Well evidently I just gave up on doing a published TBR list for March, but I had planned 5. Of those 5, I read 3 and DNFd too, plus finished 3 others for a total of 6 finished.
The Plan:
1 – BOTM book
1 – book gifted to me
2 – Amazon First Read books
1 – ARC
The Result:
I had a couple of stinkers this month, and both were from Amazon First Reads, so I’m kind of turned off from them this month. The Paid Bridesmaid was shallow and dull, and Like Me was gross for the sake of being shocking, I guess? It didn’t feel like it had a point.
On the positive side, I read a new release I got from Book of the Month Club that I enjoyed in Peach Blossom Spring! Finally, a BOTM that didn’t disappoint. An Ember in the Ashes was a Christmas gift that I finally got around to, and it was enjoyable but not mind-blowing. Two Fast Forward Friday titles were checked off the list with Loveboat, Taipeiand You Truly Assumed and both were again decent but not mind-blowing. And finally, A Court of Mist and Fury… which led me to the actually mind-blowing realization that maybe I just don’t like Sarah J Maas anymore. 🤯
I planned 4, and read 3 of those 4, but finished 8 total books.
The Plan:
I really only planned about 4 books. Three of the four I expected to be slower reads for me, either due to length or complexity. I was like half accurate with that. xD
I didn’t plan on much, really…
The Result:
I read 3 of my 4 books, but I ended up reading a whoooole lot more. Turns out The City of Brass is exactly the kind of book I love wildly, and I immediately purchased and read the next two books in the series in the same month, for a total of over 1500 pages just from those 3 books. xD I think I also actually binged a webcomic series or two, but for whatever reason I didn’t add those in. Ah well.
Hey y’all! Since I already took a look through the usual Goodreads year-end stats, now I’m pivoting over to The Storygraph. I used it pretty consistently through 2021, so I’m excited to see full-year stats from it for my first time! Considering their specialty is partly in their statistics (and even more so since I have Plus) I have a lot to enjoy!
The Pies
So the first chart is both simple and gloriously detailed: my pie graph of books I read by mood this year! 2021’s top moods were emotional, adventurous, and lighthearted. I guess that pretty much covers all of my usual moods: cathartic crying, energized excitement, and silly smiles.
With two books each, my lowest were “sad” (You’ve Reached Samand Red Thread of Fate) and “inspiring” (Idol Gossip, what?? and Not Here To Be Liked). Admittedly I don’t think I would call either of those last two inspiring, but ok.
My top 3 make up just about 50% of my reading, but the other half is a generous spread. I guess I’m okay with that? I’m reading for enjoyment in the end, so I’ll continue enjoying what I do!
Pace
Also unsurprising that my most common pace is medium. More surprised that this is actually kind of even! And not sure if I’m surprised a quarter of my books are slow-paced — did I think it would be higher or lower? I feel like I flew through a lot of books this year, but I also remember having some that were a winding journey.
For December I had planned 7, all Fast Forward Friday titles from the year. And I read all seven!! It was so luxurious to give time to these anticipated titles and for the most part, they did not disappoint. 🙂
The Plan:
The Result:
Heart AND Seoul. But I’m not going to redo the picture again.
So I read a lot in December with the holiday time off, but several of those were also graphic novels that read a bit quicker than text-only novels. Side note, I’ve never differentiated something as a “text-only novel” and it was an odd moment as I figured out what to call it.
I’m taking a look at compiling all the delicious data about my reading in 2021, starting with what Goodreads gives me. I moved away from Goodreads towards the end of the year as I got way more consistent with using The Storygraph. Still, I tried to keep the titles and tags up to date on GR as well, though sometimes not until after I had already finished a book.
Also, miscellaneous fun fact, they apparently changed the book graphic at the top of their stats compared to last year from looking at my post for 2020!
Books read: 123 Pages read: 35,881
No surprise that I met my Goodreads goal this year, but I read 123 books! I assume it’s due to blogging in the past couple years that my average books per year has gone up so much. It used to be closer to 60! Honestly, the pages count is kind of tough for me to compare anything to because it’s just such a giant number. But there it is!
I’m constantly aggrieved that due to the visual of five stars, three stars becomes “average” or the middle ground, WHEN IT’S NOT!!! But y’all I know if I told you I thought a book was decent and rated it 2.5 stars you’d think I were saying two different things. And god forbid it’s a favorite book. xD I’m surprised yet not that my average book length is 291. I read a lot of graphic novels so that probably brings the count down a bit, and I do tend to be in the 300s otherwise and not too many chonky books.
Perfect example! My shortest book, the graphic novel Elle(s): The New Girl. With Lore Olympus, it’s a bit… fake. This is why the page count stat is so iffy for me! L.O. is a webcomic, so since it’s not in a print format I have no idea how anyone determines the page length. It was pretty long probably, but a thousand pages? Unsure.
