*State of the ARC* May 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. 

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

Netgalley

At this point it should probably come as no surprise to you that I didn't get any Netgalley ARC reviews written again (I've got a real streak going on that score!) However, I did a slightly better job of not getting new books this month. I still got some, let's not be crazy. This means I now have...

155 books

...to read on Netgalley. That breaks down to...

10 samples or excerpts

12 children's or middle grade books

7 books that I've already started or finished

and 126 books that are waiting for my attention. 

I like how with four new books added to my Netgalley number this month, they were divided evenly between my categories. While I haven't finished reading any new Netgalley books, I did start reading one of the YA books that I was approved for from my YA Netgalley Request Roulette game that I played (for which I received another approval after my last State of the ARC post), and I should have it finished within the next week, so actual progress! And maybe June will be the month that I don't add any new books to my Netgalley list (but maybe don't hold your breath on that, because you would probably suffocate and die). 

Physical Books

I'm happy to report that there was no change in the number of physical books that I have to review (so not great, but at least I didn't add any new ones this month!) This means that I still have...

6 children's books

and 8 non-children's chapter books. 

I'm still blanking on the title of one of those chapter books, haven't actually unpacked any more boxes since my last post, so it's probably still hanging out in one of them, but I've got so many books I need to be reading that not knowing where that particular book is right this minute isn't exactly the end of the world for me. I'll find it eventually, and might even have time to read it then. 

My goal for last month was to finish reading at least one book I had started (FAIL) and to get this posted on June 1st instead of the middle of the month (SUCCESS). For June, I want to get three books from this list read and reviewed. I know that's aiming real high with my reading and reviewing habits lately, but that's my goal. Think I can do it? - Katie