Yea…we don’t need to talk about this. But, let me give my various excuses for my only reading five books in January.
The thing is, I read a lot in November and December. Like, 9-10 books each month. And I know that that’s the norm for some people (Y’all are a whole different type of bibliophile. I am in awe of you.), but for me that is a HUGE AMOUNT OF TIME SPENT READING. I’m a slow reader, so you can rest assured that I, in fact, did not fly through my 300 page books. I spent around eight hours on them. But at least it wasn’t all in vain- I did complete my reading challenge! And that was so worth it.
Anyway, January was my month spent in book burn out. I tried to recover from my reading binges and didn’t force myself to pick up a book if I didn’t feel like it. So I was slumping and burned out and all around things weren’t looking so great. But, here are my books:
- Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
I realize this book is well loved by literally everyone and the audiobook version I listened to was narrated by Lin-Manuel Miranda. So this had pretty much everything in its corner for my liking it. But, I just…didn’t. I couldn’t connect with the two main characters and I think this was just the wrong time for me to read this book. While I do listen to a lot of audiobooks because of my long commute, certain books just don’t have the same impact in that format, and this was one of them. This might have fared better as a summer read.
2. The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
This was fantastic! I can’t believe, being the dystopian trash I am, that I waited this long to pick up this book. I LOVED IT. Yancey has such a unique talent for storytelling. I listened to this in my car and it was scarily dangerous because I was so immersed in listening to what would happen next that I was pretty much relying on muscle memory to get me to school. To recap: this book is so good it’s dangerous.
3. The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey
Yancey had me wrapped around his finger in The 5th Wave. Unfortunately, though I did enjoy this book, the thread began to unravel here. I felt like the intrigue of the world building went out of the window and Cassie took a sidestep from the story to create an all-around less tactful and less driving-dangerously-to-school (maybe for the best?) type of read. However, I will protect Ben Parish with my whole life and we, thankfully, got a lot more of him in this installment. I don’t know, it just seems like The 5th Wave was unique and jaw-droppingly good and edge of my seat listening (yea, that makes sense?), and The Infinite Sea couldn’t stand up with it.
4. The Last Star by Rick Yancey
Sigh…some characters die here. I won’t say who, but if you would’ve told me at the end of book one that these people would die I would have been crushed and would have written a strongly worded review about how that should not at all be allowed to happen because ??? Because it is just kinda the worst. But by book three…I *gasp* didn’t care. In fact, it was hard for me to even pay attention as these important people died. I’ll spare you the details as to exactly how this book went from adrenaline pumping type of fun (I know how to use adjectives, right?) to hard to even listen to. But don’t fret! All will be discussed in my full review. As for now, this was a disappointment.
5. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
My only physical book of the month- a classic! I liked volume one, trudged through volume two, and loved volume three. Joe has a special place in my heart and, though I never thought this would be the case when I started this, so does Pip. Yes, this drags at parts. But the ending was so fitting to the story, and despite dragging through many parts of this, I was sad to see it end.
My books averaged 3.5 shells this month. That’s not bad, but given that I am not strict with my ratings, it is kind of a disappointment. Next month I plan to get back to reading my physical copies and tackle my TBR! I also have lots of reviews to write…
All in all, January was good to me. May my birth month be even better!
What was January like for you in books? Did you accomplish any bookish goals?
Books by the Water 