Happy last days of 2018, friends! What a whirlwind year it has been for the Bingleys! So much so, that I feel like it was the fastest year to date! I’m guessing it felt so fast because we had so much going on. Here are some highlights:
1. We traveled to 3 different countries this year – England, Ireland, and Colombia. 🏴 🇮🇪 🇨🇴 And many other places within the US like Austin, Texas
2. We started visiting North Carolina State Parks, and so far have been to 8 different parks, some of them multiple times!
3. We went camping for the first time…and many other times as well! (We’ve camped in 5 states total now!).
4. We’ve increased the amount of adventure in our life (thanks to Ernie!).
5. We survived Hurricane Florence. Sure we’ve lived through many hurricanes before, but this one was definitely on another level.
Now, on the blog front it has been quite a busy year…
Let’s see a summary, shall we?
~ Posts ~
- Total # of Blog Posts for 2018 – 179 (5 more than last year!) 😃
- Total # of Reviews Posted in 2018 – 64 (1 less than last year!) 🙁
- Total # of Different Authors Read in 2018 – 70 (26 for the first time!) 🤗
- Total # of Author Features in 2018 – 50 (8 more than last year!) 😮
- Interviews – 13
- Guest Posts – 13
- Excerpts – 18
- Cover Reveals – 6
Reading Challenges – 2
~ The Goodreads 2018 Reading Challenge ~
- Goal: 70 books
- Final Progress: 70 books! Just made it! 😉
~ The Austenesque Lovers TBR Pile Challenge 2018 ~
- Goal: 18 books
- Final Progress: 7 books. 🙁 Not event close. I’m sad to say I could not keep up with this challenge this year. And even though I loved taking part in this challenge these past years and I adore the group of readers that lend motivation and support in this group (Sophia Rose does such a wonderful job organizing and running it!), I think I need to step back and take a break for now (I really wasn’t around much this past year!) However, I still hope to read books from my ever-growing TBR pile though!
~ Overall Reading Breakdowns ~
Almost one non-Austenesque book per month, I like it. I might try to do similar for next year. :🤔
This year 82% of my Jane Austen reads were Pride and Prejudice related, compared to 70% last year. I was all about some D&E in 2018! I am sad to see how I neglected poor Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion though! 😧
I’m always reading more variations than anything else, but this year I definitely read more modern adaptations and sequels than I normally do, so variations were only 31% of my reading consumption! 👍🏼
I like that over 1/3 of my reads were 5 star reads and that above 85% of them were 4 stars and above. 🙌🏼
Here is a new chart I made for this year! Thought it would be fun to see what the publication years were for all my reads! I’m not surprised to see the majority was 2017!! I’m always trying to catch up! LOL! 😜
Another new chart for me this year. Here is a breakdown of average ratings for each classification of book/genre I read. I have the highest totals for Anthologies and Nonfiction/Reference. My overall review average is 4.39. 😊
~~~
What about you?
What exciting events took place in your 2018?
What reading trends did you have?
I love these posts Meredith 🙂 I love stats and this is something I have been meaning to do for myself but never found the time. I think I’ll finally do it in 2019 :)))
I really liked seeing your reading habits in numbers 🙂 It always gives us a different perspective of what our year was like right? I particularly liked seeing the books you read per year of publication.
Like you I travelled a little, visiting 5 countries this year, which was not as much as I’m used to but quite good nonetheless.
I read 50 books which was quite good and the majority of them were P&P adaptations. I’ll try to diversify a little more next year 🙂
Thanks for all the hard work you put into the blog this year, and hopefully you’ll continue with this rhythm next next year 🙂
Thank you, Rita! That is super kind of you to say! i loved to study and analyze so this is always one of my favorite posts to do!
That is amazing that you’ve been to 5 countries…I don’t know if we will ever manage to do that in one year…maybe if we had lots of vacation time. But for me, vacation time means less income. :/
Congrats on 50 books for 2018! I hope you have a great 2019 with lots of travel and fabulous reads!
Happy New Year Meredith to you and Mr Bingley. Thank you for all your hard work with your blog, i am absolutely love it and get a lot of enjoyment from it xx
Thank you, sweet friend! I so appreciate your visits!
I love seeing the stats. Found it interesting that most of your 5 star reviews were for anthologies though they comprised only a little over 4% of the books you read. Who knew? Wishing you and Mr. Bingley another year of happiness and adventure!
Me too! I don’t think most of my 5 star reviews were for anthologies since I only read 3 and had 24 books that I rated 5 stars and of that 24. It was a small category but I definitely loved all the books I read in it! 🙂
Happy New Year to you and hubby. I too have fallen down on my Austenesque group reads. Well to be honest I’ve been totally abysmal!!! Hope to do better next year. Finished my GR challenge and was pleased with that. I’ve had a bit of a tough year so will be glad to wave bye bye to it and hoping 2019 will be even a small bit better.
