The laptop I use to post on my blog crapped the bed. I hate using my cell for blogging as I’m used to doing in on a laptop. And until I get my laptop fixed I won’t be in the blog spaces.
I have been reading a lot though so that’s a plus!!
I’ll catch up with everyone in a few days.
I thought a mid-month update might be fun to share. Just some random babbling…
I was consistently reading every single day, but also reading at a slow pace. It took me what felt like forever to finish my first book of the year. Yes, I am taking my time and not rushing through books this year… but still, lol. I have not been feeling well, and have been more stressed than usual, which is probably contributing to all of this. Then the other day I opened my Kindle and didn’t want to read the book I was into so I spent an hour looking through my virtual shelf and then browsing Libby before deciding that it was tine for bed instead (since that whole thing took way too long). I am trying to avoid a reading slump this early in the year!!!!
All of my challenges pages can be found at the top of my blog this year. I am going to try my very best to keep up with them. So far I have been so that’s a plus!
I am mostly quitting Instagram. I do not care one flying F about it anymore. No matter what I do I get almost no engagement… even when in an engagement group. Whatever I’m over it.
My yearly goal was to read/listen to 100 books in total.
I read 104 books!
Audiobooks: 60
eBooks: 31
Physical: 13
Standalones: 69
Part of a series: 35
(Books published in 2026: 3)
Books published in 2025: 42
Books published 2024 and earlier: 59
My best reading month was July and November, with 13 books for both months.
Top three genres read were Thriller, Mystery & Short Story.
The longest book I read was 554 pages (The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson)
The shortest book I read was 39 pages (Abscond by Abraham Verghese)
I spent $0.00 on books and all things book related.
My goal was to spend $0.00 for the entire year.
For This Year (not too much changed from last years goals):
I am making my yearly reading goal be 50 books. Reading is supposed to be a marathon, not a sprint. I feel like I am always rushing through books because I wanted to hit high goals and “keep up with the Jones'”. This year I want to take my time with the books I want to read, remember the plot, and enjoy the stories more.
I will continue to use Storygraph. I still have my Goodreads account open for if I need to leave a review there for ARCs, but I barely log in to the site at this point. Please add me as a friend on Storygraph, I would appreciate it so much!
I will be doing another ZERO spending year again. I love my library, and Libby and Hoopla have been life savers for books I want to read and don’t want to spend money on. I’m supporting my community by using the library! I plan to keep myself accountable on spending with my Google sheets, like the last four years.
I am not requesting or accepting any eARCs this year. No requesting on Netgalley, Edelweiss or any companies I am affiliated with, unless it’s a book I REALLLLLLLLLLLLLY want to read and know I can read it around the time I am approved. I want to make use of my library as much as humanly possible and get through my backlog of ARCs/books I have on my Kindle already.
P.S. If an ARC shows up on my doorstep as surprise mail then it is what it is.
I am pulling back a ton on Instagram. It’s too much work for no engagement, which in turn is no fun. If it’s not fun I don’t want to bother…
I am focusing on making fellow book friends through my blog instead of on Instagram, and I also want to focus on writing better content for this blog.
I want to try to read some bigger books this year. That was my plan last year and then I ended up abandoning it early on. I plan to choose a few series with thicker books and get to them this year.
My Previous Yearly Review:
Do you have any goals, big or small, that you hope to accomplish this year?
Let me know in the comments!
13th Annual Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon Rules
This year’s annual Ho-Ho-Ho Readathon began at 12:01 am on Wednesday, November 26th and will end Wednesday, December 17th at 11:59 pm in your time zone. Giving us twenty-two days to read or listen to as many holiday and winter reads as our hearts desire all while participating in fun games.
Get your holiday & winter setting books and be prepared to have fun! Audiobooks, library books, ebooks, old books or new books — we don’t care. Don’t forget the hot chocolate!
The books I read for this challenge are:
I also participated in two of the mini challenges!
Global Bible Month is an annual event in November that encourages people worldwide to celebrate the Bible through daily reading. It is promoted by groups like YouVersion and other partner organizations, who invite participants to join a 30-Day Bible Challenge. The goal is to cultivate a consistent habit of reading scripture and to experience its impact, using either a physical Bible or a digital app. [more information can be found here]
Newsflash: I am a Christian who loves to read, but fails to read my bible daily. This is something I am actively working on in my life. For this month I am setting aside time before bed to devote to reading a passage in my bible, and hoping it becomes a daily habit.
This month I am participating in Netgalley November. The only thing you need to do for this is read and review books on your Netgalley shelf. I will be including Edelweiss books in this challenge also.
This is my TBR plan:
The 11:59 Bomber (NYPD Red 8) – November 25, 2025
Friends and Liars – December 2, 2025
Such A Clever Girl – January 20, 2026
The Bone Queen – February 3, 2026
Murder At 30,000 Feet – February 17, 2026
Knowing myself, I am not holding myself to this list. If I choose other books then it is what it is. Mood reading at it’s finest!
