🎶Do you remember? Reading seven books in September?🎵

Remember in my most recent Libroqueue post when I said “I wholly expect this 780-page beast of a book to take me two months; so if I get halfway through in September, I’ll be happy” about reading Joe Hill’s The Fireman?

Yay! Another good month of reading! And I also kicked off a new audiobook since I’m finally making my triumphant return to the gym.

Much like the U.S. Presidential campaign cycle, I did a lot of flexing around unexpected changes with my reading goals this past month.

I had a good month with reading. Started strong, slowed down but remained consistent in the middle, and finished relatively well.

Between not being able to truly commit to a book this month and going on vacation with no desire to read anything at all, I was cutting things pretty close in the end. But here’s how my reading went…

Still rocking that reading goal!!

Happy Easter, y’all!

I’m still sticking to the goal count… just not necessarily the goal titles.

Yup. Promising myself five books each month is winning so far! More stresses me out too much.

I think keeping a goal of no more than five books a month is going to be the best way to move forward with my monthly reading goal.

I knew it was just a matter of time before I hit a wall…

Not a bad way to begin my close out of 2023! 

I didn’t commit to as many books in August as I normally would or that I would need to read to make my annual goal (five per month) if not for the fact that I was already way ahead. 

I actually got one of my books done! It’s the one I’d been reading for longer. About a month, in fact.

Why am I having trouble maintaining consistent focus on the two non-graphic-novel books I’m committed to finish reading this month?

There is absolutely zero consistency to my reading habits. One month I frontload it, the next it’s backloaded, and this month was so spread thin that I wasn’t sure anything would get done. But I managed a few.

Unlike in April, where I made a late surge in reading, I read five books in the first half of May and then hit a lull when we went on vacation. Here's the recap...

I love those months where, for the first 15-20 days, you only finish one book. And you start to sweat about achieving your goal. Then, bam bam bam bam bam… you hammer out five books in the final 10 days without even batting your eyebrows. Goal achieved. Actually, goal surpassed!

Well, this sucks. I scheduled this post to go live without finishing it. If you were here earlier today, you saw it half baked. Whoops. Let’s live blog the fixes, shall we?

Okay, so maybe I aimed a bit high for such a short month. Shall we recap?

We are 8.33% of the way through 2023. WTF??

I just typed “2023” in the title of a post. Weren’t we supposed to have jet packs and flying cars by now? Oh vey.

It’s cold. Damn cold. I need a blanket, a cup of hot coffee, and a book. See you next spring!

The reading continues and this post is waaayyyy ex post facto!

The reading continues!

Hey, I mostly finished my reading goal this month! Not in names, but numbers. That still counts!

You knew it had to happen eventually, right? This was, indeed, my slow-down month. Even worse than last month, in fact. Ugh.

It was a weird reading month. Started slow, picked up in the middle, and slowed down again at the end.

For the first time in like ever, I read far more books than graphic novels. It felt good but I hate that I didn’t get to two of the books on my May list. 

608 pages of graphic novels.

4 days.

Can he do it?

Stay tuned. 

Ten more books. Ten!! What the heck is wrong with me?? Every month I say it has to slow down or stop completely and it’s not. WTH??

Ohhhhh, buddy! While it slowed down a bit at the end (because of vacation), I still had another good month in March!

Okay, usually a very overachieving month for me is followed by a massive lull the next month. Not so here.

I finished my third book of February earlier tonight, marking my 13th of 2022 out of my 48-book goal.

WOW! I had a pretty amazing January in terms of reading. And, while I know some people don't tend to look so kindly on graphic novels when it comes to reading goals, I don't care. I won't count individual issues, but I will count graphic novels and collected editions, as most of you know. And, yes, that did boost my count a little. But, again, I don't care.