Life has been extremely laid back for the last while. Winter has melted away, the trees have sprouted some buds, and there’s a warmish breeze in the air. I think what I love about spring is how similar it is to fall – you still get that crispness in the air in the mornings, the leaves still don’t have leaves, and there’s still a need for a sweater when you go outside.

I’ll enjoy this while I can because once summer comes, I’ll turn into a gremlin and complain all the time – I am most definitely not a fan of heat. And here in Alberta you might think that we don’t get a load of heat, but the past few summers it’s been way too hot for my liking. Is it wrong to say I’d love fall and winter year round?

Anyway, enough weather talk! I have been dabbling in something that’s old, but new, lately – knitting! Way back in 2011, I came home with some needles, hooks, and yarn, and wanted to try something with yarn. Whether it was knitting or crochet, I wanted to find one that appealed to me and start to make things. Over the past 8 years I’ve always come back to crochet, but in the past month I’ve had this need to learn to knit. I have knit over the past years, but it never really stuck with me. I’d try here and there, make a hat or a scarf, but I’d never retain any information on what I was doing, I could never identify my stitches, and don’t even get me started on dropping a stitch. That basically meant frog the whole thing and start over!

This time around, though, I have been loving knitting. I love the patterns, the feel of a knit item, and how relaxing it is. I mean, crochet is also relaxing, but I find knitting to be even more so because it takes so much longer to make something. I love getting into the groove of knitting a shawl and just going from row to row, almost on autopilot, with my project slowly growing.

I actually tried my first fair isle project last week. I’ve always loved the look of nordic knits and just had to make one of these hats. And boy did I learn so much making this one!

• The colours aren’t going to line up in the back unless you slip the stitch at the end of a colour row. I still need to practice this!
• Maybe don’t make such a big brim. I thought it would work better for me since according to my husband I have a big head, whereas I just have a lot of hair, but the brim is too long which makes the hat even longer. Oops!
• If I’d have realized I would be adding a pom pom, I probably would’ve not had so many decreases at the end and would have instead threaded my yarn through the top stitches and cinched it shut.

And I learned that fair isle isn’t so bad if you concentrate. There are a lot of colour changes and I had to remember to grab my colours with the main colour every so often to add more stability on the inside, but once I got into the groove, it was quite fun!

I know my last few posts have been mostly about yarn and crocheting and knitting, but I promise I have been reading! Definitely not as much as recent years, not nearly as much, but I still do cozy up with a book every night before bed. It’s interesting looking at my previous reading stats from the last 8 years because I’m fairly certain I’ve read more in the first month of past years than I have this whole year so far.

Here’s what I’ve read so far this year:

1. The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Hercule Poirot, #1) by Agatha Christie
2. The Murder on the Links (Hercule Poirot, #2) by Agatha Christie
3. Poirot Investigates (Hercule Poirot, #3) by Agatha Christie
4. Poirot’s Early Cases (Hercule Poirot, #38) by Agatha Christie
5. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Hercule Poirot, #4) by Agatha Christie
6. The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck
7. Stories of Motherhood, edited by Diana Secker Tesdell
8. The Big Four (Hercule Poirot, #5) by Agatha Christie
9. The Mystery of the Blue Train (Hercule Poirot, #6) by Agatha Christie
10. Peril at End House (Hercule Poirot, #8) by Agatha Christie
11. I Owe You One by Sophie Kinsella

As you can see, I’ve slowly but steadily been working through Agatha Christie, starting with the Poirot series. I’m loving it so far with the only dud being The Big Four, which was okay but not as good as the previous Christie books I’ve read.

My current read is quite fitting for the hobby that’s been taking up my time:

Who doesn’t love a cozy mystery? I love them, especially ones about yarn! I love these yarny mysteries because they usually include patterns and this one includes a pattern and a recipe and I can’t wait to see what they are! I remember reading a crochet cozy that had the most delicious chocolate muffins as a recipe in the back.

I’m thinking of aiming for a 4 book a month goal, maybe trying to work in at least one audiobook a month to listen to during my yarn time. I honestly feel like my unread books are judging me.

