July Wrap-Up

July Snapshots

1. What even happened last month? Do you ever have those months where you do nothing? I didn’t go anywhere interesting. I didn’t see anything weird. I just worked, read, blogged, exercised, complained about the heat, complained about my neighbors shooting off fireworks constantly, complained about life in general. Basically, it was the most boring month ever.

2. Oh, I did hurt my shoulder mysteriously. Maybe while I was sleeping? I honestly have no idea what happened. I just woke up one morning with the whole upper left side of my body stiff and painful. Maybe I hurt it working out? Or walking my large, stupid, let’s-chase-rabbits-while-on-a-leash dog? It’s been about 2 weeks, and my chest still hurts. My shoulder keeps making unpleasant clicking noises. I have no idea what I did, but I hope it heals itself soon.

3. Readathons happened. I participated in both #24in48 and #ReverseReadathon. I only read for about 10 hours in each of them, but 10 hours is better than 0 hours. It was hard to get comfortable and hold a book because of my mysterious shoulder injury. (Seriously, when you hurt yourself that badly, you want a good story to go along with the injury. My story is, “I woke up this way.” Lame.)

4. I’ve been doing this for too long. Read All The Things! turns 5 in August! I’m hosting an international giveaway. Please enter and let me give you free stuff. You know you want it.

5. The blog has Pinterest now! I have finally climbed on the Pinterest bandwagon. I still don’t understand what I’m doing with that site. I’m making lists of books I probably won’t read and collecting photos of home libraries that I’ll never be able to afford. Is that how you win at Pinterest? If you’re interested in stuff that will never happen, check out my boards.

Wayward Googlers

Cait @ Paper Fury sometimes posts the amusing Google searches that led people to her blog. Today, I’m stealing her idea. Here are some unfortunate souls who ended up on Read All The Things! instead of finding what they were Googling for.

“What does DNF stand for in book reviews?” Good question. DNF stands for Did Not Finish. It usually means that the book sucked so much that the reviewer gave up on reading it. DNF is a confusing term because reviewers say things like DNFed and DNFing. Those words technically make zero sense, but they get the point across.  

“Book haul December 2013.” That’s oddly specific. I was going to give you a link, but I didn’t post any book hauls in December 2013. Sorry. I must have been responsible that month. 

“Does lipo light really work?” I had to Google lipo light. It seems to be a light that melts fat. Like liposuction without the suck. I could definitely use some lipo light, but since all of my fat is currently in an un-melted state, I can’t tell you if it really works.

Books I Read

After a few terrible reading months, my reading is back on track! (Thanks readathons and short books.) In July, I read 12 books and gave two of them five stars on Goodreads. (Gentleman’s Guide and Salt to the Sea.) I’m not usually that generous. It was a good month to be a book.

As Brave As You – Jason Reynolds

Mongrels – Stephen Graham Jones

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue – Mackenzi Lee

Brown Girl Dreaming – Jacqueline Woodson

We are the Ants – Shaun David Huchinson

The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Salt to the Sea – Ruta Sepetys

The Wonder – Emma Donoghue

The War that Saved My Life – Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination – JK Rowling

Wolf Hollow –Lauren Wolk

The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How it Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World – Steven Johnson

I also made progress on my reading challenges. Click here to see how I’m doing.

Best Books Of July

1. Salt to the Sea – Ruta Sepetys

2. The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue – Mackenzi Lee

3. The War that Saved My Life – Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Most-Viewed July Reviews

1. Newbery Mini Reviews: Kira-Kira || The Tale of Despereaux

2. Mini Reviews: The Elephant Vanishes || The Complete Stories

3. Mini Reviews: Blood Red, Snow White || Mongrels

Most-Viewed July Non-Reviews

1. Discussion: Best Books of 2018 (So Far)

2. Top Ten Tuesday: My Favorite Short Stories of All Time

3. Top Ten Tuesday: USA! (In Book Photos)

Things We Need To Talk About In August

• I’ve acquired too many books.
• What are the blogosphere’s favorite books of 2018 so far?
• Reasons I love your book blog.
• Useless mythical creatures.
• Classics that don’t suck.
• It’s my blogiversary!
• Some excellent young adult books.
• Required reading lists.

All The Things!

Distance I’ve sloppily jogged so far this year = 156 miles (251 km).

Number of unread books on my TBR shelf = 63 books.

I’m currently reading = Pull Me Under by Kelly Luce.

What did you do in July?