MOST BOOKS i've ever read in a month! 📚 september wrap up

Hello friends, how are we doing? It is time, finally, for my September wrap-up. I had to delay this because I had to push back my last vlog of the month because I was sick. So then I only just posted that and that made up like half the books I read in September. So we're finally gonna chat about my September reading. It's a very interesting month because, as you might be able to tell by the title, this is the most books I've ever read in the month, joint. Joint with I think like March of this year or something, but I read 17 books in September, which is kind of crazy. Could you do everything that I do in a day? Nah. That is kind of mad, 17 books in a month. I don't usually average that, I usually sit around to like 12, 13, but we read 17. I'm probably not going to read as many in October now because I kind of get burnt out after a big month, although I have got to read a lot of books in October, November and December still, so maybe I will still read loads. But yeah, so we read a lot, but as we're gonna see, I don't have a ton of like disappointments, surprises and hits, which is the structure of my wrap-ups to talk about, because like most of the books I read were 3.5 or 4 stars. Like almost all of them. When we go through all the books I read, yeah, most of them were 4 or 3.5s. So it was like a very one-note reading month for me. I had a few standouts and a few, you know, standouts for the wrong reasons, but most of the books were very middle of the road. Well, good, good middle of the road. Above middle of the road. Like, uh, two-thirds up the road. So if you're new here, I do my wrap-ups. I do reading stats first because I love statistics. I love talking about statistics. I love comparing months. I love, I just love statistics, okay? I love them, love them. And then we go through all the books I read with just the rating that I gave them, and then we talk more in depth about my disappointments, surprises and hits, because almost, well, all of these books you can find me talking about somewhere. Most of them are in vlogs, reading vlogs on my channel, and I'll link all of those down below. And I think one, one isn't on my channel, but that was my Patreon book cup pick. So I have got a whole discussion live show and reading vlog for that over there. So shall we just get straight into the statistics and chat about how much I read this month and how I fucking knocked it out of the park with how much reading I did? So as I said, I read 17 books in September. The amount of pages was 4,478. How does that compare actually to the other month that I read 17? I read 4,458. Oh my god, I read 20 more pages! Oh my god! In terms of pages per day, that works out at 149, which is crazy. I mean, I always say I don't do that every day. I will read like 10, 20 pages one day and I'll read 200 the next. I don't have a very like steady reading speed, I don't feel like. I feel like I'm very up and down. That's why I don't track the amount of pages I read every day, because I just think, oh, that would like stress me out seeing the differences. The average pages per book was 263, which I feel like isn't bad. I read a few shorter books, but also I read quite a few like longer books as well, so it kind of averaged out. My average rating was a 3.76, which is pretty much on par. I've been averaging like a 3.6, 3.7 for most of this year, especially since like I had higher ratings in like January, February, March, April, but then the rest of the year I've been kind of hovering around that rating, so it's pretty standard for me. And the average time a book had spent on my TBR was 11 months. We had some that I bought and read straight away, and we had some that had been on there for like three years. Okay, let's get into the charts. Oh god, this first chart guys, you guys are gonna just be so happy. Are you ready? Look at my genre distribution for the month. I love it, it makes me so happy. But she's beautiful. Right. But she's beautiful. It makes me so happy when I read this wide array of genres. I mean, you guys, I just love it. I love reading a mix of genres. I find that's what really helps me read a lot, is when I'm really spicing it up and adding a bit of variety. Of course I did do the vlog, which I'll link down below, I just posted the one I had to delay, where I read seven genres in seven days. I had to read a different genre in each day. So of course that helped, but it was still a lot of variety in the rest of the month, so I read two classics. I'm amazed by you. And I just want you to know, I just read another classic for October. Who is she? Oh my god. I'm gonna be so excited to see how many classics I've read at the end of the year. Actually, should I see how many I've read this year so far? Why not? I've read five classics, guys. Can't remember the time I read five classics in a year. I read one contemporary, three fantasy, one historical, two horror, one magical realism, two mystery, one nonfiction, one romance, one sci-fi, and two thrillers. Oh, what a good mix. That is- that makes me really happy. In terms of rating, I warned you for this, we've got one 2.5, one 3, five 3.5s, nine 4s, and one 5. Oh my god. It's kind of crazy. I mean, I'm happy to have a lot of four stars, but like, it's kind of crazy how just- I also do like a bit of variation though. Do you know what I mean? In a month, I'd like to have had, you know, one or two more of those could have been five stars, and none of those fours were like pushing for 4.5s, they were all