TBR Check In: June 2020

So I’m a few days late with my check in this month, but given that I gave birth to a whole human on the 26th May, I think I can maybe be allowed a little leeway! We’re both doing really well, but as gorgeous and wonderful as my lovely boy is, he’s definitely put a bit of a slowdown on my reading progress, so it remains to be seen how the rest of the year will go, haha…

Goodreads Reading Challenge

I read 33 books in May, bringing me up to 195 by the end of the month. I’m pretty sure I’ll manage to hit that 200 target for the year! I even started a book while at the hospital waiting to be assessed on the labour ward (though I didn’t manage to finish that one til a week later… I wonder why!)

My Owned TBR

My owned TBR is down to 436, from 465 last month, so I definitely undid the damage caused by my birthday! I only had one reread, Calling on Dragons by Patricia C Wrede (which I wanted to reread while still pregnant as the heroine herself is pregnant while on the adventure!) so most things came off my TBR. I also DNFed a whole bunch of ebooks I’d picked up for free over the years – I wanted to have a bit of a clearout of things I’d lost interest in, or things I discovered I wasn’t a fan of the writing style of. I did receive some ARCs this month (some pretty amazing ones – Orbit Books is having a great summer!) so that added a few to the list, but I don’t think I bought a single book for myself!

NetGalley

On May 16th I officially finished my NetGalley shelves! Yep, all the way to 100%, no books left waiting or pending! I will come back to reviewing e-ARCS from NetGalley eventually, but for now it’s nice not to have a ridiculously long list hanging over me, so I can focus on reading some of the physical copies I have on the shelf.

Finish Series

I finished two more of the St Mary’s books in May. These are just wonderful reads, really engrossing and fun, and I can’t wait to read the rest of the series – I’m over half way now. The other series have still been rather neglected, sadly.

• 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. 6/11 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’m very pleased with how May went. There was downwards progress on the TBR as a whole, and having that NetGalley obligation gone is a fantastic feeling. So far in June I’ve read a grand total of three books (one of those started, as I say, while in labour back in May, and one just a novelette), so I have a feeling this is not going to be my finest reading month, but for the first time (possibly in my life!) reading is not my top priority…  You probably won’t see many posts from me for a few weeks while I adjust, but I’ll be back soon, I’m sure!