Year in Review // Readathons, Diverse Reads & Structured TBR Success – Quarterly Check In

I’m back from hiatus, yet again!

I’ve had a grand time away but I’ll get into that in my Month in Review posts next week!

For now, I want to take a moment to go over my year so far since we’re a bit over a quarter of the way through!

I’ll be covering my reading, watching, blogging and goals from January to March and how I think I’ve gone so far!

If you would like to buy any of the following books please consider using my Book Depository Affliate link!

    

TBR

│The Raven Cycle│▶️│

│Shadow and Bone Series│

│The Conqueror’s Saga│

│Montague Siblings│

│Villains│

│The Dark Artifices│

│Harry Potter Series│

│Sharp Objects│

│Sadie│✅│

│Sawkill Girls│

│The Hate U Give│

│Rejected Princesses│▶️│

│Bygone badass Broads│▶️│

│Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda│

│Children of Blood & Bone│

│City of Ghosts│

│Percy Jackson and the Olympians│

I mean, that’s not great. But at least I have actually been reading book I own!

Readathons & Challenges

Before this year I hadn’t  participated in any readathons or challenges!

🏺🔮💀 But this year I’ve been participating in the Devour Your TBR challenges each month—even if it’s only one or two books!

🏃‍♀️ I also participated in the Late-A-Thon readathon that was run by Destiny @ Howling Libraries!

Reading Challenge

This year I set my reading challenge to 50 books! Which is half of what I read last year but I did this because I knew I wouldn’t have as much time to read this year.

According to Goodreads I’m one book behind, as of April 5th, which I honestly expected.

Each month I try to read 5 books, and in both February and March, my reading took a bit of a hit.

I’m hoping I got back on track and read at least 5 books in April. Hello future Grey, did I do good???? Future Grey: you did great!

Stats

☁️ I’ve read 3989 pages

☁️ My average rating is 3.68

☁️ I take 13.9 days to read each book, on average

☁️ 10/11 books read have been YA

☁️ The genre I’ve read the most is fantasy (big surprise!)

Diversity

☁️ So far all of my reads have been diverse in some form or another!!! 🌏

☁️ 5 of which have had LGBTQIAP+ rep 🏳️‍🌈

☁️ 5 of which have had POC rep 🔆

☁️ 5 of which I have deemed feminist literature 🚺

My Book of the Quarter

│Sadie│Courtney Summers│📲📚│🏳️‍🌈💋🔆🙏🏻♿️🌹🚬🚺│🌏📚│✅│★★★★★│Read Feb 14│

Structured TBR (Started Feb)

│Must Read: ❌ 11/15│📥 5/2│📤 0/0│📖 4/4│🌏 11/6│✨ 20/20│⚡ 11/10│

So I’m behind on books read but I already knew that.

I’ve gotten through quite a few ARCs! So I’m very proud of that! That Late-A-Thon and Jan Jam Jar helped with that a lot in January!

I’ve been good at reading owned books, and literally every single book I’ve read has been diverse in some form which makes me very happy!

I’ve been keeping up with reading my Rejected Princesses and Bygone Badass Broads entries each month which is giving me a good dose of history!

│Allowances: 📚 3/2│📲 2/1│📕 1/1│📗 0/0│🎧 0/1│

I have read more library books than I was meant to but it is the first time I’ve had a structured TBR so I knew it would take a little while to work out the kinks.

Like making sure I don’t have too many holds on Overdrive or the Library at once as that gives me the risk of multiple books becoming available in one month. And if there is that risk then I should take advantage of the feature of suspending holds!

It’s also good to make sure that, if I do have a library book, I try and read it first so it doesn’t carry on into the next month.

However, since I started my structured TBR late, meaning I’ve only done it for two months, even though it has been three months (at the time of writing this) I think I can give myself the exception of passing.

I think I might bump my audiobook allowances to two each month for the rest of the year, just because it doesn’t interfere with the rest of my reading because I’m listening to audiobooks during times I wouldn’t be reading otherwise so reading more of them can only be a plus! And I need that extra wiggle room now that I’ll be doing a four hour drive to and from my Aunt’s house once a month!

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Past Grey Reads

☁️ Book Review // Girl Made of Stars – I Am Broken

☁️ Grey Reads // Everything’s On Fire and I Couldn’t Be Happier – Girls of Paper and Fire

☁️ Grey Reads // Bloody Moors & Candy Castles – The Wayward Children 2 & 3

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TBW

Jan-Mar Releases

│The Hate U Give│❌│

│On The Basis of Sex│❌│

│Captain Marvel│✅│

│Brooklyn Nine-Nine│Season 6│✅│

│One Day At A Time│Season 3│✅│

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Past Grey Watches

☁️ Grey Watches // I Wanna Bone Jude Law and Kate Winslet – The Holiday

☁️ Grey Watches // It Has To Be A Shit Show – A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding

☁️ Grey Watches // I Hate It So Much I Love It – A Christmas Prince

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Highlights

☁️ 2019 Ahead // It’s Twentybiteen, You Ready?