Bahahahaha this still cracks me up. I couldn’t even write a full review for this book because it was just so overwhelming for me at the time. I went in feeling lukewarm at best, but wanted to read it because it was a gift, plus I hoped Maas wouldn’t lead me astray since I usually enjoy her series’. And… well… clearly, I was not disappointed in the end!! 😍
I’m really excited that this is my highest rated title, because it damn well deserves to be. It’s book number 4 in the Fire Within series by Ella M Lee, and I might have to say that it was my favorite new find in 2021. There was nothing about any of the books that disappointed me, especially when taking the story as a whole.
I re-read Eragonthis year because I kept thinking, What’s a book like Eragon that I could read? and nothing really hit right until I realized I should just read Eragon since that’s clearly what I wanted. I also went through a big poetry kick in April, which conveniently was poetry month anyway! I assume so few people have this one shelved because they probably have an older version shelved. Naidu is a hugely influential Indian woman from the past, and her poetry was only one aspect to a really incredible life. There’s no way only 10 people have read her works, because that would be a travesty.
And finally, all 123 books in a teeny tiny chart!!!
Some of these are a little bit weird, because my five stars have two versions of the same one (Lore Olympus webcomic & print version), but it’s probably mostly accurate! One thing I can say is to expect a lot more books falling in that 2 star category, because as I mentioned, my irritation with 3 becoming default when it’s mathematically not is pushing me to be more generous with my 2-star “it was okay” rating on Goodreads.
That’s it for the Goodreads wrap up y’all! What’s your favorite stat to see in the Goodreads Year in Books feature? I always love the most & least popular!
I planned nine-ish with an expectation that I would get through about 7 of them. I ended up reading 11, and as expected, half of those unplanned. 😁
The Plan:
I had a few ARCs, and few BOTMs, a few library loans, a few recent purchases on this list. That basically is the list, actually.
The Result:
HOOOOO BOY. I think the last day of October, I had barely started a book I found on Booksirens called Fire Within and I was like yeah I’ll give it a go. And then I LOVED it, and proceeded to read book 2, book 3, and book 4 in the series voraciously. The only reason I haven’t immediately started number 5 yet is because once I finish it, I’ll have to wait for more (if there are more?) and I don’t want that. 😭
I did finish three ARCs as well, and one was surprisingly good and one was surprisingly not great. What about the third, you ask? Beasts of a Little Land was as good as I had hoped (pub 12/7!). 😍 I was also torn on my BOTM pick, Keeper of the Night,where I absolutely loved it for most of the way through and then the way it ended seemed to hint at a direction I have ZERO interest in for the continuation in book two. 😐
I read 4 of the 7 books I planned, and 10 total. Can you tell I got mood-reader-swayed this month a little bit? Plus time on vacation had very little reading time!
The Plan:
Three of these were what I consider “obligatory reads” where I am trying to read them as part of a challenge, or because I got it from a book box, or something else where it’s not entirely just because I want to. Golden Boys Beware is secretly Foul is Fair, with a new name and cover. And yes, I bought this edition too. This might be my favorite book. As in, the #1 spot, THE favorite. So it’s yearly read must, and fits October perfectly!
I didn’t plan too many for September: a modest five. And I guess I should stick to that habit because I read 4 of those 5! Plus another… whole bunch!
The Plan:
Hello (From Here) was one I was waiting on as an advanced copy, but it ended up taking a while so I got it just after the publish date. I still read it right away, so there was no surprise with that one! Bad Luck Bridesmaid was a surprise ARC that I had to grab because it sounded so perfectly wonderful, and happily, it was even better than I had hoped. 😍 Keep an eye out for that review & publish date early next year!
The Result:
The Never Tilting World is going to get read… eventually. But for now it’s pushed out to the October tbr (and to be honest… probably will continue to be pushed out haha).
Hey y’all! It’s been a little bit, but here’s a small update about how things are going. 🙂
~reading
How many books that I planned did I read?
I planned 8 books and read 5 of those, plus one other that I added during the month.
The Plan:
The Result:
The book that I attempted was one I found, tried, and quickly hated. That’s all I’ll say, because it’s not worth any more time.
The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina didn’t really pull me in because it seems to be told in the perspective of about thirty different people, and that is REALLY not what I wanted any time recently. So I might go back to this, but at the moment I’m just reading a chapter here and there. The Land of Big Numbers was similarly vignette-ish, so same story: even though they were interesting and compelling, that’s probably a later thing.
I *did* however finally finish Skyhunter a year after I learned that I had won it from Goodreads! For real, I got the memory reminder this week. I just made it. 😂
~life
Still some health stuff keeping things limited in August, but getting better. On top of that, work was pretty hectic so there were some long days in there.
~blog
I didn’t do a whole lot of posting myself, but I did read some fabulous ones from other folks! Take a look and check them out. 😊
Here are some of my favorite posts I worked on this month, in case you missed them!
I planned six and I read five of those, plus four others I picked up during the month
The Plan:
The Result:
For the Wolfis one I’ve just kind of hit a wall with. I don’t know why I’m not that into it, I’m just… not. So it’s kind of in limbo right now. I read some every now and then, but usually opt for something else instead. I’ll probably finish it… eventually.
My Book Joy 