Poe-tober is over. 🙁
October goal:
For October, I’d love to read 5 books and finish my reading challenge for the year (36 books), but that feels like a stretch. Let’s go with 3 books again. Slow and steady, right?
Result:
What was I thinking?
What I read:
- Days You Were Mine—Clare Leslie Hall
- Kindle / 352p
- Sept 17–Oct 22
- 2⭐
- Review
- Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders—Curt Gentry & Vincent Bugliosi
- Audiobook 🎧 / 4h 46m
- Oct 4–22
- 4⭐
- Review
What I’m reading:
- How to Cheat Your Own Death—Kristen Perrin
- Kindle
- Oct 22–
- 50%
- You with the Sad Eyes: A Memoir—Christina Applegate
- Audiobook 🎧
- Oct 23–
- 45%
- Separation of Church and Hate—John Fugelsang
- Physical
- Dec 21–
- p144 of 283 (50%)
What I abandoned:
- nothing
2026 Progress
Star Ratings:
Based on the flat stars, not the quarter stars I assign in my reviews.
- 5 stars: 1 book
- 4 stars: 20 books
- 3 stars: 10 books
- 2 stars: 1 book
- 1 star: 1 book
- 0 stars: 0 books
- Abandoned: 1 book
- Not rated: 0 books
Pages Read/Hours Listened:
(Does not include partial books, abandoned books, or edited manuscripts)
- January – 1319p, 8h 45m
- February – 933p, 3h 30m
- March – 1737p, 5h 40m
- April – 1094p, 0m (listened but did not complete)
- May – 1343p, 2h 36m
- June – 1360p, 4h 25m
- July – 1531p, 7h 52m
- August – 396p, 0m (listened but did not complete)
- September – 1072p, 10h 39m (+1 edited manuscript)
- October – 1041p, 4h 46m
*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 2 books toward my Storygraph challenge. I’m still ahead but barely
- Audiobooks: 9
- Kindle: 22
- Physical books: 2
Read 25 minutes per day
October 31 was Day 1872 of my reading streak.
I definitely didn’t finish my books for the year last month. I didn’t even make my monthly goal.
For November, I commit to finishing 3 books. I’m halfway through 2 now, so please tell me this is doable…
As always, you can find me other places to see what I’m reading:
Also, 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!
