Tag: State of the Blog

January 2016 Report

On February 1, 2016

In Books, Calendar Items, Currently Reading, News/Misc.

(I need to think of a catchier name for these posts…)

So, here’s what happened here in January.

Books Read:






	6

Still Reading:

Reviews Posted:

The Witch with No Name by Kim Harrison
The Absconded Ambassador by Michael R. Underwood
Indexing: Reflections by Seanan McGuire
The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez
Sex and Violence in the Bible: A Survey of Explicit Content in the Holy Book by Joseph W. Smith III
The Next to Last Word: Service, Hope, and Revival in the Postexilic Prophets by Michael P. V. Barrett
The Odd Fellows Society by C.G. Barrett
Hidden by Karen E. Olson
In Defense of the Moth or A Meaningless Dance in Blinding Heat and Light by Johnny Newport
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Sabbath by Arthur Nsenga & Shaunakay Francis
Traps and Trapezes by Kyle Higgins and Eddy Barrows
Songs of a Suffering King: The Grand Christ Hymn of Psalms 1–8 by J. V. Fesko
Winter by Marissa Meyer
Three Slicesby Kevin Hearne, Delilah S. Dawson, Chuck Wendig
Lessons from Tara: Life Advice from the World’s Most Brilliant Dog by David Rosenfelt
The Storms of Deliverance by Larry Higdon

How was your month?

Thanks for a Great 2014

By HCNewton

On January 2, 2015

In Calendar Items, News/Misc.

So, that’s 2014, eh? 169 books read (short of my goal by 21), 211 posts (short of my goal by a couple hundred), almost triple the traffic over last year.

I did a quick breakdown of how my reading broke down by genre over the last few years. There were a few anomalies this year (what’s up with my Urban Fantasy and General Fiction numbers?) which makes it interesting for me, anyway — don’t know about the rest of you.

Genre	2014	2013	2012	2012-2014
Fantasy	11 (7%)	15 (8%)	12 (6%)	38 (7%)
General Fiction/Literature	7 (4%)	30 (16%)	30 (14%)	67 (12%)
Humor	3 (2%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	3 (1%)
Mystery/Suspense	62 (37%)	63 (33%)	73 (35%)	198 (35%)
Non-Fiction	4 (2%)	2 (1%)	11 (5%)	17 (3%)
Science Fiction	17 (10%)	14 (7%)	11 (5%)	42 (7%)
Steampunk	3 (2%)	3 (2%)	11 (5%)	17 (3%)
Theology/Christian Living	42 (25%)	37 (19%)	10 (5%)	89 (16%)
Urban Fantasy	20 (12%)	26 (14%)	48 (23%)	94 (17%)
Western	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	1 (0%)	1 (0%)

Hopefully everything will be higher next year — books, posts, and traffic. We’ll see — I’m doing the Goodreads Challenge again (same goal as the last 2 years, 190) and I think I’m going to try to work in The Book Riot 2015 Read Harder Challenge
. I might throw in a couple other “projects” that I’ve been thinking about.

