Sunday, February 1, 2009

January Reading in Review (including fun search words!)

My goal for January reading was to whittle down my review pile a bit and that I did. All 14 books I read last month were sent to me for review. And I only added 6 new review books to the pile. My ARC and YA challenges are going very well. And I've read one book for the LibraryThing author challenge too.

I read 9 YA novels
Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers
Hot Mess by Julie Kraut & Shallon Lester
Dust of 100 Dogs by AS King
Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith
wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
My Fair Godmother by Janette Rallison
Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George
Triple Shot Bettys in Love by Jody Gehrman
The Rule of Won by Stefan Petrucha

1 Middle grade novel
I, Lorelei by Yeardley Smith

1 Short story collection
After the Fires by Ursula Pflug

2 Non-fiction books
Click by Bill Tancer
The Customer is Always Wrong Ed. by Jeff Martin (review soon)

1 Thriller
Eclipse by Richard North Patterson

Many very good books!

I also blogged more than ever before this month (due to a light work load so don't get used to it) with 40 posts.

I finally set up Google Analytics, so now I can do that fun feature where I list the keywords people typed into search engines to get to my blog.

Here are some of the most remarkable:

Fear of potato eyes. This was searched for over 10 times. Who knew so many people had the same phobia as I do?

How to make a swastika mii. Yikes! I have no idea. I just tried to make a mii of my cat.

Picture of naked man in santa cap. Well, I can't offer that, but I did talk about a picture of a naked man here. It's a funny story.

Link between 1984 and Ella Minnow Pea. The link is that they are both examples of very good dystopian fiction. If you want to more about dystopian fiction, listen to my first ever segment in a podcast here.

Where can I buy the sequel to Hunger Games? Sorry, Catching Fire does not go on sale until September 2009. I'm bummed too. But the ever enterprising Hillary from The Book Reader found a semi-summary at Barnes & Noble. Check it out!

Good parts of Confessions of a Triple Shot Betty. In my review, I contend that they are all good parts.

Book with lips in the name. Maybe you were looking for Read my Lips by Teri Brown?

Why do cats love heaters? Because heaters are warm. Right Emmy?

Goodbye Lenore. Bye! (For today - I am heading over to a super bowl party - Go Steelers!)

21 comments:

Nancy said...

You had a great month. I was not as productive with only have 8 books under my belt, 4 of them were audiobooks due to my long work commute.

Ana S. said...

yep, because heaters are warm. Why else?

I never get any cool search terms. But I love reading the ones other bloggers get :)

And hooray for good reading months!

Alea said...

LOL @ the search terms! I never get anything funny I always hope there will be something but really none of it is!

H said...

I love the search terms! And I'm impressed by all the reading you got done this month

Steph Su said...

Due to your impressive YA reading list, I will forgive you for rooting for the Steelers. :)

Staci said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Staci said...

sorry about that...I wish they had an edit button instead of delete!!

oooohhh!! you got your hands on wintergirls!! I'm jealous big time!!

I passed an award on to you..please stop by and pick it up. Happy Sunday!

http://lifeinthethumb.blogspot.com/2009/02/blog-world-rocks.html

*** I put in the wrong link to my own blog!!!

Literary Feline said...

It sounds like you had a wonderful month, Lenore. I always love reading the search terms people use that lead to our blogs. Mine never seem to be quite as entertaining as others though. :-)

Have a great week!

Linda said...

I'm enjoying all the posts!

However, GO CARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ali said...

I've enjoyed this 40-post month of yours.

Beth Kephart said...

Do you do your reading in a single, favorite spot — or are books carried everywhere, under your arm?

Lenore Appelhans said...

Beth - This month I read pretty much all of the books either in my favorite reading chair or huddled under my blankets in my bed since it was so cold.

Anonymous said...

I almost picked up Princess of the Midnight Ball this weekend - the cover is gorgeous! And I'm really looking forward to Wintergirls. L.H. Anderson was the author who got me hooked on YA :)

Sandra said...

You really cleaned up a lot of ARCs in a month,good for you. I will be reading Eclipse to review too. My Sunday post is a january reading wrap-up too. Happy reading in February.

Anonymous said...

That is quite a lot of books! Did you have a favorite?

I guess if you have a phobia that specific, you're likely to search for it... although now that I say that, I have a phobia of daddy long legs (other spiders only in proportion to how much they resemble DLLs) and I've never looked for the similarly afflicted. Maybe because I fear what I would find if I googled DLLs.

Lenore Appelhans said...

Since you ask Elizabeth, I did have a clear favorite - The Dust of 100 Dogs. I am certain it will be on my year end best list.

And I understand your fear of googling DDL. I did google fear of potato eyes after seeing that others did just to see what I'd find. Big mistake. Tons of horrifying pictures. I sleep with a night light ever since ;)

Darlene said...

You had a great month of reading. Those search terms are hilarious. I need to get my google analytics installed.

Joanne ♦ The Book Zombie said...

What a dent you made in your review pile - great job!

I love the search for why cats like heaters :)

Bonnie said...

What a great list of books! The google analytics search words were fun to read!! I have to get mine set up but have to figure it out!!

bermudaonion said...

I love your search terms!

Ladytink_534 said...

I set up my Google Analytics too. I didn't get too many interesting ones besides "how to pronounce punxsutawney", "rex woog elsa dweeb", and "the brothers in the dark lover series as cartoon characters"