May 2024’s TBR & Journal Spreads: new goals and journal designs

May 1, 2024

Another month, another stack of reading goals

April was a pretty good mental health month (aside from the everyday stresses of bringing a new rescue dog into the house), but it was a terrible reading month! I hit another slump, I decided to DNF almost half of what I picked up, and I barely touched my April TBR. But hey, May is a new month and I’m hopeful it will be better! Of course, our summer busy season with family outings starts this week, so time will tell. 😂

April goal check-in: 

  • read 20 books ✅
    • If you include DNF titles (I do), I read 22 books!
  • 3+ blog posts per week ❌
    • Nope, failed this one! I did succeed for the first few weeks, but I didn’t blog at all last week other than a weekly check-in.
  • catch up on at least half of my unwritten reviews ❌
    • Didn’t even touch them 🤡

My goals for May are: 

  • catch up on at least half of my unwritten reviews (yep, I’m repeating this one! I’m currently sitting at 98 in my Goodreads “RTC”/Review-to-Come shelf)
  • finish setting up my new “fun” journal spreads (see journal section below for info)
  • start/read at least 25% of every book on my May TBR

monthly checklist:

I’m going to move this checklist to my wrap-up posts, so this update section will be in my April recap later this week!


May’s picks:

  • Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff: Misty and I meant to read this in April but didn’t get to it yet, so we rolled it over to May.
  • Blood Bonds by J. Bree: Malli, Misty, and I are working through the series (though Malli has read them before). I’m only on book 2 right now, but planning to finish it this week so we can move on to book 3 soon!
  • Winter & Stars Above by Marissa Meyer: Misty and I have been planning to finish this series together for ages and we’re finally going to do it!
  • Murder Road by Simone St. James: I’m buddy reading this one with Ashley!
  • Funny Story by Emily Henry: This was the May BOTM choice for my Discord server and I’m looking forward to it. I’ve loved all of the EH books I’ve read so far!
  • Bluejay by Megan Stockton: This is one of the Dead Readers Society picks for May. I don’t think I’ll be joining the other group reads for that group this month, but I’ve had this on my kindle for ages.
  • Lore of the Wilds by Analeigh Sbrana: Like I said, one of my new goals is to start picking 1-2 very recent hauls for each month’s TBR, and this was in the Fairyloot Romantasy box for April!
  • Why Didn’t You Just Leave edited by Julia Rios and Nadia Bulkin: I’ve been waiting for this for EVER! I backed the kickstarter ages ago and I’m so freaking excited it’s finally here! 🥳
  • The Honey Witch by Sydney J. Shields: This is on my Spring TBR, it releases in May, and it’s one of my most anticipated 2024 releases. I hope it lives up to my own personal hype for it!


May’s reading journal spreads:

I started using a Happy Planner last week to plan out my everyday/non-bookish stuff, so I’ve decided to overhaul my reading journal a little into something that is exclusively geared towards “fun”: books, video games, movies, and other hobbies, basically. It’s very much a work in progress right now, so I don’t have much to show yet, but I did finish my May TBR page and really liked how it turned out, plus this blooper pic of Ella biting my journal was too cute not to share. 😂

What are you reading this month?


destiny

 BOOKSTAGRAMbooktok goodreads | LETTERBOXD | THREADS

More about Destiny @ Howling Libraries

Just a horror aficionado/geek girl trying to juggle motherhood, reading, blogging, gaming, and everyday life.

4 Comments
    1. Oh I love those spreads, the bonus cat in the picture really fit with the pages! Ahaha so cute!

      Good luck with your goals, do your best xx

    1. Good luck with your TBR, it looks like you have some good picks on there! I love that journal shot, I’ve been thinking about getting myself a bullet journal for reading and things like that because I keep seeing TikToks with fun spreads and I want to join in ?

    1. Good luck with your May TBR, I hope you’re having a better reading month! ❤️ I’m so hyped for Murder Road & Funny Story, I hope my library gets the audiobooks soon ?

Say hello! ♥

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.