Books Read – October 2025
Books
- The Choice (Nora Roberts) – reread
- The Keeper of Magical Things (Julie Leong) – ARC
- Exile’s Song (Marion Zimmer Bradley) – reread
- The Shadow Matrix (Marion Zimmer Bradley) – reread
Audiobooks
- All the Queen’s Men (SJ Bennett) – reread; first time in audio; library (Hoopla)
- Murder Most Royal (SJ Bennett) – reread; first time in audio; library (Hoopla)
- Sweep of the Heart (Ilona Andrews; Graphic Audio edition) – library (Hoopla)
- The Spare Man (Mary Robinette Kowal) – reread; first time in audio
- A Death in Diamonds (SJ Bennett) – overdue ARC; reread; first time in audio; library (Hoopla)
Summary: My reading fell off a cliff in October. I can’t remember ever reading only nine books in a month (and it’s only four if you don’t count the audiobooks!) That is just…not me at all. To be fair, I had a lot going on in October, and we had Robin here for a week and a half, but still. One cause was that I had a hard time sticking to any of the books I picked up to read with my eyes (except the few I finished.) Another is that I often found myself playing games or doomscrolling when I could have been reading. Audiobooks were my saving grace. Normally I rarely listen to more than one or two a month, but I plowed through five whole audiobooks in October.
I completed a total of 9 books in October, including 2 first-time reads (1 ARC) and 7 rereads. I reviewed only one of the books I finished this month.
Challenges – Year to Date
Here’s the breakdown of my reading challenges this year so far:
- Goodreads Challenge: 153/140. I finished the challenge! I’m still debating whether to increase my yearly goal, but right now, I’m leaning toward leaving it where it is.
- Audiobook challenge: Listened to 23/12; reviewed 6/12
- COYER Out to Lunch challenge: Read 100/25; reviewed 21/25
- Ilona Andrews series read-along: Read 7; reviewed 3 so far. (I skipped three of the Edge books. I’m finished reading the Innkeeper Chronicles, but need to write several reviews yet.)
- Library Love Challenge: Read 22/12; reviewed 7/12
- NetGalley & Edelweiss Challenge: Read 19/25; reviewed 8/25 (Reviews include 2 books read prior to 2025; I still have a lot of ARCs from this year to review.)
- Robin’s Recs: Read 3/6; reviewed 1/6
Click here to see a detailed (but not entirely up-to-date) list of my challenge reading.
Other Goals and Resolutions
Writing: Sigh.
Prioritizing reading and writing time over screen time: FAIL! Too much screen time this month
Review more of the books I read: I failed this one, too.
Unpack and reorganize my book collection: I actually made progress on this! I pruned, reshelved, and catalogued my reference books for work, my books on writing, my foreign-language dictionaries, and some of my subject-specific reference books for my novel project. I also rehomed the latter, moving them upstairs to my office so they are close at hand when I’m writing. (I really will get back to writing. Any day now!)
Catalog my books: See above. Physical books catalogued so far this year: 210 (up from 133 last month!) I will probably prune a few more of the catalogued books from the collection as time goes one.
Click here for the full list of my 2025 goals and resolutions, excluding challenges.
Anne - Books of My Heart
I think you are doing great! You had a really busy month and still did a lot.