Thanks for joining me for another reading update! Can’t believe this is the 9th one of the year! I started my new job as a speech therapist this month, so I kind of figured it would be a slow reading month for me. Sadly, I didn’t realize how slow. I only read TWO books the entire month of September which made me sad. One was a memoir, and one was an ebook that I had been slowly chugging through on my Kindle for ~2 months. Yikes. I’ll still share my thoughts on those two books, but I also wanted to let you know what I’ve decided to do in October to keep my reading on track. I’m sure a lot of you are back at school or maybe struggling in a new season at your jobs, etc. so hopefully this is helpful!
Here’s my plan (it’s pretty simple):
- Read every day — I’m making it a goal to read every. single. day. Even if it’s the weekend. I’m trying to set aside a certain time of night (right now it’s looking like right after I get home from work is a good time to read) and stick to it.
- Set a goal — in this post, I talk about setting a timer. But sometimes I get distracted and I don’t read as much during that set time. Because I’m 4 books behind my reading goal for 2019, I want to keep up with reading 1 book per week (ish). This is what I’m going to do to make that happen: count up the pages in the current book I’m reading and divide by 7. Example: the book I’m reading now (The Whisper Man) has around 350 pages so I have to read approximately 50 pages per night to finish it in one week!
I know this might seem like a lot of effort to some people, but actually hitting this goal would make me so happy. I love to read. Always have. And if I read 52 books in one year, it means I spent SO much more of my time reading and doing something I love to do. The most I’ve ever read in one year (since I started counting) is 27 books. 52 books is basically double that amount which is insane. Plus, I really want to prove to myself that I can do it. Even with grad school and working full time!
Okay, now that we have a game plan for October, here’s what I read this past month! If you want to catch up on what I’ve read so far this year, here are my reading update posts from January, February, March, April, May, June, July, and August. And if you like keeping up with what I read in real time, you can follow me on Instagram where I post pics of what I’m reading or add me on Goodreads!
33. Wild Game by Adrienne Brodeur
3.5/5 stars.
This memoir was both everything I was expecting and nothing like I was expecting. I thought it was such a drama-filled, interesting perspective of this insane mother/daughter relationship. It was definitely a quick read and sort of left me reeling when it was finished. I couldn’t believe a mother could put her daughter through something so damaging and awful. If you’re looking for an interesting family drama type book this is it!
34. Before We Were Strangers by Renee Carlino
2/5 stars.
I’ve had this book on my Kindle for a year. A few years ago, I read Swear on This Life by Renee Carlino. It was good, so I decided to give another one of hers a try. When I was getting my hair done a few months ago, I pulled it up on my phone in the Kindle app. I had it as a “back-burner read” ever since then. When I realized I had only read one book in September, I was about 60% through with this one so I decided to prioritize reading it and finish it! It wasn’t a favorite, the dialogue was honestly pretty cringeworthy, and the story felt forced a lot of the time. I’d prob skip this one.
BOTM September/October picks.
I always get a ton of questions about which book I picked for my BOTM box so I decided to add it into my monthly reading round-ups since they usually are posted at the beginning of the month. I actually ended up skipping the month for October, but in September I got Shrill, Because Internet, and Wild Game!
I’ve been a BOTM member since May 2017 and I love it! It’s the best book subscription box I’ve found. Every month, Book of the Month chooses five books and I get to pick the one I want. (And if you sign up with my referral link, we’ll both get a free book!)
Currently reading.
The Whisper Man by Alex North. I started this last night after I finished reading Three Women for book club. Side note: I really want to catch up on some thrillers in October! Honestly amazed that I haven’t read very many this year. If you’ve been around here for a little while, you know that thrillers are my fav genre but I’ve been really loving memoirs and literary fiction this year, which is fine. Still, I always appreciate a good mind blowing thriller! The Whisper Man is definitely creepy so far and I’m so glad to be reading it in October.
What are you reading right now? Have you been reading as much as you want to lately?
Find all the books I’ve read so far in 2019 on Amazon!
