Here we are at the end of February, and even though it’s such a short month, I somehow find myself having finished so many books already? Not that I’m complaining, but… What gives?? And how do I do it again?
So for those of you wondering how many ARCs I read this month.. Yes, I am also surprised!!! I mean… I READ TEN. 10. TENNNN. I don’t think I’ve ever done this yet, world. I truly don’t think I have. So before you start grumbling about me basically burning through that stack (I really don’t know how!! I worked too! And I blogged!), let’s get down to those stats and what books those were.
~ For Those Who Are New To The Meme ~
Anyone is free to participate in this meme! If you want to, just link up anytime during this month and refer to this page as to the rules of what to put in your post and how to link up. The next State of the ARC post is going to be on March 28, so if you can’t make this one, mark it down!
~ My Current State of the ARC ~
Well, comparing this to last month’s graph, those ten ARCs really made a dent! First of all, my authors list is down by a lot, and so is my NetGalley one. My total is also slightly lower, but I’m getting there! I can finally boast a 63% NetGalley ratio, which makes me ever so happy because it’s a number I’ve never previously reached! WOOT WOOT.
~ Bricks Knocked Down ~
I swear, my blog has never seen this many bricks. What even happened. Wow! I believe I do deserve congratulations this time.
~ The Really Good Ones ~
So then, let’s look at the books. This time I’m segmenting them! These are my three favorite ARCs from this month. Freshwater was just plain unbelievable – fresh, #ownvoices, strong, dark and honest. Brutal, I’d say. An account of multiple personality disorder, through the lens of mythology and tradition. Even though it contains many triggers, you should at least consider reading it. It’s a true masterpiece. You can read my review here. Heart Berries is a related release, also #ownvoices, tackles many similar topics, such as being an outsider, being a minority and being depressed. Very feminine, and very feminist – a work of art, too. Find my review here. And No Sad Songs is a YA about responsibility and dementia. Unlikely YA topics, huh? And yes, it was that good. My review will be posted on March 7th.
~ The Good Ones ~
Doorways in the Sand was a great scifi novel that I truly enjoyed – witty, fun and a little bit unlikely – just what a scifi story needs. The Feed was a slow-moving, yet good dystopia about the certain end of the world if we carry on being so ‘plugged in’ as we are now. Reviews will be coming up next month.
~ The Okay Ones ~
These books were alright, but didn’t give me a bunch of feels. The Sea Beast Takes a Lover was a collection of slightly odd short stories, and it could have been in the good ones category, if some of them were slightly less odd. Dragon’s Future is an alright fantasy that lacked world-building, sadly. These two will be reviewed on my blog in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, We Care for You is a scifi about synthetic humans and… how that ends. It was okay, you can read my Goodreads review here. And On Being an Introvert or Highly Sensitive Person helped me figure out a couple things about myself and is generally a good book, but it doesn’t present any ground-breaking new info. You can find my Goodreads review here.
~ Meh ~
Mizgot is one of my older ARCs, and I just… didn’t like it. At all. You can read more in my Goodreads review, but I don’t feel like it’s worth your time to read an over-dramatic account of an experimental ‘toy’ android
~ Let’s Get Motivated! ~
Sons of Ares! Need I say more?? But seriously though, I’m not pulling up any other new ARCs because I’m a little lost in all of the books that I have right now and need to get my bearings. However, I am excited about this one!
That’s my ARC February! What has yours been like? Please link your post up!
I’m Evelina and I try to blog about books that matter, with a bit of fun there too! Disability and equality will be topics you see a lot, but there’s also a lot of scifi, fantasy and… GIFs. I’m also the proud founder of #ARCsAnonymous.
10! you’ve read so many, that’s brilliant!
i don’t think i’ve even made a dent in my netgalley arcs just yet, nooo!!
but i am like, up to date with reviews on there i have two books to read before they are released on march 6th, i’m just hoping i can finish in time!
great post, i may look into doing one like this in the future 🙂
Yeah, I don’t even know what happened 😀 that’s probably because I’ve started text to speech listening to my NetGalley ARCs. That really does make it so much easier!
