Fall is definitely back, but this was a rather disappointing Poetober all around. It’s hard to enjoy fictional creepy stuff when the entire world is absolutely full of horrors.
October goal:
I’m setting a Poetober goal of 3 books.
What I read:
- Kill Creatures—Rory Power
- Kindle / 274p
- Oct 6–9
- 4⭐
- Review
- The Last One at the Wedding—Jason Rekulak
- Kindle / 352p
- Oct 10–14
- 2.5⭐
- Review
- A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe—Mark Dawidziak
- Audiobook 🎧 / 7h 48m
- Oct 2–31
- 4⭐
- Review
In-progress:
- Food for Thought: Essays and Ruminations—Alton Brown
- Audiobook
- 2%
- In My Remaining Years—Jean Grae
- Audiobook
- 27%
- The library loan expired before I was done and I’m STILL awaiting redelivery.
Abandoned:
- Life Among the Savages—Shirley Jackson
- Physical
- Only a few pages
- I started it in late September and never got back to it. Maybe later.
- I’m not marking it as abandoned or DNF. Timing was wrong for me.
2025 Note: I quit linking titles to that big site that funds the rich dude and fascism a while ago—and the same guy owns Goodreads, so now I link to Storygraph. Regardless, I recommend supporting independent bookstores. My favorite is Old Town Books (they ship!). You can also support my favorite podcast through their Bookshop.org link at KickBezosInTheBalls.org (or pick a local shop of your choosing). And you can never go wrong with your local library!
2025 Progress
Star Ratings:
Based on the flat stars, not the quarter stars I assign in my reviews.
- 5 stars: 2 books
- 4 stars: 13 books
- 3 stars: 19 books
- 2 stars: 3 books
- 1 star: 0 books
- 0 stars: 0 books
- Abandoned: 3 books
- Not rated: 0 books
Pages Read/Hours Listened:
(Does not include partial books, abandoned books, or edited manuscripts)
- January – 1359p, 4h 13m
- February – 766p, 8h 0m
- March – 1475p*, 15h 49m
- April – 0p, 4h 22m
- May – 1840p, 8h 57m
- June – 1861p, 5h 57m
- July – 1425p, 0h 0m
- August – 1326p, 0h 0m
- September – 1165p, 6h 27m
- October – 937p, 7h 48m
*Note: Storygraph has a slightly different number because they count what they think I actually read each day based on when I update my progress. I always count the entire book in the month it was completed, even if I read everything but the last page (or listen to everything but the last minute) in the previous month.
Reading Goals:
Read 36 books
I finished 3 books toward my Goodreads Challenge, and I’ve reached my goal.
- Audiobooks: 10
- Kindle: 25
- Physical books: 2
*Note: I edited a book in April/May and read the 297 pages 3 times in the process, so I feel like I could count another 3 books and 891 pages toward my total.
Decrease my TBR
- Jan 1: 59 physical / 20 digital
- Feb 2: 59/20
- Mar 2: 59/20
- Apr 6: 59/20
- May 2: 59/20
- Jun 4: 59/21
- Jul 5: 59/21
- Aug 3: 58*/20
- Sept 1: 58/20
- Oct 5: 57/20
- Nov 1: 57/20
*I finally switched these stats over to Storygraph and realized I have discrepancies between my physical TBRs on Goodreads and Storygraph. A problem for another day.
Read 25 minutes per day
October 31 was Day 1507 of my reading streak.
I had big plans for October and it all went sideways the very first night. Instead of reading/watching/doing my usual Poetober things, it felt like I was living them. Life was just too lifey between personal, work, and national/political stuff. It actually feels like a relief that it’s no longer Poetober. I had chosen the exact books I was going to read for the month and never touched any of them. If not for the Poe audiobook, there’s no way I would’ve kept up my reading streak or hit my goal.
But in happier news, I reached my reading goal, so anything else is just extra at this point.
Realistically, I’m only committing to 3 books for November. Anything more than that feels like a setup for failure.
As always, you can find me other places to see what I’m reading:
