May 2018 Summary: 06/01/18

May was a struggle not because of library books, but because of an over zealous schedule of newly purchased books I planned to read and review. I've come to the realization that I can't keep a pace of three newly published books a week and get reviews written for them and enjoy the process. Although I can and often do read what averages out to a book a day, actually committing to doing so every day is stressful.

I currently have seventeen books checked out and six holds (mostly for research) to pick up at the library. I'm less worried about finishing every one before they are due. I've decided that if I run out of time, I'll just return the book and re-request it if I'm still interested in reading it.

May was the first month after ten successful months where I missed my reading goal. Namely, I want at least half of my books to be from own voice authors, or from other countries. With reading twenty-three books, thirteen of them should have counted towards that goal. I only read ten — mostly from taking too long on some of the newly published books.

May's reviews, though, did feature a majority of diverse / own voice books. This is my third month in a row in reaching the reviewing goal. A large number of the books I read, especially of ones published this year, were reviewed in the month they were read, an unusual feat for me.

At the start of May, I had planned to review sixteen books published in 2018. In reality, I only managed to read and review eight of them.

At the start of May I had fifty-five reviews from 2016 to post. I'm now down to forty-four. My 2017 reviews dropped from forty-seven to forty. My 2018 reviews are holding steady, up a little from seventy-two to eighty-one.

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