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November/December/Year End Recap 2016

2016-11-19-geoffsgivingWhat a Year.

I don’t even have that much to add really, it’s just been a long year. I’m going to stay away from politics, celebrity deaths and break-ups, and just down topics in general. (I won’t even complain about work!) This is a book blog after all right?

I’m sort of viewing these last few months as the last 30-45 minutes of a huge holiday meal. You’re so full you’re uncomfortable, your friends and family are starting to get on your nerves, and all you want to do is take your pants off and lounge around doing nothing for the foreseeable future right? I know I do, so I won’t keep you long.

2016 was a rough year for books and blogging. I completely bailed on Come Read with Me even though I have an episode already recorded (Sorry Nick!). I dedicated ZERO time to Bibliophilanthropy and frankly I’m impressed I’ve managed to get any blogging done at all. Add in the commercialization of the community and I’ve pretty much stepped back from any interactions (sorry for no commenting etc.).

Random photo of the fog at the Eastern Continental Divide. It embodies my mood these last few months.
Random photo of the fog at the Eastern Continental Divide in NC. It embodies my mood these last few months.

Many of the bloggers I used to read and interacted with have all but disappeared. They’ve gone on to real world things or have changed their blogs to another focus. (Congrats to everyone, I mean so many big things this year from new jobs to babies and marriage!) And then others have turned their blogs into commercial entities or soap boxes to berate others reading preferences or the industry. Again, nothing wrong with this, it’s just not the way it was. And we all know I’m not good at change.

I really have to remind myself why I started this blog. I started this blog as a means to capture my thoughts after I read a book to look back on (however embarrassing they may be). Maybe I need to return to that this year even more so. Focus on what I’m reading and enjoying and that’s it. This is My Literary Journey after all.

2016-12-03-christmas-tree
I surprisingly didn’t get a lot of bookish things for Christmas, but I didn’t ask for any, so not too surprising actually.

Books and Bookish Things
I’ve been very lax on blogging, but what’s worse is that it’s actually been on reading. Not only have I not blogged, but I just haven’t read. In all of November and December I only read five books. FIVE. And I was NOT a fan of three of them, so yeah, it’s been a rough couple of reading months. 

  1. The Four Agreements (Toltec Wisdom Collection #1) – Miguel Ruiz
  2. The Mastery of Love (Toltec Wisdom Collection #2)- Miguel Ruiz
  3. The Voice of Knowledge (Toltec Wisdom Collection #3) – Miguel Ruiz
  4. Finding the Blue Sky – Joseph Emet
  5. The Power of Kindness – Piero Ferrucci

What’s interesting though is looking back on the year. I’ll talk about that in the 2016 recap next. There were some interesting things to see.

2016 In Review

My family recycled a birthday cake from an uncle (4 days before me) for my birthday. It made me laugh AND I appreciated the thriftiness of it.
My family recycled a birthday cake from an uncle (4 days before me) for my birthday. It made me laugh AND I appreciated the thriftiness of it.

By far the most interesting fact is that in 2016 I received 123 requests to review books. Now I didn’t track these previous years (I started in late 2015), but I know this is a RIDICULOUS number of requests. Part of this is because I appeared on a few book lists and a few publishers started to reach out to me regularly, but either way that’s almost TWICE the number of books I actually read this year. Overwhelmingly, they were self-published works, but there were quite a few from reputable publishers.

One author even asked me to review his book twice! (Side note: Keep a list of who you ask. It took a lot of maturity not to respond with something snippy.) Another author argued with me for choosing not to read their book because I told them that their writing in English, based on the excerpt sent, needed a lot of work before they should be approaching English-speaking audiences.

The Oddness of Moving Things also turned six this year and I made the announcement that my blog definitely has a lifespan. Whether that is 10 years or 1,000 books I still haven’t decided, but either way. It’s good to have made that sort of decision.

Quick Facts

  • Total Books Read: 63
    • Library Books: 9 (14%)
    • Galleys/ARCs: 20 (32%)
    • Kindle/Digital: 25 (40%)
    • Physical Books: 38 (60%)
    • TBR Books: 24 (38%)
    • Fiction: 41 (65%)
    • Nonfiction: 22 (35%)
    • Translated: 3 (5%)
  • Total Pages Read: 20, 524
    • Shortest Book Read: Imaginary Friends by Terry brooks (30 pages)
    • Longest Book Read: Ulysses by James Joyce (810 pages)
  • Authors:
    • New to me: 30 (79%)
    • Most Read: Madeleine L’Engle (8); Micahel Scott (6); Terry Brooks (4); Jasper Fforde, Lev Grossman, Deborah Harkness, Miguel Ruiz (3)
    • Author Gender Split:
      • Male: 52%
      • Female: 44%
      • Multiple: 3%

Wrapping Up
I’ve spent the last few days of 2016 feeling under-the-weather. I’m sure it’s from traveling and from having eaten so poorly the last week and a half while visiting family. It did give me a great excuse to re-watch (BINGE) The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

Maybe I didn’t have enough Austen in my life this year. I should probably remedy that 😀

I also started to watch The Librarians (Wikipedia) which I’m enjoying more than I thought I would. It’s sort of an American Doctor Who mixed with Indiana Jones, or at least that’s how I think about it.

And because there was nowhere else to put these two photos, I hope your 2017 is full of wonderful food and travel! (And all the other things like family and friends, and what not :-D)

11 thoughts on “November/December/Year End Recap 2016”

  1. Happy New Year and thanks for making the effort to post this, I had a pretty pitiful end of the reading year too, but dying to get back to a more regular reading rhythm. And sticking to the origins of blogging, watching the waves of others rise and pass. 🙂 Happy Reading!

    1. Happy New Year Claire! I’m hoping to get time again to start reading everyone else’s blogs again soon. I know yours still haunts my Feed 😀

  2. The reason I started blogging again (albeit sporatically) was because I finally felt the desire to talk about something I had read again. That really is what it’s all about, at least for me. I’ve stepped back from the community aspect of it, both good and bad, and that feels right for me, too. I hope you’ll keep sharing your thoughts about books and life because I enjoy reading them.

  3. I feel like everyone started to drag at the end of last year. Hopefully this new start will help set things right.

    The nice thing about book blogs is that there are literally thousands out there, so while it sucks that some have come to a close, there’s still a lot to discover.

    Good food and travel sounds like a great goal for the year.

  4. Sorry to hear you are in the doldrums re the way the blogosphere is going. I hope you dont give up commenting and sharing your thoughts….
    PS love the image of you taking off your pants after dinner; bet that would have been a shock to some of the guest – its even more hilarious when using the British meaning of the word pants…..

    1. Haahaa yeah it would be hilarious. To be fair two friends did put scrubs on at the table (over their clothes) so probably wouldn’t be too shocking. And I’ll be back to commenting soon!

    1. It’s very hokey. If you’re okay with that you might enjoy it. If you like Doctor Who or strange humor you also might like it.

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