Another month, another stack of reading goals

Whew, March was ROUGH, y’all. My mental health spent almost the entire month flushed right down the toilet and I barely read a thing. I was curious so I looked back through my old stats and the last time I read only 10 books in a month was April of 2022! I’m not upset about it, because 10 books is still a great number and I’m happy for any reading progress I made, but as someone who typically averages 20-25 books per month, it was definitely a letdown to struggle so much with my reading this month. I even considered trying to crank out as much reading as I could yesterday just to finish off a few and bring up my numbers, and then I was like, you know, who cares? Why rush myself when the numbers don’t matter? 🤷‍♀️ Hopefully April will be a better reading month for me, but not because of the numbers, just because this truly is my favorite hobby in the world and I missed it a lot these past few weeks. Anyway, though… on to the new month’s TBR!

March goal check-in: 

• blog 3+ times per week ✅
  • I missed one post last week, but otherwise, this one was a success!
• post to bookstagram 4+ times per week 🤷‍♀️
  • I succeeded two weeks and failed two weeks on this one, so it was halfway a win.
• make significant progress on my 2024 reading goals ❌
  • Er… no 😭

My goals for April are: 

• read 20 books (again, I won’t be upset if I fail, but it would be nice to get back on track!)
• 3+ blog posts per week again
• catch up on at least half of my unwritten reviews (currently sitting at 92 in my Goodreads “RTC”/Review-to-Come shelf)

monthly checklist:

I’m still rolling over the books I didn’t read yet from previous monthly goals on this list, and unfortunately, I’m pretty far behind! 😅 I have a notebook at my desk where I write down every book I would like to read in a given month (like a “pipe dream” list – you know, if I suddenly got paid big bucks to ONLY read all day every day lol!) and my April page is a DOOZY. 🤣 I’m not even going to pretend I’ll accomplish most of it, but hey, who knows?!

• 2 books from 2024 TBR (+3  leftover)
  • leftover: Cabin at the End of the World, What Feasts at Night, An Education in Malice
  • new: Ghost Station, Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice
• 2 books from seasonal TBR (+2 leftover)
  • leftover: That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon (current read), A Feather So Black
  • new: Legendary, Drowned Country
• 2 titles from TBR jar (+5 leftover)
  • leftover: Darkest Unsolved Mysteries, Snuff, Let’s Go Play at the Adams’, An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good, If You Tell
  • new: Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places, We Are Here to Hurt Each Other
• 2 prompts from TBR jar (+2 leftover)
  • leftover: Terry’s choice, sci-fi
  • new: unread by a fave author, on my TBR 2+ years
• 2 books from 2024 series goals (+6 leftover)
  • leftover: City of Heavenly Fire, Caraval, Legendary, Finale, Thirteens (current read), Brackenbeast
  • new: Glassheart, Dragon Unleashed
• 1 book from 35 by 35 TBR (+2 leftover)
  • leftover: The Shadow of What Was Lost (current read), Exquisite Corpse
  • new: Brother
    

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April’s picks:

• The Jasad Heir // Sara Hashem → Books Out of the Blue BOTM (discord)
• The Duchess Deal // Tessa Dare → buddy read with Ashley
• A Feather So Black // Lyra Selene → buddy read with Misty
• Illuminae // Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff → buddy re-read with Misty (RE-READ)
• Foxglove // Adalyn Grace → buddy read with Misty, Reg, and Erin
• Empire of the Damned // Jay Kristoff → buddy read with Misty
• Savage Bonds // J. Bree → buddy read with Misty and Malli
• Assistant to the Villain // Hannah Nicole Maehrer → recent haul/mood read

April’s reading journal spreads:

This set of spreads was actually my second theme attempt for April! It was originally going to be this cutesy pastel purple gingham ordeal, and while it was fun, it wasn’t “me”. I started over, using butterfly stickers and coffee ring stamps as my inspo, and letting the muse lead me. I’m quite happy with how these turned out! The habit trackers were a lesson learned in stamping calendars, but otherwise, I’m pleased. 🥰☕🦋

What are you reading this month?

— destiny ♥

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