And as for this blog, I changed the name to A Little Winter Yarn after the brief change of Reading (& Crocheting) In Winter because to spin a yarn can mean to tell a story, and yarn is also, well, yarn! I’m going to try and share more reading and try to find a balance between books and yarn and maybe some other things in between.

To close, may your book be enjoyable and your yarn plentiful!

Now that it’s spring, I’ve been thinking about what I can do for spring cleaning around my house. The list is absolutely ENDLESS and my motivation is NIL but one thing I always love to do in the spring, and never hesitate to do, is change up my dishcloths and dish towels in my kitchen. Since spring is such a refreshing time of year, when it’s so nice to just open up the windows and let that cool breeze in the house after months of winter stuffiness, I love refreshing my kitchen with not only a good scrub, but some new dishcloths.

One thing I will say, having nice new dishcloths makes me enjoy doing the dishes. I mean, not that anyone actually likes doing the dishes but new dishcloths – and especially homemade ones – make it a bit more special.

I was a bit hesitant about buying this new Bernat Handicrafter Scrub Off Cotton, which is a mix of their usual cotton yarn, mixed with scrubbie yarn. Normally I’d buy 3 or 4 skeins but I came home with just one, just in case I didn’t like it. And at first I didn’t because it’s so hard to see the stitches with the scrubbie part, but once I figured out a good pattern it was a lot of fun to work with.

This pattern is ridiculously easy and I love how the two textures combined in the cloth. They’re also nice and sturdy!

Springtime Scrub Cloth

Materials:

H (5.0) hook
Bernat Handicrafter Scrub Off Cotton yarn (I’m using the colorway Copper Pot)
Scissors
Tapestry needle

Pattern: 

Holding two strands together (I started with a strand of the cotton pulled from the middle, and the scrub part from the outside of the skein) cast on 22 stitches.

Row 1: Continuing to hold two strands of yarn, half double crochet in the second chain from the hook, then half double crochet across. (21 hdc)

Row 2: Chain 2 and turn. Half double crochet in the same stitch as the chain 2 and across to the end of the row. (21 hdc)

Row 3-15 (or until your cloth is square): Repeat row 2.

Fasten off and weave in your ends.

And that’s it! Ridiculously simple and would be perfect as a gift. I LOVE this colourway and think it just screams spring. I think I might have to get a few more skeins now!

It’s been nearly 2 months since my last post and I have to say, not too much has been going on! Life here has revolved around school and activities for the littles, a new puppy, being sick, and lots of yarn.

There are only a few months left of school for the kiddies and it feels so weird that I’ll have a kid in Grade 1 next year. Can they please stop growing? I love that they still love to cuddle and snuggle with their mama so I’m taking all that I get now! My oldest gave me two kisses the other night before bed and my heart pretty much melted. And speaking of melting, spring came ridiculously early here – almost too early for me. If you know me, you’ll know I love fall and winter, so when spring comes I start to get irritated because I know summer is coming. I’m the opposite of most people, but I hate summer. Not only do we have tons of mosquitoes, but I also hate that feeling of being sticky the second you walk out the door. Heat and me do not mix.

The winter has gone by with me being sick for most of it, just catching colds and flus every month it seems. I feel like my kids and I are just keeping the same cold, passing it back and forth every week since I can already feel the aches and headaches that come before getting stuffy and sneezy. When spring break rolled around, despite the fact that we were all sick, we decided to get a new puppy! We’ve had our other puppy for 6 months now and he loves to play, but our older dogs are only so so on his type of play, so we found another Bernese Mountain Dog who was living on a farm and we jumped at the chance to get him. He was about 5 months when we picked him up, two days into spring break, and he’s just adorable. So fluffy! He’s also huge, probably the same weight as our other Berner who’s about a year and a half older than him. But they both play together, which is great!

