stargazer

2021 in Retrospect

Phew. 2021 is coming to an end. I can’t say, I’m sad to see it go, although it hasn’t altogether been a bad year. But bring on 2022!

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas break and didn’t have your plans disrupted by Covid. I managed to get through the holiday (so far) without catching anything, which according to the news is quite a feat for a Londoner. My trip back to Denmark went well, but goodness, it’s a lot more bothersome to travel than it used to be.

Later this week, I will have my third vaccine jab, so I can enter 2022 fully boosted. Now, there is something to look forward to. πŸ˜‰

Anyway, let’s take a look at my reading and blogging in 2021, both of which I’ve really enjoyed during the year.

Reading

2021 was the year, when I started to register my reading on Goodreads. This means, I can actually get a proper overview of my annual reading. Status is, I’ve been through 63 books. I don’t know if it’s good or bad compared to my average, but it’s definitely more than I thought. 3-4 of the books are eBooks, the rest audiobooks. This shows how much I rely on audio to get any reading done at all.

It’s always interesting to look back on the year and figure out, which books have made a lasting impression. Amongst the strong contenders are Transcendent Kingdom, Love and Other Thought Experiments, The Employees and Know My Name. These titles hardly come as a surprise for regular visitors to this blog.

Transcendent Kingdom was probably my overall favourite. It was such an amazing story, covering a broad range of themes. Gifty has to be one of my favourite protagonists ever and despite our different backgrounds, I recognised some of myself in her.

Love and Other Thought Experiments confirmed a theory of mine: When you read a book with broad appeal, it’s more likely you’ll enjoy it. However, if you read a book, which appeals to a more narrow audience, which you are part of, the odds for a really unique reading experience are higher. Love and Other Thought Experiments just hit all the right buttons. With its combination of philosophy, AI and contemporary fiction, it was like, it was written especially for me.

The Employees, Love and Other Though Experiments and a third favourite, Piranesi, all belong in the “alternative, genre-bending” category. As it turns out, I really enjoy books, which are unusual and experimental, when it’s the right kind of experimentation. Who knew?

Blogging

I wrote 46 posts in 2021, which is marginally better than 2020. My most viewed posts in 2021 are:

Overall, I think I’ve found my stride with respect to content. I like variety and hope I can continue my current mix of posts (reviews, memes, tags, discussions, themed posts, etc).

My participation in book blogger events has been limited in 2021, but I did sporadically contribute to Nonfiction November and Novellas in November. Furthermore, I joined the many readers, who follow Women’s Prize for Fiction. That was fun. I picked up a couple of books, I wouldn’t have considered otherwise and ended up loving them.

I tried to select my own favourite post, but that was impossible. There are so many posts, I’ve really enjoyed writing. One highlight was Literary Locations: Bear Edition, which gave me an opportunity to look back on my first encounter with Grizzly bears in Alaska. And reread Winnie The Pooh!

Amongst the reviews, I want to mention Daphne du Maurier’s The Birds, which surprised me with how relevant its themes still are. Also, I wrote one of my rare rant reviews of When We Cease to Understand the World, which ended up as one of my most popular reviews.

There has been some interesting discussions on the blog and I want to say a big thanks to everyone who has stopped by and contributed. Book-related discussions are the best! Some of the more memorable ones relate to the concept of TBRs (do we have one and how do we use it), libraries (the varying quality of libraries across locations) and the challenging aspects of reviewing the classics.

Statistics aren’t that important for me and I know my little stargazer blog is just a tiny fish in the big blogging pond. Still, it’s nice to see that it’s growing. 2021 milestones include 1000+ followers and first post with 1000+ views.

What will 2022 bring?

As usual, I’m reluctant to set any goals for reading or blogging, since these are meant to be fun hobbies, not commitments. But I’ve listed a few things, which may happen.

  • Having realised I love to write themed / discussion posts, I may do more of these next year. I already have so many ideas!
  • Potentially, I may also start to add the odd cultural event. It’s always tricky how specialised you should keep your blog, but presumably many readers are interested in art and theatre as well?
  • When looking back at my reading in 2021, it was dominated by UK and US authors. Hopefully, 2022 can bring more geographical diversity.
  • Crime fiction is an important part of my reading life, but I don’t write much about it. Let’s see if my little crime project can change that next year.

Alright. That’s all folks. See you in 2022.

44 comments

  1. So glad you had a lovely Christmas free from any sickness and that your travels went well. Traveling has definitely become much more complicated! Sounds like you have some exciting goals for 2022. I look forward to seeing your progress ❀️

    • Thanks Tessa, let’s see what I can come up with in 2022. Sometimes, the ideas and good intentions are there, but finding the time to follow through with my plans is more tricky. πŸ™„πŸ˜€

    • Oh, really. I’ve heard about the book, but I didn’t know a tv adaptation had been made as well. Glad you enjoy it. I think there is good television drama being produced in Denmark, but I don’t know how much of it reaches the US.

