Tuesday, January 3, 2012

2011 Moments and Final Recap!

Well, my overall recap for 2011 is here at last! It was a very good year! I read more than expected considering my crazy work schedule and family's health problems, but best of all I read some excellent books along the way and had a good time too.

Favorites:
Best Moments of 2011: Meeting friends (old and new), bloggers, and authors.
Favorite Posts/Reviews:
  • The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa - Talk about obsession, I actually wrote THREE posts about this book: The review, plus two posts at my side blog Quotes & Thoughts, with my favorite of those two being Sex and Power in the Feast of the Goat
  • The Abode of Bliss: Ten Stories for Adam by Alex Jeffers: I loved this book and writing the review was a pleasure, but then came the cherry on top. I'm not a fangirl, far from it, but when Mr. Jeffers came by and left a comment on my review, there was a flutter of the fangirl about me for a minute there... I admit it! LOLOL! 
  • John Donne - The Good Morrow: This was a totally self-indulgent post that went up after I spent weeks perusing some of my favorite works by Donne. If left up to me I would probably have posted about ten pages on his poetry and essays, but I figured you would all be snoring by the time I finished. LOL! Instead my post became a very small summary. To all those Donne-crazed fans who came by and made it my second most visited post of the year, a BIG thank you!! ;P

Worst moment of 2011:
  • Deleting ALL the numbers for previous years from my Stat Counter! Yes... in January 2011, I accidentally deleted my Impressions "project," lost all my numbers, and was not able to recover them. My numbers started anew as of the second week of January. Again! Oh... the idiocy! 
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2011 Challenges:

As far as Challenges go, I only joined two in 2011: I continued the In-Death Challenge hosted by The happily ever after... where I failed miserable by not reading any books during the whole year! I mean, not ONE -- see my summary page. Fail! [Hangs head in shame]

I also joined the 2011 Book Club: The Women of Fantasy hosted by Jawa Reads, Too! I did a better job there. I chose four books to read for the year. Unfortunately as you will see on my summary page, I completed one book and "DNF" (did not finish) two of the books. The book club did not continue with reading and discussions after June, so the fourth book is still in my TBR.


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Numbers

Total books read: 202
Total Posts153
Total Reviews/Minis156
Books by Categories:
  LGBT (Fiction, Romance, Mystery, Thrillers, YA): 57
  Contemporary (Romance/Fiction/Erotica): 48
  Historical: (Romance/Fiction): 44
  Paranormal Romance: 11
  Urban Fantasy: 11
  Fantasy/Speculative Fiction: 10
  Science Fiction/Science Fiction Romance: 8
  Mysteries: 5
  Misc (Fiction/Children's/Poetry/Non-Fiction): 7

During 2011, I kept better records at Goodreads than I did at my blog. I actually had to reconcile my books read titles and numbers between the two sites! LGBT is my highest number for the year and that is a surprise (TY 57 vs. LY 36), especially since I read very few books in that category during the first half of the year. And I'm quite happy with the increase in the historical romance numbers (TY 44 vs. LY 26). I didn't quite reach my personal goal of reading 12 books for the year in the Fantasy category, but did increase the number (TY 10 vs. LY 2).

Observations:
  • A noticeable change from 2010 to 2011 is the fact that I read more new releases and less books from my TBR or "to be read" pile of books. As a matter of fact, I added quite a bit to that pile! 
  • In 2011 I also accepted more books or ARCs for review. That's unusual for me, but even through all the stressful family emergencies somehow I found the time to keep up with most of the commitments I accepted during the year, and discovered some favorite reads and authors there! So, it turned out to be a good overall experience. 
  • This was the year of the anthology for me too. I read approximately 15 anthologies that included everything from 3 to 29 novellas or short stories! That's a record for me. 
  • And last, but not least, I joined Twitter after much bellyaching. I still don't really use it much and only think of using it after the fact, but I'll get there, someday. *g* 
That is it!! Now I'll look forward to 2012, and start fresh with the new year. :)

13 comments:

  1. A books read total for 2011 of 202? WOW! *impressed* And it looks like a great mix! I too got to meet Nalini this year. She's soooo lovely!

    And definitely the year of the anthology :)

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  2. Looks like a great year!

    Like you, I read a ton more LGBT this year.

    And hey - I failed the In Death challenge miserably, too, so don't feel so bad :)

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  3. Orannia, I like the mix of books I read this year. :D And, meeting Nalini Singh was definitely a highlight! Anthologies! WOW... I couldn't believe how many I read... I should count exactly how many novellas I read in total, lol!

