It's bloggiesta time, and I haven't done one since 2009. I am lucky that I have had time to keep up with general maintenance type things for my blog while at the office, so things that I had to do as spring cleaning for the blog was Email clean up, make sure all my reviews are linked on the Master list, and research the possible demise of Feedburner.
I wanted to do the bloggiesta posts and follow along but when you have a 10 year old and a 5 year old to entertain, that comes first in my life. (We saw Hotel Transylvania!).. played Wii this rainy Saturday, etc. I normally do not get anything done computer-wise on the computer during the weekends because of the crazy kiddos anyway.
In the spirit of bloggiesta, I wanted to take the chance to post some of my reading 'stats', and see where I am as far as my goals for 2012. I also wanted to make sure EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS get my announcement below.
Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge:
I have read 64 of my goal of 65 books as of September 29!!
Last year I had only read 51 books, so I am happy to have already surpassed that. Ah, but how many of those were children's books or young adult etc.. Well, I can tell you the page count to really gauge what I've done:
2012: 24,431 pages (*so far!)
2011: 19,748 pages
You can check out my master reviews list to find all the books reviewed per year. And if you are my friend on goodreads you can click the challenge link and check it out directly on Goodreads.
Reviews Posted:
(Of the year 2009 published Qty. #64)
(Of the year 2010, published Qty. #62)
(Of the year 2011, published to date: Qty. #43)
(Of the year 2012, published to date: Qty #66)
What am I looking to accomplish for the rest of 2012?
No more teachers, no more books!!!! (Alice Cooper style)
Really really need to stop accepting books. Totally need to finish up two books that are read halfway and be able to finish them in 2012 so that I can add those to my count and move on. (I'm looking at you, Wolf Hall). I am not sure I can ever read another book about Anne Boleyn's downfall ever again. How many times can we rehash those events, people? For the love of GOD stop writing about Henry VIII and his wives. (Had to get that off my chest, sorry).
I am desperate to start 2013 with a clean review slate, in order to do that I need to ignore every book that is coming out in the fourth quarter. I must get caught up with the ARC's and the other books that I really really want to read that I've had on my shelves for eons. Such a book that has been a dust collector is Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman and the read along was born at HF-Connection, starting soon.
2013 Goal:
Now that I have a fabulous iPad it is so easy to score books off NetGalley. I need to stop visiting that candy store however. 2013 needs less review/ARC books, and more enriching relationships with bloggers as opposed to relationships with authors. Use 'blog for book' type programs to obtain only really coveted titles, but to not have a direct relationship with that author. I have always felt that being buddy buddy with many authors gets tricky when you are reviewing their work, especially if you would normally write a three star review of that work but feel obligated to ignore short comings because of whatever online relationship you have. I have been moving away from this relationship throughout 2012, and I want 2013 to focus more on authors who are not socially active online. I want to read some of the books that I've been collecting for the last 4 years that have taken over the house.
2013 To Read Pile: (*to name a few)
Katherine by Anya Seton
Legacy by Susan Kay
Glastonbury by Donna Fletcher Crow
The older Elizabeth Chadwick titles
Gilbert Morris, Julie Lessman and Julie Klassen titles
Georgette Heyer, Jean Plaidy and Jane Austen
I may as well stop here, since the end of the world is coming in December 2012, so this whole exercise was for naught anyway.
VERY IMPORTANT:
I also recently learned that Google Feedburner is ending October 20, 2012. Everyone who gets an email notice of a new post from me will soon no longer get that email. Feedburner was a free automatic service, and there are alternatives that seem to be mostly paid services. As much as I love to have you as a subscriber, I already pay for the use of a custom domain, and that is pretty much all I am willing to spend. Currently I have over 80 email subscribers, and with that rate it would cost me an additional $60+ a year if I chose FeedBlitz. Sounds small, but I just don't feel I can justify the expense to my husband, especially when I wonder how many of the subscribers are just irritated at some point by the emails =). MailChimp is a free option, but it's pretty much free up to a point and it's just not worth the hassle.
So when you stop getting my emails in a month, I sure hope you will return to my blog and see what you've missed. If feedburner magically stays after the October 20 closing date, then you will still get the emails. I will not deactivate the service until it deactivates by itself.
This sort of scares the crap out of me, cuz soon enough what if Google decides to do away with blogspot?! Perhaps I ought to prepare myself for that scary thought... of losing my hundreds of reviews. Egads.
To help ensure you don't miss me altogether, please make sure you Follow Burton Book Review on google connect, and follow on facebook. That will help you keep in touch, otherwise I suggest creating a weekly reminder on your calendar of choice to come check out the blog!
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