NB: I made my own banner for this as the official one used generative AI. I used a stock photo from Pexels.com, and added some text. It’s not the most beautiful, but please feel free to use it if you would like to.

I’m a little late to the party, and I don’t think I’ve ever participated before… but better late than never, right? The challenge is a simple one: read 5, 10, 15 or 20 books over the summer, between 1st June and 31st August. You can sign up over at AnnaBookBel’s blog and join the monthly link-ups there.

I usually read a lot more than 20 books over the course of the summer, so I’m going to narrow things down a bit and use it to try to read specific books — but if that starts feeling unpleasant or annoying in any way, I’ll stop or swap in other books: the below are just a preliminary list of ideas, though I’ll try to stick to the categories I’ve set up here.

So let’s see…

Five non-fic:

I love non-fiction, especially when I’ve been stressed and struggling to read, so let’s start with some of those! (Not that I’m planning to read these in any order, but I’m hyping myself up here, shush.) I’m not going for any particular theme here, just picking some that I feel enthusiastic about in this moment.

And yet a bit of a theme emerged anyway, ahaha. Technically I’ve started the first three, but I’m not far into them. Which reminds me of my next section…

Five in-progress:

I started a lot of books at once and ended up feeling a bit guilty about not getting back to them, and truthfully, a bit overwhelmed at having so much on the go. So let’s lock in and agree that I’ll try to finish these five.

I haven’t even got far into the latter two, but the whim changed after I’d read a couple of chapters, and I drifted away.

With the other three, I’m solidly in the midst of ’em. I won’t say they’ll be easy wins, because The Book Eaters and The Water Outlaws haven’t quite been gelling for me, and Queen James is dense.

Five ARCs:

I’ve been well in control of my ARCs for the last year or so… until I got a bit overwhelmed again, and pulled back on reading. I’ve got some catching up to do! So let’s get these read, if possible!

Five danmei:

I got a lot of new danmei at once, and ended up a bit overwhelmed/wondering if I should read one series at a time, or wait for more to come out (so I can get the next book right away if I’m really into it), etc. But I wouldn’t normally do that, and at least since they just need translating, we know new volumes are coming soon! So I think I’ll just jump in.

I’ve been looking forward to several of these for a while, after all! So should be some good light reading over the summer.

Five wildcards:

I know, this brings us to 25 in total, but I wanted to give myself the easiest possible out if I’m struggling with any of the above books. Without a specific backup plan, I might just feel like I’m cheating (I know, I know, the rules are very flexible, but my brain isn’t). So here’s a wildcard for each of the above in order, and a spare!

 

And you never know… maybe I can make it the 25 specific books of summer, and really flout the rules, ahaha.

So here we go, for at least as long as this sparks joy!