Happy Friday! Late from me today but I didn’t get a chance to pre-schedule this one.

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly bookish discussion meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and co-hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits and Dini @DiniPandaReads. Each Friday, bloggers will write posts about a particular topic and share on their blog.

We’re ending June with a mid-year check in to see how our reading has been going.

How has your reading year been so far?

I’ve been having a great reading year! TBRs have been changed more times than I care to count, but I have morphed into something of a mood reader this year. I’ve been reading across a lot more genres than usual, and have picked up a decent amount of non-fiction which I am really pleased with. One of my goals was to keep my reading diverse, and this is something I have definitely achieved with both LGBTQIA+ rep from authors and characters, and also reading more books from non-white authors and with non European settings.

I’m on 55 books read so far in 2025, again something I am very pleased with! I set my goal super low, I am not one for caring about numbers anymore, so I think I surpassed my Storygraph goal sometime in May.

I’m a little behind where I want to be in my challenges, namely my Friend’s Recommend, but as I said, the mood reading has been strong! I’m planning to work on this more purposefully over the latter half of the year and should be able to check off at least two-thirds of my lists without much trouble.

What reading/blogging achievements are you most proud of?

Honestly, keeping up with the blog in the first place! The last couple of weeks, not so much, I’ve been super busy, but in general. I only made the decision to really focus more on blogging in January, and I am so thrilled that I’ve stuck with it. Not only has it been fun to do, but I’ve made some lovely connections here too!

I’ve been able to stick with a fairly consistent schedule of 2 ‘talking’ posts a week (WWW & LTB), and 1-2 reviews a week which I am going to continue with. I definitely need to try and engage more, so that’s that I’ll be working on now.

In terms of reading, I am super pleased that I’ve been able to keep up the diversification of genres and representation in my book choices. This was really important to me going into this year.

Other things I am proud of are the fact that I got to work with Bloomsbury and their Outdoors imprint on a reel for World Bee Day (eeee!), and that myself and my fellow r/Fantasy moderators have been nominated for a Hugo Award for our 2024 Book Bingo! Still pinching myself!!!

Looking forward, is there anything you want to change up for the rest of the year?

In the immediate, I need to get back into my blogging groove. I’ve been very busy the last couple of weeks and haven’t been finding the time to write reviews and schedule posts. I definitely do have a few hours here and there so I need to make myself do it!

As I mentioned above, I also need to get more engaged with the bookish community here. I started off well, but have let that slip, so I want to spend more time reading and commenting again.

The last thing I want to do is to make sure I read more non-fiction. I have been reading it, just not as a priority. There are so many amazing non-fictions on my shelf but I keep side-lining them for fantasies. No more!!

You Tell Me – How has your reading been so far this year?