Murder by Death

I seem to be in a recurring/remitting slump.  Last month was my low point so far, but if not for a concerted push over the last week, June wouldn't have been much better, but I did manage to pull out 21 reads.  A very respectable number for anyone except the person who's just gone on a mother of a book buying binge - but more on that later.

Of those 22 titles, only 1 was a five star read: At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails - Sarah Bakewell  which I listened to on audio and it was truly outstanding.   Two 4.5 star reads: Book: A Novel - Robert Grudin  and Elizabeth and Her German Garden (The Penguin English Library) - Elizabeth von Arnim.  No real bombs, but a fair sprinkling of mediocre books; I was probably due some mediocrity, as I've had some pretty fantastic luck this year overall.

Some basic stats:

14 women authors

7 male authors

7 were easily classified as mystery

3 were science

the rest were all over the place

My TBR project:

In 2018 I decided to try reducing my TBR by allowing myself to buy half as many books in a month as I read off my TBR the previous month.  If I bought less, the difference could carry over.  This was working far better than I expected until I decided to give the finger to the Australian Tax Office and go on an unprecedented (to me) buying binge before new taxes kick in (tomorrow).  Most of these are pre-orders, so they'll go against my 'budget' for the month they're released in, but I also bought a fair number of books currently available - enough to completely derail my June budget of 14 books.  Which means I'm in the hole until I read myself out of it.  That hole is 21 books deep.  So the math ends up like this:

Books bought in June: 35

June budget: 14

Deficit brought forward to July: 21

# of books pre-ordered for July: 1

July budget: 11 (half of 21 books read in June - rounded up.  Don't judge!)

July deficit:  -11 

What this means for my project?  I have to read a minimum of 22 books in July to "break even" - doable if I can knock this slump out for good.  Luckily I'm on 2 weeks break from work starting Monday, which may, or may not, help.  

Nothing like a little pressure; I blame the government.