Thursday, August 2, 2018

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
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-ExupĂ©ry
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
























Most-Viewed July Non-Reviews
























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?









47 comments:

  1. I'm always getting too many books so that discussion should be fun! I've embraced my inner book buying beast and seem to have stopped caring! I like that cute geeky fox with the glasses...As for July I moaned a lot about the weather too. I do know that my aches and pains were connected to getting my room revamped and that was more of a priority than reading last month. My birthday is this month so a present to myself could be coming in the form of more books from my neighbour's friend tonight!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Happy birthday! I have to be more careful with my book buying because I’m out of shelf space. I need to read a bunch of books and get rid of them.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

      Delete
  2. I've always wondered what DNF stands for. Thank you for enlightening me!! (You can tell I'm just a baby blogger.)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Replies
    1. It seems to be getting better. It still clicks, but it doesn’t hurt much anymore.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

      Delete
  4. Oh gosh, sorry about your shoulder. It's funny though because I've gotten hurt in my sleep too - or at least, that's how I woke up and I don't know what I did! It's craziness. Great job on your July reading. I LOVE Gentleman's Guide, so yay for five stars. Happy blogoversary!!!

    -Lauren
    www.shootingstarsmag.net

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! Embarrassingly, this isn’t the first time that I’ve hurt myself sleeping.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

      Delete
  5. Yikes, a friend of mine just did that to her shoulder the other day too! And then I did it this morning. Whenever I moved it- pain shot up to my neck, and all I literally did was sleep on it!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Glad your reading is getting back on track. I have the same feeling about not wanting to do anything at times. It's all I can do to manage to work. Looks like you read some really good books this past month. Hope July is awesome as well!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I spent most of July being exhausted for no reason. I should really get outside and do something this month.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

      Delete
  7. Hope your shoulder feels better soon. I really love your IG pics! So glad you loved Salt to the Sea. Such a great book. .Yay for your blogoversary! Have a great August!

    ReplyDelete
  8. 12 books that's great!! And five years already? Congrats!!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Your shoulder is clicking??? I hope that fixes itself and soon.

    July was a weird month. It felt both long and short and I couldn't tell you what I did.

    So happy you enjoyed Gentlemans Guide! I need to read Brown Girl Dreaming. Jacqueline is so cool!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep, it’s clicking, but it seems to be getting better. I don’t care if it makes noises; I just don’t want it to hurt.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

      Delete
  10. Congrats on 5 years 🎉 And 12 books in July. July felt long and hot. I’m hoping now I’m acclimatize to the heat, I can finish all 12 books I have on my list to read for August. ♥️ Hope your shoulder heals. Sleep injuries are so odd, like do I sleep walk and unaware?!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good luck with your August reading! I didn’t know that sleep could be so dangerous. I don’t know how I hurt myself, or why it’s taking so long to heal.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

      Delete
  11. Congrats on 5 years blogging. I hit 7 years in July but haven't done anything special yet. I wanna wait til I have some more money to do a big giveaway for it. Sorry about your shoulder! Unexplained injuries are the worst! Yay for reading 12 books in July!! Haha! That hobbit/ring meme never gets old! I see it all the time living in AZ and I still laugh every time!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope I can keep the blog going for 7 years. I’ve been doing this for so long that I don’t know what I’d do with my time if I stopped.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

      Delete
  12. Looks like you had a great reading month! I've heard such good things about Gentleman's Guide, I really should give it a try. I complained a lot about the heat (and the rain!) in July, too!

    ReplyDelete
  13. What a month! Ugh I hate mysteriously getting injured!! I feel like I must walk into things when I'm half asleep...or even sleepwalking... I keep randomly hurting my knees and have NO memory of it!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Happy 5 years! And hope your shoulder feels better soon. I hate unexplained injuries- here we sleep to rest and rejuvenate and we wake up injured? That's not right!

    Pinterest is like the time sinkiest of time sinks for me- I mean that's a total rabbit hole. I think Pinterest has EVERYTHING. I spend so much time there just... looking.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I’ve wasted a lot of time on Pinterest in the last few weeks. I could happily spend all day on that site.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

      Delete
  15. This post is hilarious. Looks like we both had hot and relatively unexciting July's. Here's to August!

