Well, 2014 just flew by. With wedding planning, the wedding, the honeymoon, and everything else that happened this year, I barely even noticed 2014 was here. It was a very good year for my personally and reading was a bit slower, but I also think that’s a good thing. It helped me slow down a bit. I do love being able to read as much as I can but I think I’m going to take 2015 a little bit slower and not to pressure myself so much to keep up with previous years. This is my hobby, not my job, right? 🙂
- Number of Books Read In December: 12! Yay!
- Popular Search Terms: “where she went ending” (always looking for that ending… read the book! I promise!) // “books like if i stay” (woot!) // “fifth book of throne of glass” (yes, please! I mean, I’ll take #4, but…)
- More Amusing Search Terms: “evil book sex” (hahah wtf?) // “thoughts of people about books should be stay” (… what?) // “overall opinion about a book” (yesssss I have lots of those!)
- Most Referrals (Non-Twitter/FB/Wordpress, etc): GReads!, What Sarah Read, Gone With the Words
- Where My Blog Most Often Leads You (Non-Goodreads/Internal Links, etc): It’s All About Books, The Book Vixen, Love At First Page
- My “guides” to crossover books and paranormal/sci-fi/fantasy were big hits this month! 😀
- I’m hosting the Book Blogger Organization Challenge in 2015! It’s all about getting organized and planning ahead. These things can be stressful so this challenge is designed to be detailed but low-key!
- Andi (Andi’s ABCs) and I created the Statistics Survey! Look back on 2014 by the numbers!
Other Reviews Posted
- I reviewed the rest of the Mistborn books! Here is all of my love for The Well of Ascension, The Hero of Ages, and The Alloy of Law!
- I re-read The Scorpio Races and ughhhhh my feeeeels. I fell in love all over again.
- Happy holiday reads with My True Love Gave To Me!
An Updated Look at my Goodreads Reading Progress
This is also kind of rude because I lowered my goal to 120 books so it still thinks I didn’t achieve my goal. AH!
Bloggers featured on Book and a Beverage
- 12/3/14: Lucy from The Reading Date
- 12/11/14: Karen from One More Page…
- 12/18/14: Rachel from Confessions of a Book Geek
- 12/25/14: Celine from Nyx Book Reviews
Other Features & Discussions
- I was on the Kiss of Broken Glass Blog tour & helped host a fun scavenger hunt!
- My 6th Pub Date post was all about Christmas books & beer!
- Top Ten Tuesday on 12/9 was all about the new-to-me authors I read this year!
- I participated in Ginger‘s Best of 2014 Giveaway and raffled off one of my favorite reads from 2014!
- Along with a review of Last Will and Testament, I also interviewed the author, Dahlia Adler!
- I shared my top ten books that I read in 2014!
- I read Sunshine with my On the Same Page gals!
- I did Jamie’s End of Year Survey for 2014!
- Here are all the challenges I hope to participate in for 2015!
- I asked Santa to bring me some super special books this year on 12/23’s TTT
- I posted some 2015 goals & hope to be a little more laid back this year.
- The Book Blogger Organization Challenge is on! Here’s everything you need to know for January
WHAT’S IN STORE FOR JANUARY?
- The Book Blogger Organization Challenge is officially starting! It’s never too late to join and there is no way to fail this challenge. Whether you’re in for a little or a lot, come get organized with us in 2015!
- Hoping to catch up on some reviews and review copies! (Sheesh, how often do I say that?) But this time I mean it! I think now that the holidays are winding down, I’m finally going to have time to do things again!
- I’m on the blog tours for THERE WILL BE LIES, FAIREST (The Lunar Chronicles #3.5), and FIGHT FOR POWER (The Rule of Three #2) — whew, busy blog tour month!
- I wanted January to be my unofficial NaNo month since I wasn’t able to do it in November but I think it’s still going to be a bit too busy. I need to catch up a little bit first but I’m hoping to write here and there a little bit more!
2014 YEAR IN REVIEW!
- Number of Books Read: 120. I lowered my goal twice but I am TOTALLY okay with that.
- Popular Search Terms: “the kill order pdf” (le sigh) // “where she went ending” (also le sigh) // “which lunar chronicles character are you” & “lunar chronicles quiz” (hooray!) // “book addicts guide” (also hooray!)
- More Amusing Search Terms: “describe fight scenes from the lies of locke lamora” (oh, I like this!) // “what would your life be like in the lunar chronicles” (tell me more!) // “sci fi book that start with the daughter of……”
- Most Referrals (Non-Twitter/FB/Wordpress, etc): The Librarian Who Doesn’t Say Shhh!, The Perpetual Page Turner, Rather Be Reading, GReads! — Thank youuuu!!!!
- Most Referrals (Search Engines & Social Media): Search Engines (#1), Twitter (#2), Pinterest’ (#3), Bloglovin’ (#4), WordPress Dashboard (#5)
- Where My Blog Most Often Leads You (Non-Goodreads/Internal Links, etc): Books Take You Places, Tripping Over Books, Allodoxophobia, Gone Pecan, The Perpetual Page Turner
These were not only some of the posts with the most views but also some of my FAVORITES from this year!
