One thing I really wanted to do over maternity leave (apart from hanging out with my new baby, of course!) was to get A LOT of reading done. I ended up reading 26 books in 12 weeks, which I was really happy with. I'm always super interested in seeing what people are reading and what patterns emerge over time, so I thought I'd break down my 2017 reading so far:
Out of the total 26 books, I read:
12 adult novels (6 of which I would categorize as mystery/suspense)
9 memoirs (5 of which were written by celebrities)
4 prescriptive nonfiction books (2 self-help, 1 parenting, 1 writing reference)
1 YA novel
I wouldn't say that this breakdown is necessarily representative of my typical reading habits. The relative amounts of adult fiction and prescriptive nonfiction are probably about right, but the number of memoirs seems high. Because I was on maternity leave, I definitely was picking up books to read purely for fun, and the celebrity memoirs I read are likely not ones that I would choose in my "regular" life, just because I often feel the need to read within categories I edit, and I (unfortunately!) generally don't work on celebrity-driven memoirs. I also generally read more YA, but I was actively working on a YA writing project during my leave and I do try to limit reading extensively within the genre I'm writing to avoid being influenced by other authors' writing styles.
Now that I'm heading back to work and will be jumping back into the submissions pile, we'll see what kind of pace I can keep up with a full-time editing job, a baby, a writing project, and half-marathon training (!). Oh, and I guess I have to sleep, too... good thing I'm already 11 books ahead of my Goodreads goal for the year! :)
What are you reading lately? I'd love to hear!