Mid-Year Reading Check in

Posted August 5, 2022 by Richetta in Yearly Reading Goals / 0 Comments

So 2022 is halfway done and this chick definitely has hands. Just in a different way than 2021 and 2020. I’ve seen the #midyearbookfreakout tag trend but I don’t really have time for freak out energy. I love reading and reviewing and promoting books! So whatever doesn’t get read will get read sooner or later. I do this for joy. Plus I have three little ones so life happens and I have to adjust. However, I do think it’s a great idea to check in on some goals that I have for myself as a reader and blogger. So here is my Mid-Year Reading Check in!

Blogging and Reading Goals

Talk Show Radio GIF by WNYC - Find & Share on GIPHY — That’s me trying to keep up with my TBR stack. Lol! It’s a good thing!

I’m been doing a lot of experimenting with what works and what doesn’t as things constantly change in my life. Since I began this blog while I was working from home it has been a challenge to adjust to a different schedule of when I can dedicate time to writing content. So I’m going to try the following:

Whats Next Fx GIF by Snowfall - Find & Share on GIPHY — My brain asks this question when I finish a book. So do I read another book or write the review?

Review Batching. Specifically writing a bunch of reviews together in an allotted time. Sometimes when I finish a book, I have a difficult time starting the next one if I stop to write a review. I lose my reading momentum and get frozen in the “what do I read next? zone.”
Planning out non-review content. It’s hard for me to plan review content ahead of time because that depends on when I finish the book. But I can plan other content so that I have regular posts for the blog. My personal favorite last year was the Friday Night Highlights – Currently Reading feature. I’m thinking about bringing that back in a shorter version. I had a lot of fun writing those, because they were purely reaction-based to what I was reading and included a lot of “hold up! what did I just read?” moments.
Reading Goals: Those are still the same. I like to stay flexible because I’m a mood reader. Sometimes a book catches my attention, I will start it but something will distract me (like I have to return it to the library and wait to get it again) and my reading will pause for a while. I rarely DNF, but I do CBL (Come Back Later) regularly. So one of my goals is to clean up my currently reading since last year list.
NetGalley Goals: Whew! Folks if you want to talk about pressure to someone who likes to clear her to-do lists… In my defense, I rack up a lot of book additions to my NetGalley list from publishers in November each year due to my membership in NCTE and ALAN. So I don’t feel guilty about those books. But I am currently working on clearing my NetGalley list of books I personally chose.

My 2022 Faves So Far:

A Few Stats

A few stats for my Mid-Year Reading Check in.

graphic of 2022 reading challenge that was completed — Yay! I may set a new goal to double my current one… (Goodreads)

A graph of books read Fiction and nonfiction — Looks about right. But don’t get me wrong…I love nonfiction books! (Storygraph)

Book Challenges:

#20BooksbyBlackWomen: I’m currently at 15 out of 20.
#10Books10Decades Challege: I’m at 4 out of 10. This one is going to make me dig deep because most of my reading is focused on new releases.
#MoodReadersDeight: Getting ready to start this one and I will see what I’ve already read this year that applies to the prompts.