What a year 2015
has been. First off, I reached, and exceeded my reading goal but it had
many tweaks throughout the year as reading slumps hit or I sped through
2-3 books in one day.
I read 183 books. Below is a picture encapsulating the year in little tiny pictures.
And then, because I like stats, a picture graph representing each month.
62672 pages read. That makes my average book 342 pages long. When I
first saw that average I was kind of wondering if I had been slacking,
as I knocked off some rather large books this year. Then I realized that
I also read a ton of
Mack Bolan: The Executioner books and those average around 150 or less, so that explained it.
The page number is suspect because of the database here at Booklikes
not exactly being in top form. I was able to edit most of my books since
I was a librarian for a good bit of the year and then once I wasn't,
other librarians have done an excellent job of turning about those edit
requests, so I'm pretty sure of that number but wouldn't hold it hard.
And now on to more Booklikes specific things, since that is where I am at these days.
Been here just over 2 years. Complaints are pretty much the same as
ever [ie, the horrible way the Re-blog function works here] and the
Praises are pretty much the same [no censorship!!!].
One thing this year has shown me is that I am not a "group" person.
My interactions tend to be one on one for specific posts. I have found
that I react 1 of 2 ways in a group. I either get overwhelmed and leave,
or I feel like I am the only one there, hence unappreciated, and leave.
So to avoid frustration, and then lashing out at some poor schlub who
has no idea what is going on, I stay away from the groups. Even the ones
I like, like the Classic Clubs and Follow a Bookliker one.
One bug, the Likes&Attributions bug, has not been fixed. Since I
reported it twice, it has occurred in my notifications on 4 separate
occasions in December alone. That led me to not put up my reviews here
at Booklikes since the end of November and simply put a couple of
sentences in a 100% update as a mini review. I've got almost 30 drafts
of reviews saved. Not a big fan of that, so I need to do something else
for 2016 because that is a bug that does affect me and I need to respond
somehow. I will be posting those reviews today and I apologize ahead of
time if they're all timed for "now" and flood your feed.
I was talking with
Musings about
this because he does a partial review and then a link to his blog,
because of the Reblog issue. My reviews aren't long enough to do that
[my average is under 300 words, and that includes the little GPL schpeil
and info about the book] but I liked the idea. I do have a facebook
group where I post my reviews and I just put up a 1 sentence teaser for
my review and then the link so if someone likes my sentence or wants to
see more about the book, all they have to do is click.
I think I will be doing that here at Booklikes until the
aforementioned bug is gone. I just don't know what else to do. I can't
ignore it, like I can the reblog issue, because the bug does affect me
on a week to week basis.
Thankfully, that sentence doesn't apply this year. I had a
tremendously good year overall, even with one month being a total
stinker where I hated almost everything I read [I believe it was August,
btw].
Three books stood out this year as Potential Number One Book of 2015
1)
His Sombre Rivals by Edward Payson Roe
2)
The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher
3)
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Honestly, looking at things, I think that His Sombre Rivals and
Flowers for Algernon are tied for Number One. They both just stood out
above everything else.
And that is why 2015 was an unqualified success for me. How can it
not be a good year when you can't even choose between TWO books for Best
Book of the Year?
In the beginning of December, I wrote about
Goals for 2016. Upon reflection, this year I am going to set some very easy goals for me that I'm sure I can accomplish.
1) Read 150 Books in 2016
2) Read 2 Non-fiction books.
3) Re-read 1 book each month that I want to.
1 shouldn't be a problem unless life throws me a drastic curve, in
which case reading a certain number of books will be last on my list of
"Things I Care About".
2 is because
Nothing Better
inspired me with her goals for non-fiction. Of course, she went off the
rails and was talking crazy huge numbers, like 1 non-fiction a MONTH
but since my goal for the last couple of years has been 1 a year, I
figure I can double that without to much of a hassle.
3 is because I was contemplating a Re-Read Year but that just wasn't
feasible. Too many new books coming out that I want to read and the real
possibility of hating a book that I used to love. I've got some books
though that I KNOW I'll love so I'll just stick to them, even if it is
my 4th or 5th time with them :-)
Ha. My continuing People escapades continue just like they did in
2014 and I suspect they will be the same in 2016. So don't take it
personally if I stop following you because 3 gets you 5 that I'll
re-follow you in a couple of months.
In Ending. Read all the Books in 2016 . Even the ones I'll trash you
for for reading. Because Reading isn't about what I think of the book
you read but about what you think of the book you read.
This
review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained
therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to
copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions.
Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot. wordpress.leafmarks.com
& Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's
Exalted Permission.
of 5 Battle Axes
