Happy 2nd Blogoversary!

Two years ago today, I started this blog because I felt like sharing my thoughts on the growing collection of books I was reading thanks to my newly acquired Kindle. I am still at it now and am only 3 more followers away from hitting 100 which I never could have imagined when I first started out on this journey.

Anyway, I should probably try and summarise some of what occurred over the last year so I will start with the biggest piece of news that occurred in regards to the blog and that is the fact that I decided to re-name it. I can’t remember if I ever explained the reason for the name change so I will do so now. Basically I found out there was another older blog out there with the same name as mine and I just didn’t like that. Don’t get me wrong, my blog isn’t big or well-known but I still want to make sure if people are looking for it they can at least find it. The new title I hope also tried to fit into the fact that whilst I favour Science-Fiction and Fantasy I do still try and read a good variety of genres.

In regards to book reading and blogging, then I can easily say that this has been a busy year for me, mainly because I entered far too many book reading challenges. It actually got the point that I almost threw in the towel on my entire blog as I began to get annoyed trying to meet umpteen different challenge requirements. I still can’t believe that I let myself feel stress about the entire thing but I made it through and have learnt my lesson as I have only entered one challenge for 2013 which is The Eclectic Reader Challenge.

My year of reading however has still been enjoyable as I have read some really magical books. In fact I have tried to highlight some of the books I liked the most out of those I have read and reviewed since my last blogoversary below:

Favourite Indie Published Book
Foundation For The Lost by Scott Rhine
This wonderfully clever and well written urban fantasy really was a highlight of the last year. The characters were interesting, the writing was engaging and this novel is a superb example of what can happen when an Indie author gets it right.

Favourite Science-Fiction Book
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
When I initially wrote my review on this book I had highlighted that I couldn’t actually think about anything negative to say about it. I have to be honest and say I still can’t as it was funny, entertaining and had an interesting and clever plot that highlighted some of the serious consequences of time travel but also had me laughing out loud.

Favourite Star Trek Book
Final Frontier by Diane Carey
This Star Trek novel took an interesting and enjoyable look at Captain Kirk's father. There was action, intrigue and fun aplenty, but more importantly it was just plain entertaining and could easily have worked as a standalone Science Fiction novel.

Favourite Fantasy Book
Watership Down by Richard Adams
This book made the list mainly because I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this novel. I picked it up for a challenge unsure about how good a book about rabbits could really be but I found it to be fun, engaging and full of entertaining adventures. I finished the book with a big smile on my face and happy that I had finally gotten around to reading this classic.

Favourite Non Speculative Fiction Book
King of Paine by Larry Kahn
I have to admit that I didn’t read many non speculative fiction books over the last year due to the requirements of the various challenges I took part in. However, this book was one that I do remember well. At its heart it was an enjoyable thriller, but its complex and interesting plotline alongside some engaging characters ensured that I was hooked from start to finish.

Now this doesn’t mean that any of the other books were any less enjoyable or entertaining but those books above really grabbed me and had me thinking about them for a long time after finishing them.

One final thing I wanted to share in this post is the interesting screenshot below of Goodreads highlights the number of books I have read over the last few years. This amused me as I think it becomes pretty obvious at what time it was I got my kindle and started book blogging.

As you can also see, I just missed reaching my personal target of reading 100 books in 2012 so I guess we now need to see if 2013 will be the year that I finally break through the 100 book barrier.

In summary, I just have to say a thank you to the all the authors who wrote a book I read over the last year as their vision and ideas have kept me both entertained and in love with the magic of literature. In addition, thank you to the people who read and comment on this blog, I just hope that some of you find something useful in amongst all my mutterings.