Paul David Ondik, houseofadelaide, Eli Glasman, ronweasleyfans, MaxMuscles, TheCoevas Official, hannahbananah412, taylor oceans, urbanwallart, Planetary Defense Commander, jH, Kameron George, jordynmtz, Brian Moore, henrylib, kyleolsonsblog, Brian Marggraf, immabelike, Jonathan Roumain, Anna Bayes, poetreecreations, Timothy Pike, Allison Chaney, williamthebutler, Melonie Ann, gradypbrown, jgiambron, Giorgia Penzo, mindset, criticaldispatches, Everyrosehasathorn, Jarosław PlayWithLifE, Opinionated Man, theeditorsjournal, Kevin Cummings, teutah, Carole Parkes, shaun890, gregmercer601, R. G. Tamaki, bdhesse, Ana Franco, psychocinderella, psychosis5116, Martin Cosgrove, sheilarparker, vonj productions, adoptingjames, lovabletm24, pimpbooks, Kurt Brindley, Caroline, Jennifer Reed/bookjunkiez, Mr. Smith, saracroethle, J.W. Kurtz, Maggie Mae, Jay Dee, apprenticenevermaster, TyCobbsTeeth, Felicity, Leroy Milton, Ramona Crisstea, Holy Moly, smilehopebehappy, The Eye-Dancers, michaelpatricks, bradsdesk, lightningpen, Cindy Baker, and a few others I might have missed for following the blog (at least for a couple of minutes).
Sorin Suciu, allthoughtswork, jordynmtz, justrozie, Hai, Andrew Bishop, and Keith R.A. DeCandido for taking the time to interact a bit. I really appreciate it.
@Paul_Cornell, @ShaneSKuhn, @wes_chu, @MikeRUnderwood, @TeeMonster, @byharryconnolly, @MarleneStringer, @ReedFColeman, @LeeGoldberg, @KRADeC, @AlexBledsoe, and @explauramay (and others that I lost track of — oops) for sharing, retweeting and replying to my meager words about their books on twitter. You’re all too gracious and kind (and frequently funny).
Big, big thanks to Erin Mitchell, Shannon A. Thompson, Laura Skillen, Jamie Schultz, Ty Patterson, Carac Allison, and Lee Goldberg/Brash Books for asking me to read their (or their client’s) books — and for giving me those books to read. Seriously, thank you for this.
Paul, Angela, and Jamie for all that real life encouragement and interaction with what I’ve put here.
Maria Semple, Pittacus Lore, Chuck Wendig, Mark Jones, Carrie Vaughn, Iain H. Murray, R. J. Palacio, Thomas Harris, David Baldacci, David Abrams, Robert Goldsborough, Eoin Colfer, Myke Cole, Matt Haig, Chris Grabenstein, Joe Queenan, S. J. Rozan, Craig Johnson, Kelly Meding, Ben Aaronovitch, Jaye Wells, Brian Borgman & Rob Ventura, Pierce Brown, Michael Lefebvre, Diana Gabaldon, Bruce A. Ware, Thor Ramsey, Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., Patricia Briggs, Ernest Cline, Wil Wheaton, Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg, Seanan McGuire, Faith Hunter, Brad Parks, Rob Thomas, Jennifer Graham, Marissa Meyer, Reed Farrel Coleman, J. Gresham Machen, Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris, Daniel R. Hyde, Shane P. Lems, Adam Sternbergh, Shane Kuhn, Ty Patterson, Ace Atkins, Alan Bradley, Ari Marmell, Simonetta Carr, Jim Butcher, Wesley Chu, John Brown, Owen Laukkanen, William Lashner, Michael S. Horton, Ryan M. McGraw, Paul Cornell, Christopher Healy, Matt Kibbe, Michael Koryta, Kevin Hearne, Janet Evanovich, Aaron Elkins, Michael R. Underwood, Thomas Watson, Robert Galbraith, Kady Cross, Thomas Boston, Andy Weir, Ellen Raskin, Jennifer Weiner, Richard D. Phillips, Tom Rachman, Douglas Bond, Kevin DeYoung, Jim Gaffigan, Lee Child, Spencer Quinn, Sue Grafton, Marcia Clark, Harry Connolly, Kim Harrison, Richard L. Pratt, Jr., Alex Bledsoe, Robert Crais, Tom Kakonis, Benjamin Morgan Palmer, Rainbow Rowell, John Moe, Lev Grossman, Iain M. Duguid, David Rosenfelt, Andreas J. Köstenberger & Michael J. Kruger, Scott Lynch, Thom Notaro, Sorin Suciu, Thomas Goodwin, Jamie Schultz, Matthew Barrett, Carl Trueman, Justin Richards, Chelsea Cain, Sam Allberry, M. R. Carey, Benedict Jaka, Donald MacLeod, Dennis Lehane, Carac Allison, Robert Letham, Anton Strout, R. C. Sproul, Thomas Brooks, Keith R. A. DeCandido, Rick Riordan, Patrick Rothfuss, Laura May, Rick Yancey, Jacqueline Carey, Shane Sowers, David Nicholls, Sinclair B. Ferguson, R. Scott Clark, Alafair Burke, William Lashner, Brian Cosby, Ralph Venning, Jay Kristoff, Greg Haslam, Erin Kelly, and Cary Elwes for all hours of pleasure I had with your words and books this year.
And you all for reading.

Putting the Irresponsible into the Blog

By HCNewton

On September 19, 2014

In Currently Reading, News/Misc.

The “irresponsible” in the blog title is supposed to mean that I read whatever, with only a regard for what catches my eye, not in an effort to better myself or be literary or live up to whatever standard — but it’s not supposed to be a reference to my posting frequency.

So what happened to me this week? Reread Project was up late (2 weeks in a row) and then . . . nothing. I got busy with the non-book part of my life (work, parenting, etc.) and had a hard time finishing that post. Almost decided to give myself a week off, put up a “Gone Reading” sign and let things go silent here. But I decided I needed the pressure of a schedule to get things done — mostly not getting behind again on reviews.

But if you look at the blog, that’s pretty much what I did. I did work on two reviews and one non-review piece that should’ve been up by now (no, really, I did) — the first review, Premonitions by Jamie Schultz is giving me a really hard time for some reason. I really wanted to get that one up, because it’s the kind of book that a lot of people should be saying many nice things about. That one should’ve been up Wednesday afternoon. Maybe, if everything goes perfectly over the next couple of days, it’ll be up Tuesday, with many more to follow next week.

As far as tackling the ol’ TBR pile goes . . . I’m torn between books that I’ve told authors I want to read, books with library due dates, and a few new books I actually bought a couple weeks ago and haven’t even looked at yet. I don’t mean to ignore Jacka’s Hidden. Really. Got it on release day, two and a half weeks ago. Maybe I can start that Thursday of next week. This morning, I technically started M. R. Carey’s The Girl with All the Gifts (read 4 pages before falling in to a much needed coma). Then this afternoon, I had about 15 minutes to sit in my car waiting for my kids at school and realized I forgot to bring it along. Thankfully, I’d just come from the library, so I had something on hand, namely Chelsea Cain’s One Kick. Wow. Just wow. What a beginning. Sure, the first 50 pages or so don’t do much beyond deliver what’s promised on the cover, but they deliver it with a bang. I am so hooked. Expect a rave from me on this one (unless it falls apart in a horrible way).

Anyway, that’s a lot of blather really — mostly about stuff that no one cares about, but just putting this up there will make me feel better about the posting frequency this week. Thanks for indulging me.