LIFE'S A PEARL

October marks the end of the third quarter of the 2021 reading year! In this current reading season I am embracing all the fall reads! From cozy small towns to thrilling adventures and magical worlds, I’m all about the autumnal book picks right now.

This year I’m writing up a reading life check in for each quarter to share how my 2021 reading goals are going. At the beginning of the year, I set a few reading goals to help me branch out into new authors, new subgenres of romance, and to read more diversely.

I tried to pick broad flexible challenges for myself so I could keep a sense of spontaneity in my reading life. Setting rigid expectations or doing too much planning isn’t usually something that works out well for my reading life. So far this check in practice has helped me keep the right balance of chance and intention with my book choices.

 

Total Books Read

This year I set a goal to read 100 books and I was really surprised to find myself crossing that finish line this quarter, months ahead of schedule in August! My final tally for my third quarter check in was 46 books. That brings my total books read to 121!

I was definitely trying to load up the first half of the year with books though. My reading life always seems to slow down a bit at the end of the year. This year in particular I wasn’t sure how life would go because we have a new addition to our family!

Depending on how things go with a new baby, I’m totally up for keeping this momentum going. I foresee many audiobooks in my future and maybe ebooks too because I’ve heard it’s easier to flip the pages one handed while nursing.

 

New Authors

One of my 2021 reading goals is to check out at least one new author each month. These aren’t debut authors but rather new to me writers that I haven’t read before. My first quarter check in really surprised me with this. The majority of my reading was new authors – 25 out of 32 books!

In the third quarter I read 33 books by new to me authors out of the 46 books read. Three of those books were actually written by several new authors.

From my second quarter reading stats, I’m back up to a high rate of new authors. I’m reading far more than 1 per month. It averages out to 62% new to me authors for the year or almost 2 out of every 3 books I read are by new authors.

Some new favorite finds from the third quarter of my reading year include Megan Goldin, Catherine Steadman, and  K.J. Dell’Antonia’s debut The Chicken Sisters.

 

She Reads Romance Books Reading Challenge

At the beginning of 2021, I wanted to read more romance and decided to follow the She Reads Romance Books Reading Challenge for the year. I hoped it would encourage me to explore different subgenres and tropes. I definitely had the most success with this challenge at the beginning of the year compared to last quarter. This third quarter was a bit of a toss up.

Over the summer reading months, I definitely saw an increase in romance in my book picks. July’s Reading Challenge category was summer romance. I read a few books that could fit in this category including YA romances like When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon and Instant Karma by Marisa Meyer. My pick for the month though was Dial A for Auntie by Jesse Q. Sutanto, one of my summer reading picks.

The trope for August was friends to lovers romance. I read Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren which was hilarous! It might be my favorite so far from them. It’s definitely on par with The Unhoneymooners also by that romance writing duo.

I didn’t do so well on this reading challenge in September though. That category was teacher student romance which I wasn’t feeling. I changed it to a campus set romance for my preferences but even then I didn’t get around to grabbing one of those picks. I was too into witchy reads and mysteries.

I’m excited for the upcoming months’ challenges! I think they will fit well into my seasonal reading mood for the rest of the year. October is paranormal romance. November’s category is a goodreads award nominee or winner. December is fittingly a holiday romance.

 

Diverse Authors

Another reading goal for 2021 was to read at least one diverse author each month. This could be an author of color, #ownvoices story, or a member of another marginalized group. I read 14 books from diverse authors.

This was my best quarter yet with at least 30% of my reading diverse. That’s only authors and doesn’t include stories featuring diverse characters.

Some favorites include the above mentioned Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto, Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi, Seven Days in June by Tia Williams, and The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui.

 

Year of Health Experiment and More Nonfiction Reads

I read the most nonfiction so far this year in the third quarter with 12 books.

I’ve kept up on my year of health experiment where I focus on one different aspect of health each month with a nonfiction book pick. In July I read Beyond Labels by Sina McCullough, PhD and Joel Salatin. August’s book selection was The Joy of Movement by Kelly McGonigal, PhD. In September I read The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding by La Leche League.

This quarter leading up to our due date, I read 3 other childbirth books including Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way, The Essential C-Section Guide, and My Caesarean: Twenty-One Mothers on the C-Section Experience and After. I also read 5 memoirs and the self help book, How to Be Fine from By the Book Podcast hosts Jolenta Greenberg and Kristen Meinzer.

 

The Book Buying Ban

We live tiny and try to embrace minimalism. I get the majority of my books from the library.

In recent years, I implemented a self imposed booking buying ban. Sometimes a book sounds great but by the time I get it home my mood has changed and it sits on my shelves unread. I also seem to be a person who gets stressed even by digital clutter so I wanted to put a stop to all the books piling up unread on my kindle from impulse purchasing too many book deals.

This quarter I did indulge in a few books here and there from our local used bookstore, most of them pregnancy or parenting related.

Although I don’t have goals beyond not adding to my unread books, this quarter was a bad one for reading books I already own. I read precisely one book that I already owned. I borrowed one book from a friend. The rest of the books, 44, came from the library either physically or borrowed through Libby.

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How did your third quarter reading life go this year? What are your reading goals?