We’ve had some beautiful spring weather this month. Cool breeze, soft sunlight, and the chirping of squirrels forming a backdrop to my morning reading on the balcony.

Summer will be here before too long, so I’ve been soaking up this lovely spring weather while I can!

March reading wrap up

It’s been a languid reading month, with just 4 books read. This month’s reading took me down the halls of the Vatican, to a small village in Sweden, wandering through a magical inn, and to the somewhat haunted, gothic lake in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

This month, I found myself in the middle of a fruit orchard, my back leaning against the trunk of a peach tree, surrounded by neat rows of trees as far as my eyes could see. The warm sun caressed my face and the air was filled with the sound of a thousand buzzing bees. There I was, surrounded by nature, a book in my hands…reading a few pages…soaking in the surroundings…feeling the warmth caress my skin. It was bliss!

And I’m wondering, what’s the most atmospheric reading spot you’ve found yourself in recently?

It’s a brand new year, so let’s talk goals.

I usually set a reading goal on Goodreads — my goal for this year is 35 books. Now, I usually end up reading a lot more than that, but when I try to bump up my goal, I immediately start to feel anxious. And since there’s no point in stressing yourself out over something that you enjoy doing, I keep it at an easy-breezy number. At least this way, I know I have one goal that I’ll breeze past — win, win!

I’ve already read 54 books this year, which puts me 2 books ahead of schedule. How cool is that? 😉

This year, I’m also keeping an eye on the seasonal challenges on Goodreads. I want to see how many of those bookmarks I can collect. So far, I’m acing it!

November’s reading has been rather hit-and-miss, with a mix of some really interesting books and others that fell rather flat. But isn’t that the way of things with the reading life, sometimes?

Some books make you wonder why they garnered such hype — is it simply based on the cover or the blurb? On paid promotions or sponsorships? Or do some books just become “trendy” because of their gorgeous covers?

In this age of BookTok and Bookstagram, I often wonder if people are actually reading the books they gush over, or if they’re simply promoting the experience of being a reader, or the aesthetics of the reading life?

July has been a month for comfort reads. Cozy books, where nothing really bad happens. I’ve had enough of grief and loss, death and despair in real life, with the passing of my beloved cat, Loki at the start of the month. I couldn’t bear it in my fiction too.

So I wrapped myself up in simple, cozy stories of charmed books, the magic of small communities, romance amid magical geographical disasters, and the unraveling of a centuries old fairy curse.

Do you read when you are stressed and anxious, your mind racing over a myriad possibilities, most of them bleak, bereft of hope? And if you do, what kinds of books do you like to read during such times? Do you seek to escape into a different world? Or do you just need some words on a page to engage your brain so that it isn’t obsessively worrying about something?

This month, I discovered which kind of reader I am.

April seems to have lasted forever! The mercury’s rising, and with it, so has my desire to enclose myself in an air conditioned room with good books for company. And boy, have I read some really interesting books this month — across genres. My favorite fantasy genre features strongly this month, along with contemporary fiction, a cozy mystery, and a collection of short stories.

There are some books that demand your attention. That ask to be read slowly, as you mull over the words, and in that slowing down, connections are made — to thoughts that have been hidden away in the dusty corners of your mind, to ideas gleaned from other books, other sources.

When books like these come along, you no longer care about meeting arbitrary reading goals or worry that you’ve fallen behind in your reading. You just immerse yourself in the words and ideas in front of you, and let everything else fall away.

February has been brutal on the health front. The husband and I took turns with the viral, and just as we recovered, I came down with an allergic cough from hell.

All the momentum I had gained in January came to a crashing halt. All the projects I had lined up for this month went on the backburner. Looking at my project tracking database on Notion makes me want to weep.

But, I remind myself, there’s always next month. Once I have my allergies under control, I can pick up where I left off. It’s no wonder then that it’s been a slightly slower reading month, too. I did read a few interesting books, though, including two for the Book Bingo challenge.

It’s a brand new year, so let’s talk goals!

I usually set a reading goal on Goodreads — my goal for this year is 40 books. It’s been set at 40 books since a couple of years, actually, even though I usually end up reading a lot more than that.

This year, I thought I’d bump that number up to 50, but I immediately felt anxious about it, so back down to 40 it went. After all, there’s no point in stressing yourself out over something that you enjoy doing!