I enjoyed answering Jamie's (The Perpetual Page Turner) End of the Year Survey in past years and decided to join in again this year. If you haven't already, please check out the first half of my survey where I talk about my favorite reads of the year.
My Blogging Bookish Life
In 2016 I published 159 blog posts. August was my most prolific month with 18 posts, and September was my slowest with only 9 posts. That's still pretty good considering.
This past July, I celebrated 10 years of book blogging. Where has the time gone?! Thank you to everyone who has visited, read and/or commented here at Musings of a Bookish Kitty throughout the years. I cannot express just how much that means to me. You all are the reason I have kept at it for all these years. Well, that and my love for books. Obviously.
The second year of my Postal Mail Club was another successful one. Each member selects a book and mails it along with a journal to their specified person on the club member list. We have two months to read the book, journal our thoughts, and then we mail the book to the next person on the list. This year, the books chosen were not necessarily ones on my radar, and some were even ones I would have passed over completely otherwise. That is part of the fun of being a part of a group like this.
Postal Mail Club books read in 2016:
Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala (my pick)
The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams
The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
Love Anthony by Lisa Genova
The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist
Memes
At the beginning of 2016, I began participating in Michelle's My TBR List Meme at Because Reading, enlisting your help in choosing one book each month to read. I really enjoyed having you all take an active part in selecting what I would read. It can be difficult to choose on my own with so many choices. I can waste a lot of time deciding! I am grateful to Michelle for coming up with the idea. I plan to continue to participate in the meme in 2017, and hope you will join me!
Books Read Because Of You (My TBR List Poll Winners of 2016):
January: What She Knew by Gilly Macmillan
February: Delia's Shadow by Jaime Lee Moyer
March: The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith
April: Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
May: Charming by Elliott James
June: The Magician's Lie by Greer Macallister
July: 'Til Death Do Us Part by Amanda Quick
August: Lost in Geeklandia by E.J. Russell
September: The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
October: A Dark and Stormy Murder by Julia Buckley
November: The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
December: White Christmas by Rebecca York
I regularly participated in Diane's (Bibliophile By the Sea) First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros meme and later added in Tuesday Teasers (now hosted by Ambrosia of The Purple Booker), which seemed a natural progression. I also took part in the weekly Book Blogger Hop hosted by Billy (Coffee Addicted Writer) and The Sunday Post hosted by the wonderful Kim, the Caffeinated Book Reviewer. I have met so many new-to-me bloggers as a result. While my participation in Broke and Bookish's Top Ten Tuesday was at times sporadic, I had such fun coming up with lists--who among us doesn't like bookish lists?
I am so thankful to all of you who host these memes. It's amazing that you are able to keep up. Diane and Michelle, especially, make a point of visiting every blog who link to their memes, something I appreciate and admire.
In 2016, I tried out Karen's Beyond the Books topic, which was a lot of fun. My participation fizzled out after awhile, I'm afraid. Life got too busy to keep up. I also tried a couple other memes here and there as well, but they didn't stick.
Challenges
This past year, I signed up for several challenges early on. I tackled the TBR Triple Dog Dare hosted by James of James Reads Books in my own way and managed to complete it successfully. I also participated in last winter's Clean Out Your E-Reads Challenge hosted by Berls of Fantasy is More Fun, Michelle of Because Reading Is Better Than Real Life, and Stormi of Books, Movies, Reviews! Oh My!. which went hand in hand with the TBR Triple Dog Dare. I took on The Nonfiction Challenge, hosted by Jennifer of The Introverted Reader, with the goal to read between one and five nonfiction books. Well, I read one. So, I guess you can say that counts as a win, although not a very satisfying one.
I attempted to take on FitReaders hosted by Felicia of The Geeky Blogger's Book Blog and Jen from That's What I'm Talking About, but lost steam somewhere in there. I got sick or something and just never got my momentum back. While I don't think I will be joining them again this coming year, I do plan to make an effort to become more active again. Poor motivation and stick-to-it-ness are my weaknesses. I just have to keep getting back on the wagon.
