Month In Review: May 2016

May wasn’t the best month personal wise… One of my cats passed away after she was hit by a car, my knee is still acting up whenever I try to run and I found out two weeks ago I will need to return to the Netherlands temporarily to retrieve some papers if I want to get my permanent visa here in Argentina. Which kind of sucks, because I will have to travel without my hubby and I don’t know how long I will have to stay in Holland in the first place… 😦  The trip is taking up a lot of my time and I haven’t been reading much for the last two weeks or so, but somehow I still managed to read 18 books in May. I guess the Bout Of Books read-a-thon really did wonders for my bookish numbers…

• Number of books read in May: 18
• Total number of books read this year: 82 (+1 reread)
• Total number of pages read in May: 5.578
• Total number of pages read this year: 25.739

I’m way ahead with my Goodreads challenge, which I guess is a good thing since I’m not sure if I will be able to read much during the next few months… May was a pretty good month with 3 books with a 4,5 star rating and only seven books had a 3 star rating or below. I had no 5 star reads in May, but I’m still quite happy with these results!

4.5 STARS: This one was almost perfect. Surely fantastic! 
Hero – by Belinda Crawford // Heartsick – by Chelsea Cain // Housebroken – by The Behrg

4 STARS: Wow, this was really good. Close to amazing!
The Name Of The Star – by Maureen Johnson // The Reader On The 6.27 – by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent // Stars Above – by Marissa Meyer // See How They Run – by Ally Carter // Binge – by Tyler Oakley // Harry Potter Y La Piedra Filosofal – by J.K. Rowling

3.5 STARS: Great read. Really entertaining!
The Improbable Theory Of Ana And Zak – by Brian Katcher // Leaving Time – by Jodi Picoult

3 STARS: It was a nice read, but not fantastic. 
The Strange And Beautiful Sorrows Of Ava Lavender –  by Leslye Walton // All The Rage – by Courtney Summers // Love Letters To The Dead – by Ava Dellaira // The Time Machine – by H.G. Wells // The Little Prince – by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

2 STARS: It was ok. But mostly ‘meh’.
Daughter Of Smoke And Bone – by Laini Taylor // Dumplin’ – by Julie Murphy

In 2016 I decided to join in total four yearly challenges. So far I’m right on track with all of them, so I’m not really worried yet.  Hopefully I will be able to keep this up! I also joined the second Bout Of Books Read-A-Thon (16.0) this year which was hosted in May.

# CHALLENGES #

• Goodreads Reading Challenge: 82/100
• Reading Through The Centuries Challenge: 4/10
• 2016 When Are You Reading? Challenge: 9/12
• The 2016 Bookish Bingo Challenge: 31/35

As for my other blogging goals… I made some progress with my classics, Spanish read and rereads, but overall May wasn’t that good. To make things worse my TBR pile has even increased! since last month. I’m hopeless haha. Running has been terrible as well since my knee is still acting up whenever I try… The cold and wet weather doesn’t really help either.

# OTHER READING/BLOGGING GOALS #

• Read at least 5 classics (rereads don’t count): 3/5
• Complete at least 5 series (rereads don’t count): 3/5 (the murder complex/never never/veronica mars)
• Reread at least 3 books: 2/3 (red queen, harry potter y la piedra filosofal)
• Bring my physical TBR pile below 200 books: 327/200
• Read at least one book over 800 pages: 0/1 (longest book 608 pages)
• Read at least 5 books in Spanish: 2/5
• Join at least 5 challenges during the year
• Finish older reviews that haven’t been posted yet: 4/10
• Update older reviews to new format: 4/14
• Reach 5km running! 2300m/5000m

Happy June and Happy Reading!