I’ve been playing with lots of yarn still, too, falling more and more in love with crocheting and trying new patterns that expand my skills. I also subscribed to a few crochet subscription boxes and bought my first hand-dyed skein which was kind of exciting. I have a crazy amount of projects on the go, and yet I recently decided that I want to really focus on knitting more. I’ve been off and on with knitting for years but I never really devote too much time for it, but I’m determined to figure it out! It’s been fun picking up my knitting needles again and finding tutorials online, though it’s hard to find beginner patterns that aren’t scarves, hats, or dishcloths. Not that I don’t like those things, but I want to try something different.

As far as reading goes, I promise I have been reading! I’m predicting that this year will be the year I read less than any other year, though. We’re about midway through April and I’m on my 11th book, which is so weird to think! In previous years I’ve read this much and more in just January! I really haven’t been following any book news or hype anywhere, I don’t know what any new releases are aside from the ones by favourite authors that I already have preordered, and I haven’t been buying any books aside from, again, the ones I had preordered. I have ordered some crochet and knitting books, but as far as other reading books go, nothing. Again, weird.

Currently, I’m reading some more Agatha Christie! I’ve been reading her Poirot series and decided to break from it with a standalone, reading Crooked House. I’m really loving her books so far and they seem to be the ones I gravitate towards. I also read the new Sophie Kinsella and I was a bit disappointed. I loved her book from a few years back, My Not So Perfect Life, and these past couple books haven’t been quite as good. I have a few other new releases on my bedside table and might start the newest Kelley Armstrong next since I love her Casey Duncan series.

And with my yarn stuff, I’m currently focusing on knitting a scarf, making a spring cowl from some hand-dyed yarn from Hooked on Homemade Happiness, and I plan to finish a virus blanket for my parents’ anniversary.

And lastly, this blog! I know I’ve been crap at updating it, but I’m hoping to do more – even if it’s a bit sporadic. A bit of news, though – I’ve hit 1,001 subscribers! It’s only taken 10 years, but it does feel kind of neat. I’m sure a lot of these subscribers are from a lot of my past content, but hopefully some stay around for what I’ve been posting lately.

I’d love to hear what you’ve been up to this spring so far! Have you read anything good? Have you made anything? Let me know!

When I started to learn how to crochet, about 8 years ago or so, I wanted to make certain things. After tackling basic scarves and hats, I really wanted to make slippers but I just could never get the hang of the patterns for them since I was still a very, very basic crocheter.

Since I started crocheting more this year, I wanted to use up more of my current stash (which still doesn’t stop me from buying more yarn, by the way) and one type of yarn I have loads of is bulky, or #5. I looked up various bulky crochet patterns on Pinterest and found this pattern by Kristi Simpson and decided to give them a go. And let me tell you, this pattern is super easy and super fast! I crocheted off and on all afternoon and made myself two pairs.

I followed the pattern for my first pair, made with Loops & Threads Charisma Big! in Mulberry Bush and an H hook and while they were nice, I didn’t quite like the fit in the toes so I altered the pattern a bit for the first 14 rows:

• The pattern originally starts with chaining two, but I made a magic circle instead.
• First, you are to crochet 10 double crochets, then slip stitch together, and then increasing with two double crochets in each stitch to total 20 stitches by the end of the second round. After this, here is what I did (making sure not to start my double crochets in the slip stitch:
  • Round 3: Ch 2, dc in each stitch. (20 sts)
  • Round 4: Ch 2, dc in the next 10 stitches, increase in the next stitch, dc in the next 9 stitches, and ss to join. (21 sts)
  • Round 5: Ch 2, dc in each stitch. Ss to join. (21 sts)
  • Round 6: Ch 2, dc in the next 10 stitches, increase in the next stitch, dc in the next 10 stitches, and ss to join. (22 sts)
  • Round 7: Ch 2, dc in each stitch. Ss to join. (22 sts)
  • Round 8: Ch 2, dc in the next 11 stitches, increase in the next stitch, dc in the next 10 stitches, and ss to join. (23 sts)
  • Round 9: Ch 2, dc in each stitch. Ss to join. (23 sts)
  • Round 10: Ch 2, dc in the next 9 stitches, increase in the next stitch, dc in the next 5 stitches, increase in the next stitch, dc in the next 7 stitches. Ss to join. (25 sts)
  • Round 11: Ch 2, dc in each stitch. Ss to join. (25 sts)

And after that I followed Kristi’s pattern until the finishing. She does a shell stitch around and I decided to alternate FPDC and BPDC two times around to make a ribbed finish. The second pair I made used Lion Brand Wool-Ease Tonal in Buttercup and Burnt Orange, also with an H hook.

