January Reading Roundup

Y’all!

Earlier this year I made it clear how disappointed I was in my reading last year. 5 books. Just saying that makes me want to hit my head on my desk. But 2019 is off to a better start! So I decided to do a little roundup of my January reading.

Two Kinds of Truth

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Harry Bosch ages in real time. In this book he’s into his 60s, but I DON’T CARE. Never stop writing him, Michael Connelly. Or we’re fighting.

Crimson Joy

⭐⭐⭐

I hate to say it, but this was rather unremarkable. I love Spenser. And this won’t discourage me from continuing the series, but I finished the book wanting more.

LA Requiem

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I wrote about this earlier in the week here. This book was the best crime novel I’ve read! There’s no exaggeration. I gave my reasoning in my previous post. I’m still considering it, but it’s likely a top five all-time read for me. And I have the next four in the series awaiting my curious eyes.

Rodrick Rules

⭐⭐⭐

I said I’d stay with crime novels for a bit, and I mostly did. But this was the lone exception last month. It didn’t have hardly any laugh out loud moments, whereas the first in the series was full of them.

The Second Life of Nick Mason

⭐⭐⭐

This was the first in a new series written by Steve Hamilton. He’s also one of my favorite authors and it was my first time reading one of his books in several years. It’s well below 300 pages and I felt it. It went way too fast and lacked much depth throughout. But still had a number of exciting moments, which kept it at the above rating.

I count 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 books for the month! It was really in the last two weeks, but shh. I matched my entire 2018 in the first month of 2019 and I’m still going! I know there will be some down months ahead, but I’m happy with and encouraged by my start to the year.

How was your month of reading!?

2017 Reading Update

I’ve decided to do a little recap at the start of each month regarding my reading. I’ll be comparing my progress to where I should be and also to where I was during my previous best reading year. It’s just another thing to help me reach my goal to read 50 books in a calendar year. Let’s go.

Books read

2017: 10

2012: 1

January was a record! I thought my previous record was twelve, but it turned out to be 9. I just squeaked by it last month. But look how far ahead of my best year’s pace I am! In 2012 I read 44 books, the closest I’ve ever gotten to my 50.

Time

57 hours, 15 minutes

Pages

3001

2017 Reading Challenge

7 books

Genres

Young adult: 2 books

Literary fiction: 3 books

Mystery: 2 books

Fantasy: 1 book

Nonfiction: 2 books

Ratings

1 star: 1 book

2 stars: 1 book

3 stars: 3 books

4 stars: 4 books

5 stars: 1 book

Average: 3.3

Best Book

The Lightning Thief

That’s it for January! Percy Jackson just narrowly won the month as the top read, that video will be up soon! How did you do to start your 2017 reading journey?

January: A Review

January was okay on the blog. It was nothing compared to last January, but eh. I guess I’ll have to take the blame for that. The first month of the year has come and gone, and now it’s time for some numbers.

Posts: 31

Likes: 632

Comments: 431

Followers: 3353

Books Read: 2

Poems: 1

YouTube Videos: 2

I lied. January actually turned out to be better than expected. I know two books is nothing to cheer about, but at least I did get started on my 2016 Reading Challenge, right? AND I posted a poem on here for the first time in a million years. AND I’m getting a little more consistent on my channel. All positives. The other numbers are pretty average.

Now let’s look at some posts.

Top Post

On Alan Rickman

Favorite Post

Guess Who Officially Has a Custom YouTube Url?!

Post you may Have Missed

2016 Reading Challenge Book #$2: The Thomas Berryman Number

The top post of the month was pretty predictable, although I hadn’t checked before writing this. But Alan Rickman was beloved actor, and his death brought about the appropriate response from his fans. I finally got my own YouTube URL, which of course is exciting. AND I’m really planning on expanding my channel to greater heights in the coming months. Which I hope you’ll join me for.

All in all, January was pretty nice. I know I enjoyed it. How was your opening month of 2016?

 

January’s Great Start to 2015

Photo Credit: The Telecom Blog

I didn’t know what to expect in January. Last year when my blog was still a baby, the entire month of January had a grand total of 38 views. I hadn’t yet adopted my new posting philosophy and I think I still had some posts about my own writing. But last month turned out quite well. It became my third best month ever, only eleven views from taking the second spot. So it was a nice month. Anyway, let’s get on with some stats from the month. I’m changing it up just a bit for the new year. And as always, previous record will be in parenthesis.

Posts: 29 (31)

Likes: 714 (689) New record!

Comments: 604 (2121)

Followers: 2325

Books Read: 4

Poems Posted: 1

Nothing special here. This was actually the first month I ever hit 700 Likes. That’s exciting, but it would be more so if those people would comment instead of just hit Like and move on. Eh. But if you’ve read my previous monthly recaps then you know I’ve added two new categories. I’m going to start including the number of books I read and the number of poems I post in my monthly recaps. It’ll be an easy way to see how close I am to reaching my goal of reading 50 books and posting 25 poems in 2015. Now for some posts.

Top Post

How Helpful are Writing Books?

Favorite Post

Writers, Stop Saying You’re OCD

Post you may Have Missed

Amazon’s List of 100 Books Everyone Should Read: #44 Moneyball by Michael Lewis

And just a quick announcement. I’ll be posting everyday in February. Woo! Cause I know you’re so happy to hear that. I typically only miss one or two days a month anyway, but February is such a short month that I don’t see why I can’t just go ahead and post each day. So I will. AND I’m going to be asking y’all an important question in the coming days. Stay tuned!

How was your January?

Saturday Selects: New Year’s resolutions are a joke

Saturday Selects is a series of posts I write the first Saturday of each month in which I discuss something unrelated to the general bookish theme of the blog. This month we’re talking about those damn resolutions everyone is talking about.

“I’m going to the gym more.”

“I’m eating healthier.”

“I’ll start looking for a better job.”

These are just a few examples of resolutions people tend to toss out just about every year. And they piss me off. I have no issue with setting GOALS for a new year. I mean, I’d hope you have some goals for yourself. But what I don’t understand is how come everyone and their mom has to suddenly decide to change just because the calendar says January and the year has changed. I don’t understand this.

I want someone to tell me why January is the only month of the year that one can decide to change for the better. I’ll wait so you can type your response…

Still waiting…

Got nothing? Thought so. It’s stupid. 330 days out of the year you’re perfectly fine with yourself. But oh wait, January comes around and suddenly you want to be better. Yeah…no.

If you really wanted to change something about yourself or do some things differently, then you’d have done so long before the new year. If you want to come up with a meaningless list of things you’re going to do differently, then that’s when you start running around telling everyone your resolutions for the new year. News flash: you’re not fooling anyone. Not even yourself.

Rant over.