Two books sounds alright, I think you’ll manage just fine 🙂
Teach me your ways! I work too, and I’ve been having the hardest time crossing books off my TBR lately!
Well, it’s mostly because I use text to speech to read those books to me, it’s this app called Pocketbook and the American English narrator sounds pretty much like a real person (not weird or mechanic at all!), so I just listen to them on more than double the speed. That’s how xD
Ahhh! Congrats on getting through so many books! And thanks for inspiring me to start working through my overdue books..
My pleasure, Anna 🙂
Wow, ten is amazing! It’s been YEARS since I’ve been able to read 10 books in a month:-)
Thanks, Tammy 🙂 I actually read 13 😀 10 is just the ARCs! But yeah, I wouldn’t be there if not for text to speech. I do work late most nights and all that. Wouldn’t handle it if it was conventional reading, plus all that eye fatigue. I don’t know why, but listening to books is just so much faster.
Woooo! 10 ARCs read is awesome! 😀 Out of curiosity, how do you make those graphs you include in your State of the ARC posts?
Thanks 🙂 oh, it’s no secret – I make them with infogram! It’s a really cool tool, you should try it out. There is a free option, although they’ll try to sell you the pro 😀
10 ARCS?? Congrats Evelina, that’s stupendous! And bumping up your NetGalley ratio—yay! Most of my progress this month was with physical arcs, so it’s a little disappointing not to see those percentage points go up just yet…but I’ve got a load of e-arcs to read for this coming month 🙂 So happy for you and your ARC progress! You had an amazing month 🙂
Thank you! Yeah, I don’t even know xD well, finishing up print ARCs is even more important cause think about the trust the publishers put in you.
Congratulations! 10 ARCs is impressive.
Thank you!
Congrats on those numbers! I love that you actually show us the bricks 🙂
Thank you! Yeah, the bricks are part of the fun 😀 I was cringing and laughing when I first came up with that idea, and then I just knew I had to somehow figure out a way to make it happen 😀
[…] Include the link to this post, or the current State of the ARC post. Y […]
Wow! that’s an impressive number of ARCs you got through! Congrats on your netgalley stats too
Thank you!! 🙂
‘Freshwater’ sounds amazing and it’s going straight to my TBR: mental health rep, mythology, and #ownvoices! I’ve seen ‘No Sad Songs’ pop up a fair bit lately too and I love that someone has written a YA about dementia and elder care.
All in all, congrats on getting through so many this month!
I’m glad! Freshwater was truly, truly amazing. A very worthy read! And No Sad Songs is also something I would definitely recommend 🙂
You are the reading machine! I only read 2 ARCs and still have to finish reviewing them. And so many of yours are new to me. No! I will not request any more until I’m caught up. Except for…….. LOL
Haha, thanks, Laura 😀 oh, it’s so true – and I just stopped myself from requesting a new fancy title. So I feel proud of myself now 😀
That is amazing progress!!! So great to see others having success too. My steps were small but significant. Happy Reading – Feb went way too fast!
Thanks Sarah 🙂 I’ll be visiting everyone’s States today! Yeah, Feb was short, but it seems it was a good month for reading 🙂
Woww 10 bricks is an accomplishment!!! I applaud you seriously how did you manage all of that??? Reading, working and blogging???! You are not a human being xD
The day I manage to accomplish this the cows will be flying I tell you…
And I am soo glad I did my very first post with this meme I love it and THANK YOU FOR CREATING IT!!
<3
I realy and truly don’t know xD it was a month of magic, I say!
And you never know. Maybe one day cows will indeed fly 😀
And thank you so much for joining! I was super glad to see you jump in with the rest of us 🙂 I hope this meme helps you with your ARC achievements!!
hahaha pure magic so it does exists! 😀
I would definitely would love to see flying cows, this would be like dream come true loool
And yessss it is very usefulll and I will do my best to participate every month 🙂
😀
Okay, I’m so nervous (I finally participated after weeks of joining your Goodreads Group ). The sorting of “the good ones”, “the okay ones” etc idea is so good. God dammit I wish I knew it sooner because I had enough ARC this month. *sigh*
I’m sorry I’m replying so late! I’m super happy you participated 🙂
Can’t wait to see what you think of Son of Ares! 🙂 I know I say it before but I really can’t wait 🙂
Oh. Whoops. That might have expired last night D: I just… can’t read things on my phone. GAH
[…] of the ARC is a monthly meme created by Evelina from Avalinahs Books. You can find information about the meme here. February’s theme was love for which I read two […]
WOWZA! I am super proud of you, Evelina! Did you read anything which *wasn’t* an ARC this month?! I also wonder what order you read these ARCs in… I imagine if I read one or two duds in a row I’d just give up on ARCs for a while. I applaud you!
