My summer holiday is over - another working year looms.The days are hot and sticky, but luckily we live near the harbour, so every evening our house cools down with a lovely sea breeze.
Perfect reading weather.
I take my book to the pool where I do laps. As I dry off in the dappled light of the Mortan Bay fig, I read a chapter or two.
At home, when it's too hot and sticky to do anything outside, I park myself in front of a fan...and read another chapter or two.
In the evening, after some quality time with our holiday jigsaw puzzle, I lie in bed, enjoying the sea breeze & another chapter or two.
Today I also took the time to tally my 2014 reading habits.
In 2014 I wrote 216 posts, celebrated 5 years of blogging & reached the 500 post milestone.
125 of my 216 posts were book reviews. The rest were meme entries, readalongs, entries about blogging or other book related events. 7 posts were poems (yay me!)
105 of the book reviews were fiction; 20 were non-fiction.
76 were book reviews by female authors; 49 by men.
63 books were International authors; 62 were Australian.
A few of the stand-out book moments for me this year were 'discovering' Australian author Sonya Hartnett, reading The Railwayman's Wife by Ashley Hay & reading my first David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks.Other book related highlights include meeting our former Prime Minister, Julia Gillard at a Random House function earlier in the year and meeting US blogger Melissa from Avid Reader's Musings when she visited Sydney.
I thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone from Paris in July & I had a ball with my first ever Dewey's 24 hr Readathon in October. Angela Carter reading week with Delia & Caroline was also an amazing reading experience. And a special thank you to Ali at Heavenali for introducing me to Willa Cather.
2014 reinforced my love of reading events & the joy I get from being part of the blogging community.
Year long challenges don't always work so well (I lose momentum), but a serendipitous selection of readalongs throughout the year are perfect. They suit my free-range reading habits exactly.
I've already declared my 2015 intentions for my TBR pile with Adam, Karen's Back to the Classics & Behold the Stars' Reading England Challenge. I can now also officially sign up for the the Australian Women Writers Reading Challenge (AWW). Judging from last years stats, I feel confident in aiming for the Franklin level - 10 books & 6 reviews by Australian women writers.
And just quietly, between you and me...this is my 600th blog post :-D
Congrats on 600 posts!
ReplyDeleteI don't have the discipline for challenges, I've decided: they make me think of assignments, etc., and remove at least a little of the joy of reading for pleasure. I admire those who can stick to them! Congratulations on 600 posts - re blogging, I 'could do better' (assignment-speak!) definitely.
ReplyDeleteI felt a little like that with my 2014 challenges. That's why this year I'm only doing ones that cater to my strengths and interests :-)
DeleteAnd 600...is purely a sign of a slightly obsessive personality :-)
600 posts are truly impressive. Also staying with a blog for five plus years in an accomplishment.
ReplyDeleteHappy reading in 2015!
Congrats on 600 posts! I'm also signed up for the TBR Pile and Back to the Classics challenges, so I'll see you around. :)
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, Brona, and thanks for the shout for the AWW challenge. I haven't yet read any Sonya Hartnett (apart from a lovely children's picture book), but she's on my list. I look forward to hearing about your reading discoveries in 2015.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on 600 posts Brona. I remember your enthusiasm for The Railwayman's Life, I wish I'd found time to read it so far. I agree with you about reading challenges, I only do those that I would read anyway- my 1001 reading makes other goals pretty difficult. I do think the AWW Challenge is particularly important and always enjoy writing posts for that. I can't wait to see what our reading year involves- there's been some surprises already.
ReplyDeleteSo fun to read your highlights, Brona! All the best in 2015!
ReplyDelete600-yeah! Go you! I'm almost at my 4 year blogging anniversary. So congratulations on 5 years.
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