    Lori, it did turn out to be a great reading year after all. :D LGBT!! Right? What a surprise for me. And re: In-Death Challenge. Thank you! :D

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  4. Good stuff Hilcia! Like you, LGBT titles really outnumbered all the other genres. Which is a good thing. :P

    I am still very iffy with twitter. I have it on my phone, laptop and ipad and...yeah, rarely use it. I'm too shy to just insert myself into other people's conversations. LOL

    I hope 2012 is a great reading year for you.

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  5. Ames, yes... that LGBT # was a good one. :) Ohhh twitter, I also have it all over my devices. I just don't remember it's there most of the time. LOL!

    Happy reading to you too!

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  6. LOL, you're all done and ready to start the year, Hils!! :)

    It was awesome to stay with you and to do the RWA literacy signing :) Okay, we weren't together together, but we did it! :)

    it's too bad you lost your numbers, but at the same time, starting fresh is not a bad thing. Especially in January. Imagine if you've lost your numbers in March or September? Ohhhh the frustration.

    No In Death books at all?!? LOL, you probably burned out on them in 2010. That or your daughter stole them all LOL.

    Your numbers are really good :) Tell you the truth, I thought your total books read would be higher. Perhaps because I always seem to catch you in one of your reading phase... but 202 is really good! You beat me by 1 book :)

    I think you mix it up well also :) Anyway, wishing that 2012 will be even better!!

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  7. Nice wrap-up post! I loved reading your Best Moments posts.

    I read one In Death book but wasn't impressed - think I'm burnt out on Eve and Roarke...

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  8. Nath, last year... RWA, the shopping, the books, everything was such fun! I loved it. :) LOL on the #'s!! I lost two years worth of blogging #'s... visitors, page loads, reviews visited... everything. Oh well. It's over. But I did look like the picture I posted at the time LOLOL!

    No In-Death books! At all! And no, I'm not blaming Vanessa... *g* As far as my numbers go? Who knows how many books I read, lol! I kept finding books I read in my Kindle, in Goodreads... books that I never recorded in my blog, books that I never recorded at Goodreads. Sigh... after a while I decided to go with what I had down.

    But yes! I like the mix I read last year, it's a good balance. :)

    Li, those were great moments. Definitely my favorite moments. I'm glad you enjoyed reading about them.

    LOL on the In-Death books! I didn't read enough to burn out on them. I think I just had too many stressful situations and commitments and decided to let go of that one thing during the year to make things easier on myself. :(

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  9. Hils, I somehow missed this post - apologies.

    Thank you so much for the mention. Yes, I agree it was wonderful and finally meeting in person was one of the best for 2011 for me as well.

    WOW 202 books read! You're an inspiration! I was not able to overcome the craziness of life and work in 2011 and my reading did suffer, but I am optimistic for 2012.

    I hadn't realized that you accidentally erased your numbers - definitely worst moment worthy of a Psycho Scream.

    LOL on the fluttering fangirl re: Mr. Jeffers - but completely understand. I would have fluttered as well. And yes Abode of Bliss IS in my TBR for 2012. Come hell or high water I WILL read that novel.

    I hope your 2012 is as fruitful with no Psycho Scream moments.

    Indie

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  10. Love this year end summary! Even with everything else going on, you still did a lot of reading and blogging. :)

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  11. Indi, meeting you in person was a blast! I had a wonderful time. And, the #'s... sigh.. yeah... I don't want a psycho scream year. I'm glad you'll be reading The Abode of Bliss... I think you'll love it... AND,

    I wish for you 2012 a great stress-free, reading year too! [We can always hope] :) ((Hugs))

    Leslie, it turned out to be a good reading year for me. Not bad. :) There are still so many books I missed... [sigh] but I'm greedy. *g*

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  12. Sorry to hear about your mishap with your Stats. Oops! There was a glitch one time with mine that I had nothing to do with and the numbers shifted drastically out of nowhere so I practically stopped paying attention to it anyway. *shrug*

    As for the In Death Challenge-- no need to feel shame! Sheesh.. it's supposed to be fun. If you feel like reading them, they're there... and you know where you can find plenty of people willing to talk about the books! :)

    I read three of the books from the Women of Fantasy Book Club. Two ended up being among my favorites of 2012. I'm going to try to read more fantasy this year.

    Amazing job at 202 books total! WOw!

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  13. Thanks Christine. I hope to participate this year, I'm not giving up on the In-Death Challenge. :)

    Congrats on your Fantasy Book Club reads. I followed your progress and you chose better books than I did. *g* I'm also continuing on my personal quest to read more fantasy and sci-fi this year.

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