Reading
2021: Reading in Review
Like for many others here, for me, too, 2021 was a year I’m infinitely glad to see behind me; particularly so, the second half of the year. Books, thus, quickly became my one major lifeline — if you just look at the sheer numbers of books read (a grand total of 246), you’d think I […]
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June 2021 and Mid-Year Reading Recap
Sigh. Well, I think posting a monthly (and even half-year) reading recap a full three weeks into the next month has to be some sort of record, even for me, but here we are. And I admit that at this point I’d even been contemplating holding off another week so as to combine this with […]
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An Alphabet of My Likes and Dislikes: “Y”
This is a post belonging to a new blogging project — the title is pretty much self-explanatory, I think; the project’s introductory post can be found HERE. Credit for the idea: BeetleyPete. As always, the only thing linking the two items mentioned in this post in my mind is that they both start with the […]
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May 2021 Reading Recap
Still a lot of work on the back end of the blog, including on my “featured authors” pages (see the right column on the main Literature page and the introduction of my April 2021 recap post). So, contrary to plans, still no new posts in my alphabet blogging series in May. However, the time-consuming back end […]
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April 2021 Reading Recap
First things first: The persistent bug preventing followers / readers to comment on my posts straight off the post (i.e., other than by using the WP Reader) has finally been weeded out, thanks to my hosting service’s IT team … so you can, at last, comment even if you’re not using the WP Reader. (I […]
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February and March 2021: Reading Recap
Well, go figure. The first quarter of 2021 is already behind us, never mind that I’m still having to remind myself on occasion to write “2021” instead of “2020” … (and we’re even a week into April already, but let that go). Anyway, since I never got around to doing a “February in review” post, […]
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January 2021 Reading Wrap-Up
I only finished eleven books in January, which isn’t a lot by my standards as of the last couple of years, even taking into account that two of the books were decidedly on the long side (all the more as I balanced out the two long books by two extremely short ones). But I decided […]
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2020 in Facts and Figures
I already posted my main 2020 in Review and Looking Ahead to 2021 posts a while ago — only on my new blog (separate post to come) –, but I held back on my 2020 reading statistics until the year was well and truly over. And for all my good intentions when posting my mid-year […]
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My Reviewing and Rating Philosophy / Use of (Half-)Star Ratings
24 Festive Tasks: Door 12 – World Philosophy Day, Task 1 & Bonus Task: Task 1: What is your reviewing / rating policy? Do you accept book review requests? Bonus Task: Half star ratings or not? Tell us what you think and whether you use them. My rating philosophy is set out HERE — tl;dr […]
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2020: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
We’re still a month away from the end of the year, but my reading will probably consist mainly of Christmas books in December, and I hope and pray that life won’t come up and throw anything else at me in the final month of the year, either. So I might as well post my “Year […]
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The Millions: 28 Books You Should Read If You Want To
Source: 28 Books You Should Read If You Want To – The Millions Image via Abee5/Flickr By Janet Potter Earlier this month Amazon released a list of 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime. It joins Esquire’s 80 Books Every Man Should Read, The Telegraph’s 100 Novels Everyone Should Read, Huffington Post’s more manageable […]
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2019 Reading in Review — Nonstandard Edition, Part 1: The “Book Titles” Self-Interview
A few years ago, Olga Godim came up with a fun “reading year in review” version in the form of a self-interview, where the only answers permitted were book titles. I instantly decided to copy it and add a few more categories of my own. While I didn’t have time to do this again in […]
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2019 Reading in Review — the Nonstandard Edition, Part 2: The Bookish Academy Awards
The Bookish Academy Awards / Book Oscars is a questionnaire I found a couple of years ago on the Blogger blog of Ashley / Read all the things and decided to steal it for my then-recent and all-time favorites. Most of my “all-time” answers are still true; however, here’s an edition specifically for my 2019 […]
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2017 – 2019 Three-Year Reading Stats
Three years ago I took a look at my reading stats for the then-just-finished year (2017) and decided they were off in several respects: Too many rereads Too many mysteries — i.e., too much comfort reading — AND way too few books by female authors. Also, the ratio of books read vs. new, unread additions […]
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2020 Reading Plans / Expectations & 2019 in Review
24 Festive Tasks: Door 22 – New Year’s Eve / St. Sylvester’s Day, Tasks 1-3 & Door 18 – Hanukkah, Task 1: Door 22 Task 1: Tell us: What are your reading goals for the coming year? Task 2: The reading year in review: How did you fare – what was good, what wasn’t? Task […]
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2019 Airing of Grievances: Least Favorite Books of the Year
24 Festive Tasks: Door 19 – Festivus, Task 1: The airing of grievances: Which are the five books you liked least this year – and why? Overall, 2019 was a phantastic reading year for me with decidedly more highs than lows. Of the latter, my worst reading experiences were, in no particular order: Laura Restrepo, […]
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2019: The Books I’ve Been Most Thankful For
24 Festive Tasks: Door 11 – Thanksgiving: Task 2 Tell us: Of the books that you read this year, which are you most thankful for, OR was there one that turned out to be full of “stuffing”? Alternatively, which (one) book that you read anytime at all changed your life for the better?”) With another […]
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My Reading, Rating, and Reviewing Philosophy
24 Festive Tasks: Door 9 – World Philosphy Day, Tasks 1 and 2: Share your reading philosophy with us – do you DNF? If so, do you have a page minimum to read before you declare it a DNF? And: Share your reviewing philosophy with us – how do you rate a book? Do you […]
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Halloween Bingo 2019: Tracking Post — Blackout! (And bingos Nos. 12 and 13.)
Many thanks to Moonlight Reader and Obsidian Blue for hosting this game for the fourth year in a row, bigger and better than ever before! Witih today’s call, I’ve blacked out my card, in addition to collecting my final bingos (nos. 12 and 13). Somewhat to my surprise, after completing my books for my […]
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Halloween Bingo 2019: Tracking Post — Bingo No. 3 and Reading Blackout
* Triple Bingo Happy Dance * Well, that went by much faster than I had anticipated … Many thanks to Moonlight Reader and Obsidian Blue for hosting this game for the fourth year in a row, bigger and better than ever before! I’ll continue tracking my bingos of course — and since we now have […]
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