fours. Do you know what I mean? They weren't pushing 4.5 upwards. So I would like a little bit, you know, a little bit better on the end of the bell curve. And- well, bell curves don't work like that. They- but okay, whatever. I would even like maybe another two. I know that sounds, you know, against what you would- but I like a bit of variation. Don't say that. Mona, don't ever say that. In terms of how I read the books, I read three audiobooks, eight physical, and six mixture, where I had both the audiobook and physical. It's a pretty- pretty standard split for me. In terms of audience, 15 were adult and two were YA. This year, I mean, this just further compounds the fact that this year has really- Sorry, my shirt is just annoying me at the armpit. Okay, haven't worn this shirt in a while. This just further compounds the fact to me that I don't read a lot of YA anymore. I don't read a lot of YA. Just a couple years ago, that would have been 50-50. I used to read so much more YA, but I've just stopped and that's okay. In terms of format, I read two graphic novels, ten novels, two novellas, two short stories, and one anthology. In terms of series stats, I read one companion book, three that were part of a series, eleven that were standalones, and one first in a series. Okay, that's not bad. I made progress in three series this month, and I only started one more. What did I start? What series did I start? Who would let me start a series this month? Oh, Her Majesty's Royal Court. Okay, all right, we'll allow that one. In terms of where the books I read were from, two were from Audible, three were gifted, ten I'd bought myself, and two were from Scribd. In terms of author stats, four were debuts, six were authors I'd read from before, and seven were new to me. Okay, let's get into all the books I read this month with their ratings. First, I read Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng, and I gave this four stars. Hellbent by Leigh Bardugo, which I gave four stars. You're gonna see a pattern throughout this. The Last Housewife by Ashley Winstead, which I gave three stars. Girl on the Walls by AJ Gunise, which I gave four stars. Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson, which I gave five stars. Educated by Tara Westover, which I gave four stars. The Daughter of Dr. Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, which I gave 3.5 stars. A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle, which I gave four stars. The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kirsten White, which I gave 2.5 stars. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, which I gave 3.5 stars. The Six Deaths of the Saint by Alex E. Harrow, which I gave four stars. Saga Vol. 2 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples, which I gave four stars. The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxar, which I gave 3.5 stars. Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Tales from the Cafe by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, which I gave four stars. The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle, which I gave 3.5 stars. The Girl from the Sea by Molly Knox Osatag, which I gave 3.5 stars. And The Chateau by Jacqueline Goldis, which I gave four stars. I warned you guys, it was a lot of the same ratings. Okay, let's get into my disappointments of the month and then we'll pick it up in terms of positivity towards the end. So my lowest rated book of the month was The Dark Descent by Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kirsten White. I gave this a 2.5. This, all you need to know, is like it's a retelling of Frankenstein following Elizabeth Frankenstein, who is Victor Frankenstein's wife, essentially. And it's a YA retelling of that. And this just, I thought, was very boring. I'm sorry. And then, let it be known that the next day I was in Waterstones in London and I did buy Mr. Magic by Kirsten White. But it's a whole different story. I mean, I think I'll love this. That's how my brain works. Women's stories matter. Yeah. They just matter. My biggest problem with this is a problem I have with a lot of retellings where it meets the beats of the original story to this book's detriment. I've discovered I like fanfic retellings where you're taking the characters, you are taking some themes of the novel or like whatever, but like telling it in a new way. I don't like retellings that stick so closely to like this happened and this happened and then this happened and this happened. Just through a new character's point of view because I just feel like it, I can feel that the author hasn't come up with that from their brain. I'm like banging my leg down. I can just feel it. I can feel it in the page that like the author is following a guide rather than something that's sprung up from their own mind. And often characters will do things, this isn't just exclusive to this, but characters will do things and act in certain ways or react to stuff in ways that then doesn't feel authentic to the character that has been built up in that book because they've got to react that way for then the next event to happen as it should. So that makes sense. And I've just found I don't like that. I love the idea of retellings. I will keep reading them, but I'm just finding again and again with like Greek myth retellings or I felt like this with Kaiki that there's something about it following a predestined plot even if it's being told in a new way that I don't vibe with. I think I vibe more with the retellings that are a