Month In Review: August 2019

August turned out to be a busy reading month and despite trying to take a break from blogging, I can’t say I was able to relax much… I blame the #NEWTsReadathon2019 haha. August was the month of a fantastic buddy read with Nicki (The Willow Woman), lots of baking, enjoying the winter sunshine and garden preparations. I’m hoping next month will be more relaxed though! And I’m more than ready to welcome the Spring season…

Now to the bookish numbers:

• Number of books read in August: 24
• Total number of books read this year: 181
• Total number of pages read in August: 8.403
• Total number of pages read this year: 60.650

August turned out to be another excellent reading month and I read way more books than expected, mostly thanks to the NEWTs Readathon. I also found myself not one, not two, but THREE new 5 star reads! On top of that, FIVE other fantastic titles were given the almost perfect rating… Oh yes, I definitely got lucky last month.

AUGUST READS

5 STARS: Absolutely and entirely mind blowing! I suggest you to pick up a copy now.

The Sixth Wicked Child – by J.D. Barker // Twisted – by Steve Cavanagh // The Passengers – by John Marrs

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

Dead Scared – by Sharon Bolton // The Archived – by Victoria Schwab // The Willow Woman – by Laurence Westwood // The Sleepover – by Carol Wyer // Keeper – by Johana Gustawsson

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

An Unwanted Guest – by Shari Lapena // Apple Of My Eye – by Claire Allan // Outrun The Moon – by Stacey Lee // Date Night – by Samantha Hayes // Darius The Great Is Not Okay – by Adib Khorram // To Drink Coffee With A Ghost – by Amanda Lovelace // 29 Seconds – by T.M. Logan // The Old Man And The Sea – by Ernest Hemingway

3.5 STARS: Great read. Really entertaining!

I Am Malala – by Malala Yousafzai // The Madness Underneath – by Maureen Johnson // The Hiding Place – by C.J. Tudor

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

What You Did – by Claire McGowan // Smoke In the Sun – by Renee Ahdieh // The Cellar – by Natasha Preston // Stalking Jack The Ripper – by Kerri Maniscalco

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

The Dream Thieves – by Maggie Stiefvater

---

I have quite a few challenges going on in 2019, but I feel all have doable goals I’m managing to work on without trying too hard. Things are well on track so far in general, and I managed to finish a couple of challenges already! I reached my Goodreads goal quite early in the year and I’ve decided to up my goal to 200 books… I’ve also managed to finish my Beat The Backlist AND BTB Bingo challenge as well as theTitle part of my ABC challenge! Not bad at all, although I should really work on getting those Reading Through The Centuries titles in.

# CHALLENGES #

• • Goodreads 2019 Reading Challenge: 150/150 DONE!!!
  • Goodreads 2019 Reading Challenge UPDATED: 181/200
  • 2019 Beat The Backlist Challenge: DONE!!!! 53/50 books read published in 2018 or 2017 and 61/30 books read published 2016 or before. A total of 114/80 books.
  • 2019 Beat The Backlist Epic BTB Bingo: 81/81 DONE!!!
  • Reading Through The Centuries: 2/5 
  • 2019 Netgalley And Edelweiss Challenge: 50/50 DONE!!!
  • 2019 When Are You Reading?: 11/12 
  • Double Trouble ABC Challenge: TITLE 26/26 DONE!! // AUTHOR 26/26 DONE!!!

As for my other goals… Things are going better than expected, and I managed to keep my ARC/backlist ratio below 40% for the third month in a row… I also managed to finish my international authors/translations goal as well as my series goal! And I’m almost done with my TBR jar goal. My TBR pile in general is pretty hopeless though haha.

# OTHER READING/BLOGGING GOALS #

• Read at least 3 (modern) classics (rereads don’t count) 3/3 DONE!! (The Painted Veil // The Big Sleep // A Wrinkle In Time)
• Complete at least 10 series (rereads don’t count) 10/10 DONE!! (Anastasia Phoenix // The Conqueror’s Saga // Women Are Some Kind Of Magic // Fire And Thorns // The Collector // Beartown // The Wrath And The Dawn // 4MK Thriller // Things That H(a)unt // Flame In The Mist)
• Reread at least 2 books 2/2 DONE!! (The BFG // Harry Potter Y El Caliz De Fuego)
• Bring my physical TBR pile below 450 books and keep it that way. 592/450
• Read at least one book over 800 pages 1/1 DONE!! (813 pages; Colombiano)
• Keep ARC/backlist title ratio below 40% 37,6%
• Read at least 2 books in Spanish 2/2 DONE!! (Harry Potter Y El Cáliz De Fuego // Harry Potter Y La Orden Del Fénix)
• Read at least 1 book in Dutch 1/1 DONE!! (Alles Is Breekbaar)
• Read at least 15 international authors and/or translations  15/15 DONE!! (Mala Vida (France) // The Painted Veil (France) // When Dimple Met Rishi (India) // And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer And Longer (Sweden) // The Courier (Norway) // The Travelling Cat Chronicles (Japan) // The Murmur Of Bees (Mexico) // Bright Burning Stars (France) // Trouble Makes A Comeback (Philippines) // Wolves At The Door (Norway) // The Secret Diary Of Hendrik Groen (The Netherlands) // Us Against You (Sweden) // Block 46 (France) // The Silent Patient (Cyprus) // I Am Malala (Pakistan))
• Read at least 10 TBR jar picks 9/10 (The Insect Farm // The Shattering // Be Frank With Me // Tell The Wolves I’m Home // Sweetheart // The Dead Girls Of Hysteria Hall // The Problem With Forever // The Cellar // The Madness Underneath)
• Join at least 5 challenges during the year 5/5 DONE!!
• Keep my Netgalley ratio above the 80% 97%

Happy September and Happy Reading! 

---

You can also find me at Goodreads. Twitter. Instagram. Facebook. Bloglovin’.