Thanks for all the work you do on this lovely blog. I always enjoy the different posts.
Thank you, sweet friend! 🙂 Doesn’t it feel good to finish GR challenge? I squeaked by this year…read a short book two days a go so I could make the goal!
I hope you have a wonderful 2019, one that is much better than 2018 for you!
Thank you for sharing your travels and your reading adventures Meredith! It was lovely to meet you at Pemberley earlier this year.
I am amazed that you have time to create all these statistics and pie charts. I have read a lot of books this year but I haven’t a clue how many! A lot of necessary re reads as well. My aim for 2019 is to read all the books on my TBR list (to help with this, I am resisting buying so many books and limiting purchases to must reads – not helped by the fact that I do have so many must reads by so many fabulous authors! )
I look forward to your reviews and lists in 2019. Happy New Year to you and Mr Bingley, may I wish you health, wealth and much happiness.
Thank you for putting up with all my sharing! 😉 It was such a treat to meet you and Mira for the first time this year! I had such a magical day at Pemberley!!!
LOL! I make the time because I enjoy looking at them. 🙂 I’m a visual person and love to reflect on the year before starting a new one!
That is such a great goal for 2019! I hope to do the same… for the past couple of year I started becoming more selective about what I read, and I want to continue doing that so I can have time to keep up with authors I enjoy and love!
Wishing you and yours a very happy and healthy 2019!
What an amazing year summary! I love the personal photos, the book reads, graphics, and all your enthusiastic support! Can’t wait to see what next year brings. I worked on several projects this year — nine were published in 2018. I self-published two anthologies that I am proud of and my 2017 published anthologies “The Darcy Monologues” and “Dangerous to Know: Jane Austen’s Rakes and Gentlemen Rogues” are now at Audible. Presently “Rational Creatures” is being produced into an audiobook. In July2019, at least three of the “Yuletide” authors hope to meet at Chawton House to present them our first check. I have at least three book projects I am contracted to edit in 2019 but will see what happens from there. Thank you so much for all your support, Meredith! You are a bright light in this wonderful Austen community. Wish you much love in 2019.
Thank you, Christina!! I am so happy you enjoy what I share1: ) What a phenomenal year you had! I think I read 7 out of your 9 books and they all were terrific! And of course, you know my thoughts about your 2 anthologies!! Thank you so much for all you do for this genre!!
I love hearing that you have some books your are helping with in 2019 Cannot wait to see what they are! Thank you for the lovely wishes for 2019! Hoping you have a terrific year with your family!
I enjoyed your end of the year summary and stats. Thank you for your exceptional blog and all the support you give Austen-inspired writers. Hope you and Mr. Bingley have a fantastic 2019!
Thank you so much for your kind words, Jan!! I appreciate all the support for my blog! It encourages me to keep doing what I do! Wishing you and yours enjoy a happy and healthy 2019!!
It’s been a pleasure to read your blog all year, it has provided me a lovely time, so thank you, my friend, for making your blog a beautiful place to stop by and dream and smile 😉
I’ve been very lucky to find “Austenesque Reviews” so Happy New Year 2019 and I wish you all a blessed year full of happiness, health, creativity, fun, peace of mind…and many wonderful readings 🙂
Awww! Thank you, Teresa! I appreciate all your kind words and I love your visits! What wonderful wishes for 2019, I would like to wish you the same, sweet friend!!
I love these end of year wrap-ups and the charts and graphics. These are fascinating, and I can tell that a lot of work goes into them. That’s so much organization which I do not possess. But yours is very appreciated. It’s really hard to remember back before I started following your blog, and can’t imagine what it would be without it. The work you do for us so often looks effortless, and I think that has to come from a true love of what you’re doing. We’re so lucky you are there for us.
And I’ve loved EVERY feature, too. From reviews to guests, and from cover reveals to the photologue of your travels.
I was hit by a very short-lived moment of panic when I saw the title of this email today. Then said, ‘yep it really is that time again,’ and I was over it. :/ Oh boy, what a year. I’m so glad to be saying ‘bye, bye’ to 2018! Not that we don’t have an incredible amount to be thankful for…i.e., family support and modern medicine. We’ve ended the year perfectly though, with a visit from our son and girlfriend who live in a different state. Now on to 2019. Happy New Year (Teresa said it perfectly!)
Hi Michelle, what I wished to Meredith I wish to you and all the readers! 😉
And to you Teresa, as well as all of Meredith’s followers. 😀
It means so much to me that you have been such a long-time reader of my blog! I do love working on my blog and sharing posts with you all, but I think I would love it a lot less if I didn’t receive such friendly feedback or engaging conversation! It really does keep me going!
Thank you so much for all the times you visit and the lovely messages you share!
Big hugs and lots of wishes for a wonderful 2019!!!
What a wonderful 2018! Happy New Year!
denise
Thank you, my friend! Wishing you a happy 2019!!