Also– 63%?! *standing ovation* I’ve only improved 1%, but while I read two ARCs I haven’t written/published my reviews yet. Oops! I’ve got to get on that ASAP.
I hope you give yourself some time to read other books this month. 😉
Yeah, I read three books which weren’t ARCs xD I am pretty amazed as well, and it’s a shorter month too! Well, but it’s all due to that deep cleaning of the house… I listened to four of my ARCs through text to speech that day, AND figured out the whole cleaning part xD so I’m super happy about that day. It was probably my most efficient day in the entire year to come. And I don’t know, I guess they weren’t all too bad! Plus. I always read like 5 books at a time, remember? If it’s a dud,… Read more »
I think I read 7, mostly children’s books or poetry – but I went on a request crazy last night and now my ratio is down again on NetGalley. Hopefully I will do better this month – my goal is to get at 60% too! But congrats! I heard so many great things about Roger Zelazny and I am quite excited to read one of his books.
Thank you! I had actually reached 63%, but I looked the other day, and I’m down to 61% again. Something must’ve run out xD whoops. You went on a NetGalley spree 😀 hahaha, whoops… Just in time to join March’s State of the ARC, I guess xD
Congratulations on your epic ARC reading month! I was surprised to see Doorways in the Sand by Roger Zelazny on your list. It was first published in 1976 and Zelazny died in 1995. I read all of his books when I was in college and they were new or nearly newly published. I wonder who is republishing his work and sending it out for review again.
Yeah, I know! I was pleasantly surprised I actually got an ARC of a backlist rerelease! I think they are releasing a whole series. And look at that cover! If only for that, I’m sure it will get picked up. It was a great book.
I read 10 books this month too! Woot!
Great post!
Yay you!! 🙂
I’m at ~65% too and I’m pretty happy with it! I’m hoping that sampler that I accidentally requested will help my case as one out of thirty lolol. Awesome progress this month!!
Yeah, I think it will xD meanwhile, for me it’s one of 150+. I feel like it will take me longer xD
Wow, 10 books? It’s really an accomplishment. Surely your year is going so great in terms of reading.
I don’t know how you are doing so great If I read even 2 ARCs in succession I get bored
February was too bad for me. I just read 3 books but I am happy that two of those were ARCs
I hope March is also as good as this for you ❤️ Well done Evelina!
It depends how I do the rest of the year xD yes, but this February… Has been something. No way am I topping that in March 🙂
I don’t know, I personally don’t see much difference between an ARC and a non-ARC – they’re just books xD all books. So I don’t get bored particularly when reading ARCs 🙂
Well, I’m glad you read ARCs though! I hope March is good for you in terms of reading, and everything else, of course 🙂 <3
You did awesome! I read 20 ARCs last month, but I have so many March releases to get through!!!
Thanks, Sam! Yes, those new releases somehow always keep catching up to us 🙂
Wow! You were super good! You read a lot of ARCs!!!!! *_* And I am happy that almost all of them were good reading.. that’s always a great thing! 🙂
Thanks, Susy 🙂 yeah, I don’t even know what happened, I’m not sure when I’ll have another month like that 😀
Wow! Way to go on getting your feedback ratio up by a lot! That has to be a bit of a relief!
Thanks, Sheila 🙂 it actually didn’t make as huge a dent as I might have wanted it to xD haha…
10 ARCS! That’s so impressive! Again, thank you for hosting this meme. It helps me so much.
Thanks, Tina 🙂 I am so glad! Thanks for taking part 🙂
Look at you go, reading 10 ARCs in a single month, and the short one at that! Huge congrats.
Thanks Katie, and thanks for joining up this month too! 🙂