All The Right Reads

Hi, friends. 

Tabatha, one of our founders and our most prolific review poster, regularly updates her reading stats over on her personal blog. Or, at least, she has in previous years. This year we thought it might be fun to move her content HERE so you can all see her reading stats. 

What do you need to know?

1. She reads A LOT. She typically takes on 2-3 reviews or ARCS for us each month but that’s only a fraction of what she reads. 
2. She reads EVERYTHING. Seriously. There are genres she’ll flock to more easily when left to her own devices (thrillers) but she’ll read anything! 
3. She reviews everything she reads. You may have noticed that. 
4. She doesn’t think reading is a competition, she just likes statistics and likes looking at what she’s read. This isn’t intended to make you feel bad, it’s just for your information!
5. If you see something you’re curious about, ASK. Someone will dig into the stats and see if we can find you an answer. 

So, with that all out of the way, let’s dig into May. 

Here are the books Tab read during the month of May.

• 11 total books
• 4,262 total pages
• 36% independently published

She knows this is what she read because she tracks each one in a little journal. We’ll throw those pages at the end of this post, just for fun!

What genres are those?

We’ve been talking about how Tab will read every genre all year but you all doubted that because, while she dabbles in a lot of genres the bar for mystery/thriller has been in the top every month. Well, not true in May. Horror took that top spot. 

What age categories?

Mostly adult, again. This is getting really lopsided. Of course, Tab is an adult reader … so it does make sense.

Where does she get all her books?

For the fourth month in a row, they came from the library. Tab spent 2026 doing the TBR clearing challenge and, therefore, didn’t really visit the library. She’s making up for it now!

The review copies all came directly from the authors again this month. The ARC came from the publisher and Netgalley. One purchase was made online directly from the author’s website. That one shipped from the UK and arrived EARLY so it was actually also reviewed as an ARC. The other purchase was directly from the author as an ebook on itch.io.

What format does she read?

Everything. This is actually the category Tab thinks will change the most over the months. This month ebook and audiobook tied for the top spot with hardcover and paperback coming in behind. 

STAR RATINGS:

• 1 1-star books. That makes sense because this is RARE for us. At alltherightreads we say a book has to be one we cannot recommend to get this rating. 
• 2 2-star books. These are books that were problematic, for some reason. The full reviews would lay out why. We usually say something about these had to rub us the wrong way. 
• 7 3-star books. This is probably our most common rating. For us, these books are GOOD but they’re NICHE for some reason. Before we could recommend them to you, we’d have to find out if you’re in that niche. Sometimes it’s because of content warnings, sometimes it’s because they’re just for a really specific reader. If you happen to be in this niche, however, these could be your absolute favorite books!
• 0 4-star books. These are books that we’d recommend just based on the fact that you say you read this genre. They’re just GREAT examples of their genre. For Tab this month those were:
• 1 5-star book. These books are ones that CROSS GENRES. We’d recommend them to almost any reader but definitely to readers of at least 2 genres. Crossing genres can be difficult for any author because you have to do both well. For Tab in March that one was:
  • Dark Days by Josie Jaffrey is a paranormal story featuring vampire detectives. It is, however, the 5th book in the series. If you’re interested in vampires, true enemies to lovers, danger, and intrigue … start with May Day and enjoy!

As promised, here are her crazy journal pages. 

TLDR: Tab read 11 books for a total of 4,262 pages in May.

So, that’s Tab’s May Reads wrap! What kind of stuff would you like to see next month? Let us know in the comments.