January has passed way too fast, although I’m glad it’s over because it means less days until the summer is over. I know some of you are freezing right now, but I’ll swap with the 35+°C humidity we have here if you want. (I never thought I would say this, but I prefer freezing over that torture.) January turned out to be an excellent reading month despite some DIY and a camping trip (just one of the trips we planned, we had to cancel the other due to excessive rainfall). I definitely didn’t expect to read this many books! But it turns out that most of my picks were either short or superfast reads in the first place.
Now to the bookish numbers:
- Number of books read in January: 28
- Total number of books read this year: 28
- Total number of pages read in January: 8.800
- Total number of pages read this year: 8.800
I started 2019 well with my first 5 star read already and a lot of other good reads… I did get eleven books with a 3 star rating or below, but overall I’m definitely satisfied with this month.
JANUARY READS
5 STARS: Absolutely and entirely mind blowing! I suggest you to pick up a copy now.
Finding Grace – by K.L. Slater
4.5 STARS: This one was almost perfect. Surely fantastic!
Beneath The Sugar Sky – by Seanan McGuire // Ghost Boys – by Jewell Parker Rhodes // Bright We Burn – by Kiersten White // Exquisite – by Sarah Stovell
4 STARS: Wow, this was really good. Close to amazing!
The Crown Of Embers – by Rae Carson // Mala Vida – by Marc Fernandez // The Treatment – by C.L. Taylor // The BFG – by Roald Dahl // The Winter Sister – by Megan Collins // The Last Time I Lied – by Riley Sager // The Psychology Of Time Travel – by Kate Mascarenhas // When Dimple Met Rishi – by Sandhya Menon // Two Can Keep A Secret – by Karen M. McManus
3.5 STARS: Great read. Really entertaining!
The Couple On Cedar Close – by Anna-Lou Weatherley // A Tragic Kind Of Wonderful – by Eric Lindstrom // End Of The Lie – by Diana Rodriguez Wallach
3 STARS: It was a nice read, but not fantastic.
The Kiss Quotient – by Helen Hoang // Heart Berries – by Terese Marie Mailhot // The Insect Farm – by Stuart Prebble // Here And Now And Then – by Mike Chen // The Painted Veil – by W. Somerset Maugham // The Familiars – by Stacey Halls // The Shattering – by Karen Healey
2.5 STARS: I give this one the benefit of the doubt. Nothing too exciting.
Artemis – by Andy Weir // We Told Six Lies – by Victoria Scott // The Big Sleep – by Raymond Chandler
2 STARS: It was ok. But mostly ‘meh’.
How To Experience Death For Beginners – by Jessica Branton
I joined more challenges than initially planned in 2019, but I feel all have doable goals that shouldn’t take too much work to finish. Things are going way better than planned so far! I’ll need to keep an eye on the Reading Through The Centuries one since it’s always tricky to get new years in (I read two classics but I already had those years listed). But it looks like the other challenges are well on track without even trying. Not bad at all. 😉
# CHALLENGES #
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- Goodreads 2018 Reading Challenge: 28/150
- 2019 Beat The Backlist Challenge: 11/80 books read published in 2018 or 2017 and 8/30 books read published 2016 or before. A total of 19/80 books.
- 2019 Beat The Backlist Epic BTB Bingo: 19/81 books read
- Reading Through The Centuries: 0/5
- 2019 Netgalley And Edelweiss Challenge: 9/50
- 2019 When Are You Reading?: 7/12
- Double Trouble ABC Challenge: TITLE 16/26 // AUTHOR 12/26
As for my other goals… Again things are going way better than planned. I’ve already read two classics, did a reread and finished two series. I also managed to read three international authors/translations already as well as two TBR jar picks. My NG ratio is still going strong, although I do have about 18 pending titles on my shelves. xD I’m also very very happy that my ARC/backlist title ratio is that low! I’m definitely aiming to keep it that way and keep reading those poor backlist titles in the rest of 2019.
# OTHER READING/BLOGGING GOALS #
- Read at least 3 (modern) classics (rereads don’t count) 2/3 (The Painted Veil // The Big Sleep)
- Complete at least 10 series (rereads don’t count) 2/10 (Anastasia Phoenix // The Conqueror’s Saga)
- Reread at least 2 books 1/2 (The BFG)
- Bring my physical TBR pile below 450 books and keep it that way. 528/450
- Read at least one book over 800 pages 0/1 (416 pages; The Crown Of Embers)
- Keep ARC/backlist title ratio below 40% 35,7%
- Read at least 2 books in Spanish 0/2
- Read at least 1 book in Dutch 0/1
- Read at least 15 international authors and/or translations 3/15 (Mala Vida (France) // The Painted Veil (France) // When Dimple Met Rishi (India))
- Read at least 10 TBR jar picks 2/10 (The Insect Farm // The Shattering)
Join at least 5 challenges during the year5/5 DONE!!- Keep my Netgalley ratio above the 80% 94%
Happy February and Happy Reading!
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