    ReplyDelete
  16. It sounds like you had a pretty chill month! Nothing wrong with that every now and then. I hope you shoulder feels better soon! I am SO EXCITED that you loved Gentleman's Guide!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I’m excited that I loved Gentleman’s Guide, too. I wasn’t sure if it was my kind of thing. Now I want to preorder the sequel. I pretty much never do preorders.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

      Delete
  17. Hope your shoulder gets better. Good job on reading all those books though!

    Sometimes a month where nothing happens is WAY better than months where something happens. I'll take a boring month over ones where my house catches fire or the police show up at my door because there was a problem with a family member any day...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Boring months are good for me, but they don’t make for interesting blogging.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

      Delete
  18. My July was pretty uneventful as well. Sorry to hear about the mysterious shoulder injury. Hope it sorts itself out soon.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Happy 5 years of blogging! I think that you are allowed to make up a story to go with your shoulder injury. Make it interesting. Maybe you caught some would be bank robbers or something :) Yay for having three 5 star reads in the month. You are taking some awesome bookish photos. I am a bit jealous. Have a great August!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Happy 5 years of blogging! I laughed at the let's-chase-rabbits-while-on-a-leash dog, my sister's dog does that to her all the time. I also laughed at lipo light, I didn't even know such a thing existed! You took such great bookish photos! I'm jealous, I've been lazy on the instagram front.

    I hope you have a wonderful August and I hope your shoulder feels better.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I mostly only go to work, and then I am too tired to do anything else. So, I can totally related to feeling like you didn't do anything. Sorry about the shoulder. I hope it feels better quickly. I am old, so I always have some sort of pain, and I am a fan of Celebrex, when I can get it. And yes, 10 hours is better than 0 hours. Good for you!

    ReplyDelete
  22. I have no idea where July went! And I often injure myself in my sleep. Darned near every week!

    ReplyDelete
  23. I'm glad you enjoyed The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue! I can't wait to read the sequel! Have a wonderful day!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Heat sucks. I hope your shoulder feels better soon! Maybe you were sleep-boxing, or sleep-jousting. I sleep-marathon myself ;)

    I love it when the weird searches in site stats are reaaaally specific. Especially when there's a date on it - like, what were the circumstances that led to this weirdly specific search?!

    ReplyDelete
  25. I cheered your selection of best books in July. (Yep, literally. Quietly though, because people are sleeping at my house.) I 100% agree that those are three fantastic books.

    My jaw is doing something weird, and I can't chew right. I have a dentist appointment tomorrow to figure out what's going on, and I get to spend an extra $25 above my co-pay because it's an "emergency" appointment, meaning I only had to wait 3 days instead of 3 months. So, I hear you on the whole "why is my body doing this and why won't it fix itself?" thing.

    Lipo light, huh? *Squints at belly threateningly*

    ReplyDelete
  26. I think we all have those quiet months occasionally... they are needed sometimes!

    Naomi @ Naomi’s Reading Palace

    ReplyDelete
  27. Twelve books is an awesome month and I see a Jason Reynolds books on your read list too. In reading the comments above, I hope your shoulder is still better now. Injuries should be outlawed. July is my favorite month and I'm sad to see it go. I did get to the beach finally in July as well as write a short story for a contest.

    ReplyDelete
  28. I'm not the only one!!!! So if I sleep wrong, then my shoulder or neck or whole upper body will hurt. I thought maybe it was because I worked out wrong or twisted wrong, but nope I've narrowed it down to sleeping. The joys of getting older lol!
    Jen @ Star-Crossed Book Blog

    ReplyDelete
  29. Your comment about the lipo light thing totally made me laugh. My fat is also all in an unmelted state. It's a shame really. Maybe if it was melted I could make candles and put it to use making some actual light?

    Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

    ReplyDelete
  30. I love The Little Prince! And I too hate those phantom aches and pains that arrive overnight. I get more of them as time goes on... haha. Hope your August went well!

    ReplyDelete