azucchi posted: " This is the last check in for the year! Where has the time gone?? It's been a good one, and I'm excited for what the next one will bring; my little one is growing so fast and I can't wait to start introducing her to books as she gets older, I have a TBR " The Book Nook
This is the last check in for the year! Where has the time gone?? It's been a good one, and I'm excited for what the next one will bring; my little one is growing so fast and I can't wait to start introducing her to books as she gets older, I have a TBR set by my Book Advent, and I am excited about my writing ideas. But, let's not get ahead of ourselves... what have the last three months (and the last year) been like in terms of my reading and blogging?
Stats
I read 13 books this quarter, successfully hitting my target of 50 books and surpassing it by 10 (I may still finish one more book too)! As always, fantasy comes out on top of most read genres (35/60), and in terms of format I read 9 digital and 4 physical books, though the overall percentage of the year still puts paper books in the lead. I have made a return to ARCs, having read three and with another six to pick up over the next few months.
The Books
Books read between October-December 2023
Bookforager's Book Bingo
The purple lines are the ones I have crossed off since my last check in, and I have achieved bingo! Yay! At least I think so... is bingo one line or do I have to get all of them? Anyway... The doorknocker is for Murder at Spindle Manor because it's the type of thing you'd find on the door of a creepy Gaslamp fantasy manor where people are being killed off, the moon is for Faebound because the elven tribes are named for the different moon phases, the brain is for Those Left Behind because of the AI implant Chase, and the hand is for Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands because although there is no alchemy involved there is a severed foot and the hand made me think of that. So there you have it! Bring on the next one!
On the Blog
I've been posting reviews more frequently in the last three months, and in case you missed them, here are my thoughts on:
We also had two events, and I posted my plans for both Spooktastic Reads and SciFi Month and even managed to stick to some of them! And on the topic of SciFi Month, I did a few Top Ten Tuesdays to fit the theme: I looked at book titles that could be headlines in 'Breaking News', I highlighted SF authors I have yet to read in 'Popular Choice', and celebrated books set on other planets in 'Out of This World'. I also took part in the readalong of Behind the Throne by K.B. Wagers, and if you want to catch up here are my posts: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4.
I did a few book tags which are always fun! There was the End of the Year Tag, the A-Z Book Tag, and most excitingly the Tag Team Tag that the Bookforager and I did for SciFi Month! Lastly, I posted about my Book Advent for 2023, made up of books from my physical TBR.
Up Next
Reading
I'm going to set myself a target of 30 books for the year, and I'm pretty sure I'll surpass that but it remains to be seen whether I'll get more or less time to read as by child gets older (I suspect less, alas). As I've already mentioned a couple of times, I did a Book Advent out of unread books on my shelves, and those 24 books make up the main TBR for 2024. On top of that I have a few ARCs to read:
My 2024 ARCs
These should all be reviewed by my next check-in, as they're all releasing between February and April. I also have some unfinished books that I'll be carrying forward into the new year, because life is rarely neat enough for me to finish all my reading within a certain calendar year.
Currently Reading as of 30/12/23
I have been reading An Immense World by Ed Yong for a few months on and off, and I'm determined to be done with it before 2024 begins, so I can carry on with The World: A Family History by Simon Sebag Montefiore, which has absolutely entranced me and needs to be my next main non fiction read. I'm just under halfway through To Cage a God by Elizabeth Lim and really enjoying it, so there should be an ARC review of that coming soon. More slowly, I am getting through Gods of the Wyrdwood by RJ Barker, which I have been anticipating and am enjoying in theory but I'm also not fully in the mood for the type of book that it is... every time I pick it up I like reading it but I don't currently have the motivation to return to it once I put it down. Hopefully that changes soon!
And lastly, when it comes to plans, I will be returning to the Indranan Empire with a readalong of After the Crown by K.B. Wagers with the SciFi Month crew! This starts from January 1st, so if you didn't know about it and are interested get yourself a copy and jump aboard! I also have loose plans to buddy read the Expanse series with Mayri the Bookforager, because she has yet to start it and I paused halfway through so it would be a fun one to go through together!
And speaking of the Bookforager...
I am excited to participate in her 2024 Picture Prompt Book Bingo, and if you want more information you can find it over on her blog. This was going to be my only reading challenge, but then I saw Mayri's post about the reading challenges she's doing in 2024 and I'm feeling the FOMO so I may add a few to my repertoire! Mainly Annemieke's SFF Title Challenge, which you can see more details for over on A Dance With Books. For both of these I'll probably just read what I planned to anyway and then see if any of those books fit the categories!
Blogging
I mentioned in my last check in that I would be revamping the blog and make it a bit more "mine" in aesthetic and name now that my sister is no longer blogging. I have since decided that changing the URL would be far too much trouble as countless posts across my own blog and others' would stop linking back. I will probably change the appearance a bit, and add a couple of pages to it, but I have also stopped my plan and no longer have a domain name so once that expires I'll be back to standard WordPress look, which is fine for what I'm doing! Hopefully you'll all still like reading my posts... this does mean I probably won't be posting any of my creative writing here but for now that works too.
Writing
Also in my last update I mentioned that I was hoping to submit a short story for an anthology, and I did do that: yay! It didn't get chosen, sadly, but I had so much fun writing it and my brother absolutely loved it so if I only wrote it for a very enthusiastic audience of one then it was worth it. And it gave me a boost, as I hoped it would, and almost gave me permission to be a bit different in the way I approach writing a new story. And so, after some messing around, I have the outline of one story and ideas for two more, all three fantasy stories set in different locations and times in the same secondary world. I'm very excited, and my one resolution for 2024 is to write every day.
Than you for reading! Wishing you a soft entrance into 2024 and a year ahead full of joy and books...
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