You know what. It turns out I have only been reading review copies this whole month, pretty much..? O_o and yet, my review copy count has gone up by one book. WHAT GIVES?? Either way. I feel like I’m doing alright… How is your State of the ARC?
~ For Those Who Are New To The Meme ~
Anyone is free to participate! 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 (probably) October 30th, so if you can’t make this one, mark it down!
~ My Current State of the ARC ~
So then. It seems my stats haven’t changed much, except they went ONE UP. Huh. It’s probably those unsolicited review copies I was so excited about then, huh.
It seems as though this time most of my ARCs go well with the bingo! I’ve put down Ewan Pendle and the White Wraith for favorite color cover (so I’m cheating a little, but it has both pink and purple, and I can never decide between those two.) Tomorrow Factory is a debut, and The Psychology of Time Travel talks about discrimination for mental health issues.
~ Bricks Knocked Down ~
So I’ve got eight bricks, one of which is plastic (means I’ve still got to write the review). I’ll be trying to request less, so I have more freedom with my books, because this month it seems it was hit or miss – either it’s 5 stars, so just a DNF. And I’ve been struggling hard with the DNFs lately.
So these books really mostly divide into two categories: loved and… didn’t enjoy. Well, most of them! I loved Mindless – a really strong short story about a girl who needs to defend her family and has to make some tough choices, gets punished for not having a choice basically. I also really REALLY loved The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone and I rave about this middle grade masterpiece here. Of course, I adored the final installment of The Murderbot Diaries – Exit Strategy, and I’ll be talking about it on release day (Oct 2), and I unexpectedly loved Finding Baba Yaga, my first ever novel in verse. I guess I’ll be talking about it sometime, but you shoold definitely check it out! Ah, actually the only book I liked, but had qualms about it, was Ewan Pendle and the White Wraith. It was a great middle grade book, but maybe I just read it at the wrong time, cause it was pretty dark and heavy and it just got me down. The rest of the books… Tomorrow Factory was good, but just not for me – it bored me to death. I mostly DNFed it. The Psychology of Time Travel I also DNFed (life’s too short.) because it triggered me – there was a lot of bullying and discrimination over mental health. But other than that, it is a good diverse novel and raises good questions. And when it comes to Things We Learn When We’re Dead – I don’t think I understood this book, because where everyone else though it was just witty and profound, I found it bleak and tragically depressing. I struggled through it for weeks, but at least I didn’t DNF!
~ Let’s Get Motivated! ~
I’m excited about these three right now! God knows, I’ve been excited about Creatures of Want and Ruin for months, and have probably already told you that countless times. But I’ve already started reading it! I’m also really excited about Black God’s Drums, because it came in the mail unexpectedly, and I remember wanting to request it when it was an e-galley, but having no time to read it at the point, so I didn’t request. And I’m just excited about the nonfictional Interplanetary Robots (the robots that went into space with NASA) simply because I’m a huge, huge space dork!
That’s that! So what ARCs did you get and which ones are you excited this September?
I’m Evelina and I blog about books that made an impression on me. I love middle grade, women’s, scifi and some literary too.
I FINALLY got to 60% feedback ratio on NetGalley, which I am pretty proud of even if I still have a long way to go.
Wow, that is great! I am at 75% now, and I hope you’ve raised yours in the meantime – cause I’m super late in answering my comments from when I was vacationing and then dealing with post-vacation work 😀 haha
I’ve mostly read ARCs this month too, and it looks like I barely have any left… but that’s because I don’t really count the books I receive through the Lesbrary. (I don’t count them because they are sent to all the reviewers there so I don’t really feel the pressure to review them, I just keep a list so I can pick one if I run out of F/F books.) I feel like this might be cheating though? Congrats on your bingo progress!! And 8 bricks is great progress 😀 I don’t think I received any ARCs in September tbh… Read more »
Oh, that’s great to hear! 🙂
Haha, maybe a little bit of cheating, but hey, you could count them as ‘unsolicited’ copies? Cause if they’re sent out to everyone, then that’s sort of what they are 🙂
Thank you!
Ooooh, you made such awesome progress this month! I know your numbers overall went up a little, but I think you should be really proud of how hard you worked in September. 😀 That said, I’m sorry you’ve been hitting so many DNF titles lately! I go through spells like that with books, too, where I’ll just end up DNFing a few things in a short time span and it’s so frustrating.
