State of the ARC: March 2019

Published on by Isabelle @ Nine Tale Vixen

This meme was created by Evelina @ Avalinah’s Books! 

Look, at this point I’ve just accepted that I won’t be completely satisfied until I have no ARCs left to read, and realistically that won’t happen anytime soon. That said, between spring break and the two 6-hour flights that bookended it (pun intended 😜) I managed to get through a grand total of 19 ARCs from my TBR pile, bringing the total down to 18 ARCs from the 29 it’s hovered at since January.

The end is in sight! (Okay, not quite yet. But hey, it’s progress.)

And despite what I said earlier about needing to finish literally all the ARCs, I do think it’s been a pretty good reading month:

  • I managed to finish off March ARCs before they became overdue;
  • I’ve gotten a slight headstart on April releases;
  • and as a bonus I’ve completely polished off my #ReviewPit stack!

Oh, and I finally earned that “25 Reviews” Netgalley badge, which you can peek at in my blog sidebar! (Still working on that 80% feedback ratio; I’m sitting at 66% right now.)

I know … We were on a break ARC ban! But in my defense, most of these requests and giveaways were already pending before I announced my ban — plus, since this is only half as many ARCs as I picked up last month and I got through more ARCs than I did last month, the TBR pile is finally starting to substantially decrease! 

Though, in the interest of honesty (since the point of this meme is accountability and all) I have to admit that I don’t know how long it’ll last. I only read one non-ARC book this month, and finals are starting to loom … but if I stay on my “ban” and keep review requests closed, I should be able to maintain some momentum. Or so I tell myself.

As always, you can click the titles below to see the Goodreads page and the rating or (x) to see my review.

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New review copies (8):

Read This Month (12):

DNF’d This Month (7):

* These books were casualties of my ongoing war with Adobe Digital Editions — meaning that I lost access before I could review them. Iron, Fire and Ice almost was as well, but the publisher was kind enough to send me another e-arc.

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Currently Reading (0)

I’m so close to filling out my ARC bingo for the first half of 2019! Although I do have some more nonfiction ARCs that are technically “no-romance,” next month is the A-spec readathon (focusing on asexual/aromantic characters) so it seems fitting to save it for then … even if I have to temporarily lift my ban to secure a match. 😉

How’s your state of the ARC looking? Have you read any good ones that I should look out for (after I catch up more on the ones I already have) or that I should get to soon if I already have them?

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26 thoughts on “State of the ARC: March 2019”

  2. YOU READ SO MANY ARCS ISABELLE IM SO PROUD OF YOU! And don’t come at me with excuses, I saw you getting accepted for an ARC while you should still be on ban glares at you. But, I’m still proud of you. I’m also glad we read DotC together since it kind of forced me to keep reading. It seems that reading is the first thing that goes in my free time when I’m busy and that sucks 😦 Sucks that you had so many DNFs though! (for me it’s good since none of them are books I know or heard of, apart from the Lizzie Borden one but I think that might have been you :’) ) I’m excited to read what ARCs you’ll be reading next. You always seem to get the best ARCs (except for the ones that you DNF), and I love reading what you thought of them!

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. awww thank you Michelle! 💕 DotC was such a fun buddy read, and it definitely sucks that reading sometimes has to get de-prioritized when life … happens 😕

      honestly, I think at this point it’s a numbers game – I request/read enough ARCs that a decent number of them end up being good just because probability, lol 😉

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  3. Oooh look at you go!! I have almost finished my 10, but, I admit I ended up taking my time to read a couple of library books which in my defense I had before I realized just how many ARCs I had! Also, your list is basically halfway done, I mean HOW IMPRESSIVE IS THAT?!! I’m also glad like Michelle that we got to buddy read DotC and I really value hearing what you have to say about your ARCs……and can we just all agree that ADE is basically evil incarnate? I still have about two more eARCs I want to finish for this month, but we’ll see how that goes. And don’t forget to put your mental/emotional/physical health first with such a busy time in school coming up!

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  4. That is quite the achievement… 19 is a ton. Well done! I don’t know how you guys do the graphs and charts lol. I just go at them by publishing dates. That makes my brain spin enough. I love the bingo idea though. Great job! ARC bans are like cookies. The second you put yourself on a diet… you find something you are dying for…lol.

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  6. Woah! You got a lot of reading done this March. I don’t think I’ll be posting my March State of the ARC just because I haven’t finished reading any ARCs, and I didn’t receive any ARCs this month either. Lol.
    There are SO many books in this post that I want to check up on when I have more free time 👀

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. so I don’t necessarily schedule my reading, but for ARCs I do make a list of my reading order by release date (most imminent first) in my blogging spreadsheet (I use Kal’s template), and if I have a few weeks until the next one I might slip in a backlist review copy or general backlist TBR; for backlist in general I’ll often prioritize the ones that fulfill reading challenge or book club prompts, or that friends are interested in buddy reading! and I’m not a huge mood reader so I have a relatively easy time sticking to the plan, but I also like to alternate between ARCs and backlist so this month’s reading was almost entirely review copies.

      hope this helps a bit, and best of luck getting through your TBR pile 💕

      Liked by 1 person

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      1. It does help! I haven’t gotten around to using Kal’s spreadsheet yet. You’re lucky you’re not a mood reader 😔 ! Btw, what exactly are backlist books? Can they be ARCs, too?

        Liked by 1 person

      2. by definition backlist books and ARCs are kind of opposites! backlist means they were released before the current year (so in 2019, that’s 2018 and earlier) whereas ARC = Advance (aka Early) Reader Copy, so pre-release, though I’ve seen some people use “ARC” to describe all review copies regardless of publication status … and you can also get (non-advance) review copies of backlist books or have old ARCs of books that have since been published, if that makes sense?

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Hahaha, I get it 😊 Basically, backlist are ones that have already been published vs. ARCs which aren’t(lolll, I call them ARCs even if the publishing date has passed since the copy is technically an ARC version 😜).

        Thanks for explaining it for me!

        Liked by 1 person

      4. welllllll there’s also frontlist which I believe is books that have been published in the current year (but don’t quote me on that) 😉 but yup I also call most review copies “ARCs” unless they’re actually finished copies!

        you’re very welcome, glad my explanation made sense haha.

        Liked by 1 person

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