At the beginning of October, I made a pledge to myself.
I promised myself that I would focus on being more productive with my time instead of doom scrolling on Tiktok all day. The days were passing me by, and I was tired of feeling like I hadn’t achieved anything. This led me to set a small goal for myself with the help of my Ultimate Life Planner.
I used the Goal Planner Section, Habit Tracker section and the daily, weekly, and month planners to keep track of my goals and habits every day in October. It was super helpful to keep myself focused on these goals.
Check out my Ultimate Life Planner if you think it will be helpful for you!
Since I’ve been enjoying reading so much, I set the goal of reading 5 books during the month of October. Now that we are at the end, I can proudly say that I exceeded that goal!
So, how many books did I end up reading?
In total… 9 books! Well, I completed 8 books and unfortunately DNF’d 1. (even though I read 300 pages of it)
I kept track of all my reading goals and accomplishments with my Ultimate Reading Journal. It’s an amazing resource that is instantly downloadable and reusable as many times as you need.
Write thoughts, review books, create a reading challenge and so much more with this reading journal. I love it and I hope you will to.
Overall, I’m satisfied with what I was able to accomplish this month, and I wanted to end October with a quick and dirty monthly reading recap. I don’t always review every book I read so this will be a great way to showcase what I’ve been reading.
This month’s recap will cover:
- What books I read
- What is the 1 book I read 300 pages of but didn’t finish
- Ratings and a short description
- Would I recommend the book
Sound good? Alright, let’s get to it!
If you’re tempted to check out any of the mentioned books you can find links to Amazon by clicking on the book covers.
*note: Affiliate links may be used in this blog post. I may receive a small amount through purchases made through my affiliate links. Check out full disclosure for more details*
1. Murder Your Employer by Richard Holmes
- Genre: Mystery/Crime Fiction
- ~400 pages
- Rating:… 2.5/5
- Great concept but too wordy
- Wouldn’t recommend but you may like it more than I did.
Check out my full review of this book!
2. I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Sehee
- Genre: Memoir/Self-help book
- ~208 pages
- Rating: 5/5
- Powerful and insightful; I immediately bought a copy
- Recommend
Check out my full review of this book!
3. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
- Genre: Dystopian Thriller
- 320 pages
- Rating: 5/5
- An ominous foreshadowing of modern society spoken from the past
- Recommend
Check out my full review of this book!
4. The Secret History of Twin Peaks by Mark Frost
- Genre: Mystery/Horror Drama
- 368 pages
- Rating: 5/5
- If you’re a Twin Peaks fan, read it. If you aren’t a Twin Peaks fan, watch it and then read this!
- Recommend
Check out my full review of this book!
5. Unmask Alice by Rick Emerson
- Genre: Nonfiction/True Crime?
- 384 pages
- Rating: 4/5
- LSD, Satanic Panic, and Lies, Oh My!
- This was my 1 DNF… I liked it but I think something more interesting came up at the time and I jumped on it. Do with that what you will.
6. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
- Genre: Gothic Fiction
- 252 pages
- Rating 4/5
- Written very romantically, very Gothic indeed. Dorian sucks though
- Recommend
7. Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See
- Genre: Historical Fiction
- 368 pages
- Rating 5/5
- Completely inspiring and elegantly written. Made me cry and I loved every bit of it.
- Recommend
8. Sin Eater by Megan Campisi
- Genre: Historical/Dystopian Fiction
- 304 pages
- Rating 4/5
- Super interesting content but the writing fell a bit short for me. (Seriously though, how can you follow up Lisa See?)
- Recommend
9. Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge
- Genre: Horror/Fantasy Fiction
- 176 pages
- Rating 4.5/5
- Gave very much horror film, in a book. Would absolutely love a sequel.
- Recommend
Final Counts
In total, that would make 9 books and somewhere around 2780 pages! (According to Google) That’s pretty neat if you ask me.
My favorite part of this whole challenge has to be that I’ve cut way down on my non-productive screen time.
Now, if I’m picking up my phone I am more than likely reading a couple pages of a new book. Tiktok has not seen me at all this month and I’m not mad about it!
I plan on keeping up this theme of productivity well into November, the rest of this year, and hopefully beyond.
Build Better Habits for a Better You
If you have been caught in a similar slump, I see you! Especially being a parent, it can be easy to slip into non-productive habits as a way to relax from the demanding job of being a parent.
Resources like the Ultimate Life Planner and Ultimate Reading Journal help so much in keeping track of good habits and goals from month to month. I made them with helping working parents in mind and the results have been great for me, so check them out if you’re interested.
I know it can be so tempting to screw around on social media instead of working on your goals, but don’t give up! Keep on nurturing those good habits until they become second nature.
Your future self will thank you for it.
Be on the lookout for more productivity blogs with tips, tricks, and hacks that you can use to cut down on screen time and hit more goals!
If any of these books sounded interesting to you, check out my reviews or get a copy for yourself on Amazon through the links.
*Another Tip: If you’re looking for the kindle version of a book, you will need to open the link in a web browser, not the Amazon app*
Question Time!
If you’re following me, you’re probably a reading mom too and I want to know what you’re reading! Send recommendations please <3
Have you read any of the books I listed?
What did you think about them?
Do you agree or disagree with any of my takes? Let me know.
Until next time!
