Monday, January 05, 2009

The year 2008 in review...

Yes, I'm still here and alive! (just in case you were wondering, LOL)

First, once again, Happy New Year to everyone!!! How was it to be back at work? I know, it sucked. Why do I even bother asking. Sigh.

Okay, so let see... So many reasons why I was MIA. First, I was working on the new template over at Breezing Through. Check it out if you still haven't! Please let me know if there's any bugs or something that isn't working well/isn't looking good.

Then, I was busy reviewing Broken Wing with Chantal and Ames... Let me tell you, the amount of e-mails that has been exchanged for the new look over at BT and the review... Let just say that I had difficulty keeping up with my other tasks!

Of course, since it was a holiday, there was hanging out with my friends, catching up on sleep and going out with my sister... Every time I sat down to start my Best and Worst list, I got distracted, disturbed or interrupted... but I'm ready now!

First, I'd like to say that I am indeed working on my Best and Worst list; however, that will be posted over at BT once it's ready. Chantal has already done hers, so it's only Ames and me who've been dragging our feet. However, you can bet I'll be working on it... because Ames said that the last one to finish was a rotten egg. I am no rotten egg, LOL!

So, let see how 2008 was for me reading-wise :D

I read 207 books in 2008. That's about 20 more books than last year. I have to say I'm very pleased with myself, especially since I was a consistent reader. I'd go on binge... read a lot at the beginning or end of the month. Not at all during the week and read 3 books during the week-end. One of my problem though in 2008 is that I became obsessed more with the number of books read instead of what I was reading... which dimmed my enjoyment. Hopefully, I will have learned something and won't repeat the mistake in 2009. I hope that having the re-read challenge will help. By the way, for those who are keeping track of the books read, should re-read counts?

Something I found really unfortunate in the past year was the lack of wowzers. Of course, I read some good books, but no wowzer. When I'm bored and don't know what to read or need to get out of slumpville, I reached out to books I've read in 2007... none of my reads in 2008 had a big of an impact as Virgin River or Demon Angel or Warprize or Count to Ten, just to name a few.

One of the good thing in 2008 though is that I kept it varied. I read quite a few of historicals and urban fantasy.

I participated to two challenges: Keishon's TBR challenge and the Fall challenge. I was successful in the TBR challenge, but not in the Fall Challenge. Although if I go back, I've probably read some books that fit the categories I'm missing. What I'm still not good at is to read books that are pre-selected, for whatever reasons. Even if I'm the one doing the selection ^_^;

So that's about it for me at the moment :D Stay tuned for the Best and Worst list coming up soon :D