Reading Update & January TBR

Books I Read in December

1. The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang ★★★★☆
2. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood ★★★☆☆
3. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz ★★★★★
4. The Goldfinch by Donna Tart ★★★★☆
5. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro ★★★★★
6. Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire ★★★★★
7. Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future by A.S. King ★★★★☆
8. An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim ★★★★☆
9. The Afterlife of Holly Chase by Cynthia Hand ★★★☆☆
10. Mr. Dickens and his Carol by Samantha Silva ★★★☆☆
11. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens ★★★★★
12. Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy ★★★★☆
13. How I Broke Up With My Colon by Nick Seluk ★★★☆☆
14. Everything My Mother Taught Me* by Alice Hoffman ★★★★☆
15. The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly ★★★★☆
16. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker ★★★★☆
17. Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams ★★★★☆
18. Gone Girl by Gillian Glynn ★★★★★
19. Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi ★★★☆☆
20. Kindred by Octavia Butler ★★★★★

*Short story, not a book

Provided by NetGalley and publisher for a fair and honest review.

This month has been busy as hell. I’ve heard people talk about the holidays being a rough time to read, and it really is. I got must of the books I was planning to read. The books I struggled with were mostly during the readathon which was just bad timing. It was my first readathon not finishing everything on my TBR. I finished Before the Coffee Gets Cold after it ended, but I DNFed Watership Down. That was not out of dislike; I was short on time and it wasn’t working. I want to return to it after some time has passed.

I still struggled after the readathon. Traveling makes it harder to read due to time and routine. Reading is very much about the pattern I’ve taught myself, and it is harder to stick to that when I am doing things so sporadically.

Nevertheless, I completed 19 books, and one short story. That isn’t as much as November, but it is still a great amount! This month I learned about NetGalley, and I’ve got 6 or so books lined up that I need to read. I don’t include those here because I am more casual with my ebook/physical reading than my audiobook TBR. I think it will help me read more because I have the NetGalley Deadlines to work with. It is also getting me to explore new releases so I have a better idea of what is coming out. In doing so, I get to start trying books entirely on promotion without the bias of external review. Comments on books aren’t bad, but I like the idea of trying a few without too much info. Ideally, this will also set me up to win e-ARCs for bigger books that I have heard of.

A lot of people give stats at the end of each month. I haven’t done that this year, but I will be doing an end of year stats post. Then moving forward, I intend to provide monthly stats as well.

January TBR

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Josh Hedgepeth (@jjosh.h)

1. Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
2. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
3. In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire
4. The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu
5. Fall on Your Knees by Ann Marie MacDonald
6. Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
7. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
8. Yes, Please by Amy Poehler
9. The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith
10. Wilder Girls by Rory Power
11. Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane
12. The Power by Naomi Alderman

It’s a new month, a new year, and a new decade! I don’t know if my new found reading habit will last the entire decade, but I am going to continue until I can’t. I am in grad school. Sometimes will be busier than others; the most important thing for me, is that I don’t let that stop me from reading when I can. However, I think this is like riding a bike. I may stop for a while, but I figured out how to do an ambitious reading routine before. I can do it again!

This year, I have a goal of 100 books on Goodreads. If I keep up my pattern of 15-20 books a month, then I should be able to do that easily, even if I have slow months where I am busy. This month, I had my wonderful partner help me select (~half) my TBR for the month. She choose the right 5 books off my TBR shelf. Then I choose another 5 or so I wanted to read too. I just thought it would be really fun! Of course, this idea comes from the delightful Books and Lala.

I decided to make it only 5 books because there are still a lot of books I really really want to read. This is just to help me get to books I am only moderately excited for (but still excited!). I decided my TBR in mid December before I left my home to visit family for the holidays. I’ve gotten a lot of new books. Some of them I just can’t wait for! So, I’ve adjusted the TBR slightly from I posted on Instagram. I hopefully will be able to read all these, but I moved The Power down the list because it is a book I am okay postponing in place of my new ones.

I am very particular with what I want to read because I am planning long term. I intend to devote my reading in black history month to black history. That will be primarily black writers (with one exception). So that leaves anything I don’t read this month to March, and that may be a month of only women since it is international women’s month (I haven’t decided if I will make a month long thing).

I may or may not read Underland. I really want to read it, and if I don’t do it this month it may be April before I can read it. I will still aim to read the Power, but it would also fit in Women’s month. One thing is for sure, I will be dropping one of those last three.

Look for my end of year update and stats! Also keep an eye out for my January Readathon.