bit more of a remix. You know, I'm thinking of stuff I want to read like Pride and Premeditation that is a Pride and Prejudice retelling, but like they're running like a law firm and solving murders. Like that is more my speed, I think, of the kind of retellings I enjoy. And I'm actually gonna, I think experiment with this a bit next year and do a series where I read a classic and then read a retelling, just one retelling, but like really closely compare the two because I'm now in my classics era, if you didn't know, I will talk about that more in my October wrap up because I've already got a book I need to talk to you about. But I'm now in my classics era and I want to explore this relationship that I have with retellings. So yeah, I think part of this is me, but I also think also it could have got, I mean it is YA, but it could have got a bit darker. It could have got a bit, I don't know, it is quite dark. I think the atmosphere was done really well in it, but I don't know, just didn't quite work for me. And then I would say my biggest disappointment, this was absolutely a five star prediction and I gave it a three and that is a generous three. It's maybe more of a 2.75. I just don't deal in like quarter decimals and I didn't feel like I could quite give it a 2.5 although maybe it kind of is. And that is The Last Housewife by Ashley Winstead. I was so sad. This was a five star, five star, five star, five star prediction for me and we just didn't get that. I'm just going to shut down and I don't want to talk about it. It's a very serious thriller, right? It's dealing with very sensitive topics. I'm going to say that from the jump. So we are following a character who was in kind of like a sex cult. As a teenager. And then one of her friends who was also in that dies and she wants to investigate that and does like this podcast with this guy trying to investigate that. And there's also like a, you know, sex cult like in the kind of present day as well. I just don't want to get too much. If I say it to the side of my mouth, maybe YouTube won't know. My problem with this is that if you're going to deal with topics as sensitive as this, I don't think Ashley Winstead didn't have care in her treatment of this. But it didn't go quite far enough for me. And I feel like there is so much commentary that could be had around the dynamic. I don't want to get into too much because I don't want to spoil stuff. I'm trying to talk around stuff. But there's so much that could be said around the dynamics examined in this book. And for me, the commentary always felt very surface level. It felt like we never got into the depth of anything. And also it was freaking stupid, guys. It was stupid. The amount of times there is this organisation, shall we say, that is supposed to be very powerful in this book that she is kind of infiltrating. And like, they're so powerful. And every time it's like, right, if you do that again, and you're like dead or whatever, she just keeps like going in, getting information and running away. And they know she is. And like, there's no repercussions. It's infuriating. But for me, it was really that I think this didn't, yeah, go into depth of the topics that it was covering enough. And it was kind of like a bit of a scatterbrained thriller instead. And didn't feel, I don't know, I just didn't like it. I didn't like it. It really missed the mark for me, which I'm sad about because I wanted to love this so much. But it just didn't, it didn't do it for me. I was really disappointed. I think the writing was still okay. I didn't love the character. I thought the podcast element was just put in because everyone loves a podcast in their books nowadays. And everyone's doing it. If you're going to do podcast, do freaking podcast. Yawning, sloppy, lazy. I know for a fact, I didn't listen to the audiobook, but I know that it doesn't have multiple voice actors. If you can do a podcast with multiple, just to have multiple voice actors, God, it's like the bare minimum at this point. That's not in the author's control, probably. That's in the publisher's control. But like, anyways, moving on. Let's talk about my surprises of the month. That's more positive. Okay, my first surprise was A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle. Now, it's Sherlock, right? It's Sherlock. I love murder mysteries. I thought I was going to enjoy it, but this was a four star, but let it be known, the first half of this is five star, five star, five star. I am incredibly excited to continue reading from Sherlock. So A Study in Scarlet is the first ever Sherlock. It's kind of a short story, kind of an- I'd cast it as a novella, I think. It's like a hundred and something pages when it's like, you know, as a physical book. And the first half of it is Sherlock and Watson meeting and like, solving this case. And then the second half, we go to America, to Utah, to follow some of the characters from the first half. And it's a completely different tone. That part was like a three star, I was kind of bored. But that first half, oh my god, I was- I'm getting passionate again. I was so surprised by how much I loved Sherlock as a character. And I was very surprised by Sherlock's character. I've obviously- I've consumed so much Sherlock, like, content, like TV shows, movies, whatever, over my time. So there's like so many different interpretations of Sherlock out there. And I was surprised by how much he actually aligned with, like, the craziness of the BBC Sherlock. I thought that was like a strange adaptation. But