The sappy 2009 year in review post

Well, maybe it won't be that sappy. More short and sweet--I'm not a huge fan of recounting everything that happened during a year once it's over.

I started Bookduck around December 20, 2008 on Livejournal. I'd been reading book reviews and such for awhile, and I decided I wanted to join in the conversation. As far as I can tell, I'm about the only person who looked at my Livejournal site regularly, but that's okay--a major reason why I started writing down my thoughts on books was so I could think about what I'd read more and be able to look back and see what I'd liked and disliked about this or that book.

This summer, however, I made the decision to switch to Blogger. I moved my book reviews over, made and put up a banner, and made myself at home. For the first month or so, I was still the blog's principal visitor, but again--that was okay. Having a Blogger account made it easier for me to comment on the blogs I'd enjoyed reading for so long. I continued to mirror my posts on my Livejournal site until I became too busy to do so this fall.

Now here I am a year later pleased and surprised at how everything turned out. I looked at the Follower (I've got to come up with a better name than that for you awesome people) count at the side of my blog this morning and there are THIRTY people who maybe sometimes visit Bookduck. THIRTY. Whoa. That's a lot more than zero.

Even cooler than that are the wonderful blogger friends I've made through comments. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading about your reading and writing exploits.

I got to interview two authors (Stephanie Perkins and, most recently Lauren Mechling) and got the chance to read and review two books before their release dates. One was Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, which I won an ARC of from a contest, and the other (more exciting because I didn't win it, I got asked if I wanted to review it) was Lauren Mechling's Dream Life which came in a large envelope from the publisher. I'm probably going to cut out the postage labels and scrapbook them. I may never get another ARC offer again, but I'm so thrilled that it happened once. And if it doesn't happen again, it's not like I'm going to run out of wonderful books to read :)

All in all, 23 songs were shared on Musical Mondays and 31 books were reviewed in 2009. Thanks to all who visited and commented--you made my day(s).

Saying "Hello!" to 2010,