You’re 100000% right to start now- I started my preparation in July last year for my thesis. Yes, it took a lot of time and made my last semester of uni more difficult, but it made this year, which was stressful enough reading-wise, that much easier. I know others didn’t start reading until around January, or even later, who really regretted it. It also came in handy for me, because when I got to January, I realised that was I was doing wasn’t going to work, so I had enough time to change tack, do a 180 and read in the other direction without as much stress… and at least I realised in January, not later, or it would have been awful. The stuff I’d already done did come in handy though, I knew a lot of the background stuff!
theliterarysisters 
You’re 100000% right to start now- I started my preparation in July last year for my thesis. Yes, it took a lot of time and made my last semester of uni more difficult, but it made this year, which was stressful enough reading-wise, that much easier. I know others didn’t start reading until around January, or even later, who really regretted it. It also came in handy for me, because when I got to January, I realised that was I was doing wasn’t going to work, so I had enough time to change tack, do a 180 and read in the other direction without as much stress… and at least I realised in January, not later, or it would have been awful. The stuff I’d already done did come in handy though, I knew a lot of the background stuff!
Ah, I know; I did the same with my BA and it worked wonderfully for me. 🙂