To recap, the 20 Books of Summer challenge is created and hosted by Cathy from 746 Books. The rules are simple – pick 20 books (or 10 or 15) to read over the Summer (June 3rd-September 3rd) in order to reduce our TBR piles. I’m tried for 25 Books of Summer because I’m crazy and like a challenge. 🙂
Welp, here we are at the end of Summer reading! Where did the past three months go? They sure flew by. Let’s see how I did with my Summer TBR pile.
PHYSICAL BOOKS IN THE TBR MOUNTAIN
Crown of Feathers by Nicki Pau Preto- Dreams of the Dark Sky by Tina LeCount Myers
- Riverland by Fran Wilde
Asha and the Spirit Bird by Jasbinder BilanThe Beast’s Heart by Leife ShallcrossAn Illusion of Thievesby Cate GlassStorm of Locusts by Rebecca RoanhorseMyths & Mortals by Charlie N. HolmbergThe Book of Flora by Meg Elison
EARC’S IN THE TBR MOUNTAIN
The Dragon Republic by R. F. KuangThe Girl With No Face by M. H. BorosonA Song For a New Day by Sarah Pinsker
OTHER EBOOKS IN THE TBR MOUNTAIN
The Blood Prince by Josie JaffreyLace and Lies by Nancy Warren- The Hidden Face by S. C. Flynn
- Clock’s Watch II: Daughters of the Black Moon by Michael Reyes
The Spec Set by Taya OkerlundUnder Ordshaw by Phil Williams- Wagers of Fate by Noureddine Hifad
- Sunkissed Feathers & Severed Ties by Kellie Doherty
AUDIOBOOKS IN THE TBR MOUNTAIN
The Priory of the Orange Treeby Samantha ShannonLast Bastion by Rachel Aaron and Travis BachBeautiful by Juliet MarillierStrange the Dreamer by Laini TaylorTouch by Claire North
Let’s see, how did I do with this? Well, I didn’t finish. But! I made great progress with my overall TBR pile.
- I got through several books from earlier in the year that would have ended up on my backlist otherwise
- Checked off ARCs that were due (a couple that weren’t on this list, too)
- Managed to make some headway with my long overdue review requests.
So, while I am slightly disappointed not to have crossed off every book on this list, I am also extremely happy with my overall achievement. This really helped keep me on track with some of my goals while keeping the pool of books big enough (mostly) to appease my mood reading spirit.
I finished 19/25 books. Now, I did read a lot more than that this Summer overall, I still got distracted by books outside my TBR pile. As per usual. I’ve had a lot of fun with this though, and because of what I’ve learned, I think I have a better strategy going into my Autumn TBR and how to keep from straying from it so much. We’ll see. 🙂
Thanks again to Cathy for running this challenge, it’s been fantastic and I’ve had a lot of fun with it!
You did VERY well. Better than I could have done!
Thank you, appreciate it! 🙂
You’ve had such a productive summer! Congrats! 😀 Which book did you enjoy the most?
Thanks! Well, hard to pick, there were so many. The Dragon Republic was amazing, so was Storm of Locusts. Others I lived for different reasons. Touch and Strange the Dreamer were weird and lovely and sad. A Song for a New Day was great love letter to music with some commentary on consumerism and technology and politics all wrapped up into a slightly dystopian future. The Beast’s Heart was just…<3<3<3
Honestly, there wasn't much I didn't love. 🙂
Congrats on all that you finished! My TBR is a mountain as well haha. 😀
Thanks! I think all of us book bloggers probably have TBR mountains haha. 🙂
I think you did pretty well! I mean 19/25 is a lot!
(www.evelynreads.com)
Thanks, Evelyn!
Well done! You wasn’t that far off the goal 😁 there were some good books on your list too, I’m glad you enjoyed them. I look forward to see you Autumn TBR 😁
Thanks, Ivy! I did enjoy so many of the books this summer, lots of good stuff. 🙂
Sounds like this has been a great experience and event to take part in and well done for reading 19 of your 25 books. That’s such a great achievement and must feel great to have those books off your tbr.
Lynn 😀
Thanks Lynn! Yep, it was a lot of fun and definitely feels good to have those books off of my list. 🙂
Ahh, this sounded like such a great idea, I wish I had known about it at the beginning of Summer bc I am 99% sure my TBR is a mess and I am just picking up books willy-nilly in the hopes it will help. I am happy you achieved so much though, well done on tackling such an ambitious list.
Thanks, Avery! I liked this challenge so much I made a list up for the Fall! You could always just make up a list and go with it. I liked this one because it gave me a big enough list to pull from since I’m a mood reader, I need variety lol. Good luck with your TBR!
thats a good point, I could look at making an autumn list to give me some structure without being overly confining
It’s worked out fairly well for me. If you try it, I wish you luck with it!
19/25 is still awesome! 😀 Good luck with your Autumn TBR 🙂
Thanks, Brittany!
You made great work of those lists though – and reminded me that I have a copy of The Hidden Face that I really must get round to reading too, oops. It’s been a good summer 🙂
Thanks! Yeah, I’ve had that one in my tbr pile for a while, definitely oops for me too lo .
19/25 is freaking amazing!!! Congrats on the progress you made with your TBR. I wish I could accomplish something like this. My TBR goes down by one book and then increases by 5. Lol.
Thanks! Well, this was just part of my giant TBR pile and it’s grown somewhat but it still feels good to get these crossed off LOL. 🙂
Wow it looks like you did incredibly well with this!
I did pretty good, would have been happier if I’d gotten to every book, but I’m happy with the results. 🙂
OOh! You found “The Beast’s Heart”!!
I decided to re-borrow this via audiobook from the library as I originally slated it to be heard during #WyrdAndWonder!! Ha!! I thought it would befit #Myththon2 as it is a play on worlds w/in the canon of afters for “Beauty and the Beast” which I felt is definitely worthy of the readathon as our most beloved Classics have sort of entered into this Mythos region themselves due to how many incantations there are towards re-visualising how they can be told.
BatB is one of my favorites and I guess a lot of others too because it really has been retold over and over and over and…well, you get the idea. 😉
I thought The Beast’s Heart did a good job of showing things from Beast’s perspective, staying fairly close to the original story but still giving it a bit of its own spin. I also feel like it tried to address some of the problematic issues with the original tale–whether or not it succeeds there I think will always be up to the individual reader, but I was pleased. 🙂