Hello Fiction Dwellers!
It is July. Half of the year has passed. This is my favourite time of the year because everyone is sharing their mid year updates. I love reading these kinds of posts, seeing what everyone has been reading and which book is their new obsessions or disappointments.
To keep the consistency on my blog, I will do a blog post version of a video I made, Mid Year Freak Out Tag. You can check the overview list to jump to the video, if you want to watch it.
In this post I will recap (in writing form) on my reading stats, my goals for the year, answer a few questions, and recap on my blogging as well. 2022, so far, has been a good year for me. I have experienced a lot of new things from life, to content creating, and reading. Let’s jump into my half year recap. Shall we?
Mid Year Reading Stats
- From January-June of 2022 I’ve read 32 books (31 new reads & 1 reread)
- Roughly my average books read per month is 5-6 books.
- Total page count : 10.640 pages
My reading stats, compared to last year, has dropped. There are a few factors that have affected my reading such as the big move from Indonesia to Canada, the wedding planning, paperwork, and adjusting to life here in general. April is the month I read least, the massive drop there is caused by a reading slump and being occupied by revamping my blog to being self hosted.
Read more here : THE “AN ODE TO FICTION” GLOW UP! — BLOG RELAUNCH, NEW LOOK, AND FUTURE PLANS
This year I read mostly fantasy and historical fiction. Adding to that most of the books I’ve read are LGBTQIA+. I am not mad about this at all and I intend to read more rainbow books for the rest of the year.
Being a mood reader seeing this chart interests me. Based on this chart I read a lot of emotional, adventurous, mysterious, and hopeful books. There is a bit of humour in the books as well.
Reading Goals Recap
I haven’t necessarily shared on my blog about my goals for 2022. I had a post in mind but never gotten around to make it because life got in the way so I will just include it in this post for you all. My goals have shifted since I moved away from my home country. I shortened the list and decided to put myself first.
🍃 Read whatever book I want. Me and TBRs are not besties, so I am just going to accept this fact with a healthy mindset. I no longer want to pressure myself to read from a list because I will never follow through.
🍃 Read ARCs when I want to. Another thing I am changing about my mindset is related to ARCs. Before I used to feel so guilty and panicked about not reading ARCs on time, but now, I am changing that for my own mental health and reading health. I will pick up ARCs when I want to and just do things at my own pace.
🍃 Read books from my physical TBR. I am picking up books one by one from my physical TBR to smite my book buying and spend less money. I have only started it but it is never too late.
🍃 Finish 1 series I started. I have a habit of starting new series. Instead of finishing them I just start new ones. I decided for this year I want to at least finish 1 series. This is the bare minimum for me and I will not sell myself high because it will eat me alive.
Mid Year Freak Out Tag Video
Mid Year Tag
Best Book You’ve Read so Far
It is very hard to narrow down the list to just a few books so my choice for best books so far are :
- Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
- The Fortunes of Jaded Women by Carolyn Huynh
- The Jade Setter of Janloon (The Green Bone Saga #0.5) by Fonda Lee
- Dark Apprentice (Fall of Magic #1) by Val Neil
Read more here : ARC – Review : The Fortunes of Jaded women by Carolyn Huynh
Best Sequel You’ve Read So Far
For sequels, I didn’t read many this year. Frankly, I’ve only read two sequels. They are A Prayer for the Crown Shy, book 2 of the Monk & Robot series, by Becky Chambers and The Jade Setter of Janloon, a prequel novella of The Green Bone Saga series, by Fonda Lee.
Read more here : ARC – Review : A Prayer for the crown shy (monk & robot #2) by becky chambers
New Releases You Haven’t Read Yet But Want To
There are so many good releases this year that I want to get my hands on but I seem to have not found the mood to read or don’t have the time. All the books in this list is a mixture of arcs that I haven’t got to, a sequel to a series that I have not started yet, and anticipated releases from the first half of 2022. Here they are~
Most Anticipated Releases for the Second Half of the Year
From July to December 2022 I have a few releases during those months that I’m keeping my eye on and have preordered a few of them. Here are books that I am anticipating for their release :
Biggest Disappointment
There are a couple of books that disappointed me this year because of many reasons. I have written reviews for both of them. The Stardust Thief was an okay read that I thought I would love but I ended up just feeling okay-ish about it. I thought it would be fun, epic, and adventurous yet its dull and plain. Four Aunties and A Wedding is the biggest disappointment though. I wasn’t planning on reading it but I did because I saw it in the library. Long story short, some books don’t need a sequel and Four Aunties and A Wedding is one of those cases.
Read more here : ARC – Review : The Stardust thief (the sandsea trilogy #1) by Chelsea abdullah
Biggest Surprise
During the first half of 2022 I was plagued with a fantasy and sci-fi slump. It got harder for me to pick up books from the genre that I love. To keep myself interested in reading I decided to venture to other genres that I like. I started picking up random books that I gravitated towards and there were surprises. These are the top four books that enticed me with their writing, fast paced beats of story telling, emotional themes and meanings, and a general sense of comfort while reading them.