  3. I love discussion posts and your ideas for such posts were great so I look forward to more posts like this! And having read 63 titles in 2021 is amazing, I think I’m at 54 (I put my challenge at 52 but thanks to audio I have a few more). Keep safe lovely and booster all the way πŸ˜‹

    • Yay, I am glad you discussion posts! So do I, not only to write them but also to read them and participate in the discussion. Huh! I’ve read more books than you? I guess, I have an advantage listening to audiobooks. They don’t really require dedicated reading time, I can just listen, whenever I am running errands, etc. Thanks Inge, and the same to you!

  4. I also really loved Piranesi, though I didn’t expect to initially. It’s one of my top reads of 2021. Well done for dodging Covid in London, we didn’t manage it! Looking forward to keeping up with more of your posts in 2022!

    • Oh no, sry to hear. Hope Covid didn’t spoil your Christmas. I didn’t really expect to love Piranesi either, but I’m so glad I read it. Thanks, I look forward to read more of your diverse posts as well next year!

    • Absolutely, fingers crossed! Glad you are interested in art/theatre posts, let’s see what I can come up with. 😊

  7. I say if you want to write about art and theater or whatever else, go for it! As you say, it’s your blog and a fun hobby, so why not, many of your readers will surely read it, including myself 😊 also, I’m glad to see your blog is growing and I hope it continues to do so in 2022. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year πŸŽ„

    • Yes, I agree that bloggers should write about what they like. However, I do remember, when starting out blogging, reading that it was important to create a “profile” for your blog. Not sure I’ve ever managed to do that, so perhaps I’ll just go crazy next year! πŸ˜† Happy new year!

      • Actually, there is ONE post that gets TONS of views, for a book I was kind of neutral about. Now I hear that book is being reissued and maybe its been edited.

        • That is great! Sometimes, I find it a conundrum, which posts get many views. Which book is it?

          • It is called The Wedding Gift by Marlen Suyapa Bodden. I published it in 2013 on my previous blog, where it got 5780 views!!! I was being generous when I gave it 3.5/5 stars, by the way.

    • Thanks so much Jonetta! I am glad to hear you like the discussions and reviews. I love your reviews as well. You don’t really do blog discussions, I think?

  10. Lovely round-up, Stargazer, and I look forward to what you present to us in the coming year. I’m way behind on your posts and have a few bookmarked to hopefully come back to eventually. Wishing you a very happy new year and a healthy and peaceful 2022. But hopefully with a few adventures in the mix too 😊 πŸŽ†πŸΎ

    • Thanks Sandra, I also look forward to 2022. Let’s see what happens. I already feel, I may have promised more than I can deliver (although I didn’t really promise anything πŸ™„). Wish you a happy new year as well, and yes, let’s hope there might be a few adventures in the new year. πŸ˜ŠπŸŒ‹

  11. I always enjoy your posts, and especially those which engender discussion. And yes, other cultural events aside from reading would interest me too. Whatever grabs your attention really! All good wishes for 2022.

    • Thanks Margaret, I wish you all the best for 2022 as well! Let’s look forward to 2022 and to lots of discussions about books and other things. 😊

    • All the best to you as well! 😊 Great, I will try to add a bit of cultural events going forward.

  13. Congratulations on your achievements, stargazer! I’ve always loved reading your posts from reviews to discussions. Posts on other topics would be interesting too! I used to do that on an old blog, then when I found it just took more time from me, I decided to just focus on reviews but who knows what’s gonna happen next haha and congrats on your blog’s views and followers! πŸ‘πŸΌ

    • Thanks so much Jee! πŸ˜€ Aww, that is kind of you to say. Yeah, some posts are definitely more time consuming, so let’s see how it all goes. I love writing about travel (i.e. Literary Locations) but these posts take more time to put togethers, which is why there aren’t too many of them.

  15. I just checked my year-end on Goodreads and see that I finished 63 books as well. Quite a coincidence. I have liked your posts and finding your blog … and look forward to seeing what you will discuss here in 2022. Stay well and Happy New Year.

    • Yes, that is some coincidence. I think 63 is pretty good… 😊 Thanks so much Susan, I am glad I discovered your blog as well! Happy New Year! πŸŽ‰

    • Thanks Lashaan, I also wish you a happy new year and all the best with your new projects and new house!

  18. Playing catch up with blogs in my feed so am late to say congratulations on hitting the 1000+ followers. Always a great feeling to discover that people are actually interested in what you have to say!
    I have an audio version of Transcendent Kingdom but haven’t started it yet so its good to know that it works well in this format. Not all books do ..

    • Thanks so much. I know some bloggers reach a high number of followers really quickly, not sure how they do it (social media?) Anyway, it doesn’t make sense to compare to other bloggers, we are all different. The narrator of Transcendent Kingdom is fantastic! She has one of those voices I could keep listening to forever and she reads it really well.

      • I think those high numbers are easier to reach if you have a focus in certain genres -YA for example. And then you do lots of book tours and tons of social media, neither of which I have time to do.

        • Yes, I am sure you are right. However, adding blog tours and social media to the work load will surely also increase chances of a blogging burnout. I am quite happy with my current approach and wouldn’t have time for more.

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