It seems like my 5 Step Plan to beat my slump has been working and I think August has been my best reading month yet! Part of the reason might be that I have been restricting my social media access and slowing down with all things blogging… I do miss bloghopping and using social media, but if it means I get my mojo back I’m willing to sacrifice for now. 😉 I was going to read my own books last month, but decided to try and get my Netgalley shelf under control instead. And against expectations it worked!! I managed to get to a ‘healthy’ 5 pending ARCs number and my ratio is up to 96%… Now find a way to keep it that way haha.

As for the bookish numbers:

  • Number of books read in August: 22
  • Total number of books read this year: 147
  • Total number of pages read in August: 7.302
  • Total number of pages read this year: 48.660

Thankfully August was another good month and I even managed to add another 5 star rating to my list! Fourteen titles and counting now this year… Nine other titles were 4 star or above so that definitely makes me happy. I had a few lower ratings as well but all in all I can’t complain.

5 STARS: Absolutely and entirely mind blowing! I suggest you to pick up a copy now. 
A Monster Calls – by Patrick Ness

4.5 STARS: This one was almost perfect. Surely fantastic! 
The Little Red Wolf – by Amélie Fléchais // Hide And Seek – by Richard Parker // The Other Girl – by Erica Spindler // Midnight At The Bright Ideas Bookstore – by Matthew Sullivan // The Kind Worth Killing – by Peter Swanson // The Missing Girls – by Carol Wyer

4 STARS: Wow, this was really good. Close to amazing!
The Ask And The Answer – by Patrick Ness // Reincarnation Blues – by Michael Poore // Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland – by Lewis Carroll

3.5 STARS: Great read. Really entertaining!
The Lying Game – by Ruth Ware // The Jungle Book – by Rudyard Kipling // Little Fires Everywhere – by Celeste Ng

3 STARS: It was a nice read, but not fantastic. 
Fierce Kingdom – by Gin Phillips // The Accident – by S.D. Monaghan // Monsters Of Men – by Patrick Ness

2.5 STARS: I give this one the benefit of the doubt. Nothing too exciting. 
Beautiful Broken Things – by Sara Barnard // Sister – by Rosamund Lupton // Dead To Me – by Stephen Edger // Girl In Snow – by Danya Kukafka // Never Let Me Go – by Kazuo Ishiguro

2 STARS: It was ok. But mostly ‘meh’.
The Secret Of Heaven – by Felix Alexander

Somehow I have joined way more challenges than usual this year, but at least I’ve already made a lot of progress with most of them so far. I managed to finish another challenge this month! 😀  The ABC Author challenge is now completed… I’m also considering the Netgalley challenge done since didn’t really have a goal in the first place and I already have reached the ‘magical’ number of 100 ARCs this year. I really have to keep working on both my Reading Through The Centuries and Beat The Backlist challenge though.

# CHALLENGES #

As for my other goals…I managed to maintain my Netgalley ratio above 80% and even almost clean out my shelf completely, which I’m very happy about. I’ve also finally finished a book in Dutch, added two new classics and finished another series. I’m hoping to finish those two goals by the end of September! Things are pretty hopeless when it comes to my TBR pile though…. I really should do a kindle clean out to get rid of some titles I would probably never read anyway.

# OTHER READING/BLOGGING GOALS #

  • Read at least 5 classics (rereads don’t count) 4/5 (The Color Purple, Little Women, The Jungle Book, Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland)
  • Complete at least 5 series (rereads don’t count) 4/5 (Shades Of Magic, The Dominion Trilogy, Confessions, Chaos Walking)
  • Reread at least 3 books 1/3 (The Perfect Stranger)
  • Bring my physical TBR pile below 250 books 393/250
  • Read at least one book over 800 pages (maximum at 624 pages)
  • Read at least 2 books in Spanish 0/2
  • Read at least 1 book in Dutch DONE 1/1
  • Join at least 5 challenges during the year
  • Keep my Netgalley ratio above the 80% currently at 96%
  • Start a Twitter account and use it regularly
  • Reach 5km running! 2000m/5000m

Happy September and Happy Reading! 

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