Let's talk about the year so far.
Early in the year I was given a new diagnosis, on top of my Ehlers Danlos Syndrome type 3, and it is a complication of my EDS3. The diagnosis was a little overdue, but at least I have it. It's weird being excited about knowing what the cause of a health problem is, even if there is nothing that can be done. I'm OK, I'm doing good, this is a common complication, and I'm good with it.
This year has also left me mentally and politically tired. Every news article, every big political moment, has just left me drained. There is so much inequality and so much to fight for, and it needs everyone involved, but I'm just not as involved as I'd like to be; that's OK, that's something I'm dealing with. I'm certain I'm not the only one who feels this drain either.
In other good news, I've been in full swing with my university reading. As always, you can get my updates on Goodreads for books I'm reading cover to cover. I'll talk about my reading in just a moment. I had to take a break from my MA, and I had to postpone my second year, so I'll be starting again this October. I'm very excited.
I've also been playing a lot of Fallout 76 and The Sims 4 because why not? It's my first Sims game, and I'm obsessed with it. I have a group of friends that I play FO76 with, which makes it even better. If you want to see a review on Fallout 76 that I agree with (and I appear in!) you can see it here.
This year I've been keeping a log of my reading statistics so I thought I'd share my progress for the first half of the year. Before I do, some of the statistics will either match the spreadsheet, my Goodreads statistics, or both; I'm not tracking audiobooks that I'm reading only when I go out on the spreadsheet but I am on Goodreads, for example. That said, I'll be tracking journals and articles on the spreadsheet, but only cover-to-cover reads on Goodreads. I'm also not including any ancient/classical texts on the spreadsheet because trying to do years in BCE on Google Sheets just doesn't work. I tried. I gave up trying. I admit defeat.
Total books finished: 56
Total pages read: 22,787
Average pages per book: 789
DNF: 4 books; 3,007 pages
Books finished per month...
January - 17 books; 6,775 pages
February - 1 book; 358 pages
March - 8 books; 3,538 pages
April - 10 books; 7,528 pages
May - 13 books; 3,261 pages
June - 5 books; 1,823 pages
Considering I have spent most of June with a migraine {which I still have} I'm really proud of myself. So far I have out-read 2015 and 2016, and read more pages than 2015, 2016, and 2017. For being just half way through the year, I'm over the moon about this.
I'm not done yet.
I'll be taking part in 24in48 this month, one of my favourite readathons, and I have a very long TBR for it. You can see my TBR on the spreadsheet linked above, but I'm a mood reader. The list might change, and I definitely have books I want to read before those as well. So many books...
For anyone who is tired of seeing my Goodreads posts about nonfiction books and textbooks... It will continue, and it will get worse. For anyone who is excited about seeing my Goodreads posts about nonfiction books and textbooks... good news, there are many more to come.
I hope so far this year has given you a chance for self care and appreciating what makes you happy.
I hope you're happy
E