On 4th March my blog turned 10; it’s a milestone I’m still surprised by. I’m hoping to celebrate offline at some point, but for now here are the stats:

Posts: 1302
Reviews: 497
Most viewed post: The Ending of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening
Most viewed review: Joanna Cannon – The Trouble With Goats And Sheep
Books read, including re-reads: 602

I started this blog because I was starting to really enjoying posting reviews to my short-term ‘everything goes’ blog and because I’d started to read book blogs and thought defining my subject would be a good idea. It indeed turned out to be the case. I love blogging; I know I’ve fallen behind sometimes but my passion for writing about books continues and I am also very happy with how the podcast is doing. I had thought to start a podcast before I began hosting live events and I’m glad I got my you-know-what into gear and got it started. Books are awesome, the blogging community is awesome, and you readers are awesome.

Thank you all for being with me on this journey. Stay safe, and stay at home.

Today’s podcast is with Laura Pearson! Email and RSS subscribers: you’ll need to open this post in your browser to see the media player below.

Charlie and Laura Pearson (Missing Pieces; Nobody’s Wife; I Wanted You To Know) discuss the process of grieving for various members of a family, writing a book about cancer when you are working through the same, and changing stories almost entirely from their beginnings.

To see all the details including links to other apps, I’ve made a blog page here. You can also subscribe to the podcast via RSS.

This photograph was taken by Chris Engelsma.

The last couple of weeks I’ve been contacting authors, re-reading books, and creating questions. I had been wanting to start a podcast for a long time but put it off because of silly worries. I finally got myself in gear, said enough was enough and it was time to get it done.

I’m excited to announce that episode one of The Worm Hole podcast will be uploaded next Monday, 28th October. The guest is Nicola Cornick. We recorded the episode on the 16th and it was a lot of fun.

It will initially go out via SoundCloud (there’s a mobile app for it as well as the web browser version) and be shared on iTunes as soon as possible following that. I’m also looking at TuneIn as a future possibility. The link will be available as part of that day’s blog post, so those of you who are on my mailing list will get it, too, and I’ll be posting it on Twitter. New episodes will go out on the second and fourth Monday of each month.

Hope you all enjoy it as much as I (we!) enjoyed making it.

Updated – first author finalised.

Tomorrow The Worm Hole will be nine years old. It’s been a strange year, a lot of difference, but full of good things. Whilst I haven’t been able to take on many review books due to uncertainty over deadlines (that’s recently started changing again) I’ve been able to spend more time on the books I already own as well as delve into classics in a more intentional manner. The necessity of posting less, due to various life changes but also to a major block (I got through eight years before having one so I guess it’s not so bad), made me think more about the content I did post. My plan for the next year is to find my way back to my schedule.

I thank you all for your support and for sticking with me when I haven’t been able to update.

Stats

Current post count: 1,208
Current review count: 465
Number of posts in the last year: 95
Number of reviews in the last year: 32
Most read post of all time thus far: The Ending Of The Awakening (7,606)
Most read post of the last year: (same as above; 3,671)

Different house, different hair styles… minus one Sim who mysteriously disappeared as I moved her from driveway to kitchen.

The Worm Hole is 8 years old today!

In the past year I’ve become more focused on reading classics, and in particular for the last few months I’ve been reading a classic (or part of one) a month. I’ve become more focused on reading the books I already own; at present I’ve four empty shelves and don’t intend on filling them quickly; I was lucky to be given back an old bookshelf I’d lent to someone, and in terms of buying books I was given a gift voucher at Christmas that I’ve not yet used. Lastly, I’ve taken on some literary-related responsibilities that I am loving.

Stats

Posts: 1113
Reviews: 433
Posts in the last year: 122
Reviews in the last year: 45
Most books reviewed by one author: Shannon Stacey (10), Elizabeth Chadwick (9)
The most read post of all time (so far): What happened to Faina at the end of The Snow Child?
The most read post in the last year: The Ending of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening

Thank you all for your continued friendship and support.

Yesterday was my blog’s birthday. I feel I’m getting back on my feet after a few strange months so this birthday celebration is particularly special. It coincides with the start of my plans for the next In Conversation event and a few other bookish happenings. Much coffee has been consumed.

At this time of year I tend to post my blog statistics but I’ve an extra celebration coming up in a few weeks so to avoid repetition I’ll save numbers for then.

I’m grateful for all the friends I’ve made through blogging, for the support, and for everyone here who reads my posts. You guys are all awesome and I can’t thank you enough.

Thank you!