What I Read this Month: September 2025

I had a lot of downtime this month, which meant lots of time to read. Three more books added to my 2025 total as we enter the year's last season.

What I read this month: August 2025

I read one book this month early on—so early on, I'd forgotten I even read it! I chose one that I had bookmarked on Libby, so it was a bit of a random choice.

What I read this month: July 2025

I have been in a reading rut this summer, probably because I've been focusing my free time on running and revising my own novel, but I finally picked up a book that hooked me from the first page, and managed to finish it in just a couple days, beating out the clock on the end of July.

I really need to learn to like audio books, because then I could stack the heck out of my habits.

What I read this month: May 2025

This month I read some really great books. I purposely chose literary fiction this month because I've been thinking about reading like a writer; reading pulpy romance or mystery is fine, but it doesn't offer me much in the way of instruction. I wanted to read some stuff that would get my brain percolating. 

I was mostly offline the last week of the month because of the cruise, during which time I managed to read two books, bringing this month's total to four and doubling my yearly total.

Read this month: 4

Read this year: 8

What I read this month: April 2025

This month's tome took all month to read. Actually, I think I borrowed it at the end of March, got a few chapters in, and then came back to it after a hiatus. I had to renew the loan when I was around the halfway point. This 600-page behemoth took actual concentration to get through. In some ways, it felt like work.

This is book three in a four-book series, and I've been waiting for its release since absolutely devouring the third book in March 2023. I really like this series, and I've grown attached to the characters. I have some gripes, but overall I enjoyed this book and I loved the ending. I'm so excited to see how everything wraps up in book four, which is due out...who knows when.

Books read this month: 1

Total books this year: 4

What I read this month: February 2025

I barely squeezed a book in this month. February is always a busier month because of my birthday, but this February especially felt slammed. Still, a book is a book.

Books read this month: 1

Total books this year: 3

What I read this month: December 2024

December was a busy so I didn't read for most of it, but a quick trip to see family in Florida provided ample time to binge a trilogy I've been meaning to read for awhile!

These three books bring my total count for the year to 29. I didn't have a reading goal in 2024; I simply wanted to feel genuinely excited about reading again, and to naturally pick up books because I felt like reading. I wanted to get to a place where reading had become a true hobby for me again, and I do think I'm there.

What I read this month: November 2024

 

November nearly got away from me because coming back from vacation and diving into a new job took all my attention and energy, but toward the middle of the month I remembered I still had a couple books on loan on my Kindle. Let's dive in!

What I read this month: October 2024

Our trip to Kaua'i gave me the perfect opportunity to dedicate some time to reading without feeling like I should be doing something else. I planned to just continue with the mystery series I've been reading so I wouldn't have to engage my brain too much, but one of them didn't download correctly, so I branched out and actually read some fantasy this month, too.

What I read this month: August 2024

In August, I only read one book, but it was a hefty one! I've generally been avoiding anything too long or intense, and this one was both of those things. Someone at work recommended it after she realized I'm a Stephen King fan, although the book this one reminds me of most is his son Joe Hill's NOS4A2.

I had to read this one in sips here and there at first because it starts with some pretty dark themes right off the bat, but once I hit the halfway point, I found myself speeding toward the end.

What I read this month: June 2024

 

With four active library cards now at my disposal, I'm back to reading! I ended up having a surprising reading month. I figured I'd continue with my Gaslight Mystery series, but then the third book in a different series I've been following dropped, and, on a whim, I decided to revisit an old favorite. So I ended up reading six books in June, three of which I read within 4 days!

What I read this month: May 2024

Yikes, another one-book month. This time, it's not totally my fault. The Seattle Public Library got hacked, and ebooks went down. No, really.

I attended a silent book club this month and had to depend on what was on my Kindle. (Thank goodness for that airplane mode hack.) I really wanted to read the next Gaslight Mystery, but alas, I wasn't so lucky. Instead, contemporary romance it was!

What I read this month: April 2024

 

April was not a big reading month for me. I was busy with a lot of other things and just wasn't in the mood for sitting still and reading. I started and abandoned quite a few books this month, and ended up only finishing one. So, this will be a short post!

What I read this month: March 2024

 

I didn't read in February, so I felt like I needed to prioritize it in March. I worked all last year to grow my reading muscle again and I don't want to regress! Sometimes it's pretty sad to realize I just can't read the way I did 20 years ago, when any book could hold my attention non-stop and I could read for 12-hours straight, pausing only for snacks.

But I also feel like it's easier now than it was this time last year, so cheers to progress! Let's dive in.

January reads

Not knowing what to read next is always the biggest obstacle in my way when it comes to reading, and having easy access to a series solves that issue. 

Around mid-January, I took stock and realized I had already finished 5 books! Part of me wanted to pause because I was worried about this blog post, but that seemed like a silly reason to stop reading so...it is what it is! By the end of the month, my grand total was 11, which is one more than my goal for the whole year of 2023.

The thing is, having a series to plow through or a newly discovered favorite author makes picking up the next book effortless; no wonder I was so good at reading as a kid! I had so many unread Stephen King books to discover!

December reads

This month, I planned to read something light and gorgeous to end the year. Unfortunately, the book I was looking forward to ended up being quite the disappointment, but luckily I got my hands on three more of the Gaslight Mystery series and discovered a new favorite, so December wasn't a total loss.

With five books read this month, that brings my total for the year to 23! Considering I planned to read 10, I'm pretty damn happy with that result.

October Reads

 

I didn't actually intend to read anything this month, but three books I've been waiting for became available to borrow mid-month, so I jumped on them all before my holds lapsed. One was a hyped-up fantasy I'd been waiting months for, and the other two were the next in the Gaslight Mystery series. Spoiler alert: I enjoyed them all.

September reads

This month I found a couple new-to-me BookTubers, and binging their videos was strangely motivating. As I've been writing more, I'm more aware than ever that I should be reading more. I'm not exactly reading with purpose yet – that is, I'm not focusing on my own genre or reading with a critical eye – but I do find the practice of reading is making writing easier, and vice versa.

Watching other people talk about reading made me excited to make time for it myself this month.

Pretty soon I'm going to stop patting myself on the back for having rediscovered a hobby with a low cost of entry (free thanks to Libby and my Kindle), but today is not that day.

I read two books this month. Let's dive in!

August reads

This month I surprised myself with the number of books I read! I've been mostly focusing on writing rather than reading, but a new book in a series I like was released August 1 while I was traveling for work, which set me up to read at least one thing this month. (Nothing's better than a new book on a plane!)

After that, I guess I just got on a roll!

While the book that got me started ended up disappointing me, I enjoyed two of the three books I read this month and I surpassed my 10-books-in-2023 goal!

July reads

I don't often read short story collections, but when a friend has her second book published, it's a good reason to branch out of your comfort zone!

As If She Had a Say is Jennifer Fliss's second collection of short stories. The stories are eclectic: some border on absurd while others dive right in the deep end of bizarre. I've gotten into the habit of reading light, easy fiction, and at first I had to kind of recalibrate my brain to be in a space to read this genre of writing. I'm out of practice reading stories that engage my brain and explore heavy themes.