- The Fortunes of Jaded Women by Carolyn Huynh
- em by by Kim Thúy
- The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali
Read more here : aRC – review : The Fortunes of Jaded Women by Carolyn Huynh
Favorite New Author (Debut or New to you)
There are so many new books that I’ve read this year by debut authors and authors that works I have never read. For this one I have picked four stand out authors :
Read more here : FICTION DIGEST : AN INTERVIEW WITH TRAVIS BALDREE AUTHOR OF “LEGENDS & LATTES”
Newest Fictional Crush
Crushes are a fickle thing for me. I feel mostly indifferent towards characters I read but for this I will pick two stand out characters. They are Medea from Dark Apprentice by Val Neil and Hector from The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I see that my bisexuality is showing with these picks lol.
Newest Favorite Character(s)
There are three characters that come to mind when it comes to favorites. The first one is the obvious choice, Thimble from Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree; second is Medea from Dark Apprentice by Val Neil; and third is the whole crew of the Wayfarer (Ashby, Sissix, Dr. Chef, Kizzy, Jenks, Rosemary, Corbin, Ohan, and Lovey) from The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers.
Book that Made You Cry
I didn’t ugly cry or sob but I did shed a few tears for these books. They either moved me emotionally because they struck the core of my being. Either the writing, themes, or characters they can make me feel a certain type of way. The Stationery Shop and The Beautiful Ones got me shedding tears back to back by the parallels they have and the overall themes that somehow in-sync.
- A Prayer for the Crown Shy (Monk & Robot #2) by Becky Chambers
- The Fortunes of Jaded Women by Carolyn Huynh
- The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali
- The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Book that Made You Happy
There are three books that made me genuinely happy this year. Two are new to me authors that writes about the wholesomeness and down to earth topics set in a world of epic or galactic proportions. The other one is a homecoming, a welcome back home hug, a comforting return, and all time favorite world by my favorite author.
- The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarer #1) by Becky Chambers
- Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
- The Jade Setter of Janloon (The Green Bone Saga #0.5) by Fonda Lee
Read more here : aRC – Review : The Jade Setter of Janloon (The green bone saga #0.5) by Fonda lee
Most Beautiful Book You’ve Bought so far this Year (or Received)
Probably the most expensive novella I have ever bought and will likely never do it again is the limited edition, signed and numbered, Subterranean Press “The Jade Setter of Janloon” by Fonda Lee. If it weren’t for Fonda Lee and a book in my all time favorite series, I wouldn’t have bought this. I am not a fan of limited edition books unless it is my favorite books. This purchase is a splurge that is fueled by my love for The Green Bone Saga.
I am very lucky to have gotten a perfect looking copy of the book because the publisher made some very questionable announcements and decisions on how they handled the delay. They even decided to still send the defected copies to buyers. Now, 40$ USD isn’t a small amount money for a novella with less than 200 pages, ignoring the beautiful cover, at least be more reasonable towards customers and be fair about selling merchandise. Anyway, pretty book!
What Books You Need to Read by the end of the Year?
There are so many books that I want to read by the end of 2021 but I’ll narrow it down to these. I’m taking my time, no pressure future me.
Blogging Recap
This year I started a new section for the blog, Fiction Digest. Though now I have only interviewed two authors, the amazing C. L. Clark author of The Unbroken, and the ever so wonderful author of Legends & Lattes, Travis Baldree.
Read more here : FICTION DIGEST : AN INTERVIEW WITH C. L. CLARK AUTHOR OF “THE UNBROKEN”
The biggest change to An Ode to Fiction is going self hosted. I was blessed by my in-laws and given the support of my blogging friends I took a very scary step. I overhauled everything on my blog and built everything from down up. The experience of going self hosted have educated me about a lot of things that comes with running a blog that I didn’t think I would need to pay attention to. I am very thankful for the help of Kal, Sumedha, and Amanda that have given me advice on many things.
To read my experience in detail click the link below!
Read more here : THE “AN ODE TO FICTION” GLOW UP! — BLOG RELAUNCH, NEW LOOK, AND FUTURE PLANS
That is it friends! Six months has passed in 2022 and I am excited for the months to come. All my anticipated releases will be released in the next six months. I will read some very good books in the future. I hope I am not jinxing myself by saying this.
🍃 How is your reading so far in 2022? Any favourite books and any disappointments?
I had higher expectations for the Stardust Thief too! Fevered Star was good, I hope you get to it.
I’m already looking forward to reading Legends and Lattes but now even more so!
ahhh, i loved reading your answers to this tag lia!! and congrats on being self-hosted!💜