The way I did my second set of slippers, the yellow and orange ones, made a really nice, fitted slipper, whereas the original pattern is a little more loose in the toe section. I prefer fitted.

If you’ve been crocheting for a while and want to try your hand at making some slippers, I highly recommend Kristi’s pattern (with or without my changes). It can easily be altered for smaller or bigger feet (these fit my feet which are a size 9). It’s so simple and so clever and well worth figuring out. I think they would make great Christmas gifts!

Be sure to follow THIS LINK to get Kristi’s pattern, which also includes a very helpful video.

Are you a crocheter? Is there something that you have always wanted to make but the patterns always seem to boggle your mind? 

Hey guys!

It has been a long time since I posted last, mainly because I wasn’t sure what to write about. I hope your new year is going great so far; as for mine, I’ve been doing some reading, some LEGO building, some TV watching, and getting back into crocheting and other yarn things.

I last crocheted about two years ago. I remember I had been doing a lot of Christmas gifts and I asked my mom to bring me back some yarn from the United States because we didn’t get it here. I finally picked up that yarn to make something this year. So go me!

I don’t know why I suddenly got the urge to crochet; possibly it’s because of the little crochet kits my brother-in-law gave my kids for Christmas. My oldest one got a Safari animal kit and the littlest a Disney princess kit. I’ve never really been great at making amigurumi figures but the kids were begging me to make them one of the figures, so I made a lion for the oldest and a Cinderella for the littlest. Making them made me realize that I needed to brush up on my crocheting and since the kids were showing an interest in me making things, I thought it was about time I brought out my yarn and hooks and started making things again.

Since then I’ve made a few things and haven’t been able to stop! Here are a few things I’ve made so far:

And on my hook right now are a few Valentine’s Day stuffies for the kids, which I’ll share when they’re done; a blanket for a friend’s new baby; and some really easy loom-knit tube socks. On a mission to organize my yarn and yarn crafting supplies, I also found about 5 blankets I was making and never finished, plus the squares for a few corner-to-corner blankets I started a few years ago. I also found some half-done projects which I had to frog since I wasn’t very good at keeping a pattern with a project and for the life of me couldn’t remember what the heck I was making!

I’ve been getting more into loom-knitting and Tunisian crochet and have bought a few books on crochet, Tunisian crochet, and knitting, along with a few little fun kits to practice more amigumuri for the kids.

Let’s just say I am absolutely hooked! I first started crocheting in 2011 and finally feel like I have the hang on how to do it. This year I’ve learned a few things:

1. Always print out a pattern when making something! If the internet goes down or if the project gets set aside, the pattern will still be there.
2. Stitch markers aren’t just for marking certain points in a project; they also come in handy when sewing amigumuri and other stuffed projects together. I found that when I eyeball things, it doesn’t go well.
3. Ballpoint pins are great for marking where eyes should go on a project.
4. Tunisian crochet is ridiculously fun.
5. Crocheting in a continuous round goes much more smoothly when putting a stitch marker on the last stitch of a row – this might be why my other amigurumi projects have never quite looked picture perfect.
6. Count, count, count! In the past I’ve fudged around with rows when I screw up my counting, but I’m realizing that frogging parts of projects or starting over can be invaluable to getting a project right.
7. Just keep trying! I’m not perfect at any of these crafts, but it’s so much fun finding projects and attempting to make them. I get lots of practice, learn new skills, and maybe learn new techniques to make things run more smoothly.
8. And lastly, organization is a LIFE SAVER. Before this week, I had been keeping all my yarn in various bins in the basement. I had hooks in a drawer, scissors and stitch markers … somewhere, and various books and magazines just piled up together. Once I finally went through and organized things I was able to see what yarns I had to work with (a lot of worsted, bulky, and some DK and one jumbo yarn) and I could what tools I had available, be it needles, hooks, or looms, as well as the other accessories that go with the craft.

