A Beginning

I signed up for a blog on Blogger a long time ago but never did anything with it but I have decided now is the time to do something. I used to blog a little on my AOL site which is now defunct and Myspace which I no longer visit but was looking to do something different. I don't know if this will be different but I find I really need to start writing stuff again. What stuff? Blog posts, fanfiction, original stories-what ever is in my mind at the time.

What do I plan on putting on this blog? General stuff, book reviews, possibly movie reviews-whatever is floating my boat at the moment.

What I'll start with right now is talking books. I started writing down the books I read in 2005 and am happy to see that the number I have read as increased almost every year. In 2005 I read 29 books, in 2006 I read 31, in 2007 I read 34, in 2008 I read 35, in 2009 I read 58, and in 2010 I read 58. I was having a big mental block when it came to reading around 2005 and thought writing down what I've read would help and it did. The big jump in 2009 came about because some friends and I did a summer reading challenge where we tried to read a book a week and I actually did pretty well with the challenge. I challenged myself to try to do the same this summer but didn't do quite as well though I read the same number of books this year as last. I admit one thing that helped with the book count was my renewed interest in YA novels. I found some really delightful books to read and have passed some of them on to friends to read. Looking through the lists it's pretty easy to see who some of my favorite authors and genres are but I'm happy to say there are some different titles in there. I do seem to read the Harry Potter series through at least once a year if not twice!

My favorites I read in 2010 are as follows (in no particular order):
"Gentlemen & Players" by Joanne Harris
The Mysterious Benedict Society books by Trenton Lee Stewart
"Full, Dark House" by Christopher Fowler
"The Burying Place" by Brian Freeman
"The Weeds that String The Hangman's Bag" by Alan Bradly
The Percy Jackson & the Olympians series by Rick Riordan
"Faithful Place" by Tana French-loved this one
The Bordertown Books by Terri Windling, et al (I loved "Finder" by Emma Bull)
The Star Wars X-Wing series books I've read so far
"Kitchen of Light" cookbook by Andreas Viestad

Here's to more reading in 2011!

(This is the same as my Livejournal entry until I decide which one I'm going to post on)