I got a bullet journal and pretty pens for Christmas, so really I had no choice but to try my hand at it by doing a visual summary of my reading in 2019.

You can probably tell just by how much I tried to cram into two pages, that this year was full.

This post has 3 sections: goals and stats, challenges, I got a blog and The Dianthaa Dabbles 2019 awards. My chief weapon is surprise and being able to count. (I don’t know how to link to them in text but jotting them down so you can scroll if you want)

Goals and stats:

• read more widely

89 (88, found a duplicate) is the most books I’ve ever read, and with a few more days to go I might make it to 90, my previous best was 86 in 2014, about 40 of them were Discworld novels. This year most I have from one author is 3 novellas + 2 books from Krista D Ball, and 3 novels +1 short story from Benedict Patrick.

I’m off the binge train and on the “try all the authors” train. I’ve got 72 unique authors. One of my goals starting last year was to read at least 50% books by women, I ended up with 44 (61%)authors/55 books (61%) .

I only read 6 books by people of color, so reading more diversely in that respect is gonna be a goal for 2020.

Language wise I have 5 Romanian books, so 5%, I think I’ll keep it that way for next year too. Because I paid no attention to this, I ended up only having one translated book, Vita Nostra, will aim for maybe 10% next year, as there’s mountains of books I haven’t tried should be easy to find ones I like.

• Read and review more indie books

I was going for at least a quarter self-published books, ended up with 33%. 12 of those I got in exchange for reviews (and 3 mores still in my inbox that I’ll get to soon, soonish).

• Recurring themes:

I read 11 books with ships, both naval and space faring. 20 books set in non-western settings. 4 books with Djinn, 8 with necromancers. It got pretty comfy with 10 cosy books. 15 books with either queer protagonists or inclusive societies. 6 funnies, but I’d like to have more next year. 2 cat point of view stories and 6 in which animals very important.

Challenges:

• 24 in 48 readathon, was fun, wish I had planned for it better because I ended up missing a lot of hours of reading to social engagement
• I really liked the Travel theme of the Innathon, especially as I did a bit of travelling while it was going on so it fit together nicely
• OcTBR challenge got me really close to my bingo goal
• Also wish I had known about Sci Fi month sooner, but even without planning I ended up with 5 sci fi books
• Scions Of Atlantis, a Street Team Event to promote The Hanged Man by KD Edwards was so much fun and it got me doing a lot of creative things I never thought I could do, especially not in public, on the internet
• My goodreads challenge goal was 75 books, I reached it on November 1st. I think I’ll keep it at 75 next year even though 90 would be achievable based on this year, I want to dedicate more time to other hobbies too.
• I finished two cards for r/fantasy bingo, one of them hard mode and another one half hard mode. (well one short story collection to go). I’ll be doing a big round up post with mini reviews later on.  Also decided to go for hero mode and REVIEW ALL THE THINGS! Which led to ….

I got a blog!

I launched it on the 25th of July, but I got started on it in March. And spent a million years trying to figure out themes and wordpress.

It’s been great fun, and one of the things I want to do more in the next year are monthly round ups, even if short I really like thinking back at the end of the month on all I’ve done. I’m usually just stressing about all I want to do, the next thing, so it’s nice to think of the completed things.

I also want to do more social things like book tags and events in the community, participating in Scions Of Atlantis has been so fun and wholesome, I want more of that.

I also want to update all my past cosplays on the blog, but tracking down pictures is turning out pretty hard. Oh and to learn to take pictures, I mean be in pictures, what do I do with my face!?!?

The 2019 Dianthaa Dabbles awards

This time of year everyone is making top 5, top 10 or top 25 favorites lists. Well I can’t. I won’t. I tried and got 38 books on my list. I can’t choose and I definitely can’t make a ranking. But what I can do is make a list of special jury prizes. Where I’m the entire jury. I suggest reading this out in an announcer voice. So here goes, in no order:

• Best book I didn’t actually enjoy: Kindred by Octavia Butler.
• Best book I recommend reading on a full stomach: What Kings Ate and Wizards Drank by Krista D Ball
• Sweetest animal protagonist: The Cat Who Walked a Thousand Miles by Kij Johnson
• Most magical city: City of Brass by SA Chakraboty
• Most likely contender for my favorite sci-fi series ever: The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMasters Bujold
• Best coming of age story: Sabriel by Garth Nix
• Most local to me book: Tenebre Cazul Laura by Daniel Timariu
• Local series I’m most looking forward to continuing: Children of Darkness by Lavinia Calina
• Protagonist I related to most: Spirit Caller series by Krista D Ball
• Best use of complicated names: The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
• Best retelling: Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett
• Most unexpected ending: Witchmark by CL Polk
• Best use of monsters vs people trope: The Dark Profit Saga by J Zachary Pike (Orconomics)
• Most unexpected urban fantasy: Touch by Claire North
• The “Just leave me the fuck alone with my dragon” award:  The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip
• The “I should read the blurb” award: Yarnsworld by Benedict Patrick (the was no yarn)
• Most wholesome relationships: The Tarot Sequence by KD Edwards
• Best mindfuck: Vita Nostra by Marina Dyachenko & Sergey Dyachenko
• Most original setting: Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden
• Most emotional book: The Imaginary Corpse by Tyler Hayes
• Most interesting ideas squeezed into a novella: When the Red Feathers Cry by Lucian Dragos Bogdan
• Most interesting depiction of the medical profession: Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw
• Best undead necromancers finding themselves: A tie between Mid-Lich Crisis by Steve Thomas and Changing Faces by Sarah Lin
• Best combo of prose and narrator: The Bone Ships by RJ Barker, read by Jude Owusu
• Best and most detailed beheadings: We Ride The Storm by Devin Madson
• Best use of dragons: Pemberly, Mr. Darcy’s Dragon by Maria Grace
• Best historical fantasy: A Magical Inheritance by Krista D Ball
• Best twisted romance plot: Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri
• Best twist on vampires: The Vampire Knitting Club by Nacy Warren
• Sweetest comedy: Faycalibur by Liam Perrin
• Most relatable character, short story: Raina from The Mage-Born Anthology by Kayleigh Nicol

So that’s about it for 2019. For 2020 I plan to go through my already owned books before buying new ones.

Eh, who am I kidding…