2022 – the orang-utan librarian

My Favourite 2022 Blogging Moments Tag!

Published on January 26, 2023January 15, 2023 by theorangutanlibrarian8 Comments

The new year has swept in and all memory 2022 seems to be fading! So I think it best to record some of my blogging moments- before it’s too late!!

Thanks to the brilliant Bookcorps– the creator of the tag- for this great wrap-up tag!

What’s your favourite book review?

I loved reviewing Crap Days Out, not least because I’ve been on a lot of these trips!

What’s your favourite discussion post?

Tiktok made me read some pretty average books… because I blame Tiktok for spreading mediocre books like the plague!

What’s your favourite fun post?

(By “fun post” I mean a post that doesn’t fall under a particular category like reviews, discussions or tags do.)

I have a soft spot for What Really Happens After Rom Coms and the Most Generic Thriller Plan– both are terrifying in their own way 😉

What’s your favourite book recommendation post?

Recommending Books I Didn’t Like– because I’m an optimist and see the good in everything 😉 (okay, maybe not, but I can take credit for doing that just this once!)

What’s your favourite book/bookish photo?

I didn’t share so many photos, but I am pleased with a couple of illustrations I shared to promote books!

What’s your favourite original idea/blog post?

My satire poking fun at true crime podcasts INJUSTICE! I had so much fun making this multimedia post and it’s an absolute injustice if you haven’t checked it out yet 😉

What’s your absolute favourite blog post you wrote this year?

Do I stand by my old reviews was such an enjoyable way to mark SEVEN YEARS of blogging! As cringey as it is to read over my old reviews, I found it fascinating to see how my views and style has changed (and how much it hasn’t!) Hopefully I get to try this again in another seven years 😉

Have you reached any blogging achievements this year?

Keeping going 😉 Honestly, sometimes I don’t say how hard it is to keep going when life is so very, very hectic. I’m really glad I managed to keep writing this year and so grateful for everyone that’s stuck with me!!

I’m tagging anyone who wants to do it!! What were some of your favourite blogging moments of 2022? Let me know in the comments!

My Reading Stats for 2022 – A Bookish Overview!

Published on December 31, 2022January 1, 2023 by theorangutanlibrarian22 Comments

Yes it’s that time of year again where geeky bookworm girls get excited about stats… so let’s just skip the preamble and get right to the good stuff!!

Once again I’m realllly happy with my ratings. I mean, 3.7?! That’s way above average!! And I’d like to take the credit for this- but clearly the actual credit goes to the wonderful books I’ve been reading! 😉 (mostly I did also DNF a lot more books this year, which no doubt affected my ratings!)

The BIGGEST shift in my stats is definitely the steady decrease in YA. Year-on-year, I’m clearly choosing to read fewer books for teens (and is not that surprising considering year-on-year I get further from my teens 😂).

Amazingly there were no massive changes in the genre of books I read. I normally do see a shift here, so I was surprised to see no standout changes.

I also read about the same number of library books- at a whopping 76% of books! (basically libraries are my book-supply-lifeline and I couldn’t live without them!)

That said, there was one other MASSIVE change- and that’s the number of audiobooks I’ve read. It’s gone from a mere 25% to 48%!!!!!! That’s almost double!!! And to be honest, I’m not surprised by this shift. Not only do I think audiobooks are *AWESOME* (since I have (re)discovered the joy of being read to) I also know that I wouldn’t have done much reading at all this year if not for all the audiobooks I consumed (/devoured like a craven audiobook fiend).

So yeah, while a lot of things have stayed the same, there have been some BIG CHANGES!

Still, sometimes it’s the little things that count, such as…

Starting off this list with a small pleasure.

A HUGE slog (but not as bad as the last time! I gave it an extra banana… granted that was still only a total of two bananas- but that’s an improvement nonetheless!)

I’m pretty torn about this one, not because the book I’m choosing is in any way good (it’s not), but because I actually hated Time Traveller’s Wife more… I just couldn’t bring myself to finish it! So Constant Princess wins- purely because I suffered through it till the bitter end! 😂

This book cut DEEP!

