Another four months passed since my last update. I’m so happy my reading is back to normal, and I feel motivated again to tackle my TBR. Some progress was made. Some were undone, but better months will come. The slump curse was lifted, and I’m in an amazing reading mood and ready to wrap up 2023 and have a great 2024.

October

Coming out of a reading slump is not always easy but very exciting. And audiobooks can be helpful. I didn’t make any progress in reducing my TBR, I even increased it. Although sometimes going out to dinner is better than forcing me to cook something at home. So I started the spooky month with The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, which was great. This is the type of horror I like. No confirmed supernatural things, only vibes. Then I listened to Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. I can still hear the name “Rebecca”, and I guess that’s something that will stay with me for life. I listened to both books on YouTube, read by Tony Walker from the Classic Ghost Stories Podcast. I really like his narration, and it’s a place I’ll go to find spooky stories.

Since October is my birth month, I had to do a little shopping. I bought The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins, My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix, Five Survive by Holly Jackson and Odyssey 2010 by Arthur C Clarke because apparently, Odyssey 2001 is a series and not a standalone novel. mind blown

I continued the rest of the month with spooky vibes, and read from Simon Teen’s free monthly books The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw. I was a bit disappointed by the ending, to be honest. It was very intriguing and gave me Fear Street 1994 Netflix movie ambience. I’m guessing haunting dead witches with origin stories is my cup of tea in supernatural horror. Also, read The Midnight Club by Christopher Pike, which is not a horror story in any shape or form, and if anyone tells you that, they are lying. The Midnight Club is a story about hope in the face of death. While the story is set up to seem there will be ghosts or other supernatural things happening, nothing ever happens. These are just kids dealing with death and finding comfort in each other and themselves. It’s actually a very pretty story. It drags a little at times, but overall very hopeful.

November

Continuing with the spooky theme, I read My Best Friend’s Exorcism. Although I read Five Survive at the same time. And let me tell you… Don’t do it. I’m usually always reading multiple books at once and never had any problems mixing the stories because usually are very different. And while both books are from different genres, they have very similar main characters. So, if I wasn’t careful and prioritised reading one at a time, I could easily mix them up. Unfortunately, while I did like both, they fell short. I was expecting more, and they didn’t deliver.

Then I read Inferno by Dan Brown because I wanted to end the Robert Langdon series in 2023. This is a series I’ve been reading for a long time, and now that I’m finished with it, I can finely do my ranking post going over the best, the worst, and the “please take 200 pages off of this”. Risking sounding like a broken record, Inferno also fell short. Since it’s set in Florence, for the most part, I was expecting to find a similar love I had with Angels and Demons. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, and by the last 100 pages, I was forcing myself to just finish the damn book and end my misery.

December

By December, I was determined to end the year on a high note. I finished Descendant of the Crane by Joan He, a book I had in my TBR for ages and a genre I don’t read. While it was easy to get into, and the plot was somewhat interesting, I didn’t connect 100% with the story. I had a hard time visualising some scenes, and I’m guessing that’s because I’m not used to the type of language. Either because it’s fantasy or because it’s Chinese-inspired fantasy.

I also finished my reread of Heat Wave by Richard Castle, which I started in September. I’m rereading and annotating the books so I can read the fourth book Frozen Heat, which is probably the oldest I have on my TBR. These books are really not that memorable, and I read them more for the novelty than anything else.

I couldn’t leave the last month of the year without reading some holiday romances. So I listened to Christmas Wishes at the Chocolate Shop by Jessica Redland. The book is free on Spotify, and there are many more by the same author I’ll check out another time. I quite enjoyed the story, not for the Christmas feelings ‘cause those never came. But as a winter read, it’s somewhat cosy. Then I picked up The Gift by Cecelia Ahem, and I was surprised. I don’t know why, but I was expecting Cecelia Ahem to have melancholic writing, instead it’s funny. It was a pleasant surprise and a relief since I have another book by her on my TBR. Although as much fun as I was having, I was not in the mood to read the story being set up. The protagonist is a despicable man, and while I like bad characters, I didn’t want to read his redemption arc. So I DNFed it. Not because the book was bad, not because I was bored, but because it wasn’t the right time.

Because there is no Christmas without receiving books, I gifted myself Obsidio by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman, the last book in The Illuminae Files series, and Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Can I read the book before the movie comes out? Knowing myself, probably not.

And to top the year off, I reread Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn. After reading The Expanse, it’s incredibly hard to make my brain read “Levithan” instead of “Leviathan”. Anyway, I already knew this book was more fitting for the days between Christmas and New Year. The story begins days away from Christmas, but the majority of the plot is set after. And since there aren’t many festivities, the Christmas vibes are pretty low. I probably should read the second book since this one doesn’t dive much into the romance, and I felt that was missing.

January

New year, same TBR. While preparing my reading spreadsheet for the new year, I saw that my TBR increased from one year to the other. I could sit here and complain about all that work for nothing. But, let’s be real, I was in a reading slump for half of the year. It’s normal the TBR is more or less the same. What I can do right now is focus on reading. I want to keep a reading habit to avoid another reading slump. So wish me luck!

Since I can’t shy away from a readathon, I’m preparing a character to participate in the Magical Readathon: Orillium. This readathon started at the end of 2022, and it’s a D&D game set in a magical school, but books are your dice. Does that make any sense? For the longest time, I wanted to participate, but I would forget or not be in the mood. And so this year, I’m doing it all.

For January, I’m taking the Novice Path to create my character. The objective is to read at least two books out of 6 that fit the prompts, otherwise my character dies. And I barely made it out of the path alive. After reading Winnie the Pooh by A A Milner, I jumped to The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins. And I have to say it should be a crime to start the year with two disappointments. I was stupidly trying to read one book at a time, so I didn’t finish any other. Although I started two great books I’m finishing in February: Trigger by N Griffin and Girls with Sharp Sticks by Suzanne Young. Both are free reads from Simon Teen. You already know I love my free reads.

This year is also the start of the Game of Tomes, a readathon hosted by Emma and Carol from emmie and CarolynMarieReads YouTube channels, respectively. For January and February, the book to read is The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I borrowed my mother’s Portuguese three volumes copy. I already finished the first one, and I’m in the middle of the second. I’m using tabs to separate the books into daily reading portions, and it’s making the books so much easier to read. I can see where I should be every day and avoid getting out of schedule. It also helps I only have to read about 20 pages a day.

The month didn’t end without a little book shopping. I bought Trigger without thinking twice and Turning by Joy L Smith, also a book I read from Simon Teen free reads, two years ago. Two purchases that don’t even count for my TBR. Now that’s a pretty sight to see.

Year 2: 2nd Quarter	TBR	Read from TBR	Reread	Free Reads	DNF	TBR Increase	TBR Left
October	78			4		4	82
November	82	3					79
December	79	1	2	1	1	2	79
January	79	1		2			78
Total		5	2	7	1	6