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January Recap 2020

Geoff W

legs in shorts with water and sun in the distanceJanuary has been a weird month. It’s been over 70°F and close to 0°F a couple of times, I’ve been sick, we went to a travel fair, and I’ve knit a lot. I’m still trying to figure out where it went, but mostly looking forward to being on a cruise ship heading to the Caribbean in less than two weeks 😀

I’m trying to read a few shorter works so that I can have some posts published while we’re on vacation without internet access for a week, and more importantly I’m trying to figure out what books I’m going to take with me!

Books and Bookish Things
I started sharing my posts on a dedicated Instagram story. We’ll see how long that lasts, as I’m sure I’ll get bored with it by the end of February/March.

I did NOT make a dent on my TBR list—shocker. I did cut my galleys I carried into 2020 (4) down by half, but I also accepted/requested quite a few more counteracting that hard work! I read ten books in January (two were galleys[*] and six were library books) and made a good dent on book number eight. Most were shorter/easier to read so I could get ahead on posting for vacation. These are definitely inflated numbers as four were romance/RomCom novels and four were comics/graphic novels.

  1. The Cost-Benefit Revolution – Cass R. Sunstein*
  2. Status Update (#gaymers #1) – Annabeth Albert
  3. Beta Test (#gaymers #2) – Annabeth Albert
  4. Firewall – Eugenia Lovett West*
  5. Charlotte Brontë before Jane Eyre – Glynnis Fawkes
  6. Are You Listening? – Tillie Walden
  7. A Weekend with Mr. Darcy (Austen Addicts #1) – Victoria Connelly
  8. Dreaming of Mr. Darcy (Austen Addicts #2) – Victoria Connelly
  9. Go for it, Nakamura! – Syundei
  10. Fence Vol. 3 (Fence #3) – C.S. Pacat, Johanna the Mad, and Joana Lafuente

I picked up six books this month, four galleys(*) and two purchases, one for which I’ve been waiting to be released in the US almost TWO YEARS. Honestly, I don’t even know if I am Heathcliff has been released in the US yet, but it was finally available on Amazon for a not-too-extortionate price so I bought it. The shocking thing about the galley is two are unsolicited and self-published (Am I Ugly? and Camp Cutlery); the other two I requested via NetGalley.

In the broader bookish world I found these things to be interesting, particularly the last one, go libraries!

I found Roy’s article to be a fascinating quick look at libraries in sites of civil unrest. Not only does she talk about the current library in India where students continue to protest the anti-Muslim citizenship laws, but she mentions the Occupy Wall Street Library and others that may or may not have had them. She talks about the egalitarian use of libraries and how even in places/movements with no set structure/leadership, people will classify and codify works that support and refute their beliefs if only out of an effort to create dialogue. (If you can’t access the article shoot me an email and we’ll sort something out.)

On this list, I’ve actually read seven of the ten and have one on my bookshelf still to read. It’s interesting that there are five are kids books, one is young adult, and two of the adult books are dystopian futures. I wonder what this really says about who is using libraries and for what.

Culture Corner
I feel like this should be called Knitters Nook or Crafters Corner this month. We didn’t do a whole lot of cultural things this month because we were both sick over the MLK weekend. We did go to the Boston Travel Show and got a whole new set of ideas of where to go in the future so that’s something.

After splurging on quite a bit of yarn at the A.C. Moore going out of business sales (above, left) on January first, I spent 6 hours the following weekend winding cakes of all the yarn I got and quite a bit I hadn’t finished winding from a previous splurge. I’m planning to work on a few smaller projects before I go back to my sweater, including the mega for myself (above right) that I’m super excited about. I put my sweater on hold after I had to pull it apart and start over. I realized I’d knit the whole thing wrong (not super noticeable but enough that it’d bother me) and it was super discouraging, so I felt I needed a break from it before going back into it full steam ahead.

What’s next?
We’re heading out on our annual trek to warmer climates the second week of February and I’m trying to narrow down what books I’ll take. After reading A Weekend with Mr. Darcy and Dreaming of Mr. Darcy I’m definitely considering a re-read of Pride and Prejudice or Persuasion in addition to at least two galleys and a couple of digital library books I have out. Maybe I’ll finish out King’s The Dark Tower series as that just became available again on my kindle from my local library.

What are you looking forward to in February? Was your January as bookish as you thought it’d be?

2 thoughts on “January Recap 2020”

    1. I am 100% making it up as I go along. I spent WAYYYYY too long trying to figure out how to do that last one (with the multiple book covers on it).

      Reply

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