☁️ Tag // The Library Lover’s Book Tag – I Am a Library Fiend

☁️ Grey Learns // A Groundbreaking Journalist, Strong Abolitionist and Feminist – Ida B. Wells

☁️ Grey Tags // Shockingly Intelligent and Mind Blowingly Stupid – The Entertaining Blogger Award

☁️ Grey Tags // Romance Realist, Judgmental Judy & Fatphobia Errywhere – Out of My Comfort Zone Tag

☁️ Top Ten Tuesday // Audible and Overdrive Are My Lords & Saviors – My Audiobook TBR

Blogosphere Highlights

I’ve picked my absolute faves of the posts I’ve shared over the last three months, just in case you missed them the first time. They’re mostly blog and writing help because those things are always useful!

January

│Ellyn @Allonsythornraxxbooks│
HOW TO GET ON TOP OF YOUR NETGALLEY FEEDBACK RATIO│

│Avery @Red Rocket Panda│HOW TO HYPE YOUR FAVOURITE READS│

│Abbiee @Abbiee│WRITING TIPS
Transform a Messy Story Idea Into a Strong Outline (in 3 simple steps!)│

│Ilsa @A Whisper of Ink│How the HECK does one receive a physical ARC because I want one?! (I hear your cries and answer all your questions) Welcome to How To Request + Recieve ARCs│

│Simone @Simone and Her Books│My Review Process and Why I Write Reviews│

│Swetlana @The Caffeinated Bookworm Life│16 Blog Post Ideas To Help You Get Through (AT LEAST) A Month Of Blogging│

February

│Krystin @ Here’s The Fucking Twist│True Crime Tuesday: The San Francisco Witch Killers│

│May @ Forever And Everly│Discussing Blogger Appreciation and the Lack of It: Analyzing Answers, Stats, and Graphs From a Survey I Made!│

│Ellyn @ Allonsythornraxxbooks│HOW TO: OUTLINE A BLOG POST│MY 10 STEP GUIDE TO GROWING YOUR BLOG│

│Kelly @ Just Another Book in the Wall│THE VALUE OF TEEN VOICES IN THE BOOK BLOGGING COMMUNITY + PROJECT ANNOUNCEMENT!│

│Madeline @ Caffeine & Writing Dreams│How to Cut Adverbs for Stronger Writing // & When It’s Okay to Use Them│

│Kat @ Novels and Waffles│Stand Out Above The Crowd // 4 Ways To Make Your Free WordPress.com Theme Look Different From Everybody Else’s│My Branding Journey + Four Questions To Ask Yourself While Rebranding // ft. A Free Downloadable Checklist│How in the World I Make My Graphics // A Step-By-Step Tutorial│I Font It That Way // How to Choose the Right Font for Your Blog│By Any Other Name // 5 Steps That Will Help You Choose An Awesome Blog Name (ft. A Free Worksheet!)│

Listen I couldn’t decide on which ones from Kat to share, because they’re just ALL. SO. GOOD.

March

│Krystin @ Here’s The Fucking Twist│True Crime Tuesday: The Moors Murders│

│Vicky @ Vicky Who Reads│Stressed About College? These Book Recs Are For You!│

│Ellyn @ Allonsythornraxxbooks│5 TIPS ON ANNOTATING YOUR BOOKS!│

│Avery @ Red Rocket Panda│DOWN THE TBR HOLE | USING THE #KONMARIE METHOD FOR MY PHYSICAL SHELVES│

│Fadwa @ Word Wonders│MY PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS – OR HOW TO BE A MASTER ORGANIZER!│

│Qui @ The Black Lit Queen│Diversity vs. Representation|BLQ Quick Guide│

│Madeline @ Caffeine & Writing Dreams│How to Write Scenes that Balance Plot & Character // Scene and Sequel Sequences│

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Past Month In Review

☁️ January in Review // I Cried, Laughed, Ate Pasta, Celebrated My Birthday & Completed TWO Read-A-Thons/Challenges

☁️ Month in Review // I FINALLY CHANGED MY NAME – February

☁️ Month in Review // The Month From Hell – March

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Goals

☁️ Get to a point where I walk 10000 steps a day ✅

Yeah I can say I’ve done this. I’m back to square one but I did get to a point where I was walking 10000 steps a day regularly. I’ve just gotta get back to it.

☁️ Find a way to be more financially stable somehow

this hasn’t happened yet but my finances are a little easier to handle after some messing about with my budget.

☁️ Finish a draft for my WIP

I’ve still not started it. I hate myself. But I have been doing a lot of the ground work in my head, like discovering the history and setting and working out stuff about the characters an such. And like, I’ve kind of written some scenes. But I’m yet to actually take the time and sit down specifically to write.

☁️ Read 50 books

Not quite on track but I’m getting there!

☁️ Legally change my name FINALLY! ✅

I did it! My legal name is finally Greyson!

☁️ Continue going to therapy

I had my first appointment of the year at the very start of April so I didn’t quite make it in the first quarter of the year so I won’t give myself a tick yet.

☁️ Take regular mental health days ✅

I’m doing this! I might be only doing it because something bad happens that makes me an absolute right off for a whole day but I’m doing it!

☁️ Play more video games ✅

I’ve honestly played too much Sims in the last two months!

But also I wanna start playing games on my PlayStation again!

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Past Month Ahead

☁️Month Ahead // Happy Birthday To Me + Hiatus Announcement – January

☁️February Ahead // I’m Finally Going To Read The Raven Cycle Series & It’s Black History Month + A Great Resource for Education!!!!!

☁️ Month Ahead // Writers Week, Comedy & Too Much To Do – March

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So far so good!

What have you done so far this year?
What did you read?
What posts did you write that you’re super proud of?

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