I can feel the weather getting warmer and I have to keep reminding myself we’re approaching summer, and it’s not the beginning of the year any more! I’m writing this post on the 29th, as I’ll be super busy for the next couple of days, but because of that I also don’t think I’ll finish any other books this month so this should still be accurate…
Books read:
I read 34 books in May, bringing me up to a total of 173 for the year so far. We’ve had 41.67% of the year, so I’m a little ahead of the game still with 42.35% of my 400 book goal under my belt already. I’d love to be over 200 books read by the end of June!
Despite my Free Choice challenge TBR this month, I’ve felt quite hemmed in with the need to be reading review copies as I’m helping with a big project over at the Fantasy Hive for June, so I haven’t always been able to mood read, which is what helps me go fast. Hopefully with some of those longer books out of the way, I can start being a little more free with my choices again and build up some speed in June. I’d like to read at least a book a day in June!
My Owned TBR:
All I wanted for May was to move the TBR down from 294, and I still didn’t manage that. In fact, it’s gone up again to 305 books. It’s really starting to stress me out – that’s six books higher than it was at the start of January now!
39 books came in during May, and I read 13 of them, so there are 26 being taken forward for the rest of the year. That’s such a high number, especially given that I put myself on a book buying ban for the first week of the month! I think I was just incredibly lucky with review copies and gifts. June should be a little lighter on that front, so I think if I make a concerted effort I should be able to get the TBR back under control. Let’s aim to get it back under 300 this time!
Backlist/Frontlist balance:
I haven’t been keeping track of this at all! I think I’m going to drop it as a category as it’s not as helpful to me as I thought it would be.
Reading Challenges:
I managed 10 out of my 15 challenge books this month, which is pretty good but not ideal. As I said in my final check in yesterday, I’m going to be making slightly shorter TBRs for a couple of months until I get my reading mojo back – June’s TBR post will be up tomorrow and the theme is ‘Just Get On With It’!
Blog posts:
May wasn’t a great month for the blog. Between an A&E trip, the aforementioned Hive project, and major work on our house, I’ve been in a state of near burnout all month and there were quite a few days I didn’t manage to get a post up. I’m pleased with the reviews I did get up, though:
Nettle and Bone by T Kingfisher
How to Train Your Goblin King by Erin Vere
One Foot in the Fade by Luke Arnold
I also posted two Kitten Corner posts, here and here, and two check-ins on my TBR challenge, with mini reviews of the challenge books read, here and here, plus a fun bonus post for the Sister to a Star blog tour!
How was your May? If you’ve written a wrap up post, I’d love to see it – link it in the comments for me to check out!
A Cat, A Book, and A Cup of Tea 
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