Month In Review: April 2015

May has arrived and it’s time to review the numbers. Autumn has officially arrived as well with various rainy and cold days… I don’t like the cold winter months, but it does mean I get to read more. Nothing better than curling up in my favorite chair with my cat on my lap, a steaming cup of coffee and a good book! 😀 My hubby got me a new kindle for my birthday back in march, and I have been using it looooong hours all April. I had a lot of spare time to read and it shows: no less than 17 books finished, a new record! Yay! 😀 And the pagecount is about 2.000 pages higher than previous months. I still cannot believe I was able to read this much! I guess I’ve set my Goodreads goal way too low if I can keep these numbers up…

• Number of books read in April: 17
• Total number of books read this year: 45
• Total number of pages read in April: 6.219
• Total number of pages read this year: 17.354

No less than 17 books finished; a new record! April was my best reading month since I’ve started this blog… And more importantly: I really enjoyed most books I’ve read last month, with only three ratings below three stars. Below you can find a list of the books I’ve read in April going from favorite to least favorite. Two reviews are still in the process of being written and will be published soon…

• Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows – by J.K. Rowling  (5/5)
• The Last Time We Say Goodbye – by Cynthia Hand  (5/5)
• And Then There Were None – by Agatha Christie  (5/5)
• Fangirl – by Rainbow Rowell  (4,5/5)
• Red Queen – by Victoria Aveyard  (4,5/5)
• Ruin And Rising – by Leigh Bardugo  (4,5/5)
• The Storyteller – by Jodi Picoult  (4,5/5)
• Dorothy Must Die – by Danielle Paige (4/5)
• I’ll Give You The Sun – by Jandy Nelson  (4/5)
• The Husband’s Secret – by Liane Moriarty  (4/5)
• The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend – by Kody Keplinger  (4/5)
• Funereal – by Giacomo Lee  (4/5)
• Backfire – by Catherine Coulter  (3,5/5)
• The Metamorphosis – by Franz Kafka  (3/5)
• We Were Liars – by E. Lockhart  (2,5/5)
• Vampire Academy – by Richelle Mead (2/5)
• Evensong – by Krista Walsh  (2/5)

Like I said before, this year I’m doing things slightly different and I’m including an update for the different challenges I’m participating in as well. That way I won’t be having a dozen update posts wandering around. 😉 I’m still participating in five all-year reading challenges as well as my own challenge. Also, I’ve decided to join the Bookish Bingo Ready For Spring Challenge; a challenge that will run during the months of April, May and June. I’ve again made progress in most challenges, so things are looking good! I’ve included a picture of my progress in both Bookish Bingo challenges below as well. Two bingos so far already with the Bookish Bingo Ready For Spring challenge, yay! 😀

# CHALLENGES #

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 45/60
The Official 2015 TBR Pile Challenge: 7/10
Dusting Of The Shelf Reading Challenge: 7/10
Bookish Bingo 2015: 29/45
2015 When Are You Reading? Challenge: 8/12
Reading Through The Centuries Challenge: 9/10
Bookish Bingo Ready For Spring: 13/25

With the other reading and blogging goals I’m still not as far as I would have liked, although I’ve managed to finish my Harry Potter reread as well as the reading classics goal. With the review updates I’m still nowhere close, but I’ve started a Review-A-Thon which lasts until May 17th, so hopefully I will be able to reduce the number of unfinished reviews by then. Fingers crossed! As for my TBR pile; I think I can easily just forget about that goal, because it will be impossible to read 150 books before the end of the year. And I don’t think I will stop buying new books either. 😉 Still no Spanish books, and I’m not sure I will read one in May… I have so many English books I’m really excited about that I have been neglecting my poor Spanish books. Oops!

# OTHER READING/BLOGGING GOALS #

• Read at least 5 classics
• Finish rereading the Harry Potter series 
• Complete at least 5 series: 3/5 (The Infernal Devices Trilogy/ Divergent Trilogy/The Grisha Trilogy)
• Bring my physical TBR pile below 50 books: 200/50
• Read at least one book over 800 pages: 0/1 (highest amount: 796 pages)
• Read at least 5 books in Spanish: 0/5
• Join at least 5 challenges during the year
• Finish older reviews that haven’t been posted yet: 0/10
• Update older reviews to new format: 9/32

Happy May and Happy Reading! 😀