October Reading Review | 2024 (+0 days!)

Greetings from a rainy New Hampshire! We’ve had a dry spell over the last couple of weeks and I was delighted when rain came through overnight — and when I realized that it was still raining this morning! I meant to write and publish this post yesterday but a combination of illness and the time change made that more difficult than usual; I didn’t have the perseverance to push through. So I’m writing this morning, somewhat under duress, as 2/3 of my children are here with me. So I won’t really be getting into the weeds today but I do want to share a general overview of my October reading:

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General Statistics:

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A few general thoughts:

• I have a rough goal to read 150 pages/day. In October my daily average was 151 pages/day (4685 pages/31 days)! The overall goal is to read 54,000 pages this year and I absolutely will not meet that goal but it is so much fun to try. And helpful: because when I catch myself scrolling on my phone and am able to remember oh! 150 pages today!, I almost always put my phone down and read a little something.
• Audiobooks saved the day this month! Especially earlier in the month — my earbuds died halfway through the month so all of my audiobooks were read around mid-month. I’ve since ordered two more pairs of earbuds (the first didn’t work and I had to return them, the second pair arrived yesterday), so I’m hoping to renew my audiobook enthusiasm in November.
• Literary fiction was my most read genre in October; Historical and Romance tied for second. That’s fun!

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Highlights of the Month:

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Hands down, absolute favorite was There Are Rivers in the Sky. I loved how the author connected us all through space/time with the water cycle and the stories of the characters she created. It was fantastic and has a special place in my Favorites of All Time list.

Honorable mentions were: Stoneyard Devotional, The Nickel Boys (a reread and well worth the time), The Extinction of Irena Rey, Colored Television, The Demon of Unrest, The Drownings, and The Ministry of Time.

I’m aware that’s practically the whole list. It was a good month!

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Calendar:

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It’s frustrating that this image is always so blurry because I think it’s the most fun! I’m adding it just because I love it so much. It also illustrates how pivotal audiobooks were for me last month. I had some fairly large daily page numbers early on and things slowed down in the second half. And that’s okay of course – the books were still so good!

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And today is election day in the US! Our town is voting at the elementary school so Colton will be home, which means that we won’t be having our homeschool today either. I got lots of baking supplies at the grocery store yesterday in anticipation of the nervous energy I’ll need to burn off today. I expect that I’ll be cooking and baking most of the day (hopefully with earbuds in) and will try to take a vigorous walk at some point. I am optimistic, “nauseously optimistic.” So really, I’m just a big ball of nervous energy and a clearly babbling at this point.

So if you’re in the US and haven’t voted, today’s the day! I hope we’re all thinking of the future and considering the preservation of our democracy. I’ll see you on the other side!