Category: Reading Tracker

Week in Reading 12/17-12/23

This was a pretty good week in reading considering everything that was going on in preparation for the holidays.

12/17: Finished Bibliophile. 4 stars. Would recommend to people who love: books, authors, writing, bookstores, and libraries. It’s the kind of book you want to own instead of borrowing from the library. I wanted to mark it up and put checkmarks next to the books that I have read on the many lists. Read to page 198 in The Marvellers.

12/18: Listened to 52% of The Girl and the Stars. Read to page 254 in The Marvellers.

12/19: Listened to 59% of The Girl and the Stars. Did not see that twist coming!

12/20: Listened to 72% of The Girl and the Stars. I can’t see where this one is going. There’s been a few references to a big picture, but I don’t think we have enough info to understand that yet.

12/21: I finished The Girl and the Stars tonight. I got to the 82% mark listening and then finished it physically. We’re left with a great cliffhanger. 4 stars.

12/22: Listened to 25% of Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel. This is a re-listen for me because I want to complete the series this year. I originally read the book almost 3 years ago to the day. The story is coming back to me better than I thought it would. I like the multi-cast audiobook. Read to page 277 of The Marvellers.

12/23: Read to page 328 in The Marvellers.

Week in Reading 12/10-12/16

12/10: Read to page 86 in The Marvellers by Dhonielle Clayton. The story is starting to pick up. We’ve sort of met a potential villain and a backstory has been vaguely alluded to that is definitely going to come into play at some point. Borrow The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston and The Kiss of Deception by Mary Pearson on Libby. Also borrowed audiobook for The Girl and the Stars by Mark Lawrence. Got to 85% of All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby. It is more gruesome, but there has also been more humanity.

12/11: Finished All the Sinners Bleed before work. 5 stars. Started The Girl and the Stars. Reading and listening to this one. Got to page 14. Also started Bibliophile by Jane Mount on my lunch break. Made it to page 42. Easy to consume. Beautiful illustrations. Fun facts. Read more before bed. Made it to page 63.

12/12: Read to page 96 in Bibliophile. Still loving the fun facts and illustrations. Listened to 16% of The Girl and the Stars. I like the story but I’m having trouble with all the characters when I can’t see how to spell their names.

12/13: Listened to 22% of The Girl and the Stars. Read to page 109 of Bibliophile.

12/14: Read to page 135 of Bibliophile. Every day I think I’m just going to power through and finish this book, but I find myself wanting to linger with it. Listened to 33% of The Girl in the Stars. I’m starting to see this one come together and I’m really liking the characters. There’s a little bit of a Hunger Games/Divergent feel to the story, but possibly more complex.

12/15: Read to page 138 in Bibliophile. Listened to 42% of The Girl in the Stars. It’s really getting me hooked now. I didn’t want to get out of the car tonight.

12/16: Read to page 164 in The Marvellers. I struggle to pick this one up, but once I do, I’m intrigued.

Reading Tracker 11/28-12/9

I am still trying to get my reading groove back from a few years ago when I read 137 books in one year. I always want to focus on enjoying what I’m reading more so than how many books I am getting through, but there are so many books that I want to read that I really need to step up the pace a little bit next year. At the very least, I’d like to start reading every single day, even if it’s only a few pages.

I keep my physical reading tracker in a little dot grid notebook as I am reading. I track my progress and jot first impressions in there, so these initial comments may not reflect how I feel about a reading experience by the time I review the title.

11/28/23: Started reading a physical copy of Smash It! by Francina Simone. Read to page 60. The writing style is good so far, although the content has a lot of swearing and discussions of sex that aren’t the most comfortable for me to read. I feel like we’ve gotten some insight into the main character Liv, but not enough.

11/29/23: Did not read.

11/30/23: Did not read.

12/1/23: Did not read.

12/2/23: Finished Smash It! by Francina Simone. This book made me cry, but it also made me a little uncomfortable. I’ll need to sit with this one for a few days before I review it to gather my thoughts.

Started Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel. Read to page 17. Have not read enough to give initial thoughts yet.

12/3/23: Finished Darling Rose Gold at 11:15pm. What the heck did I just read? This was seriously dark and twisted, but I couldn’t put it down. After about the 75 page mark, it was just one moment after another. I liked the cat and mouse nature of this, where you had trouble telling who had the upper hand at any given moment. It was an absolutely bonkers ride of a read.

12/4/23: Began reading The Marvellers by Dhonielle Clayton on my break. Read to page 6.

12/5/23: Did not read.

12/6/23: Did not read.

12/7/23: Read to page 23 in The Marvellers. A little info-dumpy to begin with.

12/8/23: Began listening to All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby on audiobook while I was running errands. Listened to 56%. This is a brutal small-town crime novel that has me hooked!

12/9/23: Continued listening to All the Sinners Bleed. Got to 64%. Still totally hooked. Wish there had been more time to listen today. I am definitely procrastinating on The Marvellers to listen to this.