Wrapping up 2010

I hope you all have a Happy New Year! Tomorrow, to start the new year, I will be beginning what will be a weekly Saturday feature talking about my Journey through Oz in this brand-spanking new year of 2011 … but first I wanted to wish you all a very happy and blessed year.  I’m positive that 2011 will be filled with joy, laughter and love.

It was just last year over this same holiday vacation that I migrated my blog from a wordpress.com hosted one and began book blogging in earnest.  I didn’t really want to do a big 1 year blogaversary thing.. because there are so many fantastic blogs out there that have been blogging the same amount of time that are such inspirations to me.  So in lieu of all of that, I will simply make a promise to you all as one of my New Years resolutions.

I will continue to work toward being fair and thoughtful in each of my reviews this upcoming year and to make certain that I continue to look for ways to improve.

2010 was filled with all sorts of new things for me.  I held author interviews, giveaways, began The Lost Entwife read-alongs, read many classic novels that I never had read before.  I made mistakes and learned from them, discovered new and exciting ways to do things, but most of all – I met my goal of reading 300 books (and then some).

So here are some fun stats for you all:

• Books read in 2010 (full list of books read is here): 365
• Books reviewed (and posted to blog) in 2010: 345
• Challenges completed in 2010: 5

Lost Entwife Read-Alongs started this past year and we’ve read some fantastic books and I look forward to reading the upcoming months choices as well!

Top Reads in 2010 (by month):

• January: The Likeness by Tana French
• February: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winnifred Watson
• March: The Fiddler’s Gun by A.S. Peterson
• April: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien (and the rest of the series)
• May: Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman
• June: Crazy by Han Nolan
• July: The Girl who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen
• August: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
• September: Room by Emma Donoghue
• October: 1984 by George Orwell
• November: Sweetie by Kathryn Magendie
• December: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Least Favorite reads in 2010 (by month):

• January: A Cadger’s Curse by Diane Gilbert Madsen
• February: Tithing: Test Me in This by Douglas LeBlanc
• March: The Other Mr. Darcy by Monica Fairview
• April: Billie Girl by Vickie Weaver
• May: Balancing Acts by Zoe Fishman
• June: Storm Glass by Maria Snyder
• July: Seven Days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton
• August: Song of Seduction by Carrie Lofty
• September: Lies My Mother Never Told Me by Kaylie Jones
• October: Coronets and Steel by Sherwood Smith
• November: Eternity Falls by Kirk Outerbridge
• December: Salting Roses by Lorelle Marinello

So why do I include this list?  Because I have to have balance.  I dislike putting a list up of 10 books that I adored without also saying, look.. I loved books this year, but there were some books I didn’t love as much.  While I do try to be fair and to respect the authors work – these books just didn’t work for me.  If they worked for you, I’m glad! For both you and the author and I respect your opinion on them.  But yeah, I have to have a listing of the top and least favorite or it would make me a little nutty.

So that’s a taste of what happened here in 2010.  I’m pleased with the growth made, I have learned from my mistakes and although I’m sure I’ll continue to make them, I only hope that with the start of my second year blogging things will just get better and better around here.