Several years ago, I joined Goodreads, a website where you can keep track of books you’ve read, ones you want to read, check out others’ reviews on books and my favorite, giveaways. When you enter a giveaway, you have to put it on your to-read list (that’s why I have 800+ books on my list, shows I have entered a lot of these giveaways).

I got an email announcing the 11th annual Goodreads Choice Awards opening round. I was like, what, it’s already that time of the year? Where did my 2019 go? I’m happy to say that this year has been a good one for me book-wise as I’ve completed a good number of novels. But there are others out there with their lofty reading goals, like 300 or more for the entire year. While that isn’t quite a book a day, it just seems too ambitious. I don’t have the time or energy to get into the triple digits, and I unfortunately didn’t keep track of the number of books I have read so far this year. There have been a few good ones, like “This Tender Land” by William Kent Krueger and “The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal. And there has been a few I’ve had to abandon because of my multi-reading habit, like “Summer of ’69” by Elin Hilderbrand and a few books my book club have read this year.

So I browsed through the categories of book genres I regularly read (fiction, historical fiction, romance, memoir/biography) to see if I actually read any of the finalists. I was surprised that the most books I read were finalists in the romance category and the historical fiction category. Now I love me a good romance, I have a few authors I read faithfully, but wow! But then again, I’m happy I read a few this year. The opening round nominees for romance are: “The Girl He Used to Know” by Tracy Garvis Graves (I won this through one of the Goodreads giveaways, I’ve yet to read it though), “Ayesha at Last” by Uzma Jalaluddin, “Verity” by Colleen Hoover, “The Friend Zone” by Abby Jimenez (read), “The Unhoneymooners” by Christina Lauren (read), “The Wedding Party” by Jasmine Guillory, “Red, White and Royal Blue” by Casey McQuiston, “The Flatshare” by Beth O’Leary,” “The Kiss Thief” by L.J. Shen, “Pretty Reckless” by L.J. Shen (again?), “Well Met” by Jen DeLuca (I bought this book and really want to read it, especially since it takes place at a Renaissance festival), “The Bride Test” by Helen Hoang (read), “Meet Cute” by Helena Hunting and “The Savior” by J.R. Ward.

Turning to the historical fiction category, I completed Lisa See’s “The Island of Sea Women” “Daisy Jones and The Six” by Taylor Jenkins Reid and “Mrs. Everything” by Jennifer Weiner. “Summer of ’69” (which I mentioned earlier) and “The Huntress” by Kate Quinn are also on the list. I started “The Huntress” earlier this year as I really liked “The Alice Network” by Quinn, but I didn’t get the chance to finish it before it had to go back. I’ll have to circle back to it somewhere down the line.

In the fiction category, there’s a good mix, like Margaret Atwood’s “The Testaments” to Elizabeth Strout’s “Olive Again.” But in this category, the only finalist I’ve really read (and I’m not finished with it yet) is Kelly Harms’ “The Overdue Life of Amy Byler.” It’s a book I checked out through my Kindle Unlimited subscription back in July, but there’s been so many books that have enticed me these past few months, that I’ve put it on the backburner.

That’s just a taste of the different categories and books that are nominees. Other categories include food and cookbooks, history and biography, horror, science fiction, graphic novels and comics, poetry, mystery/thriller and picture books. The semifinal round starts Monday, so it will be interesting to see who makes the cut. Winners are announced Dec. 10. It’s kind of like the Academy Awards for books, minus the statuette.