Wait, what? How do you mean it’s already time to wrap up the first month of 2018? I feel like I have been pushed into a time machine and shoved back out in February… Where did January go? It’s 200% summer down here right now and we’ve had various 35+°C heatwaves… I’m actually melting as I’m trying to put together this post right now. I hate the winter months, but I’m starting to seriously reconsider my opinion… Anyone wants to trade? xD It did mean it was a great month to go kayaking, so it wasn’t all bad haha.

I can also officially announce I’ve beaten my most stubborn reading and blogging slump ever and I’m finally fully back in action! I managed to get rid of not only my backlog reviews, but I’m also completely on schedule with my current reviews! It is kind of scary not having pending posts lurking behind my shoulder haha. It does take way a lot of the stress though, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed I’ll be able to keep it this way. I’ve also more or less fully returned to Twitter, something I’ve been missing during my slump. Instagram and Litsy will have to wait a while longer, because I don’t want to overdo it with the social media for now.

Somehow January ended up being a superstrong month with no less than 22 books finished… Although a few of these were either short or superfast reads. Like I said before, I’m right on schedule with my reviews, mostly thanks to my Yvo’s Shorties feature helping me get rid of the backlog. You will definitely see more of this feature on It’s All About Books!

Now to the bookish numbers:

  • Number of books read in January: 22
  • Total number of books read this year: 22
  • Total number of pages read in January: 6.536
  • Total number of pages read this year: 6.536

I didn’t get a new 5 star read this year, but that doesn’t surprise me that much since I don’t hand out the full rating a lot. No less than 10 books were rated 4 stars or above though, something I’m quite happy with. And only three titles received a rating below 3 stars! Not bad at all.

JANUARY READS

4.5 STARS: This one was almost perfect. Surely fantastic! 

Keep Her Safe – by Richar Parker // Deep Blue Trouble – by Steph Broadribb // The Witch Doesn’t Burn In This One – by Amanda Lovelace // Born A Crime – by Trevor Noah

4 STARS: Wow, this was really good. Close to amazing!

The Bunker Diary – by Kevin Brooks // The Tattooist Of Auschwitz – by Heather Morris // The Hating Game – by Sally Thorne // The Silent Girls – by Dylan Young // Vanishing Girls – by Lisa Regan // The Camera Lies – by AB Morgan // Station Eleven – by Emily St. John Mandel

3.5 STARS: Great read. Really entertaining!

The New Hunger – by Isaac Marion // Stage Four – by Sander Kollaard // Best Friends – by Carys Jones

3 STARS: It was a nice read, but not fantastic. 

Life In Outer Space – by Melissa Keil // Her Last Lie – by Amanda Brittany // The Ends Of The World – by Maggie Hall // From Bad To Cursed – by Katie Alender // Under Rose-Tainted Skies – by Louise Gornall

2.5 STARS: I give this one the benefit of the doubt. Nothing too exciting.

The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo – by Amy Schumer // Unclean Spirits – by Chuck Wendig

2 STARS: It was ok. But mostly ‘meh’.

Halfway – by Lokesh Sharma

I haven’t joined a lot of challenges this year so far, mostly because I decided to focus more on ‘fun’ reading and less on goals I have to complete. Things are going way better than thought though, mostly because I finally did recover fully from my slump… And I was able to both cross off a lot of ARCs and read a bunch of books for the Beat The Backlist challenge.

# CHALLENGES #

As for my other goals… I managed to get started by completing my first series and read already three! international authors, which I’m really happy about. Note: I’m calling authors international when they were born in a non-English country (AKA UK, Ireland, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, you get the idea). As for the rest of them: the classics and rereading will have to wait until I have more time, but I’m hoping to at least squeeze in a Dutch read by next month. The challenges I will probably complete whenever I can participate in the next BoB read-a-thon… And as far as running goes: I’m having a bout of bad luck with injuries, so I haven’t really been able to exercise much. Fingers crossed my knee/ankle will stop messing with me this month so I can slowly try and get back on track!

# OTHER READING/BLOGGING GOALS #

  • Read at least 3 classics (rereads don’t count) 0/3
  • Complete at least 5 series (rereads don’t count) 1/5 (The Conspiracy Of Us)
  • Reread at least 2 books 0/2
  • Bring my physical TBR pile below 300 books and keep it that way. 389/300
  • Read at least one book over 800 pages 0/1 (maximum 442 pages)
  • Read at least 1 book in Spanish 0/1
  • Read at least 1 book in Dutch 0/1
  • Read more international authors/translations (at least 10) 3/10 (Stage Four (The Netherlands)/ Born A Crime (South Africa)/ Halfway (India))
  • Join at least 5 challenges during the year 4/5
  • Keep my Netgalley ratio above the 80% currently at 96%
  • Reach 5km running! 2000m/5000m

Happy February and Happy Reading! 

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