So I hope you don’t mind, but I’ll be sharing more of my crochet and other yarn-projects here as I go. I’ve always loved learning about other peoples’ journeys when they start new things so hopefully I can document my progress here as I go!

What is the 2019 TBR Pile Challenge? Hosted by Adam, over at Roof Beam Reader, the 2019 TBR Pile Challenge is a year-long challenge to read books that have been on your TBR prior to January 1st 2018 – so it cant be books you bought last year, but books bought before that.

Here are the rules from Roof Beam Reader’s official sign up page:

1. Each of these 12 books must have been on your bookshelf or “To Be Read” list for AT LEAST one full year. This means the book cannot have a publication date of 1/1/2018 or later (any book published in the year 2017 or earlier qualifies, as long as it has been on your TBR pile). Caveat: Two (2) alternates are allowed, just in case one or two of the books end up in the “can’t get through” pile.
2. To be eligible, you must sign-up with the Mr. Linky below. Link to your list (so create it ahead of time!) and add updated links to each book’s review. Books must be read and must be reviewed (doesn’t have to be too fancy) in order to count as completed.
3. The link you post in the Mr. Linky must be to your master list. This is where you will keep track of your books completed, crossing them out and/or dating them as you go along, and updating the list with the links to each review (so there’s one easy, convenient way to find your list and all your reviews for the challenge). Your complete and final list must be posted by January 15th, 2019.
4. Leave comments on Adam’s official post as you go along, to update us on your status. Come back here if/when you complete this challenge and leave a comment indicating that you CONQUERED YOUR 2019 TBR LIST! Every person who successfully reads his/her 12 books and/or alternates (and who provides a working link to their list, which has links to the review locations) will be entered to win a $50 gift card from Amazon.com or The Book Depository!
5. Crossovers from other challenges are totally acceptable, as long as you have never read the book before and it was published before 2018!

SO! When I sat down to think of what books to put on my list, I decided to list the books that were the OLDEST on my TBR. I have quite a few books from 2017 to read, but prior to that not too many. It would be nice to catch up on reading those ones.

Here’s my list: 

Novels

1. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (on my TBR since 2009)
2. Bag of Bones by Stephen King (on my TBR since 2012)
3. Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum (on my TBR since 2012)
4. No Humans Involved by Kelley Armstrong (on my TBR since 2012)
5. These Girls by Sarah Pekkanen (on my TBR since 2013)
6. The Curiosity by Stephen P. Kiernan (on my TBR since 2013)
7. Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield (on my TBR since 2013)
8. The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd (on my TBR since 2014)
9. An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon (on my TBR since 2014)
10. Love Letters to the Angel of Death by Jennifer Quist (on my TBR since 2014)
11. Us Conductors by Sean Michaels (on my TBR since 2014)
12. The Witches of New York by Ami McKay (on my TBR since 2016)

Alternates

1. Chai Tea Sunday by Heather A. Clark (on my TBR since 2014)
2. The Unfinished Child by Theresa Shea (on my TBR since 2014)

When I last signed up for this challenge, I mentioned that I still had 76 unread books on my shelf from before 2017 and I’m happy to say I now have 46 which means I either read 30 or purged some.* Either way, the number is down so it would be great to get it down even further! So long as I get a kick in the butt to read some of these older books.

• Note: My TBR from 2017 and before is at 176 which is why I’m not even focusing on 2017 books. That can be looked at next year! 

Are you joining the 2019 TBR Pile Challenge? What is your TBR at from before 2018? 

What happened this month:

• Christmas! I actually got a lot of my Christmas shopping and whatnot done before December so it was really nice to just relax with the tree and a cup of tea, watching the snow fall. This year was ridiculously fun with the kids.
• A few weeks off for the husband and kids. We went to some movies – Ralph Breaks The Internet with the kids, and then Holmes & Watson with the husband – and we watched a lot of movies at home, as well as a LOT of Christmas movies. The oldest seems to love Home Alone, which is my favourite Christmas movie, so that’s great.
• The end of the month brought more snow and wintery weather so it was perfect to bundle up inside with books and tea and sweaters. Kind of a nice way to bring in the new year!
• Oh, and HALF of my books were Christmas books, which was awesome.

