About Me

Reading & Life Update

November 29, 2021 milelongtbr Leave a Comment

A look at what’s been happening here recently.

Hi, friends!

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted on here, so I thought an update post was in order. I’ll keep it mostly bookish, but there are a few other exciting things I’m looking forward to sharing as well!

It’s crazy to think we’re a month away from the time we’ll be posting yearly wrap-ups (what is time, anyway?) so while this isn’t that there’s a lot of reflection ahead as well.

Anyway, let’s jump into this reading & life update with 9 things that have been going on in my world over these past few months.

I’ve still been reading, just at a slower pace. I had a shift in goals midway through the year and my reading life heavily reflected this. As always, audiobooks are my go-to.
I took a road trip across the country. This was a different way of traveling for me, and while I can’t say I’m in a rush to spend days on end in the car any time soon, I’m grateful for the experience. It was over 3,000 miles of solo driving from Florida to Canada. Did I mention how audiobooks have been my saving grace?
I got to see family I haven’t been able to visit since 2019. Like so many I’ve been separated from loved ones over the course of the pandemic, so reconnecting with them and getting time away from home was long overdue. It made the 23-hour drive totally worth it!
I left a job I absolutely loved and was really focused on soaking up every moment those last few weeks. I believe this coincided with the start of my break from Bookstagram, but it’s not the entire reason.
As many of you know, I started my own bookish store, Mile Long Boutique earlier this year. I’ve been dedicating myself to create the best designs for you guys and grow this business with great products and customer service. I am so grateful that hundreds of bibliophiles from all over the world have purchased my designs online.
My online retail shop has branched out into wholesale! I couldn’t be more excited about this opportunity! I’ve pinched myself more than once to be sure it’s all real, but it is. My stickers can be found in multiple independent bookstores across the country and have been featured in bookish subscription boxes as well! I love sharing my happy designs with y’all.
Because this apparently isn’t creative enough for me, I’ve also decided to rededicate myself to writing and finishing my first novel. If you couldn’t tell by my 6-month blogging hiatus, I sometimes have trouble seeing projects through to completion. It’s going to be a lot of work, even more than I initially thought, but I’m not giving up this time around.
I hinted at this earlier, but I’ve been having a BIG social media detox. There were so many factors involved, but I think it served me well to step back for an extended period of time. Still, I miss the bookish community on Instagram, so I won’t be gone for good. Things will look a lot different this time around, though.
I’m going to end on a bookish humble brag. Earlier this year my NetGalley feedback ratio dipped below 80%. It now sits at 94%. I may not have read any nonfiction for Nonfiction November, but I think this is crushing it when it comes to NetGalley November efforts. And I still have three audiobooks (Audiobooks! They’re books too!) I finished this month I’ll post reviews of tomorrow. Or maybe next month. I’m all about showing myself grace in this season.

There’s a peek at what’s happening here. I’d love to hear what’s new with you in the past few months! Let me know in the comments.

2020 Reading Statistics

January 7, 2021 milelongtbr 4 Comments

Hi, readers!

2020 is now thankfully behind us, and while it wasn’t the greatest year for most of us, I’m happy to say that at least for me it brought one of my best reading years to date.

I’ve broken down my statistics into ten categories- because I’m a nerd like that- to take a closer look at exactly what I’m reading. I really love taking stock and it makes it much easier to frame my 2021 reading goals around the results when the numbers do the talking.

Let’s dive in!

1. Total Books Read

The number books read in a year seems to be the metric everyone’s talking about- especially with so many bookstagrammers setting GoodReads goals.

In all honesty I don’t track my reading perfectly on GoodReads, but managed to count 116 books toward my initial goal of 75.

This is absolutely bananas. I’ve never read over 100 books in a year, but despite a slow start all that time at home reading really added up in 2020.

I know I missed a few, so the number is actually higher. Also, I don’t count cookbooks, nonfiction I skim, kids’ books, DNFs, or poetry collections toward my total count.

I’m glad I got to read so many great books, but for me a good reading year is far more in the quality of what I’m reading than the quantity.

2. Monthly Breakdown

This chart breaks down the number of books I read each month.

I started off reading a modest 6 books in January, then nearly doubled that number in February.

March started off strong, but as the pandemic hit my area my reading slowed for a few months.

By summertime the anxiety was mostly under control and the extra time at home reading lead to high numbers that continued to the end of the year.

My best reading months were October and December in terms of quantity- and I read lots of good books then too!

3. Looking at Genre

I enjoy reading from a number of genres and definitely wanted to make a point to branch out in 2020.

I read a few new to me formats- graphic novels and novels in verse- rekindled my love for the YA Genre and pushed myself to try some horror.

