August 2023 Reading Recap

August really slipped away, didn’t it? Sure, I was in England for almost half of it, and then was sick, but wow….it WENT away really quickly! Luckily, I got a fair amount of reading done this month, so even though I’m already feeling overwhelmed by September, I can look back at August with some pride.

Let’s touch on my main goals: tracking my reading, 2 audiobooks a month, and a short story collection every month. I’m doing GREAT at tracking my reading, though sometimes I’m iffy on tracking ones I DNF after like 10 pages…for obvious reasons. Audiobooks are still hard, because I’d rather be listening to NPR, but I’m working on it by supplementing children’s chapter/non-fiction audiobooks. Short stories….are back on track, primarily for my award committee reading!

So let’s look at August overall…ish

In August, according to my reading tracker, I read 56 books, including:

• 2 audiobooks, 1 adult and 1 for kids
• 7 easy readers
• 20 picture books
• 3 graphic novels
• 3 short story collections
• Lots of adult fiction, non-fiction, and a few other kids chapter books, essay collections, etc.

There are 2 books I started in August that I’m still reading in September—they’re longer non-fiction pieces, essay style, so I’m picking at them a few pages every day or so!

I reviewed 2 graphic novels for School Library Journal, read a fair amount of quickie kid titles for Capitol Choices, and of course did a LOT of Carnegie Reading. That long-list will be released in October, I’ll be sure to share links here too!

Sickness really throws my reading off. It’s hard to commit to a book when you can’t keep your eyes open, or your head up. I’m currently still a bit congested, and when I get home after a long day, I’d rather just curl up in bed than stay up and read, unfortunately. Fingers crossed I can find lots of time to read in September!

I’ve got a couple “projects” I’m working on this month that will boost my raw numbers—including two new blog posts related to picture book biography, as well as a longer piece on the representation of museums in children’s literature.

However, I’m already on my 2nd audiobook of September so full steam ahead!