Blue Eye Books: wrap-up

Showing posts with label wrap-up. Show all posts

Friday, December 28, 2018

2018 Wrap-Up: A Statistical Analysis of the Year of Declining Productivity

Hello! Yes, I'm still here. I haven't been around the blogosphere for a while in any sort of regular way mostly because this past fall semester at uni was horrifically busy. Anyway, I'll have a whole life update at the end of this post so I'll leave the venting for then. And now, onto the statistics (because who doesn't like graphs?).

2018 May + June Wrap-Up (what happened I don't even know...)

May and June... interesting months those two. Usually I have something to say about how the last two months went but honestly, these two kind of flew by in monotony. Is that weird? That's weird. June did end up being the first month in a very long time where I DNFed a book. In any case, I have plans to make July and August much less monotonous so here's to past boringness!

March + April Wrap-Up

So this was an interesting few months. Mostly, I just had zero time for anything (if you thought my January and February were productive, prepare yourself for the utter unproductivity that was March and April). In any case, it's now May and it's time for another wrap-up! (just ignore the fact that March should be separate from April if I would ever follow my goals)

January + February Wrap Up

Yes, I am horribly behind on everything (I still have two Guides to write!) but I'm slowly catching up. That involves doing these two wrap-ups squished into one!

January and February have actually been a dream. I've been rereading waaaay more than I should be but on the whole, I'm reading a good number of books and keeping the momentum going. I do need to be reading more R&R books but I'm hoping to remedy that ASAP! Anyway, more about it at the bottom. For now, STATISTICS!! (aka my life force)

2017 Wrap-Up (yet another year with a reading catastrophe)

Yes, yes I know I'm terribly late with this but better late than never, am I right? You know those years where you have all the best intentions to fix all the mistakes of the previous year but then it doesn't really work out? Yeah, that was 2017. I didn't even get around to posting my resolutions so I don't really have anything to compare myself with. Mostly, I just know I failed epically at the two challenges I set for myself in the beginning of the year. But let's stop with all the doom and gloom; the year wasn't all bad. I had a great rereading stint (even if it meant I wasn't reading new-to-me books...) which was really great and December was an awesome month for reading. But let me stop talking at you and show you some stats!

December Wrap-Up

December is finally over and with it, 2017 has also come and gone. It's kind of strange that a whole year has passed since the dreaded 2016... In any case, I'll be doing a whole year end wrap up in a week or so (when I get my life together enough to pull together ALL the stats). For this post, I'll be focusing on the lovely month of December.

November Wrap-Up

It's that time again! Honestly, I can't believe how fast this year is flying by. There's so much I have to do by the end of the year, not to mention the end of the semester (which ends in the middle of December). But we shall power on! This month has certainly been interesting in terms of reading.

October Wrap-Up

I am catching up!! (can you hear the conviction?) I haven't done a wrap-up since April and I made a resolution at the beginning of the year that I would try to get a wrap-up posted for every month. Obviously that isn't really happening because of my summer of terror but I'm going to finish out the year strong!

April Wrap-Up

This year is moving way too fast. Seriously. I'm ridiculously behind on reading because of finals and exams and essays and a thousand other things I need to be doing. I'm not ready for it to be May yet! There was so much to be done in April that didn't get done! Nevertheless, we have arrive on the doorstep of May and the revolution of the Earth will not slow. So we beat on. (if you caught the reference, we can be best friends until the end of time)

March Wrap-Up

Guys! March is over already which means a quarter of the year is done! (and I haven't even posted my goals for this year... *crawls into corner*) This month hasn't been great for reading but it's also been a pretty intense week at university so there's that. Let me show you just how pathetic my reading totals are for this month. Shall we?

February Wrap-Up

So if you hadn't noticed, February has passed us by! It's now March which means it's time to reflect on the past month. Let's get to it!

January Wrap-Up

It's the end of January already! Can you believe it?? While I was pretty productive this month in some areas, I wasn't so much in other areas. Let's explore what happened this month, shall we?

2016 Wrap-Up (the year that started out gloriously before deteriorating)

The time has arrived yet again for a yearly wrap-up! 2016 certainly flew by and while I wasn't so successful with everything I wanted to do, I'm feeling good about going into 2017 with better goals and such. I'll be posting my 2017 resolutions in the next few weeks but for now, let's reflect on 2016 (AKA the year that began wonderfully and ended disastrously).

This year, I employed the use of a spreadsheet to keep track of the books I read and things about them so I can actually have some stats this year! I've made some infographics and charts and things so enjoy!

November Wrap-Up

It's time for my November wrap-up! November just flew by, honestly. So much happened this month and unfortunately, not much of that stuff was NaNoWriMo or blogging or reading. I did get more reviews written and books read than October though so that's something!

October Wrap-Up + NaNoWriMo

So this time I'm actually going to get into the habit of posting these at the end of each month so I can actually reflect upon the month! The last time I did a wrap-up was in March which is way too long ago! I'll be wrapping up what books I read this month (including the books I haven't had a chance to review yet and my rereads). So without further ado, let's get into it!

March Wrap-Up and Update

It's time for another monthly wrap-up! I realize I haven't done one of these in SUCH a long time but I'm trying to get back into the habit of doing them. I think it'll help if I start a post at the beginning of the month and keep updating it as I finish books. Then it won't be so hard to track down all of this information at the end of the month. This month will also be the last month in which I only count books for which I've written and published reviews. Because I'm a bit behind on my reviews, it seems like I've only read 2 books this month but I can tell you it was far from it. I have so many notes written but no time to write the actual reviews! I'll start keeping track of every book I finish. So without further ado, let's get into it!

