Hello All. I hope that you all had a fabulous year in 2012...even amidst the natural disasters, man-on-man violence, and predicted apocalypses every other month! I managed to have a pretty great year and I sincerely hope for a happy and healthy year in 2013 for all of us!!
Anyway, I just wanted to share some of the things that made my 2012 pretty great...and since this is a book blog, I'll also finish out the post with the list of books I read this year in case anyone wants to scroll through them all (I'm warning you now...it's A LOT of books and you may not want to take the time...).
Personal Things:
*Three of my best friends had their first babies (Addison, Zackary, and Beau) and I became forever more known as "Auntie Librarian" LOL.
*One of my best friends had the most gorgeous winter wedding.
*I finished writing the first draft of my YA novel and began the editing process. (Here's to self-publication in 2013 *fingers crossed*!)
*One of my best friends self-published her first book, The Secret World of Alaina Downs.
*I lost 17 pounds in 4 1/2 months (and that includes the holiday season!).
*I kissed a pig! A big pig. A bookish pig...and it was hilarious!
*Have been living vicariously through a High School friend's adventures in Australia... you can check out her blog here.
Work Things:
*I hit my one year anniversary at my new job, which I still LOVE!
*I not only read over 80 books just for this year's nutmeg selection committee, but I became Co-Chair of the 2015 Teen Nutmeg Selection Committee (CT State book award nomination committee for grades 7 & 8) which will be starting officially in February.
*I started a second book blog for my job, which you can find here. It's called Flippin' Pages at WSPL.
*I created Pajama Storytime at my Library...mostly so that I can wear pajamas to work once a month!!
*I discovered that Pinterest is a WEALTH of potential craft ideas for storytime and that I am an excellent craft replicator. :)
Bookish/Blog Things:
*Hit my 1000th post on the blog
*Created an online scavenger hunt for author, Alex Lidell, whose debut book, The Cadet of Tildor, will come out next week!
*Found out my blog was mentioned on a thank you page in the paperback copy of Marissa Meyer's Cinder!
*Participated in Roecker Sisters' The Lies that Bind Vlog Tour.
*Interviewed 5 traditionally published and 2 self-published authors on the blog.
*I attended BEA for the fourth year in a row, and attended the Children's Author Breakfast for the first year. I even covered the event for YALSA's The Hub!
*...and speaking of The Hub, I started blogging for them in January 2012.
*I was a judge for Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award in the Young Adult category for the third year in a row...and this year one of my choices to push through to the next tier of judging actually WON the whole thing!! So exciting.
*I got over my insane fear of circus books (delayed trauma from a book I was forced to read in college that scarred me FOR LIFE!!) and read Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus, which was fabulous!
*Realised that my Hunger Games Party post on the blog has been viewed more than 15,000 times!
*I read 432 books this year (including picture books for storytime, chapter books, middle grade, YA, and adult books)...you can check out the list if you want!
I've probably forgotten to mention some things...and that's okay. Every year packs so much in that it's hard to keep track. Anyway, here's to a great 2013!! See you in the New Year!!