This is going around the internet lately, so I thought I would jump on the bandwagon and share my ten books I want to read before the year is over.
I am planning on focusing on my Netgalley and Edelweiss ARCs in November, so I am hoping to get to these six before 2026 (see what I did there? LOL!)
I am apart of a Traveling Book group, and I am pretty sure both of these will make it to my house before the end of the year.
And I absolutely ignored all of my First Reads choices this year (what a fail!) so I think I am gonna try to get to two of them before the year is over.
Note: I am the moodiest mood reader so I am not holding myself to this list.
I made it a goal of mine to make a blog post every single day in the month of September. And I did it!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOW GO ENJOY YOUR FIRST BOOK OF OCTOBER!!!!!
That is all for today.
In August I knew I wanted to get to specfic ARCS before the their publication date or date I agreed to post about the book. I wrote a handwritten list with the titles and their due dates, and left it in the middle of my kitchen table (where I would see it everyday). I mostly succeeded in following that list!
So for October, I am gonna do the same thing. It’s gonna be either ARCs I want to get to, backlog of any ARCs I feel like reading, any books I want to read because it’s spooky season or library holds that come in. Here is my list…..
I want to make sure in 2026 I try to read books that I have in my possession as much as possible. I already decided to stop accepting ARCs because I just have too many books I’ve neglected. I don’t have a huge amount of physical books in my house, but I definitely have a ton of eBooks on my Kindle.
Note: I will ALWAYS use my library as my best source for getting to read books for free. That will never change!
If you’ve been around my blog long enough you know I love me an awesome spreadsheet. Randomly because I was not looking for anything book related I found a free spreadsheet through BookTube (thanks to Library Unbounded) and plan to input my entire owned books into said sheet (which I know will take me from now until the end of this year) so that when 2026 comes around I’ll be all set up and ready.
I do keep up with too many reading spreadsheets, but honestly, I love them all equally!
Today is a solemn day here in the USA. We will never forget.
Good morning fellow bloggers! I just wanted to come on here and let everyone know that I am starting a new job today. I am still a lunch lady, just with a new company in a different school district. I am excited for this new job opportunity that quite frankly fell into my lap when I least expected it!
I just hope with the stress of starting a new job my reading does not tank this month. I am sending myself good reading and motivational vibes, haha!
Today starts Chapter 42 of my life! I don’t have much planned for today. I am going to sit in the yard and read a book in the morning (since the weather has been so perfect for that all this week). My bestie wants to take me out to lunch in the afternoon. And both of my children will be coming home from college and we’re going to go out to dinner a family at night.
It has been TWELVE years since I walked into my local library and signed up for a library card. The library says I have saved $12,302.96 since I began using the library. In those twelve years I have borrowed books (of course), play away devices, audiobook CDs, video games, movies, TV show DVDs, used their computers to print out things, and went to my first library sale this past spring.
*Note: I am pretty sure my library does not put my Libby and Hoopla savings totals into the dollar amount that printed out on my last receipt.
I keep track of all my reading on Google Sheets. I also keep track of challenges on a separate Google Sheet. Basically, I’m keeping Google in business with how many reading spreadsheets I have made and currently active, haha!
I have finished listening to 28 audiobooks as of this posting. My aim was “binge listener (20-30 books)” since my plan at the beginning of the year was to listen to less books and use my eyes to read more…. apparently that plan went out the window!
It’s Independence Day in the USA!
My husband and son went to hangout with my in laws down the shore, while my daughter and I stayed home with the dog. Us girls will probably be in the pool and I’m sure I will end up BBQing for dinner.
Hope to get a ton of reading time in as well!
June is National Great Outdoors Month. In 2019, the U.S. Senate officially designated June as Great Outdoors Month. The month aims to raise awareness of the importance of outdoor recreation for physical and mental health, as well as to promote responsible outdoor behavior and conservation efforts.
This month I plan to spend as much time outside as I can, as my body needs sunshine and vitamin D. The weather here in New Jersey has been overcast and rainy waaaaayyyyyyy more than normal this entire year and it’s really making my body depressed.
I want to read outside as much as possible also!
Long story short, anything linked to the social media accounts of Melissa The Reading Nerd has been, or will be, deleted. META refuses to believe I am a real person and keeps telling me my accounts are being “fraudulent or deceptive” or “goes against community guidelines”. The emails are never more specific than that.
I will be starting over on social media, if and once META allows me.
This entire year of reading thus far as not been fun for me. I signed up for too many challenges, I have too many ARCs in my possession that I never get around to reading; honestly it’s been too much of everything. I need to make my reading enjoyable again.
So with that I, as always, will mostly be using the library for all my reading needs. My local library is fantastic because it has a huge selection of physical books, does inter-library loans if need be, and uses both Libby and Hoopla for digital books and content.
Today I am currently 7% into The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson. Libby says I have 12 more days to power through this thick boy. Lets do this!
