The Reset: A November 2024 Reading Recap
Taking breaks from reading challenges, tons of book mail, and other thoughts from the past month.
This reading recap is going to be a little bit different from how I usually structure my monthly reading recaps, but I hope you don’t mind the spin I take with today’s post.
As I mentioned in my November TBR, my main priority for November was focusing on having a break/reset to my reading. Meaning no major, time-sensitive reading challenges. No feeling pressured to read or finish a book when I’m just not feeling it on a particular day. In fact, the only real major thing reading-wise that were of focus for me in November was my duties as a CYBILS judge and this Substack (a big shoutout to all the new friends who have joined in on the fun this past month, I’m so glad you’re here).
With this, I’ll do a quick overview of my reading stats for November and then share some bookish happenings/thoughts from this past month.
Reading Stats
For a general overview:
I read 15 books during the month of November (with 10 of the books being part of my CYBILS Awards judging for the Graphic Novels category).
On average, my star rating on the books I read was a 4.23/5, with only three 5-star reads this month.
My most-read genre was fiction, specifically contemporary fiction, with fantasy coming in at a close second.
Bookish Thoughts & Happenings from November
CYBILS Judging
Most of my reading this month was focused on reading/reviewing the slate of nominees from both the public and author/publisher submission periods in my category (Graphic Novels), though I can’t go in to too much of the finer details of the judging process. I also ended up getting a lot of book mail this past month because of my work as a CYBILS judge1 and that was a fun little treat every time I got them in the mail.2
The Reset
While I didn’t read every single day this month, it was kind of nice just to taking a break and not feeling as much pressure to read something if I’m just not feeling it that day (compared to the constant reading sessions when I would try to finish books for a time-sensitive readathon or reading challenge). It also allowed me the time to consider what books I really wanted to finish and which books to take a pause on.
Looking Ahead to 2025
Like many readers/bookish content creators out there, I did take some time to think about my reading goals for 2025 and what I wanted my year of reading in 2025 to look like. After everything that’s been happening in the news as well as my own reading habits, I do want to be more intentional in my reading, especially when it comes to reading books by marginalized authors. I’ve also looked into some of the year-long readathons that have been announced to see how they could help me become more intentional as a reader.
I do have a post lined up talking about my interest in being more intentional with my reading, but I wanted to give you all a little sneak peak into my thought process.
Epilogue
And that was my reading in November!
Let me know in the comments below what your month of reading in November was like, and make sure to like and subscribe for more bookish content.
Happy reading!
Thank you to all the publishers/authors for sending me copies of their books as part of my duties as a CYBILS Awards judge.
My parents were a bit confused at first as to why I was getting all this mail all of a sudden.