Bookish Statistics:

Number of Pages Read: 597
Total Books Read: 2

Distribution of Ratings:
5 star: 0
4-4.5 star: 1
3-3.5 star: 1
2-2.5 star: 0
1-1.5 star: 0

Number of Authors Read: 2
Number of Series Books Read: 1

Number of Stand-alones: 1

The Books:

Kragan by Dennis K. Hausker
Pivot Point by Kasie West (Pivot Point#1)

Summary:
This month, like I said in my intro, I actually read a lot more than two books. However, I only kept track of the ones I wrote a review for and I got really behind on reviews. April will be different! Kragan was the R&R book of the month and Pivot Point was my buddy read of the month. I rated Kragan a 3 for it's great idea but lack of development. Pivot Point earned a 4 as it is such a cool idea but there were still fuzzy things.

Life Updates:

Whew! That month just flew by! I didn't end up getting all of my R&R's done which is really sad but I'm aiming for this month! February and March were just so busy with regular life stuff that everything bookish just sort of fell by the way-side.

I also haven't had much time for writing over the past month or so. I've been writing scholarship essays and figuring out where my life is headed next year. I hope to do more writing this summer during NaNoWriMo Camp and finish the book that I started during the November NaNoWriMo.

I also finally started going to my real life book club meetings and I've been having fun at them. I'm not sure when I'll have the reviews up for the books we've read so far but hopefully it'll be soon! So far, I've read House of Thunder, Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl and Slaughterhouse Five. I also plan to write a review for Little Women for which I participated in a read-along for back in February (and do the discussion questions that I haven't yet done!).

One last thing! I do plan to do at least one discussion post this month. I really miss writing them and it seems like I never have the time to because reviews take first priority. However, I'm hoping to make time in April! After all, it is my birthday month :)

I hope you all are doing well! Happy reading!

Thursday, February 4, 2016

2015 End of Year Survey: Part 2

This is part two of the year end survey hosted by Jamie over at The Perpetual Page-Turner!

If you missed part one, you can find it HERE.

So without further ado, let's get into it!

1. New favorite book blog you discovered in 2015?

So here's the thing, I don't really keep track of when I follow blogs so I have no idea what new blogs I've followed this year! Maybe that's something I'll keep track of this year... Here are some blogs I've really had fun reading this year though!

Rachel, Julia, and Mishma @ A Perfection Called Books

Cari and Haley @ My Addiction: Books

Anna @ Enchanted By YA

Cody @Literary-ly Obsessed

Tanya @ A Book Paradise

Cristina @ Girl in the Pages

Jazmen @ This Girl Reads A Lot!

And so many more!

2. Favorite review that you wrote in 2015?

I have two!

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness - see my review HERE

A Court of Thorns and Roses - see my review HERE

3. Best discussion/non-review post you had on your blog?

I haven't posted a discussion post in a while and it makes me sad :( I'll definitely be posting more in the future! I did post some earlier this year though and here's one of my favorites:

Bookish Discussions: Beautiful Covers

4. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, memes, etc.)?

I actually did my first few buddy reads this year which was really fun although I did find out that I have a hard time keeping pace with the other person/people because I usually just read books in one sitting...

5. Best moment of bookish/blogging life in 2015?

I was officially featured in an actual printed book and it was just fabulous! It was in the book Goodbye, Magnolia by Krista Noorman. I was involved in the launch team and we originally connected when she asked if I'd be willing to review her previous book, The Truth About Drew. Here's the photo I posted to Instagram!

6. Most challenging thing about blogging or your reading life this year?

The most challenging thing that I'm still struggling with is staying on top of my R&R's. I got so behind this summer when I over estimated exactly how much free time I'd have to write reviews so now I have a whole pile (some from a year ago) that need reviews to be written! My goal for these first three months of the new year is to finish all of my R&R's from last year so I can finally reopen requests!

7. Most Popular Post This Year On Your Blog (whether it be by comments or views)?

The most viewed post this year by far was:
R&R Interview and Review Sunday: Chains of Prophecy by Jason P. Crawford

8. Post You Wished Got A Little More Love?

Actually, none. I mean, the whole reason I blog is so that I can share my opinion and to connect with other people in the blogosphere. I'm not really in it to have page views or anything.

9. Best bookish discover (book related sites, book stores, etc.)?

This answer is also going to be kind of general too because I didn't really buy anything bookish this year although some of my favorite bloggers started Etsy shops including Anna from Enchanted by YA. You can check out her announcement post HERE! She makes these awesome mini bottle necklaces that are so cute! They're labeled things like basilisk venom and starlight that relate to different books and fandoms.

10. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year?

If you frequent my blog, you may know that I don't really don't do well with organized challenges. I'm more the "let's see how many books I can read this year!" kind of person. I actually didn't meet my Goodreads goal of 150 books this past year. I came up short with 100. I'm challenging myself to 100 books this year but I'm hoping to hit 150 to redeem myself :)

My next post will be all about my resolutions for the new year! I know, I know, this is coming really late but I'm determined to get it done!

Saturday, January 9, 2016

2015 End of Year Survey: Part 1

This is hosted by Jamie @ Perpetual Page-Turner! It does such a nice job of wrapping up the year and everything that happened in your reading life! I know, I know it's a lot late but I'm not all that good at planning ahead! I'll be posting my resolutions and goals for 2016 in a post shortly after this one!

March Wrap-Up

March is gone just like that! It just flew by! Here's everything that went on in March!

October Wrap-Up

Happy Halloween everyone! I've been browsing around the internet and everyone has these amazing costumes and I'm just sitting here like "yeah... I'll be staying home and watching scary movies with people". I have no imagination. But no matter! If you dressed up for Halloween, I'd love to hear/see what you dressed up as! Now, onto the post!

October is gone already! That means it's time for another wrap-up post.

During the month of October I...

Read (from their start date - meaning I started them in October not September) 13 books.