The 2026 Mid-Year Check-In Tag

June 26, 2026 Dini @ dinipandareads20 Comments

When Caro tagged me in her mid-year post the other day, I at first couldn’t believe that it’s already time for the Mid-Year Check-In! The last few months have been ✨ stressful ✨ over here, and I’m still going through the trenches until the end of the month—which is only a few days away, so I’m hanging in there. But I digress. Despite kind of prioritizing gaming as my favourite form of unwinding in recent months, I am still reading, albeit very slowly. So I’ll be curious to see what answers I can come up with for this year’s check-in! We’re halfway through 2026, folks and what a time it’s been… 😶‍🌫️

Check out my previous check-ins:
2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025

The 2025 Mid-Year Check-In Tag

July 17, 2025July 13, 2025 Dini @ dinipandareads20 Comments

Happy Thursday, friends! It’s time to share one of my favourite annual tags: The Mid-Year Check-In! I’ve been doing this tag since I started this blog six years ago, and it’s a great way to reflect on half the year that’s already passed. I still can’t believe that we’ve already crossed into the final half of 2025 when it feels like this year has just begun. But maybe the rest of this year can speed by even faster now cos it’s been a bit of a hot mess train wreck, and I think it’s safe to say that we’re all ready for a different vibe next year. But I digress… Let’s get to this tag and see what I’ve read in 2025!

Check out my previous check-ins: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019

Note: I’ll do my best to not repeat too many books but I’ll tell you now, there are a couple that are repeated often. 🤭 I also wanted to stick to books that came out in 2025 but that would’ve been even more limiting as I don’t think I’ve read many new releases… So, this is what it is!

The 2024 Mid-Year Check-In Tag

June 24, 2024July 6, 2025 Dini @ dinipandareads37 Comments

Somehow we have already made it to the mid-year mark of 2024. Where have the months gone? I feel like I say it ever year now but the past six months have felt too long and somehow not long enough. How quickly are the next six months going to pass before it’s time again to usher in a new year? But I digress…

Making it to June means it’s time to bring out one of my favourite annual tags: The Mid-Year Check-In!

#FirstLinesFriday: 28 July 2023

July 28, 2023 Dini @ dinipandareads12 Comments

Happy Friday book lovers! We’re back with another First Lines Friday, a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines? Here are the rules:

Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
Finally… reveal the book!

First lines:

“I’m sitting in the principal’s office. Again. In the hallway, on the other side of the glass door, Principal Merritt is getting an earful from Emily Grant’s mom. With all those wild hand gestures, you’d think I did a lot more than give her stuck-up Little Miss Princess daughter a tiny shove. Emily got up in my face, not the other way around. Wasn’t my fault she lost her balance and fell on her butt in front of everybody.”

The 2023 Mid-Year Check-In Tag

July 24, 2023 Dini @ dinipandareads36 Comments

Hello, friends! It’s a little past the mid-year mark but I thought why not jump aboard the mid-year check-in train anyway? I’ve been seeing lots of these posts recently and well, compared to previous years, mine is probably not going to be very exciting but I still love this tag so here I am doing it anyway! 😂

As I’ve mentioned a time or three since I started blogging again last week, I’m still trying to find my reading groove after so much disruption this year, especially this past month. Hopefully, coming back to the community and surrounding myself with fellow book lovers will motivate me again. Plus, I’ve missed you all a lot! 💜 On that note, let’s get to The Mid-Year Check-In!

BBNYA Tour Spotlight: The Goddess of Nothing at All by Cat Rector

May 25, 2023 Dini @ dinipandareads6 Comments

Happy Thursday, friends! I’m super excited to be shining a spotlight on one of my favourite fantasy/mythology reads: The Goddess of Nothing at All by Cat Rector. I first discovered this book when I signed up to read it for a tour in 2021 and was immediately wrecked by the story—the characters, the emotion, the angst—it all got me so good in the feels and I remember sobbing by the end of it. I was so excited and happy to see it get more recognition when it placed second in the 2022 BBNYA!

About BBNYA

BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists and one overall winner. If you are an author and wish to learn more about the BBNYA competition, you can visit the official website or Twitter. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (if you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.

#TopTenTuesday: 10 Elements That Make Me Want to Read A Book!

May 23, 2023 Dini @ dinipandareads45 Comments

We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week’s topic is Things That Make Me Instantly Want to Read a Book (these can be auto-buy authors, tropes you love, if an author you love blurbed it, settings, genres, etc.)

#TopTenTuesday: Books I Recommend to Others the Most

May 9, 2023 Dini @ dinipandareads58 Comments

We’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week’s topic is Books I Recommend to Others the Most.

#TopTenTuesday: Unlikeable Characters I Rooted For

November 1, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads42 Comments

So, we’re back with another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week’s topic is Unlikable Characters You Can’t Help but Love (these are villains, criminals, jerks, etc. that make you fall in love with them anyway, perhaps because they evolve by the end or they’re secretly wonderful and have been all along.)

20 Questions Book Tag!

October 15, 2022October 16, 2022 Dini @ dinipandareads27 Comments

Hi, hello, friends! I’m back with another tag today and it’s the 20 Questions Book Tag that the wonderful Kerri @ KerriMcBookNerd tagged me in back in June _(oop!). If you haven’t already, go check out Kerri’s blog! She writes wonderful posts and is such a supportive friend in the community. 💜 Thanks for the tag, lovely!

I tried to find the OG creator of this tag but kept running into dead ends, so if you do know who it is, please let me know and I’ll link to them. On that note, let’s get to the tag!