Guys, May was a REALLY GOOD reading month. But before I get into all the excitement, let me review my goals for this year.

• 150 books total.
• 50,000 pages.
• 40 non-fiction.
• 10 classics.
• 10 books translated into English (excluding those on my “classics” list).
• 15 books outside my comfort zone.
• 22 books off my TBR list.

My reading so far this year has been a bit slim (grad school and all that), so I hit May reading hard. Really hard.

• 30 books total. (60 for the year)
• 9,600 pages & 19 hours. (19,500 pages & 108.5 hours for the year)
• 6 non-fiction. (9 for the year)
• 1 book translated into English. (1 for the year…)
• 2 books outside my comfort zone. (3 for the year)
• 5 books off my tbr list. (6 for the year)

Some points of interest:

I literally doubled my reading for the year in a month. Which is insane. I was severely book-starved.

I was trying hard for 31 once it became obvious that was possible (average 1 a day and all that), but a conference, funeral, and dog acquisition slowed me down.

I can’t decide how to count audiobooks toward my page totals. When I wrote these goals, I wasn’t listening to audiobooks. Now I listen a lot. Suggestions?

I need to make up some time on the goals that were meant to push toward horizon-expanding reads instead of only YA.

Books of interest:

The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Boy with Autism: This was my translated read and I highly recommend. It’s pretty short (only 3 hours on audiobook) and it is beautiful and enlightening, especially if you’re interested in autism. I would be curious to compare it against the writing of an American autistic teenager to look for cultural influences, but I’m not sure such a work exists.

The Rest of Us Just Live Here & The Knife of Never Letting Go: Patrick Ness was a new author for me (one I’d avoided before–the synopsis of KNIFE didn’t appeal to me), but I thoroughly enjoyed both books.

Tamora Pierce: If you remember, I went a little crazy reading Pierce books over Christmas break. I read another 9 this month. I’m going to run out soon and then I will be very sad. But it’s about time to reread the Beka Cooper series!

Speaking of rereads: I reread two books this month (Stephanie Perkins’s LOLA & ISLA). When I polled my Twitter followers (some of you, I hope?), most of them said I could count rereads toward my goals. I’m in favor of rereading books and don’t want to feel guilty about it, so I’m counting them.

Conclusion

I have lots of interesting things to say about the books I read, but I’m saving them for YouTube videos.

What did you read this month?