A Catch Up, Notion and Reading Goal Update

2024 so far has been a whirlwind, and not in the 'fun, exciting adventures' kind of way. I have felt extremely lost for the most part. Dealing with a bereavement in the family, to questioning a lot of the friendships I currently maintain, my brain has felt muddled beyond belief.

I’ve been finding it hard to stick to my normal vices. I have little or no interest in streaming at the moment, something along the lines of not having the mental capacity for it. I’ve been waiting for this game to release for over 2 years, but the second I was sent the key, I never loaded it up. I’ve been writing my reviews, but second guessing about posting them. My knitting is in piles, unfinished and gathering dust.

The point I’m making is, I have things to do in abundance, but I don’t have the energy or will to do them.

A little side note, if you have sent through a review request in recent months or even sent through a contact form, I promise I will post these soon and reply to your queries shortly.

I have pretty much been escaping my life duties and sleeping decent amounts, with reading, binging Chicago PD, and probably damaging my hearing with music.

The last couple of weeks have been a little better. I’ve started using my habit tracking app again, limited myself to 5 things in the morning and 5 things at night to do - It may sound stupid but I’ve got easy tasks like brushing my teeth, showering, taking my PCOS meds on there. Small victories like that are giving me some mild motivation and checking off to-do lists is definitely a brain boost.

I do feel like I have made this post a little too depressing and I’m getting that anxious ‘let’s change the subject’ feeling, so let’s talk about something a little more fun. Notion and Reading Stats!

As I mentioned above, amidst the low points, I have been reading consistently throughout the year - well with a few slow months. One thing I do love about reading, is the tracking aspect and making stats with this information - somewhat nerdy I know.

My Grandmother suggested I should start recording what I've read after showing me her collection of little notebooks where she does the same - She's been doing it since the 80s and its honestly such a joy to see how much her reading style has changed overtime.

Built upon a template I found made by YouTuber FictionalFates, I have poured hours into making it not only visually pleasing for me, but functional to what I need.

At some point I will do a longer post of my notion space in full, but for now I’ll pop a screenshot of the hub section below just for a visual,

I don't know how much of it you can read, sorry in advance mobile readers, but it is very me coded. Its moody looking, laden with quotes, and soundtracked by one of the best songs from an OST.

One of the main parts of my notion page is my book cataloguing section. It’s not very noticeable from the screenshot, but the bottom tabs are the database I have created.

I document books when I finish them, noting information like genre(s), age group, format, rating and if they're an ARC to name a few. They are then categorised by year and make such satisfying charts. Notion recently added an in-built function to allow you to create a myriad of charts based on this info, and needless to say I had a bit too much fun with this.

So we finally make it to the stats! Please note, I’m using the 2nd July 2024 as my mid year marker.

If I loopback to the goal I set myself at the beginning of the year of reading 90 books in 2024, reaching 50 books read for the first half is ahead of schedule. We have read some really good books and some okay books. We have also read some really questionable books.

I’m going to add here that me sharing this info is not a way of me bragging about how many books I’ve read or to shame anyone if they have read less. Reading any amount of books, whether a lot or a little, is amazing. No one should feel deterred or put out by other’s numbers. As long as you’re enjoying your time and what you read, that’s all that should count.

Time for some quick-fire numbers,

• 50 books read

• 16 of which were ARCs

• January was our worst reading month with 2 reads, whilst June was our best with 16

• Most of our reads have sat at 3 or 4 stars on my scale

• 84% of our reads were Adult/New Adult in age range

• Our top 3 genres are Romance, Fantasy and Contemporary

My favourite read so far from this year was The Lifeline by Tom Ellen, honestly such a stunning book that I will recommend endlessly. I’ll link my review here for more of an insight to my thought process.

My least favourite was Ruthless Heir by Sasha Leone. I’m not sure what I expected going into this book, but I finished it confused and conflicted. The plot was genuinely a fever dream, and I still look back just as confused.

My favourite completed series I read was Demigods of San Francisco by K.F. Breene. It was honestly such a fun series that I definitely recommend checking out. The plot of each book was interesting with interconnecting threads throughout, so it feels like a complete tale rather than standalone stories. The characters were fun and memorable, and the magic system was super intriguing.

A series I’m looking forward to continuing is The Empyrean series by Rebecca Yarros. I know some people don’t really like the series or find it to just be another of BookTok’s hype receivers, but I genuinely have enjoyed this series so far - Except the never ending lack of communication from the main characters, or the fact they love to assume things. But I digress. I also really enjoyed the audiobook versions of both books. The narrator did a fantastic job. Fond is the wrong word to use in this instance, but I have ‘fond memories’ of sitting in my office listening to book and having to will my tears not to fall.

I guess now is as good a time to finally end this post. I think I’m going to start doing more blog and writing posts aside from the book reviews. I have missed this. My first blog was like a stream of consciousness capturing a moment, and as embarrassing as some of the posts were, I genuinely miss it.

Last thing I will say, if you have made it this far, thank you for reading my ramblings. I also want to thank all the authors and publishing agencies who reach out to us with books for us to review. Without you this site would be nothing but an empty shell.

I will see you on the next one.

Love Eliza x