Insert obligatory statement here about how quickly it felt like the month flew by. Time goes by fast when you’re having fun (or are just busy, or any number of things). I had a surprisingly good reading month. It definitely helped that a couple of the books I finished in January were ones I started in December 2022. But they still count! So here we go for my monthly book blog wrap-up for January 2023.
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As always happens, another year came and went. This means it’s time for a 2022 book blog statistics post! This was my first full year as a hobbyist book blogger. And it was the first year I felt like I found my groove in this community. I found a core group of book bloggers with whom I enjoy interacting and that made a world of difference. I don’t want to risk forgetting someone, but you know who you are.
With respect to my personal, non-bookish life, 2022 was a pretty good year. COVID-19 is still here and I finally caught it after holding out all this time. I also had a couple other frustrating but temporary and minor health setbacks. But that aside, we traveled internationally for the first time since February 2020. We typically use our vacation time each year to travel abroad, so it was nice to be able to do that again. We were fortunate to visit family and continued to improve our new home. I had a record year for home-grown jalapenos. I tandem cycled across New York with my husband. I’m sure I’m forgetting something, but those are the highlights!
Now, back to bookish content. I made a list of bookish goals for 2022, so I’ll start by recapping those to see how I did. Then I’ll jump into various types of blog and reading statistics. Onward to the 2022 book blog statistics!
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December is basically over, which brings me to another monthly book blog wrap-up post! Since I plan on spending time putting together some 2022-related posts, I’ll keep this one rather brief. Part of me wants to apologize for a light and heavier month of book reviews and memes, respectively. But I won’t. I needed to take some time for myself. And the days around Christmas ended up busier than expected. Which brings me to the topic at hand: my December wrap-up. Let’s go!
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I’ve been in a somewhat funny mood for most of November with respect to blogging. Suffice it to say the whole Twitter takeover and people “jumping ship,” so to speak, kind of triggered my grumpiness. I have *~*thoughts*~ about the exploration of other social media platforms. (Even though I understand everyone’s reasoning.) But I’m not sure I want to put the effort into sharing them unless others want to hear what I have to say. If you do, let me know in the comments.
A shining light amidst my grumpiness was that Tor unexpectedly shared a couple of my book reviews on their Twitter account. The first was a complete surprise and it was a nice confidence boost. It rekindled my raison d’être for book blogging.
I’m also getting back into working out. This really fell off the wayside after we moved house a year ago. It’s tough to motivate myself when these days I’d rather read. But my goal is to do some form of exercise four times per week. I look forward to not feeling sore the next day after a workout!
We also got our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. Wow, I think this is the prettiest tree we’ve ever bought! Our local nursery chain names the trees. This year we have a Hades.
Anyway, that’s my little life update. Here’s what I was up to in the bookish world.
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As you may (or may not) know, I took an international vacation in October for this first time since February 2020. My husband and I have a tradition of going on a big trip abroad each year. So this was our first one in a while. I felt a little rusty packing and doing all the things one does in an airport. We went to Switzerland first for a week followed by a second week in southern France.
In Switzerland we spent nearly all of our time in and around the Lauterbrunnen valley, which apparently inspired Tolkien’s Rivendell. So that was a fun fact to learn. The mountains there are gorgeous and we got super lucky that the clouds held off, for the most part, at the top of the ones we wanted to visit. In France we stayed in Orange and did various day trips from there. We tasted Rhone valley wines, took a scenic bike ride, and visited a lot of Roman ruins.
The only downer is that we paid the “travel tax” in the end. After evading THE THING for 2.5 years, we caught it despite our masking precautions and eating outdoors everywhere. However, as of writing this, what made me feel bad was actually a co-infection of strep throat. (So when you see those headlines saying people are now getting co-infections, hi, it’s me, I’m the problem, it’s me. See what I did there?) Trying to get a doctor’s appointment was interesting because even their virtual appointments were booked 5 days out. So that was a whole other thing, but in the end I got a house call and some antibiotics. So I guess that’s a new thing now?
Anyway, let’s talk book stuff…
Continue reading “Monthly Book Blog Wrap-Up: October 2022”