TBR Check In: May 2020

Welcome to May! April was weirdly, extraordinarily fast, and I can’t believe we’re here already! This is going to be a big month for me, with a baby due at the end of it, so I’m really not sure what to expect…

Goodreads Reading Challenge

I read 40 books in April, bringing me up to 162 – that’s the same amount as in March, even though I feel like I read less (really I feel like I did nothing in April – it feels like it should still be the first week!). I’ve been working hard on some of my goals, so I’m pleased to see this progress.

My Owned TBR

My owned TBR is all the way down to 465 (from the high 490s last month), despite the fact it was my birthday yesterday! I was generously given 16 books I hadn’t read (as well as several hard copies of things I’ve loved but didn’t own!) so I’m very very impressed with how few books I’ve been requesting and buying through April – we’d be under 450 already if it weren’t for my birthday, haha. Now I just need to make sure I keep up the low-buy and low-request, and I’m sure I’ll get under 450 by the end of the year…

NetGalley

I am SO proud of how I’ve been doing with NetGalley this month! I’m up to 95% (from 83%, and have only 20 books left to review! Looking back at April’s check-in, I started the month with 72 books, so it’s a combo of DNFs, reading, and typing up reviews for books I read a while ago but never submitted, but I submitted 54 reviews in April. Apart from a handful, everything I read this month was from NetGalley (even if I had subsequently bought a physical copy), which goes to show you how very bad it had been… I still have only one book pending (The Unconquered City by KA Doore), but most excitingly, it all fits on one page now!

Finish Series

I reread the first two St Mary’s books as I’d picked them up on NetGalley for some reason, and then pushed on with books three and four, so there is some progress there! I have books five and six also awaiting NetGalley reviews, and I’m hoping to read even further on as I’ve been reminded how much I adore them. I was given books 10 and 11 as birthday presents so there’s no excuse now!

• the Flavia Albia series by Lindsey Davis. 1/7 (with the 8th coming in July 2020).
• The Chronicles of St Mary’s by Jodi Taylor. 4/11 are read, plus bucketloads of short stories and a spin-off series that already has one book out.
• The Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman. 4/6 are read, and 7 and 8 are coming but don’t currently have publication dates.
• The Spellslinger series by Sebastien de Castell. 4/6

Overall

Overall I feel pretty darn good about this month. I can genuinely see the light at the end of the NetGalley tunnel, and it will be such a relief to be able to go back to requesting things I fancy and reading them straightaway, rather than worrying about whether I should be reading something older. If I finish my NetGalley shelf this month, I will turn to clearing my physical review copies too, which I’ve also been working on (there’s some overlap). I also want to continue to unhaul to make a bit of space, so maybe I should start tracking my DNFs too..? But I’m very happy with April’s reading!