Thanks! Yes, I really do feel proud (at least now, don’t remember about September 😀 batch-replying old comments lol look at me xD)
Yeah, well, in the end, maybe it’s better to DNF than suffer through books you don’t enjoy? I’m starting to feel that way 🙂
Well Evelina I have more than 80% feedback ratio on Netgalley but I don’t ask for so many ARCs ….
I am actually approaching 80%! Will be there soon. Except I don’t care about it anymore xD
I’ve DNFd a lot of ARCs this month, too. It’s been a bummer, but they just haven’t worked for me. There have been a few that were pretty great! I can’t wait to do my State of the ARC post. I feel like I’ve gotten through a lot this month without requesting too many more. I’ve almost got my rating back above 80%.
It looks like you’ve nearly filled out your Bingo card! <3
Lindsi @ Do You Dog-ear?
Ah, that’s a bummer indeed 🙂 I hope you got the rating back by now! Mine’s still at 75% – but considering how many ARCs I’ve requested in total, it’s a high one for me! 🙂
oh the pretty books! I have always been very careful about Netgalley. I only have about 10-15 all the time which are current upcoming. It’s harder now with both audios and publicity teams / authors sending me ARCs and some publishers send an occasional print book / ARC. But now I keep a spreadsheet with the title / format / review date / release date / notes. I do have a section for ones I have which aren’t scheduled yet, especially the audios. But I’m getting better about scheduling them as I get them,whatever the format. Anne – Books of… Read more »
I envy you! I wish I could be careful about NetGalley too 😀 I just sort of slip sometimes though xD
I also keep track using spreadsheets, but my problem is that sometimes I just think “I can totally do it!” – when I clearly can’t xD “It’s fiiiiiiiine” LOL
Hooray for progress! I have almost all my ARCs done! I am hoping this weekend to finish more reviews, that is the part that always trips me up these days. I want to reeeeeead, not review.
Oh, that’s great to hear! I nearly had all my ARCs done, but then had a sudden deluge of new ones, whoops! 😀
Oooh, I think I might join in! I definitely need to give myself more pushes to make progress in my ARCs. If I’d recommend any of the ARCs you have but haven’t read yet, it’d be The Black God’s Drums – I absolutely loved it.
Yes, please join in! 🙂
You’re doing a lot better than me. I do hope to do better after the holidays. Crossing my fingers!
Haha, I hope you do 😀 good luck!
Your State of the Arc is an amazing show as always! A brick with plastic– ha! I like that. I keep seeing Finding Baba Yaga on your feed and that makes me really want to read it, but I shouldn’t add anymore to my TBR, agh! Maybe one won’t hurt? 😉
Thank you! And yes, I think you would enjoy Finding Baba Yaga 🙂
[…] [Meme] State of the ARC #14 […]
Your ARC status has gone so much better now, Evelina. And here I feel mine is still the same as it was when the year started 😛 But at least my ARC Bingo looks good.
It has, but I just hauled some new ones, whoops xD I mean, last week. I hope I can get through them soon 😀
Sorry to hear about the DNFs, and just not enjoying all the books you read. I haven’t read any of the Murderbot series but I SO want too, so I’m glad to hear you liked the latest. I don’t have too many upcoming ARCs – thank goodness – but there still never seems to be enough time to read all the things I want. lol
-Lauren
I can definitely recommend that series 🙂
ahh my first time doing a state of the arc meme post! so excited
Oh, I’m so sorry I’m replying late and didn’t check it out in time!!
With all the chaos on my blog last month, I definitely missed out on State of the ARC. But I hope to join up next month! I’m definitely making some progress– it’s not as awesome as your progress, but I think my book clubs are taking over a bit. XD There are so many books and so little time!
Are all three books you’re excited about science fiction? Yay for more science fiction!
That’s alright, there’s always this month 😀 I think my progress might have gone back this month because I acquired a lot of books xD
I missed the link up last month – not that I read too much, September was a weird month. But I will not miss it in October… hopefully!
Also, I just started The Psychology of Time Travel. Sorry to hear it was triggering for you and sending lots of hugs!
I hope you liked The Psychology of Time Travel! I had to ask someone to tell me how it ends, and now I know it wasn’t worth finishing, at least for me 🙂 did you finish it in the end?
I really love these posts! I have so much fun seeing your stats. I seriously do need to pick up this meme for a month or two at least- I think I only have about 20 to read, but every once in a while I request a few more and those end up taking priority. I just need to get back down to zero or close to it and then it will be more manageable for me after that, haha!
I always do the same lol 😀