JUNE!! One of my favorite months of the year. My birthday. The perfect weather. And though I’m not a kid anymore, the perfect nostalgia of the coming summer break.
^It me.
Summer reading is COMING!! Usually I’m a pretty consistent but slow reader until the summer hits, primarily because I used to have a summer vacation to read…now that I don’t, I’m not sure why I still grip on tightly to the idea that I’ll have more time to read, more flexibility to sit up until 3am to finish the book I just started. All the same, it’s a great feeling to be on the cusp of.
And I am plenty-well stocked for the summer. I have so many books on my tbr, but I do feel like I’m legitimately knocking them out, at least. But for this reading update, I want to take the time to evaluate my 52 Book Club 2022 Challenge progress. Prepare yourselves, because I have turned reading into a science trying to complete this challenge.
Behold, the color coded spreadsheet I built just to figure this out:
I didn’t want to have to pick what I was reading just to meet the prompts; I really don’t read like that and thought I could get away with just picking up books and making them fit after the fact…but as I write this, I’ve read 34 books this year and haven’t quite completed that many prompts, truthfully.
Some of the prompts, I’ve completed, but haven’t designated a certain book to fill the spot just yet. That’s what the purple highlight is for. Red highlight indicates a prompt I haven’t completed at all yet (so, definitely what I need to be focusing on in the latter half of the year). And all the yellow highlights are the books I have tentatively chosen to fill those prompts.
My hope behind using the online spreadsheet was that I could Command+F and find all the times a book met a prompt, so I could choose just one slot and block off the rest. It’s a whole thing and I’m tired just thinking about it. However, I know that I definitely need to buckle down now and figure out how many prompts I can actually designate complete at this juncture!
To start, I’m going to go through all my purple highlights and pick one of the books to fill the spot. If that book is already in a different spot, I’ll work backward until I can pull enough of my bonus books into place that I’ll have completed more prompts. I’m guessing I’ll still have a bonus or two, but I think this could work!
Yeah, easier said than done. This is a seriously intense puzzle and I’m convinced I may actually be better off just reading more books than trying to move them around!
I did make a couple successful switches, though. Including books who don’t have published reviews just yet, here is my current list:
- A Second Person Narrative: The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
- Featuring a Library or Bookstore: Well Matched by Jen DeLuca
- Title Starting with the Letter “E”: The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling
- Title Starting with the Letter “F”: Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano
- Chapters Have Titles: Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay
- Household Object on the Cover: The Godparent Trap by Rachel Van Dyken
- A Non-fiction Bestseller: The Home Edit by Clea Shearer & Joanna Teplin
- Involving the Art World:
- A Book That Sparks Joy: She Sheds Style by Erika Kotite
- A Book Based on a Real Person: unlock your storybook heart by amanda lovelace
- A Book with Less than 2022 Goodreads Ratings
- Set on at Least Two Continents: The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill
- Includes a Club
- A Character with Superhuman Ability: Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
- A Five-Syllable Title: The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena
- A Book You’ve Seen Someone Reading in a Public Place
- A Book Picked Based On Its Spine
- Jane Austen-inspired
- A Book that has an Alternate Title: Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman
- Related to the Word “Gold”
- Published by Simon & Schuster
- An Unlikely Detective: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
- Author with an X, Y or Z in their Name: Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon
- Address a Specific Topic
- A Wealthy Character: Lock Every Door by Riley Sager
- Has an “Author’s Note”: Heartstopper: Volume 4 by Alice Oseman
- Includes a Map: Devolution by Max Brooks
- Award-Winning Book from Your Country: The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
- Over 500 Pages Long
- Audiobook is Narrated by the Author: Bag of Bones by Stephen King
- Technology-Themed: Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood
- A Book That Intimidates You: The Burning by Tim Madigan & Hilary Beard
- A Bilingual Character: The Wedding Crasher by Mia Sosa
- An Author’s Photo on the Back Cover
- From the Villain’s Perspective: Cackle by Rachel Harrison
- Recommended by a Favorite Author: How to Love Your Neighbor by Sophie Sullivan
- Set in a Rural Area: The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager
- Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover!: The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain
- A Middle-Grade Novel: 100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson
- A Book with Photographs Inside
- Involves a Second Chance: Payback’s a Witch by Lana Harper
- An Indie Read
- Author Who’s Published in More than One Genre: Gwendy’s Final Task by Richard Chizmar & Stephen King
- An Anthology
- A Book with Illustrated People on the Cover: The Holiday Swap by Maggie Knox
- A Job Title in the Title: The Therapist by B.A. Paris
- Read During the Month of November
- Redo One of This Year’s Prompts but with a Different Genre
- Book Title Starts with the Same Letter as Your First Name
- A Person of Color as the Main Character: Something to Talk About by Meryl Wilsner
- The Word “Game” in the Title
- Published in 2022: Love at First Spite by Anna E. Collins
Even as I’m going through it to write it down I’m realizing more of the ways I can move this around and make it work even better, especially based on what I still plan to read this year. And after going back several times, I’ve managed to fit all 34 of my reads so far into the list! Another great thing: there’s only eight prompts remaining that I haven’t filled at all yet. I need to buckle down and focus on those now!
I’ll update all the posts that got switched around, as well as The 52 Book Club 2022 Challenge page soon to reflect these! Glad I took the time to rearrange them and prep for the remainder of my reading year.
Anyone else doing the challenge? Is it time for a mid-year check in??
No more content today, friends, because that has successfully zapped all my energy.
Hope you have a fabulous Friday and weekend!
The Charmed Librarian 