Welcome to this incredibly late monthly wrap-up post! Where did September and the first half of October go? So much has happened in such a short period of time. My wife accepted a new job in the Midwest, and she starts at the beginning of January. So, that means I’ve been getting everything ready for our move from Louisiana to Illinois. We’ve toured homes virtually and had an offer accepted on a house. Now we’re navigating inspections and mortgage applications, not to mention getting our current house ready to go on the market. The packing has been a full-time endeavor, and I’m only just getting started. It is all a bit overwhelming, but I know we’ll manage it.

On the blogging front, my blog hopping has still been extremely limited. Unfortunately, that is unlikely to change until sometime next year. With our impending move, I’m just extremely busy with the house buying/selling process and packing up all of our stuff. I’m honestly struggling to even read at this point. I just don’t have nearly as much free time as I used to.

What I’ve Read

Books & Audiobooks

September was a slower reading month for me because of all the packing and planning for our move. I finished 12 books for a total of 4,448 pages. I completed all of my classes for the Magical Readathon. Yay! I was scared for a bit that I wouldn’t finish, but I managed to have a successful term after swapping out some of my initial picks. My average rating in September came in similar to August at 3.81 out of 5. I usually average at least 4 stars, but my mood/stress has continued making me rate a little harsher than I typically do. None of the books stand out as being terrible reading experiences. I just enjoyed them to varying degrees. The books I finished in September are listed below (ratings link to my review, if available):

• The Enchanted Lies of Celeste Artois by Ryan Graudin (📖 / 4⭐)
• Zeroboxer by Fonda Lee (🎧 / 3.25⭐)
• Fall for Him by Andie Burke (📱 / 3.5⭐)
• You’re the Problem, It’s You by Emma R. Alban (🎧 / 4⭐)
• The Light Between Us by Elaine Chiew (📖 / 3.25⭐)
• A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft (📱 / 4.25⭐)
• The Surviving Sky by Kritika H. Rao (🎧 / 3.25⭐)
• Belladonna by Adalyn Grace (📱 / 4.25⭐)
• Evocation by S.T. Gibson (📖 / 3.5⭐)
• The Malevolent Seven by Sebastien de Castell (🎧 / 4⭐)
• Desert Echoes by Abdi Nazemian (📖 / 4.5⭐)
• The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden (🎧 / 4⭐)

Comic Books

One of my goals for the year is to read more comic books. Specifically, I set the arbitrary number at 100 floppies, but I’d love to read way more than that this year because I am years behind on issues at this point. I finally read some comic books in September! 13 of them to be exact. It was a Star Wars kind of month for me. I finished reading the latest run of The High Republic and also read the recent Darth Maul mini-series, a special dedicated to the anniversary of The Phantom Menace, and the Mace Windu mini-series. I enjoyed all of them, especially the stuff tied to the Star Wars prequels. Here’s a look at some of what I read:

Progress On My 2024 Reading Goals

This year I am keeping things much simpler. I don’t have as many specific goals to track and am just trying to go with the flow. I do want to keep some sort of record of the trackable ones, though. So, here’s a quick peek at how my year is going so far.

• Goodreads Challenge: 129/100 books (+12 in September) – COMPLETED!!
• Storygraph Pages Challenge: COMPLETED!!
• Read from My Shelves: 43 books [29 physical, 14 audio] (+4 in September)
• Books Unhauled: 37 sold on Pango (+10 in September) & 30 donated (+30 in September)
• Read Comic Books: 67/100 floppies (+13 in September)
• Read Pre-2024 ARCs: 4/14 ARCs (+0 in September)

The big change this month was a huge increase in unhauling books thanks to all of the packing I’ve been doing. I’m SO TIRED of packing books. I’ve lost count of the boxes at this point. lol. So, quite a few books have ended up in the sell or donate pile just so I don’t have to lug them across the country.

Final Thoughts

This was another pretty slow blogging month. I did manage to get a few reviews finished but not much else. You can find everything that I did post, including a list of great books with bi male representation, in my blog archives if you are interested in checking them out. Despite needing to REALLY stop, I also added quite a few books to my shelves (or boxes at this point), which you can see in my book haul post.

Overall, I had a decent month of reading. My average rating was 3.81 in September, and my favorite book was A Dark and Drowning Tide. What was your favorite book from September? Let me know down in the comments!

That’s it for this monthly wrap-up. Thank you to everyone who has visited the blog and engaged with comments and/or likes! I appreciate all of you and always enjoy reading your input in the comments. I hope everyone is having a great October!