23!! Isn’t that incredible?! (if you’re into DNFing that is 😉 ) Honestly, I’m so proud of this- you can read all about my DNFs in detail in my post!

12- way up from previous years! I’m super pleased about this, because I used to reread all the time and am resurrecting the habit. I feel like it’s a way to just show appreciation and love for a good book (and also rewarding myself with a memorable and comforting treat!) After all, what could be better than reading Lord of the Rings and Austen?! Somehow I managed to enjoy all these books more than the first time I read them!

(Granted on a funny note, I reread Looking for JJ and Selfie by accident cos I thought I’d never read them before)

Well duh!

Total waste of time. It feels like a book that desperately wants to say something profound whilst not saying much of anything at all.

I can understand this (considering I also rated it pretty high)

I quite liked this! not an amazing book, but it does what it said on the tin, so I think this is pretty harsh!

This was so hard to choose!!! I’m going to give you a few (you’re welcome 😉 )

This was a year of some super special non fic!

And that’s a wrap! So how was your reading year? Have your ratings been good? Did you discover any brilliant books? Let me know in the comments!

Just Some of the Great Books I Read This Year

Published on December 28, 2022December 11, 2022 by theorangutanlibrarian10 Comments

Because one post of great books is never enough!

Let’s get warmed up with Dear Fahrenheit 451, which was a reader’s ode to books. Then I Must Betray You proved a powerful historical YA. Easily the best YA contemporary I read was Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry. Taylor Jenkins Reid’s backlist proved to be as brilliant as some of her current books, with One True Loves leaving me smitten. Of course, I have to include the fab fantasy books Book Eaters, Gallant and Ballad of Never After! A really special way to end the year was to pick up the first in the Regency Faerie Tales series- Half a Soul. And last, but certainly not least, Island of the Missing Trees to transport you to historical Cyprus.

And that’s all for now… can’t wait to share more!!

Let’s Do Something New for 2022- Why I’m Done With Resolutions…

Published on January 16, 2022January 9, 2022 by theorangutanlibrarian38 Comments

Thanks for all the kind messages in the last post ❤ Wishing you all a Happy New Year! Let’s hope we all have a good one!

To kick off the new year, I wanted to talk about something I’m going to be doing differently: I won’t be doing any resolutions. Which, considering the fact I didn’t feel like recapping my 2021 resolutions, makes sense.

The thing is, I gave up on my reading resolutions very early in the year. A lot happened and I didn’t bother checking in with them- I just let my mood-reading-freak-flag fly high. So naturally when it came to doing a wrap up… it seemed a bit pointless. Sure, I could randomly tick off and cross off goals, yet if it was all unconscious and arbitrary, why bother? Which got me thinking about my goal setting in future.

The thing is, I’m a naturally goal-oriented person. I love setting myself a target and then running at it full pelt. However, I do think that setting goals when it comes to reading can put a bit of a dampener on things. I end up thinking too much in terms of what I’m achieving and less about what I’m enjoying right now. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m happiest being a mood reader. And reading is ultimately a hobby for me that *I don’t want added pressure from*. If I want to read something right now, I will. I don’t want to ruin that by thinking about what I (supposedly) ought to be reading.

Which also makes me think about how *boring* my resolutions posts were becoming. Because I try to accommodate my mood-reading ways, I tend to play it safe and try to stick to things I’d like to read anyway. That in turn becomes really samey (and doubtless really dull to read). My posts (including the one I scrapped) were pretty much falling into a formula of “I set these really easy goals and then I did them- woohoo!” And that seems daft to write about, considering how all the things I’m excited about were often left of field! I much prefer revealing all the lovely bookish surprises in stats and other wrap ups.

Ultimately, I can’t predict what’s going to happen… and that includes not knowing whether I’ll want to return to resolutions in the future. Right now, I’m going to let the goals go and just read whatever I fancy. Have a cool 2022!