someone who works in healthcare right now, it’s nice to have a distraction from everything right now.

Before my city declared a State of Emergency, they announced that the library would be closing for an indefinite amount of time. Of course, my hold for the newest Cassandra Clare novel came in so I made sure to grab it and the final Dark Artifices novel (the thickest books you can find) before the library shuttered its doors.

I think I can best sum up my month with a tweet I wrote:

Despite staying home when I’m not working at the hospital, I don’t seem to be getting as much reading done as I thought I would.
But, I’ve been knitting slippers, taking an intro to coding class and watching #TigerKingNetflix so I guess I haven’t been completely unproductive 🤔

— Lauren (@SERIESousBooks) March 29, 2020

I’m really struggling with reading right now. My mind begins to wander. Now, perhaps that is because I’m forcing myself to finish the final Throne of Glass novel by reading a bit at a time or if the books I’m picking just aren’t tickling my fancy or maybe it’s because of all that’s happening in the world and how I’ve had to change numerous plans that I have been anticipating for months. It’s hard to say. Basically: if it wasn’t an audiobook (which accounted for 64% of the titles I read this month), I took a really long time to finish it.

So wherever you are in the world, I hope you are safe and healthy or doing the best you can with your current situation. I hope that you are staying home if you can. And if you are one of the amazing essential workers out there–from grocery stores employees, to public transit, to factory workers to healthcare workers–thank you for everything you are doing to support your community in this unprecedented time. And to my fellow laboratory professionals: I see you when the world might not and I hope you know how valuable your work is in this time.

Total for March 2020: 14 Books Read + 0 Novellas Read

DNF’d: 0 Books

Last March: 10 Books Read + 1 Novellas Read + 0 DNFs

Standout Read (★★★★★)

When Katharine McGee’s Thousandth Floor Trilogy ended I was super excited to see what she would write next. And she did not disappoint with this modern, American Royalty story! The audiobook was addicting!

Biggest Let Down (★★★)

Although I had a mediocre start with the series, I was really looking forward to this story thanks to the inklings we got. But some stupid decisions by our leads really dampened my enjoyment of this novel.

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.)

• Rescue by Rachel Schurig – $5.25
• Close to Me by Monica Murphy – $4.99
• Ransome Brothers by Rachel Schurig – $6.45

Considering I only have the service for just the first week of the month, I got my money’s worth out of it. I didn’t renew my subscription this time around but I’m going to keep an eye out for any deals since I have a few more titles I didn’t get to. In the end, I read $75.27 worth of books (14 in total!) for only $1!

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: 2+1 books added | 7 of 31 Titles Read – On Track!
Goodreads Challenge: 14 books added | #/155 Books –  1 book ahead!
Tackling the TBR Challenge: 1 books added | 2/24 Books – 4 books behind!

View my Challenge Progress Here!

My main mission for 2019 was bringing my “Want to Read” shelf (new to me books) on Goodreads to a number close to 400—and I was pretty darn close (422!)! I also set my “Sequel” shelf to be below 250 titles and I did do that (238)!

So this year, I’m aiming for a “Want to Read” shelf that is less than 400 titles. I’ve also set a goal to get my “Sequel” shelf below 200 titles.

I 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:

Pass	Pass	Pass	Keep	Pass
Pass	Pass	Keep	Keep	Keep

Pass: 6 | Keep: 4

Grand Total YTD: Pass: 14 | Keep: 16

Did I give up on any too soon? Let me know in the comments below!

While this is a monthly meme hosted by Avalinah’s Books, I usually only update every quarter.

My Progress for January to March, 2020:

ARCs Read: 8 | ARCs Overdue: 2+1* | Upcoming: 1

*Titles given to me as a member of an author’s street team to read ASAP.

Going Forward:

I’m really only requesting ARCs for the 3 street/ARC teams that I am a part of. Now that my Kindle Unlimited subscription is finished, the focus is going to be on ARCs and reading books I already own.

The focus for April is on books I already own and cleaning up my overdue ARCs. I was going to subscribe to Scribd (if you have a referral link, leave a comment below and I will sign up with it!) but I think I will wait until May.

What were your biggest reading or personal accomplishments of the past month?
Leave a comment below!

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May 2019

I made lots of changes when it comes to my reading and blogging this month…and it feels pretty great!

