Books to Read in June

June is Pride Month, but I read from LGBTQAI+ authors ALL year long. 

It's my birthday month and I have a lot of rereads, a lot of my favorite screen adaptations and lots of relaxing. Month long TBRs aren't really my style, but I am going through books I own + my current KU library, and trying to make progress on some titles. 

This coming month will bring us Summer days, and loads of appointments. It's a medical heavy month, and July will be a travel heavy month, but I am adamant about making this summer and reading summer!

Audio Reads

I LOVE this series

Excited to read these on kindle

update: DNF @51%

did not enjoy this
it could be me
i'm not a traditional
mystery reader.

Current Reads Beginning of Week May 29

Fresh off of the page count challenge and I am reading the Emily Henry, Me Before You (re-read), and still have to make progress in Mistress and Maid. 

I need to do a page a day in the classic, as I am lightening up my reading. It has been getting pushed to the background. I will not DNF it. 

DNF. hated it. bored to tears.

currently page 94

74% done

I should finish Me Before You today and maybe the Emily Henry...hmmm

Happy reading! ☕️

Reducing My Physical Library From 40 to 10 books

As an ever-evolving minimalist, I continue to run into a personal issue with beautiful books.

Nothing (of course) is wrong with having a big and beautiful book collection, but I will move and I don't want to transport them, and I never read them. 

I am a kindle reader mainly, so aside from just looking at them ever so often, they just sit there.

I have so many gorgeous classics, it feels a shame to get rid of them, but I've been here before and got rid of about 100 classics and collected them AGAIN!

LESSON learned this time. 

only a few of my titles
who would have known that NO ONE
wants editions of Proust?

I am getting rid of all of these titles.
gorgeous right?

7 Day Page Challenge Results

Keeping count of the pages was the hardest darn part honestly.

I stopped counting daily after reaching 1152 pages, so I read around 1400 pages for the week.

It was a nice challenge, but it isn't one that I'll do often that using a daily page count. I will instead maybe look at books from the week and see how many pages were read in the entire week.

I had fun with this challenge and it made me think about other challenges I want to do in the future.

1000 Page 7 Day Challenge

The Page Challenge runs May 21 - May 27th and I am very excited.

It isn't always about the numbers, but I love a good challenge. I am feeling pretty excited about this one and I will still DNF as my heart desires, because ALL pages still count!

I have plans today to do some laundry, make groceries, and light cleaning; however, the real plan is to take it easy and read A LOT.

If you've never done a big challenge, this would be fun to join in on.

I'm focusing on cozies and romance for this week. 

Books I want to read this week for 1000+ pages

I've been reading all day, and am feeling so great about lightening up my reading.

I have so much stress in my life right now, and these books have been truly helping me to escape. 

Happy 1000 page reading coffee ☕️

Recent Reads That Kept Me Sane: Spring Edition

Escapist fiction. Nothing wrong with it. I love it. It's keeping me sane. VERY sane.

I love my classics.

I love my literary fiction.

But, I've had to put most of those to the side for now. I never thought I'd say those words, but my brain can barely hold on to what is vital and necessary.

I am burned out. Fully flamed.

Romance novels and cozy mysteries are saving me these days.

My life is HARD right now and I LOVE well-written romance. I've been having a great time reading (and DNFing) a few books lately.

Books I've loved lately

LOVE this series

I normally cannot 
binge read cozies, 
but this series is different!

Another series I binged
I LOVE this one

These books hold up well
being read back to back

I didn't expect to love this
one as much as I did.
AMAZING.
The hero was delicious.

NOT the typical age-gap
TRUST me.
I struggle with those 
and this was romantic.

Books that have been okay-ish

I enjoyed this one. I don't
do a lot of historicals.
This was good.

My first Tiffany Roberts.
It was steamy. I really liked it,
but it felt about 75-100 pages
too long.

What I'm reading right now

This is on KU!

I've heard great things,
and my hold finally
came in from the library
update: DNF

If lightening up my reading has taught me anything, it's that it's all good. It's fantastic to read light novels with ONE or two (maybe) heavier reads to anchor it all down.

As someone who does NOT work in publishing, english lit, and is NOT a grad student in any of those subjects, I've realized just how much bookish content is made by those whose business or work revolve around the more intense novels.

Though it takes me out of the circles and conversations (let's be honest, people have called me crazy for saying I will focus on romance), I am in heaven now.

Happy light reading my slow living friends.

Lightening Up with Kindle Unlimited

I DNF a lot of cozy mysteries and romance novels.

I want to be able to read more of them than I am able, but I have been making progress with lightening up in general and that translates into being okay with a book NOT being life changing. 

As a result, I re-subbed to KU and downloaded a ton of books (20 to be exact!).

I love trying nonfiction from KU, easy (recommended cozies), and some rom-com type of books to help me ease up.

I've been struggling a bit lately with insomnia and bad dreams, and heavy classics and transformative literary fiction has NOT been helping.

Here's what I've downloaded lately. No shame in my game (can't believe I just said that). 

I'm almost ashamed of how difficult this felt. After a zillion years in college/grad school, I remember longing for the ability to read a "light" novel. Now that I am able to do so, I STILL read through classics and literary fiction novels with pretty much ignoring any real genre fiction though it brings me some joy.

I...

Don't work in publishing. Don't work as a professor in English Lit. I'm going to take the advice of a few people and try to lower my stress levels by living through lighter novels that are easy page-turners and allow myself this respite from intense living.

I've started Vacation Wars on audio and while I have to stop dissecting the childishness of the protagonist, I am taking this for what it is... a rom-com that meant for enjoying. I actually found myself laughing out loud :) 

I'm Drinking Tea and DNFing Books

The matcha is hot, the DNFs are piling up.

Moving more slowly than I'd like through Metamorphoses, I need to put it bedside so that I can keep my "page a day" quota going.

The Lie of Rebecca Jones was so boring I thought I'd pull my eyelashes out. I spent too much time on it. I have to resurrect my old DNF policy: DNF as soon as one line deeply bores me. 

There's just too much to read. Too much to read.

This week I'm still working on:

1. Mistress and Maid
2. On Borrowed Crime
3. And several nonfiction books

I'm struggling lately and need to add some lighter romance novels into the mix so that I can relax at night. 

Time to get some audiobooks for the treadmill. It's that time of year again.