What I read:

1. Bibliophile: A Miscellany by Jane Mount *****
2. Hot Winter Nights by Jill Shalvis ***
3. Maybe This Christmas by Jennifer Snow ***
4. The Shoe on the Roof by Will Ferguson ****
5. O Pioneers! by Willa Cather ***
6. The Night Before Christmas by Nikolai Gogol ***
7. The Deal of a Lifetime by Fredrik Backman ****
8. The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell ****
9. Christmas at Thompson Hall & Other Christmas Stories by Anthony Trollope ***
10. In Order To Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park *****
11. On Beauty by Zadie Smith ****
12. Christmas Stories by Diana Secker Tesdell ****
13. The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding by Agatha Christie ****
14. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck *****
15. One Day in December by Josie Silver*****

What’s happening in January?

• Well, it’s a new year of reading, obviously! I’m not sure if I’m going to continue with monthly recaps or do more weekly recapping or what, but I guess we’ll see what happens when January comes. I have some posts coming up about my goals for the year, and I shared my goals of reading more non-fiction and Agatha Christie in 2019 so that will definitely start in January!

What have you been reading lately? Any recommendations? How was your month in reading? What was your favourite read? What do you plan to read in January?

Happy New Year!

I really wasn’t too bad with my reading goals from last year, so even though I had originally been thinking of not doing a reading goals post I figured what could it hurt? It’s always fun making lists of reading plans so maybe I could come up with a few items.

1. I am NOT setting a reading goal. Every year I’ve set a goal on Goodreads as to the number of books I plan to read but I think I want to just … not this year. I’m sure I’ll still read a ton of books but I just don’t want to see it on Goodreads – especially since I plan (so far) to not use Goodreads all that much in 2019.
2. OH MY GOD SPEND LESS MONEY ON BOOKS. I say this every year and the last two years I’ve been buying way too many books. I have about 11 preorders bought for the year and I plan to expand my Agatha Christie collection this year, but otherwise I want to not buy much at all.
3. Use the library for new-to-me authors – but maybe read the books on my shelves, too. There are so many books that come out that look amazing and I want to try some of them but I really want to use the library for those books. BUT I don’t want to overdo it on the library books because I have around 400 books on my TBR (a number that really hasn’t moved since last year).
4. Read more non-fiction! In 2017 I had been loving the non-fiction and hoped to read a lot more last year, but only 9% of my books were non-fiction, which disappointed me. It would be nice to have a non-fiction book on the go at all times. I have quite a few on my shelves and I don’t know why I rarely pick them up.
5. I want to reread more! There are books from previous years that I still think about and it would be nice to work in at least one reread a month.
6. And lastly, I want to bring more hygge to my reading. I’m all for cozying up on the couch with a book but I’d like to make these reading sessions more cozy and more intentional. There are so many articles on working more reading into your life, by reading while waiting in a line or listening to audiobooks while cleaning, but when I can just sit down with a book for an hour I want to have a blanket, light a candle, have a cup of tea, and just make that reading session more meaningful. This also means putting away the E.D., as my husband would say (the “electronic device”), which I had been getting good at doing towards the end of the year.

And that’s it!

What are your reading goals for 2019? 

Happy New Year’s Eve!

This year I decided to track my reading in more detail than in previous years, so rather than just tracking my books on Goodreads I filled out a whole spreadsheet tracking many, many things. Would I do this again in 2019? Probably not. I found myself at the end of months having to go in and add a lot of information and it just took time away from other things I could be doing. It was definitely interesting, though, to see these numbers at the end of the year and see what kinds of books I was reading, where the authors were from, what years the books were released. Those are numbers I’d like to continue to pay attention to, but maybe in some other format than a spreadsheet. I’m not on the computer a whole lot and need something that’s easy to just jot down somewhere.

Anyway, here are my 2019 stats!

