Mid-Year Update
We are now officially past the halfway mark of 2026. I am not ok. How are we already in July? I mean, I'm perfectly fine if the next two months fly by like the last two months, but after it starts to cool off, we can slow the heck down. I got sidetracked. Let's talk about how my reading is going so far.
Let's start with how my goals are going.
Goal 1: Read 50 books.
As of today, I have read 49 books. I am well on my way to meeting this goal.
Goal 2: Read the 10 Oldest Books on my TBR Shelves.
I am currently working on book 6 for this goal. I think this is the longest book on the list, also. So that's good.
Goal 3: Complete Book Bingo
I have 4 boxes left on this challenge. Halfway through the year, I have done 20 of the 24 goals. Not too shabby! The 4 that are left are: A Book With a One-Word Title, A Book That Was Adapted to Film/TV, A Book with a Non-human Main Character, and A Book with an LGBTQ+ Protagonist. Weirdly, the one-word title books are difficult to find. I mean, they aren't because I have lots of them on my shelves, but I'm not reading them.
Goal 4: Read More Books From My Shelves Than I Bring In
I really thought I was reading a lot of books from my shelves. I guess that depends on your definition of a lot. I have read a total of 49 books so far, but it looks like only 16 of those were from my actual physical TBR. How many books have I acquired so far this year? 31. Yeah. Almost twice as many. I was doing my math wrong. I was just counting the books I'd finished. I haven't gotten very many print books from the library, so I thought it would be a much larger number. I forgot that a large number of the books I'm reading this year are audiobooks. Oof.
On average, most of the books I read rate 4 stars. Usually, if it's terrible, I won't finish it. If I don't finish it, I don't rate it. So what are the best and worst books I've read this year? That's a good question. Let me tell you about it.
It looks like I haven't read any truly heinous books, as I've rated nothing less than 3 stars, although for one book in particular, that seems generous:
First Impressions by Charlie Lovett was pretty annoying. It took a lot of liberties with Jane Austen as a character, and the main character in the current-day timeline was pretty obnoxious and clueless.
Hidden Libraries by DC Helmuth - This one just irritated me because it was so badly edited. Typos throughout. If you just want to look at the pictures and not learn anything about the actual libraries, it's great.
Similar to not having read a bunch of bad books, I haven't read a bunch of truly stellar books either.
Beastly Things by Donna Leon - This is the first five-star book of the year. I read it in March. It was a solid 4-star read right up to the last chapter. The last chapter was stunning. I cried all the way through it. Just beautiful.
The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Vol. 1 by Beth Brower - And here is the second 5-star book. This one was really fun. The main character is funny and smart, and I really need to get the other books in the series. Randomly, my Barnes and Nobles don't carry them.
So I guess we know which goal I need to work on the most. Hopefully, focusing on reading the books on my shelves will meet the other goals. Certainly, the first two should come easily.
As for my plans for the rest of the year? I don't have any. I'll just keep reading whatever I want to read when I want to read it. I like it.