#ItsABirthdayBookPostPost!

Yippee I made it to another year older! Today all that I’ve planned is spending time with my family and eating cake, HUZZAH!

I lie, there will be at least a bit of reading going on as well!

43 was one wild ride and I am excited to be poised at the brink of 44,itching to see where this year takes me.

During this time I have finished a nursing degree, graduated with first class honours shocking just about everyone.Also I was diagnosed with dyslexia and dyspraxia which is still something I am adjusting to, but which blogging has really helped with.

My first job in years is looming and I couldn’t be more excited about the direction and opportunities that it will afford our family!

With that in mind, I am looking back at the bookish highlights of the last year, join me for a trip down a bookshop lined memory lane….

Authors I have met this year include-

• V..E Shwab who is the angel that we do not deserve *sobs*
• Abir Mukherjee who came and talked to a very enthusiastic audience at Swansea Waterstones
• CL Taylor AND Emma Kavanagh in a crime filled ‘twofer’ at Cardiff Waterstones!
• As a former member of the Swansea Bloggers Collective, I was lucky to hear authors who came to give readings and talk to us and the public after monthly meetings, people such as the lovely Neeta Oza, Helen Matthews,Jamie Guiney and Lucie McKnight Hardy What an absolute treat meeting them was! I consider myself very fortunate that I live between two cities that host authors and being able to afford the train fare to go to these events but I know, it’s not always easy!

Blogtours have been AMAZING! I cannot believe I never knew about them before, I just reviewed on Netgalley and Goodreads but thanks to the kindness of bookbloggers on Twitter and Facebook, I soon found out what they were about,It has opened my eyes to Independent Publishing(like Orenda Books,The Dome Press,Eye Books) crowd funded novels (Unbound) and in doing so , I have found new favourite books and authors shoving their way into my top 10 books.

Top 10 Book Recommendations!

Top book picks this year would be

• ‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt (still my favourite and my best!!)
• ‘Moby Dick’ by Herman Melville (nature versus man, an absolute classic!)
• ‘Geek Love’ by Katherine Dunn (loved this book for over half my lifetime!)
• ‘The Mating Habits Of Stags’ by Ray Robinson a new and wonderful addition to my favourite shelf
• ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’ by Ken Kesey This and ‘Sometimes A Great Notion’ were my introduction to the Great American Novel
• ‘Skeleton Crew’ by Stephen King this represents a great cross section of his writing when , imho, he was at his best in writing short stories.
• ‘The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd’ by Agatha Christie In the last year it has become more clear than ever just what a stroke of genius this book is!
• ‘American Gods’ by Neil Gaiman-sweeping, grand and wonderful.That is all.
• ‘Lonesome Dove’ by Larry McMurtryMy all time favourite Western because it is unlike any other Western you’ll ever read. An epic feat.
• ‘Rachel’s Holiday’ by Marian Keyes The first, and my most favourite of her Walsh Sister novels that I read. Still amazed by its power all these years later!

Things that I have learned include-

• No one owes you anything. Publicists and authors are busy ,busy people so if they do not respond to, or help promote your blogposts it’s not a personal dig, your review is not unworthy it’s just life! And the flipside is,when people do take the time to respond to your words ,it makes it so much the sweeter! No one owes you a follow or a like on any platform-you do this for the love of books not the validation of strangers, projecting an image that is less than accurate to gain likes and follows to inflate your sense of superiority. Love of books is front and centre;when you are writing a review that is 90% about you something won’t smell right.And it will show.
• Following on from the above, you owe no one anything. Just because you are all book bloggers does not mean you automatically have to follow anyone. It’s like anything else in life ,there are ones you click with more than others. Them doing them is just great,but it doesn’t necessarily follow that you will jibe on the same bookish wavelength. By that token, neither will the sky fall down if you are on a blog tour and happen to be late with a review. I’ve had a serious case of Chicken Licken syndrome about posting on time, being late, saying yes to too many things and then finding myself with 2/3/4 blog posts and zero time. Burnout beckons! Be polite, be decent, communicate and be realistic about what you can read in the time which is available to you.
• FOMO(Fear Of Missing Out) is real. A lot of this is driven by bloggers trying to show that they have the most sought after proofs, the far out releases, they want to ride that wave but again it’s vanity, it’s the self publicity machine in action. ‘Good for you’ is not the response they want, they desire jealousy and envy and when they do not get it, it’s just tough.Or the snippy posts about who got the latest book proofs and whining if they did not-children please! NO ONE OWES YOU ANYTHING!We are guilty of engendering it as well as reacting to this but guess what? Buying a book is an option!Borrowing it from the library is an option! Giving your proofs to community projects to encourage reading rather than hoarding them like Smaug, is an option! Be careful with your words, you want to promote but also not make people feel you are somehow better than them. See point 1 for further details.
• You’ll meet the loveliest people online but beware of those trying to make a tribe. They will want to be a leader and will not be happy being on an equal footing with you. Those who do, will stick with you and vice versa but the same as with any group in society, take time, feel your way and my advice would be to not jump in too quickly and too heavily.Find your platform, whether it’s Booktube,Bookstagram, a blog or Netgalley and do your thing, it will be glorious and good enough,Don’t compare yourself to others(easier said than done) but stay where you are happy and you’ll do fine!
• When you find the bloggers who interest you for no matter what reason, taking the time to share their posts is a good thing to do.I have been super lax on that lately, but will try harder! Commenting is nice and can really cheer up a person’s day(also trying to get better at that!)
• Not all book groups are created equal-you might need to try a few before you settle and it’s not because there is anything wrong with you, you just will know when it feels right, kind of like ‘The Princess And The Pea’ and vice versa.I found a group that suits me to the ground but it took time!
• Be Kind.Kind to yourself, kind to others-share what you know with others, try not to get disheartened about your stats, these things take time!If only 9 people look at your blog in a day, that’s ok! It happens to me ALL the time! Try and value them, and you, as much you’d value 100 people.It’s about the books and those 9 people might go out and try the book you are raving about whilst 100 people might blow through and ignore it. It’s all good, it’s all about the books after all!

I am so excited about the direction of the next year as it includes book,books and more books! I am hoping that people will continue to share their recommendations, their advice, their reviews and most of all, the love of books! For the next 11 months I am trying to focus on reading British, Independent publishers as much as possible for reasons laid out in other posts(Filed under IndieBooksLoveFest)

Sharing a birthday with the wonderful Tove Jansson and National Book Lovers Day is pretty wonderful! Hoping on a book shaped parcel arriving and cake with my favourite people.That would be a lovely day!

Links-https://www.moomin.com/en/explore-moominvalley/