READING

Total books read: 216 books!

Let me just say, this is waaaay more than I thought I would read this year, considering I really didn’t listen to many audiobooks. I had some really, really good reading months which balanced out the crappier months, but all in all I’m pleased with how much I read.

Longest Book: The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons (810 pages)
Shortest Book: Malala’s Magic Pencil by Malala Yousafzai (32 pages)

Rereads: 8

DNF: 2

Actually quite pleased with this number, though I plan to try and reread more in 2019. My favourite rereads have been classics – Jane Eyre and The Haunting of Hill House.

Owned Books: 145
Library Books: 49
Review Books: 20

I started using the library more towards the end of the year which was nice and I hope to have the same sort of balance for 2019. One thing I am NOT doing in 2019 is reading review books. I feel like I’m done with that for now.

Page Length: 

• <100: 38
• 100-199: 33
• 200-299: 47
• 300-399: 69
• 400-499: 19
• 500-599: 5
• 600-699: 2
• 700-799: 2
• 800-899: 1

I only read 10 books this year that were over 500 pages, which disappoints me. I have a LOT of really big books on my TBR right now and I want to work in more of them in 2019. I did read quite a few of the Penguin Little Black Classics which are all around 40-60 pages.

Physical Books: 183 / Ebooks: 25 / Audiobook: 8

I’m quite surprised, actually, that I listened to 8 audiobooks! I didn’t plan on listening to any this year and I didn’t really even want to listen to any until well into 2018. I did really enjoy listening to shorter audiobooks where I could finish the book within a day and I think I prefer that over longer audiobooks.

Genres:

• Classics: 63
• Contemporary: 34
• Non-Fiction: 18
• Fiction: 17
• Thriller: 13
• Horror: 12
• Historical Fiction: 10
• Short Stories: 8
• Literary Fiction: 8
• Romance: 7
• Fantasy: 7
• Science Fiction: 3
• Dystopian: 3
• Mystery: 2
• Humour: 2
• Paranormal: 1
• Historical Romance: 1

Take these genres as you will because I find it really hard to put a book under one genre, especially when I read a classic which can be shelved as a classic and whatever other genre it is. And there’s fiction vs. literary fiction and I’m sure I filed some of those wrong. Regardless, I’m happy to have read 63 classics this year!

Books Published After 2000: 148
Books Published Before 2000: 68

This is quite disappointing to me, that I read more books published in this century than in previous centuries. In 2019 I’m hoping to not totally pay attention to new releases and hyped up books, so the plan is to read more books published in the 20th century.

Audience: 

• Adult: 190
• YA: 21
• Middle Grade: 5

This isn’t too shocking to me because I’ve not been reading a lot of young adult fiction in the last year and a half. I know in previous years the adult and young adult numbers were probably switched, so I’m quite pleased with these numbers. I’m fairly certain that I won’t be reading a lot of YA fiction at all in 2019 unless it’s something to read that’s already on my shelves.

Author Gender:

• Male: 62
• Female: 152

This isn’t including 2 books which were collections of stories with various authors. I’m surprised that I read 62 books authored by males because I do tend to lean more towards female authors.

Author Nationality:

• United States: 67
• United Kingdom: 60
• Canada: 51
• And a handful of authors from: China, Italy, Denmark, Greece, France, Germany, Ireland, Chile, Japan, Nigeria, Scotland, Pakistan, Austria, Poland, Singapore, Russia, South Korea, and Sweden.

I’m happy with these numbers; I had a goal to read 50 books by Canadian authors this year and I accomplished that. I did plan to have only 10-15% of my reading by authors from the United States and it ended up being around 31%, but I think that’s less than previous years.

Books In Translation: 20

Not bad, but still not great. I plan to work on this more in 2019, as well.

BLOG

I don’t really have a lot of blog stats to share – my readership has gone waaay down from previous years, but surprisingly is up since 2016.

