Saturday 3 June 2017

Rachel's Year of the Paperback - May Update

For paperbacks, May was a tricky month for me. Starting and giving up on two of them didn't help my feelings, and all of my original intentions for my Chances Fortnight reading and tieing in some paperbacks went out of the window, when I realised how many review books I had that fit the theme instead. 

I went to some fabulous book events this month, and in addition to some luck in competitions, I seem to have gained far more books than I read. In fact 8 new books gained in just a month, although I did read one of those while I was in Tenerife! 

As I may have mentioned somewhere on the blog, but may not have, at the beginning of August its looking increasingly likely that I will be moving house. Obviously I'm stressed at this and having to downsize completely.  

This is part of the reason for the large quantity of culled unread paperbacks in this monthly update. I am also realising that when certain books come up on my Rachel Reads Randomly vote feature, that my heart sinks and I pray they won't be picked. Given I am having that reaction to some of them, and I am trying to reduce the amount of those. I'm also becoming more aware that I am in the fortunate position of having plenty of books to review and they are exciting me more than the books I'm culling. For some reason I do tend to revise the stacks a couple of times a year, so its probably about time I started making trickier decisions. If I ever feel the urge to read these I'll just buy them again! 

So this is how May has panned out! 

Paperbacks Read (4)

Pendulum by Adam Hamdy -  4 Star Review
The Summer Seaside Kitchen by Jenny Colgan - 5 Star Review
The Vets at Hope Green by Sheila Norton - 5 Star Review
The Once in a Blue Moon Guesthouse by Cressida McLaughlin - 4.5 Star Review

Review Paperbacks Received (3)

Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan - wow can't believe I have a book due out in 2018 already! 
The Wedding Promise by Emma Hannigan
Almost A Bride by Jo Watson

Paperbacks Purchased (2)

Exquisite by Sarah Stovell
The Mountain in my Shoe by Louise Beech

Paperbacks won in Competitions (2)

Together by Julie Cohen
Our Little Secret by Claudia Carroll

Paperbacks gained from events (1)

The Once In a Blue Moon Guest House by Cressida McLaughlin

Paperbacks DNF - (2)

Unfortunately again this month I had a paperback and a hardback that for various reasons I am struggling with a lot. 

Books culled  - (13)

Well only read 4 paperbacks this month which seems low for a 31 day period, especially when 3 of them were during a holiday. I gained 8 new books which is brilliant and I am looking forward to reading those.   

So with 19 books removed from the unread stacks, and 8 gained, that is a net deduction of 11, which is encouraging even if I haven't been reading them all.  I've already started my first June paperback so at least I will definitely read one in the next couple of weeks! 

And so I can keep a track:

Start of year - 96
End of January - 94
End of February - 97
End of March - 93

End of April - 86
End of May - 75

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