2020: January wrap-up

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JANUARY 2020 WRAP-UP

📚 Wow, 2020 has been starting crazy on the reading scene. I have been reading a lot, according to my standards.

📚 Besides The Classics Club, I have been doing the Japanese Literature Challenge (until March), I joined the #Pondathon (a reading competition: I earn points for my #Xiaolong team based on the number of pages I read and the number of books I finish), and the Murakami online Book Club.
Oh and of course at the beginning of January was Bout of Books. It was a busy week, so I didn’t read as much as I wanted, but still it worked fine.

📚 The biggest news for me is that so far, I have managed to review all the books I have been reading this month, and even started catching up on books read last year.
Posting again for the Sunday Post has been very helpful for that, as I post there small reviews when a much longer review is really unnecessary.
I also enjoy doing a Book Journal section in this weekly Sunday Post: I update it every day, recapitulating what I read the night before. Looks like more and more of you have been enjoying this section of my post as well. This helps me keep track and be more consistent.

📚 There were lots of posts in the blogosphere related to the previous decade. In case you missed them, I have a post on my favorite books and one on my favorite book covers of the past decade.

📚 Also, as I am reading a difficult Orthodox theology book, I have been again reposting book notes after a couple of chapters or so on my Orthodox blog.
I suddenly remembered I had lots of Orthodox notes and quotations on a very old book blog, so I’m going to republish these on my new Orthodox blog the coming months.

So here are the titles I read in January:

11 books:
8 in print 
=  with 1,862 pages, an average of 60 pages/day
3 in audio
= 11H37, an average of 22 minutes

5 in literary fiction:

  1. Book of Genesis – audio
  2. Sanshiro, by Natsume Soseki – ebook
  3. Goddess Power, by Yung In Chae – for review
  4. And Then, by Natsume Soseki – ebook
  5. The Gate, by Natsume Soseki – ebook, review will be live on 2/4

What a wonderful experience to read Soseki’s whole trilogy in the same month

4 in mystery:

  1. Perfect Little Children, by Sophie Hannah – ebook, for review
  2. Eagle Strike, by Anthony Horowitz
  3. Pietr-le-Letton, by Georges Simenon – ebook
  4. The Haunted Bookshop, by Christopher Morley – audio

1 in children:

  1. Crenshaw, by Katherine Applegate

1 in nonfiction:

  1. The Book of Tea, by Kakuzo Okakura – ebook

It feels so good to see all these links under the books I read THIS month!

MY FAVORITE BOOKS IN JANUARY

And Then  The Book of Tea

READING CHALLENGES & RECAP

Classics Club: 15/50 (from October 2019-until September 2024)
Japanese Literature Challenge: 4 books read
Total of books read in 2020 = 11/110
Number of books added to my TBR this past month= 9 (less than 10, I deserve some applaud, lol)

OTHER BOOKS I REVIEWED IN JANUARY

Besides the books above listed, this month I also reviewed:

Lady Clementine  Dreamland   Treachery

Figure Drawing for Kids Dogs Logic Puzzles The Fascinating Animal Book fort Kids

Essential Keto Bread The Healthy Breakfast Cookbook   Minimalism

 

GIVEAWAYS

The open giveaways are on my homepage

MOST POPULAR BOOK REVIEW THIS PAST MONTH

Dreamland

click on the cover to access my review 

MOST POPULAR POST THIS PAST MONTH
– NON BOOK REVIEW –

The Ten Most Recent Additions to my 2020 bookshelf

BOOK BLOG THAT BROUGHT ME MOST TRAFFIC THIS PAST MONTH

That Artsy Reader Girl
please go visit

TOP COMMENTERS 

Judy at Keep the Wisdom
Silvia at Silvia Cachia
Angela at Musings of a Literary Wanderer
Karen at Booker Talk
Davida at The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review Blog

please go and visit them,
they have great book blogs

BLOG MILESTONES 

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Come back on Monday
to see the books I plan to read in February


Eiffel Tower OrangeEiffel Tower OrangeEiffel Tower Orange

How was YOUR month of January?

2019-Monthly-Wrap-Up-Round-Up_300

Nicole at Feed Your Fiction Addiction
 has created a Month In Review meme
where you can link your monthly recap posts
Thanks Nicole!

 

25 thoughts on “2020: January wrap-up”

  5. You’ve read quite a lot this month! That’s awesome! I started reading The Book of Tea. I’m about halfway through with it. I, too, am trying to write more reviews of the books I read. 🙂

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  6. Pingback: Sunday Post #23 – 2/2/2020 | Words And Peace

  10. This sounds like a great month. I am supposed to be part of this Japanese Lit Challenge too, and it is pity I did not have much in January to get into Japanese books. I plan to do something about it this month. Natsume Soseki is a very interesting choice. I have heard about his “Kokoro”, but not much else (I am interested in his book “Ten Nights of Dreams”, too). I am looking forward to your reviews!

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  12. You had an excellent reading month and I’m so impressed you are caught up on reviews. I really enjoyed reading your cookbook reviews–I’m always interested in learning about new recipes and foods to try.

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