March in Review

The year started with a sprint.  By the end of January I had read eleven books.  I suspected that wouldn't last.  The next month I read three fewer books, completing eight books, and this past month my total was down to six (including one I finished on April 1st).  Seven isn't bad, but it did feel a bit slow.  Worse, I felt like I was moving very far with my reading challenges.  Looking at my progress chart I realize I'm not doing as bad as I thought.  In particular, I finally starting making progress on my Reading the World Challenge, reading books from Nigeria, Norway, and Australia.  On the downside only one of the seven books counted towards the TBR challenge.

Speaking of TBR challenges...this was a good month of not buying books.  Let me explain.  One of my goals this year is to reduce my TBR pile, which includes both reading books from that pile and not acquiring more.  In March I only bought a couple books and taking into account what I did read, my TBR pile decreased by four.  That will change this month as April is the month of my favorite literary festival - The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.  This year there is also a festival dedicated to young adult books called Yallwest.  Between these two festivals my TBR is likely to increase.  But that's okay.  I look forward to the Festival of Books all year and am glad to support authors.  Plus, there are deals to be had at the Festival of Books.  Yallwest is a first for me but don't be surprised if I come home with a few new books from their too.

March brought the beginning of spring.  It may be a little too early for those May flowers but I'm going to celebrate anyway.

MARCH