Here are how many views I’ve had: 

• 2013 (my biggest year in blogging): 58,660
• 2016: 1,410
• 2018: 8,349

Visitors:

• 2013: 35,461
• 2016: 598
• 2018: 4,347

Posts: 

• 2013: 327
• 2016: 63
• 2018: 131

I feel like I’ve found a happy medium this year with blogging, believe it or not. I like that I eased up on posting, didn’t focus on stats very much at all, and just blogged what I wanted to, when I wanted to. I’ve been tending to write posts when they come to me rather than trying to get something up regularly, on a schedule, always trying to be productive on the blog. I’ve reminded myself that I don’t get paid to blog and maybe back in 2012 and 2013 this was super important, but I think it’s gone back to being a hobby for me now.

What is blogging going to look like in 2019? Honestly, I’m not sure. Lately, I’ve sat down maybe once a month to write posts, but I haven’t been feeling that urge to blog very much. However, I do plan to try and not use Goodreads next year so maybe in 2019 I’ll use the blog to share my reading, maybe once a month, and chronicle how the year goes. I’m really going to try and stay away from all the book hype because I feel like it completely let me down this year. Most of what people were raving about was just okay and nothing spectacular.

ULTIMATELY

Let’s see what 2019 brings! I have a post on goals coming up in January but other than that I really want to just read what I want to, when I want to, take breaks when I want to, and try to work my way back to how I read back before I started blogging, or before the whole blogging train started to take off. I feel like I’ve changed as a person a LOT in the past 5 years and my goals when it comes to reading and blogging have changed as well. I’m more interested in sharing what I’m reading and loving rather than reading the newest books and writing posts just to get viewers and followers.

So, you will probably see me on the blog throughout 2019, and I plan to try and use Instagram more, as well. Otherwise, social media is kind of going to take a back seat for me as I try to ease off of it a bit, and try to limit myself to maybe 20 minutes to a half hour a day. I spend way too much time in the infinite scroll when I could be doing other things – especially things that don’t rely on the internet.

How was your reading year in 2018? Did anything really surprise you about your reading? Is there anything you’d like to change for your 2019 reading? 

If you saw my post on my reading goals on Tuesday, you might have noticed that I really didn’t have a ton of goals set out other than wanting to read, spend less money on books, and to work in some non-fiction. Other than that, a big goal was to bring more hygge to my reading and what is more hygge than cozy mysteries?

When I used to think about cozy mysteries, I’d think of those little paperback books with cats on the covers and cutesy titles like “A Yarn of a Murder” or “The Cat-tastic Caper” (note: not real titles, in case you couldn’t tell.). What I didn’t think was cozy was mysteries by Agatha Christie.

It wasn’t until mid-November of 2017 that I read my first Agatha Christie book. The movie adaptation for Murder on the Orient Express was due to come out and I wanted to read the book before seeing it (note: I still haven’t seen the movie). I completely fell in love with the writing and the way Christie sets up the story. I adored Poirot as a detective and loved how cozy the book felt. It wasn’t cutesy or gimmicky at all, but just a solid mystery with wonderful characters.

It’s funny because after that I read another of Christie’s books in December of 2017 and then two in the next January and then NOTHING for the rest of the year. Last month I picked up another Christie book, a collection of short stories on Poirot, The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, and I wondered why the heck I wasn’t reading more of her books. When I started the first story in this book I automatically felt more hygge, more at home, and more cozy. It was one of those books where it felt familiar and brand new at the same time.

Agatha Christie has written a LOT of stories, from novels to short stories to plays, with detectives like Poirot, Miss Marple, and Tommy & Tuppence. There is a LOT to choose from and so I decided that I wanted to just dive into her books this year and try and read as much as I could.

The real question I have before the year starts is: where to start with my Agatha Christie reading?

There are so many ways I could go; perhaps starting with a certain detective series, or reading her stand-alone novels, or even reading everything in publication order. OR just go randomly and try to read as much as I can.

Regardless, I am SO excited to read more Agatha Christie in 2019 and hope I can make a good dent into her work throughout the year. I’m going to try and share my progress as the year goes on and I’m really hoping that the more I read the more I get addicted to her books! And maybe inspire someone else to read them, too.

Are you a fan of Agatha Christie books? Which are your favourite? How would you go about reading all of her books?