July 2024 Reading Recap

The most impressive part of this whole thing is me writing and posting it on the 1st day of August! I’m coming off a ton of summer activities and headed into a weekend of travel, so having a little rest day (or half a rest day) on the 1st of the month is a real treat!

Last month I was really angry and disappointed in myself, because June was eh. It was the end of the school year, I had a lot of travel and work going on, and I thought July was going to be better. It kind of was! I didn’t solve all the problems with not having all the time in the world, but I didn’t FAIL and i don’t feel terrible, but I am sitll hoping that August is better.

Okay…I didn’t FAIL but I didn’t FIX some real problems. I’m still WAY behind on my goal of doing one PD book a month. I’m still halfway through the book I started in May. Whoops. I also didn’t, obviously, finish the complete stories of Flannery O’Connor. I don’t even have a plan for when to do that now…I’m just going to hope I find inspiration one day.

Anyway…let’s look at July. I took part in 112 hours of professional development…which really cut into my reading time, haha.

I read a total of 45 books, not including my Caldecott reading.

• 3 middle grade books to review for Booklist
• 1 BOTM club pick: The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren
• 3 kids chapter books in the new “Mrs. Z’s Class” series
• 1 YA novel in verse: A Long Time Coming
• 1 adult historical fiction novel for book club (I DNF’d mostly due to time & length)
• 1 DNF’d military history book (I only had to read part of it for my PD!)
• 7 graphic novels, about half for Capitol Choices
• 4 KidLit audiobooks, and I finished the adult audiobook I started in June
• 3 Kids chapter books that just randomly jumped out at me, including a cute little Hocus Pocus pet book from A.R Capetta
• A handful of picture books

Was it the BEST reading month I’ve ever had? No. Did I get to any of the books I really need to to get them out of my house? Not really! But I read several books I own, I don’t feel BEHIND on my booklist reading or book club reading, and I genuinely enjoyed so many of the books I read this month.

My plans for August are interesting because at the end of the month, I’ll go back to school, so I hope to do some quality audiobook listening! I have two train rides, which hopefully will lead to some hardcore reading. I have only 1 book club this month, and I’ve got the book in hand to start ASAP. I have 3 booklist books to review and then I’m taking a break for the next issue.

However, I’m also DUMB because I also decided that I needed to get all 6 Lore Olympus books from the library to read, because I totally have time for that!

Let’s see how August goes…