Monthly Wrap-Up – March 2024

April 1, 2024 Challenges, Monthly Wrap-Up 8

Monthly Wrap-Up (logo)

Books Read – MONTH 2024

Books

Title links go to my reviews.

  1. A Letter of Mary (Laurie R. King) – reread; series reviewed in 2010
  2. The Moor (Laurie R. King) – reread; series reviewed in 2010
  3. O Jerusalem (Laurie R. King) – reread; series reviewed in 2010
  4. Justice Hall (Laurie R. King) – reread; series reviewed in 2010
  5. The Game (Laurie R. King) – reread; series reviewed in 2010
  6. Locked Rooms (Laurie R. King) – reread; reviewed in 2017; series reviewed in 2010
  7. Stealing Harry (copperbadge) – fanfic (on AO3)
  8. Laocoon’s Children Year One: The Philosopher’s Stone (copperbadge) – fanfic (on AO3)
  9. The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street (Helene Hanff)
  10. The Spellshop (Sarah Beth Durst) – ARC
  11. Flash (Jayne Ann Krentz) – reread; reviewed 3/20/2024
  12. Laocoon’s Children Year Two: Secret Tongues (copperbadge) – fanfic (on AO3)
  13. The Language of Bees (Laurie R. King) – reread; series reviewed in 2010
  14. The God of the Hive (Laurie R. King) – reread; series reviewed in 2010
  15. A Midnight Puzzle (Gigi Pandian) – ARC
  16. Love at First Book (Jenn McKinlay) – ARC – review scheduled for May

Audiobooks

  1. The Cartographers (Peng Sheppard) – currently listening

Challenges

Here’s how I’m doing on my various reading challenges. Since I have not written or posted all the reviews yet, some may not show up on my 2024 Reading Challenges tracking page. All title links go to my reviews.

Goodreads Challenge 2024: 16 books read or listened to in March. I have read 52 books so far this year, toward my year-end goal of 125 books. (Titles listed above.) Note: Goodreads says the total is 54, but the extra titles are not from March. I’ll have to see if I can figure it what’s causing the discrepancy.

The Backlist Reader Challenge 2024: 2 books read (The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street and Flash); I reviewed one of those this month (Flash). For the year so far, I have read 5 books and reviewed 3 of them, toward my year-end goal of reading and reviewing 16 books.

Audiobook Challenge 2024: I didn’t finish any audiobooks in March, but I did review Nuts & Bolts, which I finished in February. For the year, I have listened to and reviewed 3 audiobooks toward my year-end goal of 10 audiobooks. That puts me on track so far.

Library Love 2024: I didn’t read or review any library books in March, but I did write and schedule the review of a book I read earlier in the year, which will post in early April. But as of March 31, I have read one book and posted zero reviews, toward my year-end goal of 12 books read and reviewed.

NetGalley & Edelweiss Challenge 2024: I read 3 ARCs in March, but haven’t yet posted reviews for any of them. (I did write one review, but it won’t post until May.) For the year so far, I have read 14 review copies and posted 5 reviews, toward my year-end goal of reading and reviewing 15 ARCs. Current NetGalley percentage: still 52%.

COYER Unwind, Chapter 1 (Winter): 10 of the books I read in March qualify for the challenge.* Of those, I only reviewed one (Flash). I have read 50 qualifying* books and reviewed 6, since January 1. My 3-month challenge goal was to read and review 10 qualifying books by the end of March, so while I read more than enough books to meet my goal, I failed on the review side.

*To qualify for this challenge, (a) the book had to be an ebook or digital audiobook; (b) I must own it; and (c) it must cost less than $5 for an ebook or $7.50 for an audiobook. Library books and books from subscription service didn’t count, but e-ARCs did. (A new “chapter” starts on April 1, with slightly different rules.)

Resolutions (this month)

Writing: Days I wrote: None. (sigh) I should get my wrist brace off soon, so I hope to do better in April. I have signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo, which may add incentive.

Reviews posted this month: 3 (Nuts and Bolts; Flash; A Short History of the World According to Sheep). There were four full weeks in March, so I missed my goal of one review per week by only one review. I do have two reviews scheduled, one in April and one in May.

Reviews of ARCs from 2023 or earlier: None, so I missed my goal of one overdue ARC per month.

Prioritizing reading time over screen time: Meh.

Pruning and reorganizing my book collection: I forgot to count the actual number, but we sold or gave away a box and a half of books in March. About half of those were my husband’s, though. As far as adding to the collection goes, I bought 2 physical books in March, one for research and one for fun (and possibly to add to my permanent collection, but we’ll see) So it was a net decrease in the number of physical books in the house. (Before you say there’s no such thing as too many books: Yes, there is. Our house would technically accommodate another bookshelf or two — in the unfinished basement — so I could go on adding books without “de-aquisitioning” any. However, we plan to move sometime in the next 10 years, probably to a smaller house. I would prefer to start now and do the necessary downsizing slowly, over time.)

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8 Responses to “Monthly Wrap-Up – March 2024”

  2. Katherine

    You’ve got a lot of goals going on! Good luck with them all. You had a lot of great reading in March. I really want to reread the Mary Russel series. I read some of those books 20+ years ago and I probably missed a few or read them out of order. Happy April!

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      I have started a reread twice now, read happily through the first ten, and foundered (twice) on Pirate King, which for some reason is not a favorite. I think it’s because Mary is rather un-Mary-like for large stretches of it. I may just decide to skim through it and then continue the series.

  3. Lory @ Entering the Enchanted Castle

    Good luck with downsizing books for the move. I don’t actually regret shedding a large part of my book collection for my international move, but I wish I had had a crystal ball to be able to see the books I would want in a few years, vs. those I wouldn’t give a second thought. It turned out to be not quite as I anticipated.
    Lory @ Entering the Enchanted Castle recently posted…Giveaway – When Fragments Make a WholeMy Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      That’s always the dilemma, isn’t it? I’m trying to replace a lot of my paperbacks with ebooks, so that I still have the book but it doesn’t take up any space. I’ll do the same with hardcovers that I may want to reread but can’t quite justify the shelf space for.

      Some decisions are easier than others. Why do I need two Webster’s Dictionaries, when it’s so easy to look up words and even etymologies online? Or a hefty hardcover Roget’s Thesaurus? I can’t tell you the last time I consulted it. It’s harder to let go of my collection of foreign-language dictionaries, though. Or my Latin textbook or my Brights’ Old English Reader.