#NetGalleyNovember (& other monthly plans)

I can’t believe it’s already November! The time is really flying by, so it’s definitely time to look at some of my yearly goals and try to get some headway with them. 

And one goal I have every year (and actually succeeded at last year – so proud!) is getting my NetGalley shelf to the coveted 80%. Like so many shiny new tiny book blogger before (& after) me did, I requested a bunch in the beginning. Not actually believing I would be approved for much or any at all. Wrong! Which is both a blessing and a curse. I mean, I’m definitely not saying no to free books, but it does come with a certain type of stress and guilt when I can’t get to them in a timely manner.

On top of that I joined some fantastic blog tours over the last year or so and those had priority for me since I had an assigned date that I really wanted to try and post on that day.  

That being said, November is for hopefully getting a couple of my NetGalley books read and reviewed as well as some other review copies! There are some I’m actually really really looking forward to reading! 

Oh, and if your shelf needs some attention too, check out NetGalleyNovember on either Twitter or Instagram and join us. 

Other than my focus on reading review copies I don’t want to have a set TBR as I’ve noticed the last couple of month that it doesn’t really work for me right now like it did before. And since I am a little stressed right now from IRL stuff, I need to get rid of every little stressor I can and having a really strict TBR is one of them. (I definitely want to return to them soon-is though because I really do love them!) 

So I thought, instead of showing you a couple books I’m planning to read, I’ll start with my stats! 

As you can see, my ratio isn’t disastrous but it’s definitely improvable! If my math is correct, I would need to read and review 7 books to get to 80% … which sounds doable? Maybe?

I actually have one book that I only have to review (I already read it a while ago actually but never managed to review it, shame on my cow!) but I also think I might add 2 new books to this? So, all in all, I should probably aim for reading and reviewing 8 books. I don’t know why but this sounds suddenly a lot less doable even though it’s only one book more, lol. 

But if I look at my NetGalley shelf I am actually really excited to read most of them! 

These are all the books on my shelf and I’m actually reading The Ophelia Girls by Jane Healey right now and I can already tell that it’s gonna get 4 or 5 stars! I love the writing style and atmosphere so so much?! You can definitely expect the review for that really soon! 

Two others I’m relatively sure I can get to this month are Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao and The Bone Shard Emperor by Andrea Stewart. I loved loved loved The Bone Shard Daughter, the first book (you can check out my review if you wanna know more) and am really thinking about rereading that one so I can get dive into the second one immediately after. (Also, I miss Mephi, can’t wait to read about him again <3)

I also still have the German translation of The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller on here … I have temporarily dnf’ed it, I’m not sure if or when I’ll find the motivation to finish it. (I like to finish review copies and properly review them, but if you know me, you know that I struggle with permanently dnfing anyways). It’s such a widely loved book but I just can’t seem to get into it.  

Both, The Tangleroot Palace by Marjorie M. Liu and My Therapist Says are short reads so, if I can squeeze those two in I might actually make it to 80%? Also, I was so excited to read The Tangleroot Palace since I love Marjorie Liu’s Monstress Graphic Novels! (If you haven’t red them yet, highly recommend!)

(We don’t talk about the fact that I still haven’t read The Girl and The Mountain yet, okay? Okay!) 

Now, I have a German review copy platform as well where I want to make some headway. I have four books yet to review on there and I’d love to get to at least one of them. I don’t want to set the goal any higher because two of the books there are sequels were I would have to read the book before again in order to really get what’s going on (it has been quite a while and my brain is … well yeah, I need to refresh my memory) and another one is a collection of all the poetry of Rilke (so cool!) which I want to take my time with and not just binge read them. I feel like I wouldn’t really get to appreciate them otherwise.
Lots of words for saying that I want to read and review Crowfall by Ed McDonald. I loved the two previous books in that trilogy and can’t wait to continue (I lowkey don’t want this series to end tho)

I’m also participating in a blog tour or two and I have my BBNYA books (can’t tell you what they are yet, it’s still a secret!) to read as well … so … I’m booked! 

Aside from reading I have a couple other plans & goals for November and the biggest one is to finally finish my translation project. I started translating a story from English into German in … 2013 or so … and I stopped working on it years ago. To this day I get comments asking me to continue (I’m sorry!!) and it’s been a yearly goal for me for at least 3 years without making any progress. So this year I decided to use NaNoWriMo as motivation and make it my NaNo project. It’s not actually what NaNo is supposed to be but I’m a little rebel and I’m ecstatic to report that I’m doing pretty well so far! I’m actually making decent progress the last few days. And omg, you can’t imagine how good it would feel to finally be able to cross that off my list? (And it would also be kinda lovely if I could upload it in December as some kind of Christmas gift, wouldn’t it?)

Other than that I’m currently looking for a part-time job (I hate hate hate the whole application process, it’s the worst!) and juggling some Uni courses and assignments. 

It’s a lot, but I’m actually quite motivated. Fingers crossed it stays that way! 

Do you see any book on this list that you think I should put on the top of my tbr? Any of your favourites on here?
What are your plans for november?