June Wrap-Up and the Official End of the Summer Reading Blitz

I’ve been a bad blogger recently. I started out really well in June during the Summer Reading Blitz, but that totally fizzled by the end of the month. I haven’t even been to my blog recently, which meant that my spam comments had built up.

You’d think that, since I’ve been absent from my blog, I would have spent this time reading. Unfortunately, that’s not really the case. Though I read more in June than I did in May, I’ve still been spending a lot of time doing things that aren’t reading. I’ve been burning through the early seasons of NCIS on DVD, and I’ve also been spending some time shopping for a new mattress. I bought a new one last weekend, and since it’s scheduled to be delivered tomorrow, I spent most of the day today rearranging my furniture and bedroom so the new mattress and bed will fit (I recently inherited a headboard and footboard that are bigger than my current bed, which is the same twin-sized daybed I’ve been sleeping on since I was twelve).

Rearranging my furniture meant switching my desk and book case: the bookcase survived the ordeal, the desk did not. While out getting storage bins to store desk items until I can buy a new desk, I also picked up a small organizer that works great as a book case, and I spent some time this afternoon and evening reorganizing my books. I’m pretty pleased with the result. I’ll share pictures just as soon as I remember what I did with the USB cord for my camera (I should seriously consider Lo-Jacking that thing; I lose it all the time).

Reorganizing my books has reminded me that I’ve got some really great books waiting to be read. I’m eager to get started on them. I’m also looking forward to getting back on track with my blogging.

With that, here is my official June wrap-up:

Books Completed:

• Right of Thirst by Frank Huyler
• Take Me There by Susane Colasanti
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
• Don’t Judge a Girl by Her Cover by Ally Carter
• Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer
• Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
• Mating Rituals of the North American WASP by Lauren Lipton

That’s definitely better than the one book I read in May.

Review posted:

• Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Vida [review]

That’s pretty pathetic. I’m hoping July will be much better, given that I currently have eight outstanding book reviews (I never, ever have that many outstanding reviews). I sat down with my calendar last night and mapped out a tentative schedule for when I’d like to get the reviews done, so hopefully that will help.

With the end of June came the end of the Summer Reading Blitz, and obviously, I completely and utterly failed in my effort to read 30 books in the month of June. However, I am still declaring it a success, at least on my end. While I would have liked to have read 30 books in 30 days, my primary goal was to spend more time reading than I did in the month of May, and I easily accomplished that. I also promised to donate money to Room to Read based on the number of posts I made and the number of comments left on the blog during the month (the spam ones do not count). I am donating $11 for my posts, and $42.75 for the 171 comments and giveaway entries left by others on my blog. That’s a grand total of $53.75 going to promote literacy throughout the world. So a big thank you to those who left comments and entered the Diana Peterfreund giveaway and the Angel’s Game giveaway.

And on that note, I think I am sufficiently updated. I’m really looking forward to getting back to reading and blogging as usual.