Thrillers were my most read genre of the year. About a quarter of the books I read were thrillers- partly for the escapism and partly because I got the idea to write one of my own. Go check out my favorite thrillers of the year for some recommendations!

If you combine Contemporary Fiction, Literary Fiction, and Classics together for a “General Fiction” genre those would add up to equal the number of thrillers I read. Many of my favorite titles of the years were from these categories.

Overall I’m pleased with the genre diversity of my 2020 reads, though this does give me a starting point for my goals in the new year.

4. Author by Gender

Reading women is important!

I love that nearly 75% of my 2020 reads were written by people who identify as women. I would, however like to read more from nonbinary voices in 2021 as some of my 2020 standouts fell into this category.

5. Author Diversity

2020 brought many long-overdue calls for equality and diversity.

This is another thing I love about charts and numbers – It really puts things into perspective and you can’t argue facts. The publishing is predominantly white- everything from editors to publicists to authors. The statistics were eye-opening and definitely left me seeking out more diverse Own Voice stories, specifically in the second half of the year.

In 2019 13% of the books I read were by BIPOC authors, and it was a number that needed improvement.

This year I increased that stat to 33% and while there’s always room to go I’m glad to have read more than twice as many books from diverse authors.

6. Queer Representation

Just under 15% of the books I read had strong and positive queer representation, the vast majority of those books being written by Own Voice authors.

This is just another example of where representation matters, and I plan to improve this number in 2021.

7. Book Setting by Country

Of all my 2020 reading stats this is the one that means the most to me.

The countries in orange are the ones my books took me to last year, all while being stuck at home.

Books were the escape I needed during the lockdowns and anxiety of 2020 and I loved being able to lose myself in the pages and travel half a world away with the characters of the story.

Whether it was exploring the streets of Jaipur, India with Lakshmi in the Henna Artist, taking a walk with Vivek Oji in Nigeria, staying in Emily St John Mandel’s Glass Hotel in Vancouver, Canada or riding the Orient Express across Europe with Hercule Poirot, 2020 was filled with many bookish adventures and I loved each of them.

In total,I had 23 stamps in my literary passport in a year full of travel bans and canceled flights.

I know 2020 will be filled with many booksih adventures across the world as well, and look forward to seeking out new countries to “visit” by own voice authors.

8. Format Read

Clearly my best reading year ever in 2020 was brought to me by audiobooks.

Over 60% of my reads were on audio and I have no shame over that. I discovered some great narrators who I’m eager to hear more of and discovered Libro.fm– a great site that supports local bookstores!

Audiobooks let me multitask- I love listening while I’m making dinner, drawing, or working on a puzzle. They were also great for when this year made it hard to focus while stuck at home- and for commuting when I returned to work.

I do sometimes long for a physical book to hold, so I won’t be going purely digital any time soon!

9. How I Got the Books

As you can see, I was lucky enough to receive over 50 ARCs in 2020! I love being able to snag an early copy of a much-anticipate book and am very thankful for all of the opportunities.

The rest of my reads were split fairly evenly between books I purchased myself and books I borrowed. I have borrowed from the library, from Kindle Unlimited over the course of the year. Sadly, none of the books I borrowed were from friends because of social distancing. Thanks, 2020!

10. Backlist vs. New Releases

With reading so many ARCs it comes as no surprise that the majority of my 2020 reads were new releases.

Still, over 25% of my books were from the backlist. It’s a number that I plan on growing in 2020. I also reread 4 books in 2020- and the titles should come as a surprise to those who have been following for long. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Furiously Happy, The Little Prince, and Matilda. I pretty much reread each of those books annually.

Alright, friends! There you have it!

2020 is in the books and this is how my reading year breaks down!

Overall I’m very pleased- both with the quality of the reading year overall and the individual numbers.

Remember, reading isn’t a competition.

Reading is about joy, escape, growth, and learning- and these statistics and charts perfectly show how much of those things the wild ride of 2020 held for me.

Which of these categories was your reading especially strong in last year?

Are there any areas you’re looking to improve upon in 2021? Let me know in the comments, and as always happy reading!

How I Assign Starred Ratings to Book Reviews

May 14, 2020 milelongtbr 19 Comments

I’m not a betting person, but I’d wager a guess that if you’ve found your way to my site you love books.

That’s almost a given. But, what’s also a given is that while we both love books, we won’t necessarily love the same books.

A book I absolutely adored and can’t stop raving about may be one that you struggled to get through and left you unimpressed. And a title that didn’t make a lasting impression on me may have stood out to you for entirely different reasons.

That’s why I think it’s important to talk about how I give starred ratings to the books I read and review here.