Here are some of the big changes I made:

1. I am no longer participating in blog tours
   • I unsubscribed from (nearly) all my mailing lists — more in my State of the ARC section for the details!
2. I am no longer updating my recap section of my blog
   • It’s much too time consuming and there are a lot of other sites that do it better than I do.
   • For now, the pages will remain on site for those I’ve already created and I’ll update those ongoing series. Otherwise, no new summaries from me!
     • You might have noticed I changed my blog header to reflect this 😉
3. I’ve changed my blog posting schedule!
   • Because I’m not reading as much as I used to, I’ve reduced the number of posts I make in a month to help spread out my content.

Why the changes? I still enjoy blogging in my spare time so I didn’t want to take a hiatus but I definitely wanted to reduce some of the pressures I put on myself because of my blog. I needed to make some changes that reflect the changes in my reading life. So that includes eliminating promotional posts (like ARCs since they have deadlines); reducing the amount of stuff I do to create content (like recaps); and posting less to make my content last longer.

I’m not sure if this will be a permanent thing but I definitely want to try doing so until the end of the summer (especially the reduced ARCs).

All those changes were at the start of the month. As May ended, my reading time waned a little bit. I scrambled to finish some ARCs I had committed myself to (all the more reason for the above changes!). But in Canada, when nicer weather comes, you have to seize it, so every spare moment was spent outside getting my house ready for the summer!

Total for May 2019: 13 Books Read + 1 Novellas Read

DNF’d: 0 Books

Last May: 15 Books Read + 0 Novellas Read + 1 DNFs

Standout Read (★★★★★)

This was everything I wanted in a spin-off sequel of one of my all time favourite YA series. It had the right amount of everything: nostalgia, romance, action, characters and it kept my full attention. I’m very excited to read the sequels and see where this series will go.

Biggest Let Down (★★)

While I loved the idea of this companion novel sequel, it just didn’t capture my attention.

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: 1 books added | # of 25 Titles Read – 4 books behind schedule
Goodreads Challenge: 14 books added | 65/200 Books – 17 books behind schedule
Tackling the TBR Challenge: 2 books added | /24 Books – 3 books behind schedule

View my Challenge Progress Here!

I 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:

Pass: 3 | Keep: 7

Grand Total YTD: Pass: 15 | Keep: 35

Did I give up on any too soon? Let me know in the comments below!

While this is a monthly meme hosted by Avalinah’s Books, I usually only update every quarter. I’ve made a special exception for this month because I’ve made some major changes to my personal ARC reading.

This past month, I’ve decided to unsubscribe to the various blog tour groups I’m a part of. It was quite the shock to quit cold turkey but it also felt great–freeing even.

Lately, reading ARCs has felt a little bit like a chore to me. I find I’m always scrambling to get them finished on time (sometimes because I don’t get the ARC right away; sometimes because life gets in the way) and it puts a pressure on me that I don’t want to be reflected in my reading experience and subsequent review of the work.

So what’s the plan going forward?

• Finish out the blog tour hosting dates I’ve signed up for
• Only review books from Street Teams or from author’s who I have worked with in the past
• Unsubscribe from all blog tour email lists
• I’m still a part of Netgalley and other review opportunity groups
  • Why? I find that they are much more flexible with their posting dates and I can likely get the book ahead of the publishing date

While I say this won’t be a permanent thing, I think it will be. Since I’ve made the decision, I feel like a weight has been lifted. And that weight extends to reading in general. I don’t always find the time to read every day but because I lack those deadlines, I don’t feel bad about it. It’s a very freeing feeling.

My Progress for January to May, 2019:

ARCs Read: 20 | ARCs Overdue: 2+1* | Upcoming: 1

(March State: ARCs Read: 10 | ARCs Overdue: 1+1* | Upcoming: 3)

*Titles given to me as a member of an author’s street team to read ASAP.

You can still join in on these discussions:

• SERIESous Discussions: Book Formats by Month [2]
• Movie Mondays: The Hate U Give

May was originally the month I chose for sequels (I have 4 months in a year where I only read sequels) but I switched it to June. For the month of June, I’m only reading sequels (with the exception of some pending ARCs).

What were your biggest reading or personal accomplishments of the past month? Do you still read ARCs? Have you ever made major changes to the content of your blog?
Leave a comment below!

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