January Recap + February TBR

I keep seeing the meme joking about January being about 85 days long, but it is so true. January has been one of the longest-feeling months I’ve experienced in quite some time – not necessarily all bad, but long and challenging. I didn’t read nearly as much as I hoped I would this month. However, thanks to a couple of audiobooks, I was able to squeeze in more “reading” while I was busy doing other tasks. I didn’t complete my TBR for the month, neglecting Every Breath by Nicholas Sparks and The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton for a few ARCs that happened to crop up. I also haven’t found the time to finish The Summer Garden by Paullina Simons, though I’m eager to get back into this series. I may add these books to the list for February, but I’ve made a decision: I’m not going to pack my TBR full of “need-to-reads”. To fully enjoy reading, I’ve discovered, I need be able to mood read. I’m hoping to pick a few books that will be publishing soon, but otherwise, I want to pick and choose from my Beat the Backlist TBR. I’m hoping this will allow February to be a more fruitful month, though we’ll have about 47 days less than January had.