May 2024 Wrap Up

In looking back at my daily log, I'm pretty proud of myself. There were only 7 days where I didn't pick up a book.

So let's get into the stats!

The Statistics

In May 2024:

I read from 5 books. I know that doesn't seem like a lot, but reading, writing, and creating content is not my full time job. I also have an adult child living with me, another adult child I'm getting to know, and the FIVE feline terr0r!sts to contend with. There's also a new Grand-Meow Baby! (Thankfully does not live with us!)

P = Page Read To, % = Percentage Read To
S = Started, F = Finished
DNF = Did Not Finish, HO = Held Over
RJ = Reading Journal

The 5 books read from were:

1. Forged by Iron by Eric Schumacher
2. Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
3. The Maid by Nita Prose
4. 11/22/63 by Stephen King
5. Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley

I finished The Maid first. I got it as a Lucky Pick from my library, so I only had 7 days to read it instead of the typical 21 days, so I jumped on that one right away. Then I couldn't wait to get back to Dread Nation, so that one was powered through next. I didn't read from any of my Hold Over books, and never got around to Timeline by Michael Crichton from TBR Busterland May 2024 Picks.

Pages Read: 602
Hours Listened: 26:26:11

Books Acquired: 8

1. Tasting Red by Holly Roberds (audio)
2. The Keeper of Happy Endings by Barbara Davis (audio)
3. The Curious Secrets of Yesterday by Namrata Patel (eBook)
4. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (eBook)
5. The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown (eBook)
6. Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs (eBook)
7. The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd (eBook)
8. Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes

Books Unhauled: 1

1. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

Best of the Month: Dread Nation @ 57.8 points
Worst of the Month: The Maid @ 52.8 points

The Year 2024 Thus Far:

That dang TBR list keeps growing...

Current Top Ten rankings of 2024

Takeaways

With my Extreme Reading Tracker being a spreadsheet on steroids, I like looking at my charts and stats at any given moment. Provided I keep up on filling in the appropriate pages, the Yearly Stats, Monthly Totals, and Monthly Stats pages give me a great overview of where I'm at with my reading.

Ratings

While I have given three books a 5 star rating this year on Goodreads, none have quite been a true 5 star. They were high 4.5 star books that rounded up to 5, where as the 4th 4.5 star was rounded down. With my spreadsheet, the only thinking I do is when I rate the different categories on a 10 point scale. Everything else is calculated for me.

(For those keeping track, another chart says I have 5 DNFs for the year, but this chart says 6. This is because this chart includes Temporary DNFs. The Read, Not Rated spot is to remind me that I have finished books that still need rated. This should always be at 0 and if it is not, I'm behind.)

Genres

 

Read and Re-Read Only: I'm still heavily leaning towards the Fantasy Genre. You might notice that I have spots as F# and blank. This is in case I determine there is another genre that does not fit in with what is already here. 

For the record, I do not recognize Romantasy as its own Genre. These books still fall under Fantasy or Romance for me. In fact, under Romance there is a subgenre listed as Fantasy Romance. If the fantasy story overshadows the romance, I list it under Fantasy. If the romance overshadows the fantasy aspects, it is listed under Romance. For more information on the majority of the genres and subgenres I use, see this blog post by Tonya Thompson at Service Space.

As for color coding, the top of the list is my typical go-to genres. The further down the list, the less likely I am to read them. This is a personal ranking system. If I were to go to my categories page and edit any of these, it will automatically change what is listed here.

Pages and Hours

  

It's satisfying to see these graphs side by side. In the tracker, I can't see them on the screen at the same time. These graphs also include the progress made on books that are DNF'd and Held Over. In March I listened more than eye ball read, and in April I eye ball read more than I listened. It's also an interesting look at how I was feeling during those months. If I can't eye ball read, I'm far more restless and cannot sit for long periods of time reading.

Final Thoughts

About the tracker: I was going to make a blank copy for people to view and make a copy for themselves if they so choose, but as I've been going through and using it this year, there's been a lot of editing of formulas and changes made. I'm still finding places where the tracker said 2023 rather than 2024. Hopefully by the time December rolls around I will have this fine tuned for a 2025 release. Not that I think anyone reads this blog or has interest in using my tracker, but eh. In case someone stumbles across it. The blank 2023 with all its problems can still be found in the sidebar.

With that, I might be off to the grocery store. Ew. Grocery shopping on a Saturday with Social Anxiety. Yay!

Happy Reading, Y'all!!