My other challenge failure in 2017 was the What's In a Name? Reading Challenge hosted by Charlie of The Worm Hole. I managed to read three books that fit into one of the six categories.
A country (try not to use ‘Africa’!) - If Neverwhere were a country then maybe. But it's not. It's just Below.
An item of clothing - The Girl in the Red Coat by Kate Hamer
An item of furniture - My husband says a broken wheel (The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend) doesn't count.
A profession - The Fireman by Joe Hill
A month of the year - June by Miranda Beverly-Whittemere
A title with the word ‘tree’ in it - I began reading The Syringa Tree by Pamela Gien, but could not get into it, and so gave up. I had really hoped to like it. The novel is set in South Africa during the apartheid.
2016 Goals
How did I do with 2016's reading and blogging oriented goals? Let's have a look:
1. Keep track of last sentences in 2016. By keeping a log of last sentences from the books I read this past year, I was even more cognizant of just how significant a role they can play in my reading experience. Going back and reading through them at the end of the year, brought back so many of the books for me, including the feelings I had reading the books. I plan to do this again in 2017, along with continuing to keep track of first sentences.
2. Make more time to read. Yeah. I read less this year than I have in four years. I don't think I did too well with this goal.
3. Make Mouse's Corner a more regular feature on my blog. Also didn't happen. It looked like it might happen for awhile there this past summer, but then life got too busy again to keep up.
Looking Ahead
I will not be participating in any challenges this year. As tempting as many of them sound, I like the idea of reading to my own tune this year. I also plan to participate in fewer book tours. I always try to only accept tour requests for books I really want to read, but occasionally I still get in over my head. There are so many great sounding books out there, after all.
Thank you to everyone who shared their recommendations with me in my poll last month. I plan to share the list of recommendations in a separate post shortly.
For several years now I have heard and seen people adopt one word of the year to inspire, guide and focus on each year. It's never something I took part in though. Until now. I got thinking about it a few weeks ago, playing around with the idea of choosing my own word. I floundered about for awhile, until finally seeking advice from friends on how best to come up with a word. The general consensus was that the word would more likely find me. One friend recommended journaling, or jotting down my thoughts in stream of conscious style, and it set me off on a different path than I had been on in coming up with my one word.
Journaling, brainstorming, poetry, creative writing, Girl Scouts, crafts, music, building, guiding, work, creative, creativity, creating . . . Create. And I had it! My word had found me. I felt both excitement and a bit of fear as I considered the word more fully in my mind. I like the Free Dictionary's definition of create the best:
1. To cause to exist; bring into being.
2. To give rise to; produce.
3. To produce through artistic or imaginative effort.
It is the third point that stands out the most for me in what I hope to focus and work on this year. Although the others may come into play in other ways.
What I want to do this new year is write more. Not just blog posts, but write more for myself. I want to start journaling again, and find my way back into letter writing. Most of all, I want to get back to writing creatively, be it stories or poetry. I also want to explore and develop a more defined place with my Girl Scout troop. I am not the most crafty person, but I do love to sing--and so do the girls. I can also think of places in my work and family life my word can be beneficial. I am a passive person in many respects, but with my word, I hope to begin to open myself up to opportunities to grow and, well, create. From what I understand, these words can take on lives of their own, and I look forward to seeing what 2017 will hold for me and how my word and I will grow and evolve over the course of the year.
I am also excited to see what the new year will hold for us in books. I look forward to hearing about what you are reading and comparing notes on books read that we have in common.
Do you belong to any book groups? What did you read this year?
How did you do on your 2016 reading challenges?
What are your reading and life goals for this year? Did you come up with one word to focus on this year?
What are you most looking forward to in 2017?
I hope you all have an amazing New Year.
Mouse looking out the window
to see what 2017 will bring.
© 2017, Wendy Runyon of Musings of a Bookish Kitty. All Rights Reserved.If you're reading this on a site other than Musings of a Bookish Kitty or Wendy's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.