June 2024 Reading Wrap Up

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June was a great reading month for me, not in a conventional sense. I only read 5 books this month, which will seem low if you regularly read my wrap-ups, but I had so much joy around books and reading this month that it feels like a major success. I've made weekly library trips, giving myself a constant rotation of new and exciting books. I even took a date to the library to get his library card since he was new to town! I should be employed by the library for how much I promote them, especially the summer reading challenges. I still haven't won any of the raffles, but I'm having a great time, clocking a ton of reading, taking extra library trips, and inspiring my own writing along the way.

stats.

June hit what seems to be my new average reading month. Since podcasts and music have currently displaced audiobooks in my life, my reading totals have sliced in half, and I'm consuming a lot less nonfiction. I'm totally okay with that because I'm still reading a similar amount when it comes to fiction. Even though I've started writing my next manuscript in earnest, I've been able to continue reading and loving it. Always having a giant stack of library books has definitely helped keep me motivated. 
In all, I finished 5 books this month with the last one finished with only a day to spare. Of that, one book was a reread (Normal People), which I love getting to do every once in a while. I feel like I see the most growth in myself when I get to re-experience a book and see the story in a different light with my new life experiences. The rest of the books were new to me and all came out fairly recently. I would've finished even more books if I hadn't stalled out on reading a few times and hadn't picked up and DNF'd a few books along the way. But that's all part of the process! I ultimately finished 1,478 pages this month and gave an average rating of 4 stars.

fiction.

It's all fiction this month, so there won't be a nonfiction section to unpack. Also, I have reviews for all of this reading, but very few of them are published yet because I've been pretty slow to upload. Summer is in full swing, which means working a ton and spending most of my free-time outside hiking, paddle boarding, and enjoying being back home in nature. Full reviews are coming very soon, though!

Normal People by Sally Rooney
5 Stars


The Mother of All Things by Alexis Landau
3 Stars


The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright 
4.5 Stars


5 Stars


Memory Piece by Lisa Ko
3 Stars
what I'm currently reading.

I just finished Memory Piece, so I'm not very far into my new read, but I've just started reading The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley, and I'm loving it so far. I don't typically read time-travel or sci-fi leaning books, but the writing and voice is so strong that I'm willing to let Bradley take me out of my reading comfort zone. I've also been working my way through Save the Cat Writes a Novel pretty slowly since it's a favorite of the Shit No One Tells You About Writing podcast. 

what's next.

Library summer reading is really propelling my love of reading forward. I've been timing how long it takes me to read each book so that I can log it for raffle tickets. Diving deep into the program has made me feel like a kid again, and it's been getting me to actively go to the library at least once a week, so I'm constantly cycling through fantastic books and getting new ones that I'm excited to dive into. I'm getting everyone in my life involved in the library this summer too from my co-workers to taking a random Tinder date to get his library card. My bookish joy is really at a peak at the moment.

in case you missed it.

Before I list my blog posts, I wanted to highlight a bookish article that published this month not on my blog but for Observer. It's my first major freelance article, and I wrote about books to get you excited for the new Sally Rooney book, because of course I had to choose something super on-brand. Here's the link if you'd like to read it!

Comments

  1. AnonymousJuly 1, 2024 at 8:16 PM

    Ohh I definately feel like that’s a good thing! Yes, thats less reading count, but you enjoy them more and you can do more things ☺️

    ReplyDelete

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