After the dizzy heights of April’s 16 books, I hit a bit of a slump in the first half of May and had to put some real effort in to get back on track in the last couple of weeks.
I don’t often get reading slumps so this one was a bit of a surprise, the first couple of books I read didn’t particularly knock my socks off and it took me six days to finish No Is Not Enough – for me that’s an AGE and I generally get irritable to be spending that much time on one book.
ANYWAY, on the bright side, my last minute efforts meant I still got through 11 books in May, which is nothing to be ashamed of. However my slump grump meant that my TBR fell down the priority list and I just chose books that I fancied (as well as buying books I fancied…), so SPOILER ALERT, this is not a positive Unread Shelf update…
The Unread Shelf Project
Pre-2018 TBR: 345
Pre -May TBR: 335
TBR Books Read: 7
TBR Books Given Away: 5
Books Added: 21
Current TBR: 344
Could be worse. Still one lower than the start of the year?
One thing has occurred to me, and that is I’m not actually measuring my progress on my unread shelf because every new book I buy gets added to the TBR, so if I read any of the new ones, it’s technically a TBR book read…but not an unread shelf book (i.e. one I owned before 2018). To remedy this, I’ve created a dedicated shelf in my Goodreads account, and will be adding it to my goals round up each month. I’ll still keep an eye on the overall size of my TBR but the whole point of The Unread Shelf Project is to read those older books, it’s less about whether or not you buy new books (well it sort of is but that’s a secondary concern).
Also, a lot of those 21, I got for FREE. Yes, if you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen that I participated in some market research for Penguin Random House, and as a reward, I got a stack of FREE BOOKS! 😀
Other Goals:
90 Books in 2018: As I was getting so far ahead, I’ve actually upped this to 100 books in 2018. My progress against the new goal is still good – I’m 19 books ahead
60% Books Owned Before 2018: Behind at 50.0%. That also includes a few rereads from last month which are technically owned but aren’t unread. My unread shelf total is currently 26 books.
15% Long Books: Behind at 10.0%. This one is proving to be a bit of a shitter, not least because I inexplicably set the threshold for “long” as 450 pages, when I’ve read LOADS of books that we between 400 and 450. I’ve resisted the urge to lower the threshold. That’s cheating.
25% Non White Authors: Ahead at 26.7%. FINALLY some good news! Small caveat is that most of these have been black authors, so I know I’ve still got a lot of diversifying to do within this goal.
20% International Authors: Ahead at 25.0%. You may remember from last month that it turns out I can’t read my own spreadsheet and that 35% was really quite unrealistic, so we pulled it down to something I might be more likely to achieve. My success at this goal has been largely thanks to Marianne Curley and Fredrik Backman, so could be time for some diversification in this one too!
May Books
Favourites of the Month:
Rating: 5 stars | Review: Goodreads | Pre-order: Amazon | Read if you liked: Beartown
Rating: 5 stars | Review: Goodreads | Purchase: Wordery | Read if you like: Dramatic YA fiction (with the occasional swoon)
I liked:
Rating: 5 stars | Review: Goodreads | Purchase: Wordery | Read if you liked: Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls / Bad Girls Throughout History
Rating: 4 stars | Review: Goodreads | Purchase: Wordery | Read if you liked: In Order to Live
Rating: 4 stars | Review: Goodreads | Purchase: Wordery | Read if you like: Fairytales
Rating: 4 stars | Review: Goodreads | Purchase: Wordery
I had mixed feelings about:
Rating: 3 stars | Review: Goodreads | Purchase: Wordery | Read if you liked: Reasons to Stay Alive
Rating: 3 stars | Review: Goodreads | Purchase: Amazon
Rating: 3 stars | Review: Goodreads | Purchase: Wordery
Rating: 3 stars | Review: Goodreads | Purchase: Wordery
Rating: 3 stars | Review: Goodreads | Purchase: Wordery
What’s on in June?
WELL my friends, I’ve set myself a new monthly challenge to try and get a handle on my various goals. Each month, I have to read the following (ideally before anything else):
So we shall be starting the month with Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty as my TBR Choice, followed by Kindred by Octavia Butler as my Author of Colour. My long book will be a buddy read with @colourlit_UK of The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemison. You’ll have to wait and see for the other two! I will also be reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, and Redefining Realness by Janet Mock, as they’re both library books that are due back soon!
Martha Is 
Great post!
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Thank you!
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