like, I could really picture it. And it felt so visceral. And the mystery was interesting. It was a very- it was an interesting mystery, because it's not one you're meant to solve as the reader. But it's just so interesting to see, like, kind of the origins, almost, of the mystery genre. And I just loved that experience. So I'm very positive in the future I could end up giving Sherlock a five star. I'm just gonna say that now. I think me and Sherlock could have a five star in us. I was kind of taken aback when I was reading it by how easy- easily understandable it was. Like, I found, like, it was very accessible. I was listening to the audiobook that Stephen Fry narrates. He has, like, a whole collection. He's, like, narrated every Sherlock book ever on Audible. And I felt like that could help, because he's a very- he's a very, very good audiobook narrator. Like, I can listen to anything that he narrates. I think he's incredible. But I was shocked by just how- yeah, accessible and, like, normal language it was. And I just loved Sherlock. So I was surprised. I mean, I knew I was gonna enjoy it, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Especially the first half of the book. And then my other surprise, I said in my vlog, this is a very, very, very, very, very, very tentative four star, okay? Because not everyone has loved this, and I can see the problems with it. But I just had a fun time reading it. And that is The Chateau by Jacqueline Goldis. This is a new thriller that came out this year, where we're following these group of girlfriends who- they're invited to one of their grandmother's chateau in France. She's, like, uber rich. And the grandmother gets brutally murdered. And you're like, what's going on? I've heard very mixed things about this. I just thought it was kind of fun. I thought it was kind of, like, camp and a little bit silly, and a little bit, like, you know, a little bit over the top. I really enjoyed this. I loved the French setting. It gave it a, like, you know, I said it gave it, like, a sophisticated drama. Like, oh la la. Merci beaucoup. I don't know. I thought the twists were introduced really well. At the beginning, we had so many little hints of, like, something that's happening with this character. Like, this character has a suitcase that's empty. Why do they have that? This character is like, oh, I'm really mad at this one. I'm gonna really make them pay, but we don't know why. And those twists for me were just revealed and executed really, really well. I don't think it's the best thriller ever. I think it is a little bit forgettable. But I had a fun time when reading it. And I was surprised by how much of a fun time I had when reading it. And then my only hit of the month, because like I said, I would say all the four stars were, like, four stars. They weren't, if there was one four star that kind of stood out, I would mention it. But, um, we only had four stars and then we had one five star. And that was Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Gina Dawson. I loved it! It's rich as... Oh gosh, this is the kind of book that once you've read it to the end, it's like, god, how do I give the synopsis? So there's a secret coven of witches within, there's like a coven within the government that, like, operate a secret. There's magic. And we're following this, particularly this group of friends, who were friends in childhood, but now are kind of like, some of them are in the governmental coven, some of them are, like, living as witches in the countryside. And so we're following them in their different lives. And that's all I'm going to say. But I loved this. I loved the writing of it. It was funny. It reminded me kind of of the humour in the Thursday Murder Club, where it's very, like, Brit humour and, like, British references. Like, we're talking about the Spice Girls. I love us talking about the Spice Girls. And I just loved the journey that this book went on. And it deals with some topics that I don't want to spoil for you going in, but I thought it dealt with them with such care and such attention. And, like, I hope that people who need to read this book and don't know about the topics it's going to cover, go into it kind of without knowing and end up reading it, because I think it could really reach people who need to read it. But I also just thought the witchiness... If you're going to give me witches, give me witches. I always say I thought the witchiness was done so well. And I just loved it. I had such a great time reading it. And I'm very excited because I said I... It's a five star, but I said the one thing that I would want more from this is more how the witchy side of the government relates to the, like, mortal side of the government. Because I love politics, and I thought that would be something that would be really interesting to examine. And everyone's told me that the sequel does that. So I'm really excited for the sequel. I cannot recommend this enough. It was such a standout for me, and it did not disappoint. I thought this was, like, another five star prediction, and it really delivered. It's a very, very special book. I love the characters in it. I love the relationships examined in it. It was... it was great. So there we have it. That was my September wrap-up. Let me know what you thought of any of the books I mentioned. Like I said, I'll leave all the reading vlogs for this month linked down below if you wanted to check them out. But thank you guys so much for watching, and I'll see you soon in another video. Bye!