*State of the ARC* March 2018

So I'm hooking up with AvalinahsBooks for this newish meme, State of the ARC. According to the lovely Evelina, this is a "fun way to share our ARC (advance reader copy) progress," but near as I can figure, it's just a way to self-shame for being greedy and getting behind on our ARC reading. I'm personally coming to the conclusion that I was born without a shame gene, so this may be an exercise in futility for me, but it's only a once a month post, so why not play along (also when I went on my graphics making spree, I created a header for it, so I've got to use it). 

To start with, I need to bloviate about what qualifies as an ARC for me. Obviously books on Netgalley count (this is scary all on it's own, you'll see for yourself in a minute just how scary). But sometimes I get "suckered" into reviewing non-Netgalley books too (or you know, I'm just so greedy because I want all of the books and the synopses sound good and I have no self-control), so those books should really get a place here too (probably even more than the Netgalley ARCs because they're usually physical copies). I will not be counting the ARCs that I win through Goodreads giveaways however, because I want to pretend that this list is still theoretically manageable. 

Look at me coming in late with my State of the ARC post again. This is a habit I sorely need to break. I'm sure this will come as a huge surprise to all of you, but I made negative progress on whittling down my ARC list in March. It totes came as a shock to me too. (NOT!) But I'm finally getting my house somewhat in order (I only have about 10 of my 102 boxes of books left to unpack, and a few other assorted odds and ends boxes that I need to sort through, but I'm getting there. But none of that is really relevant to the topic at hand, so let's get back on track, shall we?

So with all that in mind, where am I at right now? 

Netgalley

I wrote exactly zero reviews in March (it was not a good blogging month for me), and I also read exactly zero books that were not audiobooks or proofreads. But I ONLY snagged two new books, which is basically an all-time low for me and I'm giving myself props for that. So that means I now have...

141 books

...to read with a breakdown that looks a little something like this:

8 samples or excerpts.

11 children's or middle grade books.

4 books that I've already started or finished reading.

and 118 books that are starving for attention. 

These numbers are starting to depress me. Unfortunately depression doesn't make me want to correct the issue, it just makes me want to eat chocolate cake, so I'm probably going to be doing that soon. 

Physical Books

For the first time in a while, I saw some change in this category. Unfortunately, it was change in the wrong direction. I requested a review copy of a book that I just could not pass up. It's called The Trumpets of Jericho and it's about the Jewish uprising at Auschwitz, and if you follow my blog at all, you know that I'm obsessed with WWII era books in general. I tried to ignore the offer of this book, and I succeeded for two whole days, but then I caved and submitted my request. And it is not a small book. 

So that means I now have...

6 children's books

and 6 non-children's chapter books

...to read. On the bright side, I know where at least four of the non-children's chapter books are right now (I actually can't remember what one of them even is as I'm writing this, but I'm sure it'll come to me eventually).

My goal for the rest of this month is to at least start one of the 153 books that I owe reviews on (because one of them releases on May 1st, and I want to stay in that publisher's good graces). We shall see how I do. - Katie