This year has definitely flown by swiftly. I only traveled once this year and camped twice. I love that Ernie is helping you guys get out and about to the state parks. So pretty.
Way to go on the posts and guests and reviews.
I love seeing your stats and break down of ratings, types, release years, and all. Makes me want to go and figure out what mine are.
Have a wonderful new year of more adventures and more good reading. 🙂
It was too fast! Yay for some camping trips! Ernie has changed our lives! LOL!
Thanks so much for checking out my stats! I would love to see yours! I know you read quite a bit more than I do!
Hope the new year brings you a lot of happiness and of course, lots of great reads!
Sophia, could I receive a new link from your Goodreads 2019 Jane Austen reading challenge?
Hi Michelle! Not sure if you already found the new link for GR, but I thought I’d share it just in case: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/783889-austenesque-lovers-tbr-challenge-2019
Thank you, I clicked on a link to the GR group from Facebook, which also gave a little verbal guidance on what to look for. So, yes, I did. This is obviously my first challenge on GR, so bear with me friends.
Hello my friend! Love to see how your year panned out and I particularly loved the graphs. They really highlight some reading patterns.Perhaps I will be organised enough for some graphs next year, who knows! I hope you and Mr Bingley and your families have a fantastic 2019, and I wish you plenty of good reading!
Thank you so much, Ceri!! I so appreciate you checking out this post! It is fun to make graphs and even if does take some time, I love seeing the data!
Thank you for another year of friendship, sweet friend! I hope you and yours enjoy a wonderful 2019!!
Thank you Meredith for all you do. Those great interviews with the authors, reading and reviewing books and giving us what to expect from them. Grateful also for enlisting the new books that came out.
Like you I did the reading challenge.. I made it too this year and I plan to continue to challenge myself with this reading challenge every year.
Hope you and your family have a Hapy New Year!!! Blessings to all (readers/fans too)!!!
I appreciate all your kind words, Buturot! Thank you so much for following and visiting this blog! That’s great that you accomplished your reading goal for 2018! Hope you enjoy a wonderful 2019!!
What a year Meredith! I don’t even come close! BUT you are an inspiration and I look forward to 2019 on the blog! Happy New Year to you and Mr. Bingley!
AND thanks so much for including me and my books in your offerings. We had fun!
Thank you, Jennifer! It was such a great and exciting year for you! I’m so happy to see you publish your stories – you were 1 of the 26 new authors I read this year!!!
Wow! Love the pictures and your charts!! What a year you have had and what a wonderful hosting of authors, reviews, book cover launches you have done. We are very thankful for all you do and look forward to seeing what you will have next for us in 2019!! Happy New Year!
Thanks, Carole! You know I love me some visuals! 🙂 It was a very exciting year all around! I would love another just like it…minus the hurricane! 😉 Hope you enjoy a wonderful and happy 2019!!
Looks like you had a fantastic year! Here’s to a great 2019. Happy new year!
Thanks, my friend!! Hope you have a happy 2019 too!!!
Thanks for sharing your personal year as well as your Austenesque year! Love your adventure pictures — bring Ernie and Mr. Bingley up to Minnesota some time — our state parks are outstanding and I can hook you up to the best camping!
Thank you, Colleen! You have no idea how much Mr. Bingley and I (and Ernie!) would love that! We hope to go further west this year and hit some new-to-us states! It is just a little hard to travel farther when we don’t have a lot of time off work, but we hope to start doing more of it!
Hope you are enjoying a wonderful start to 2019!
Wow, what a year! Do you have a time turner, or some other secret method of managing time? I’m so impressed with all the traveling and reading you’ve done! Happy 2019 to you!
I wish!!! I try to manage time well because if I don’t get in some reading or blogging each day, it just doesn’t feel right! I wish I had the time to read more…so many books languishing on my shelves waiting to be read are constantly taunting me!!
Thanks so much for your kind wishes!! Hoping you are enjoying a lovely 2019 so far!! 🙂
Wow, I am so impressed by all the charts and statistics. I cannot imagine all the work you put into that. Well done. The photos are excellent. I am glad you two are enjoying your traveling.
Thank you so much, Sheila! We have had a great year for travel…probably one of the best we’ve ever experienced. I do hope that 2019 will be more of the same! Wishing you a very happy 2019, my friend!
I love pie charts and bar graphs. You always amaze me how you mathematically show us your year in reading. I love it. You and Mr. Bingley [hello Mr. Bingley] sure had a lot of fun last year. I love your pictures. They always make me feel like I have traveled with you. At our age and health, we are no longer able to travel. We were advised when we first married to travel while we were young and we did. We only crossed the US borders twice… to visit Canada and Mexico. Over the years, we were able to visited most of the US. Enjoy my dears. Happy New Year and have a blessed 2019.
Me too! I’m glad I found an excuse for making some! 🙂 I love that our pictures make you feel that way! We have yet to travel to Canada…definitely would love to see some parts of that country! I hope you are enjoying a wonderful start to 2019!