I’ve seen so much variation across the world of book blogging. The criteria for a five-star rating from me may be completely different for a five-star read from a different reviewer.

It’s understandable, but it’s important to know what a five-star rating means from the reviewer that bestowed it.

So, if you’re reading my reviews on books, please take a minute to check out what different starred ratings mean.

There’s a reason you’ll almost never see a one or two-star book on my blog, and why three-star books are rarely seen as well. The obvious reason for this is that for a girl with a mile long TBR, it’s important for me to prioritize books that I believe I will love. There are simply too many books in the world to read ones that don’t excite me.

You’ve also probably noticed that I give out five-star ratings rather liberally. Part of the reason for this is that I usually do my due diligence before starting a book. I’ll read reviews of book bloggers whose opinions I trust and hear their thoughts on a title before deciding it’s one I need to read.

The other reasons I’ll discuss more in-depth later, but it’s safe to say that I want to be a reviewer that can help get the right book into the hand of the right reader. Of course, just because I give a book five stars doesn’t mean it will be a five-star read for you as well. But, I’m confident that with taking my rating system into account and reading the analysis section of my reviews, you’ll be able to tell which books to send to the top of your own TBR for a great read, and which you’re less likely to enjoy.

One-Star

This book was not enjoyable for me and is not a book I’d recommend to friends and readers. You likely won’t see any of these because I will DNF a book that’s leaning towards a rating this low.

Criteria

Has all of the following:

The writing style was extremely hard to get through
Characters lacked depth
Unenjoyable reading experience
Predictable and full of cliches

Takeaway:

While everyone has different tastes, I feel it’s safe to say that if you ever see me give a book a one-star rating, it’s one to skip. The book didn’t have enough redeeming qualities for me to find any merit in it.

Two-Star

You likely won’t see any of these because I will DNF a book that’s leaning towards a rating this low.

Criteria:

Has most of the following

The writing style was hard to get through
Characters lacked depth
Unenjoyable reading experience
Predictable and full of cliches
Interesting premise, but disappointing execution

Takeaway:

A different reader may rate it higher, but if we have similar reading tastes and you agree with my other reviews in the genre this is unlikely to be your next favorite book.

Three-Star

While certain readers might enjoy the book for a different reason, it’s definitely one I’d look into further before diving into. Three-Star reads are borderline DNFs for me.

Criteria:

Interesting premise, but disappointing execution
Characters lacked complexity
The writing style didn’t work for me
Surface level plot, or themes not handled well
Alright, but unmemorable

Takeaway:

Your mileage may vary, but this was not the book for me. If you particularly love something about the author or plot, you may find the book more enjoyable than I did.

Four-Star

I enjoyed reading this book. It’s a worthwhile read, but lacks a certain element or two that would make it a top pick for me.

Criteria:

Interesting plot or story, well-executed
Multi-dimensional characters
The writing style was enjoyable
Takes on some deeper themes
I may enjoy rereading this book
Solid ending, but left something to be desired

Takeaway:

These books are solid reads and I’m confident readers who are interested in these titles will enjoy them.

Five-Star

Criteria:

Takeaway:

Interesting plot or story, well-executed
Well-defined and complex characters characters
The writing style was exceptional
I would enjoy rereading this book.
Handles deeper themes in a thought-provoking manner
Satisfying ending

If you’ve been considering this book at all, I can definitely recommend that you give it a read. This book may not be for everyone. A five-star thriller and a five-star romance will both be books I feel are the best of their genres, but they may not appeal to people who don’t have an interest in reading that type of book.

Oh, you thought that since my rating system is out of five stars that this would be it?!

Nope!

For books that especially stand out and are all-time favorites, I have one more category.

All the Stars:

Criteria:

Has all the qualities of a five-star rated book, plus

This book transcends its genre
Evoked emotion- made me laugh out loud or cry, but probably both
The writing was excellent
The book makes you see things in a different light
At least one character stands out as being deeply human and real
The ending was satisfying, yet left me wanting more
I can see myself rereading and recommending frequently

Takeaway:

This is a book I think everyone could benefit from, whether it’s from a genre you gravitate to or not. It’s one of my top recommendations and if you haven’t read it I think you should go order a copy right now!

Alright, there’s your comprehensive guide to how I give starred ratings to the book I review.

I only give full star ratings. With this in mind, I go to whichever category I feel is most fitting. If the book gives me that five-star feel, I will round up when torn between a four and five star rating. If it hits most of the points but still falls a bit short for me, I round down.

Of course, all review opinions are my own and the rating I give a book may not directly correlate to your enjoyment of the same title. Hopefully, with my rating system in mind, you can use my ratings to find the perfect book for your tastes!