- The Best-Friend-Turned-Boyfriend-Romance: This is actually probably the most viewed because of all of the search hits that I get for it! You’d be surprised how many people find my blog from searching some sort of romance between a girl and her guy friend!
- The Book Addict’s GUIDE to Crossover Books: One of my favorite “guides” too!
- Quiz: Which Lunar Chronicles Character Are You? Still a top hit! Hey, the quiz is never out of date, right?
- If You Liked… If I Stay: With the movie out this year, I felt like a lot of people would be looking for recs based on If I Stay! I had a lot of fun hand-picking some of my favorites.
Other Favorite Posts
- I had so much fun creating my Holiday Gift Guide for Book Addicts & it was a big hit!
- I also really liked coming up with recommendations for The Fault In Our Stars and my “guide” to Male POVS!
- I had a survey on social media and how the book community uses it. It was so much fun!
- I shared my thoughts for people going to BEA for the first time!
- On the Same Page hosted the Secret Sister project and we’ll be starting a new round here soon!
- I kept seeing celebrity doppelgangers on YA covers EVERYWHERE!
- The Fierce Reads tour in October 2014 was THE BEST. I got to interview the ladies AND moderate the event AND MEET MARISSA MEYER!!! Wheeeee!!!
- My review for Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo was my most popular this year! That actually may have been because I was giving away a copy of my ARC…… But it was one of my favorite reviews to write so I’m glad it was the one with the most views!
- I’m actually a little bit surprised that Sever by Lauren DeStefano was one of my top reviews! I think it actually comes up through a lot of search engines but I’m glad because I also really liked writing this one!
- My reviews for the Monument 14 series come up a lot through search engines too and that makes me REALLY happy! I really enjoy these books!
- My review for Libba Bray’s Beauty Queens also gets a lot of hits!
Other Favorite Reviews
- I connected so much with Cricket in Nantucket Red by Leila Howland
- I joined Matt Finch’s fan club with my read of Open Road Summer by Emery Lord — and it was my favorite debut of 2014!
- Althea & Oliver by Cristina Moracho felt like one of my more “under the radar” reads and I really enjoyed sharing my review and spreading the word to others!
- I had SO MANY FEELS for Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater!
- I was actually kind of proud of my review of Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch.
2014 EVENTS
- 3/7/14: So You’re Going to BEA for the First Time?
- 3/11/14: The Book Addict’s Guide Birthday Giveaway!
- 4/10/14: The Book Addict’s Guide Two Year Blogoversary
- 4/21/14: Results from the Survey on Book Reviews
- 5/17/14: I’m Ready for #BEA14!
- 6/4/14: BEA 2014 Recap
- 6/23/14: Fierce Reads Summer Tour: Chicago Recap
- 7/1/14: Summer Showcase: Blockbusters
- 7/21/14: Summer Showcase: Cute Contemporaries
- 10/14/14: Fierce Reads Fall Tour: Chicago Recap
- 11/24/14: Book Nerds Unite! A Sharing is Caring Giveaway
- 12/29/14: Statistics Survey
An Overview of My 2013 Goodreads Challenge
- Number of Books Read 2012: 129
- Number of Books Read 2013: 131 (+2)
- Number of Pages Read 2012: 39,811
- Number of Pages Read 2013: 42,285 (+2,474, ahem. See: A Song of Ice and Fire.)
THINGS THAT WERE BORN IN 2014
- The Pub Date feature (four bloggers featuring Books & Beer!)
- On the Same Page Secret Sister Project
- Andi and I came up with the Statistics Survey!
- I’m hosting the first Book Blogger Organization Challenge for 2015!
WHAT’S IN STORE FOR 2014?
- I actually don’t have a lot of plans for next year. I just really, really want to start catching up on some review reads but also really just read what I want. I had a lot of DNFs in 2014 BUT that was a good thing because I wasn’t wasting time on books that I wasn’t enjoying.
- I couldn’t do NaNo in November because of my wedding and I’m dying to write more. I may use a month this year for my own personal NaNo event!
- My blog will turn three!
- Who knows what else? I’m not making too many plans so I’m excited to see where the year will take me!
That wraps up the year! Thank you to everyone who supported The Book Addict’s Guide this year!!!! I love blogging for myself but it’s so much more fun with everyone else reading and commenting and flailing with me. You guys make this hobby so much more fun for me and I love you all!
2 thoughts on “December 2014/Year End Recap & Wrap-Up!”
Whoa, you got so much done in December! It’s almost overwhelming. I saw some pretty cool links that I’ll definitely have to check out some time 🙂
120 books is amazing! Especially when you think about you also getting married. I am going to try to relax a little in my reading for next year, too. Like you said, this is a hobby not a job. But I do like all the work I put into it.