March 2023 Reading Recap

Q1 is OVER! How…I have no idea? But we’re here, we’re reading, we’re doing our best to avoid reading slumps, and we’re checking in on our progress with this month’s reading, and with our overall goals for the year.

For a little rehash, my main “reading” related goals were to do 1 short story collection a month, 2 audiobooks, and to be better about DNF-ing books and logging my reading. So far, I’m doing good! I was perhaps to slow to DNF a few books this month–and ended up spending like 4-5 days on titles–but it’s hard to tell if I should have DNF’d, or if I should have found more concrete, dedicated reading time throughout the day.

As I mentioned last month, I am chairing an adult award committee this year, so lots of my reading is *secret* and dedicated to that, but I’m still trying to read widely and uh…faster. My reading spreadsheet is going SWIMMINGLY though–I am doing SO GOOD at tracking my reading, and it’s so cool to see the sheet fill up.

Let’s get down to brass tacks.

Overall, I read 48 books in March 2023. That includes novels, audiobooks, picture books, books I DNF’d, etc. I DNF’d 2 books in March—one about 5 hours into the 9.5 hour audiobook, the other about 50 pages in to the 300 page book, or about an hour into the audiobook, though I skimmed some of the chapters in my copy.

This month, the short story collection I read wasThe Brownie Princess and Other Stories by Louisa May Alcott. I listened to 2 audiobooks that I DNF’d and then 4 kidlit audiobooks–all non-fiction biography titles (She Persisted, Who Was?) etc. I love to do those when I’m out of podcast episodes, but have smaller episodes of time and can’t commit to a full, adult or YA audiobook while I read.

There was one book I started at the end of March that I am still reading, but I do intend to finish it! I swear!

So, essentially, I read

• 1 short story collection
• 4 KidLit audiobooks
• 2 DNF’d adult titles
• 5.5 adult fiction titles (including 1 I am finishing in April0
• 2 adult non-fiction titles
• 4 middle grade titles (3 fiction, 1 nonfiction)
• 1 essay collection
• 26 picture books (fiction & non-fiction)
• 2 KidLit non-fiction title (STEM-based, chapter book length, 100 pages or less

Am I a little underwhelmed by those numbers? Yeah…but I also recognize that two of those adult titles took me 4 or 5 days because of the length/time I had to read, and one adult non-fiction title was 500 pages, etc.

Life ebbs, it flows, as long as I’m consistent, it’ll all work out!

What did you read and enjoy in March?