Blogging Anniversary - 10 years

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A while ago I checked when I did my first blog post, in order to celebrate with an anniversary post. Well, that day came and went without any reaction from me. Better late than never, so here a reminder of my very first blog post from 24 October 2012.  The book was New Finnish Grammar  by Diego Marani. Marani is an Italian novelist, translator and newspaper columnist. While working as a translator for the European Union he invented a language ‘Europanto’ which is a mixture of languages and based on the common practice of word-borrowing usage of many EU languages. It was a suitable book to start with, being a book about letters, languages and memories. With a beautiful prose, the novel went directly to my heart.  "One night at Trieste in September 1943 a seriously wounded soldier is found on the quay. The doctor, of a newly arrived German hospital ship, Pietri Friari gives the unconscious soldier medical assistance. His new patient has no documents or anything that can ide...
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End of the year summary

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I would like to start by thanking you all for visiting my blog in 2015. It is always a pleasure and interesting to ’talk’ to fellow bloggers out there. To read your blogs and get inspired. I hope you will continue to visit my blog in the coming year, and I hope to develop it further in 2016.

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The end of the year was spent in lovely Mallorca. The weather was fantastic, with sunshine and around 20 degrees Celsius. Already George Sand and Frédéric Chopin enjoyed ”A Winter in Mallorca”, and I really love the winter here. The climate is fantastic, off tourist season so everything is quiet and peaceful. The sunsets have been amazing in all it colours.

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Sunset from our balcony

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...and the sky a little bit later

Reading in 2015

I have read quite a lot of books in December, although it has been a rather busy month. The last days I have spent on the latest book in the Outlander series. I have kept it on hold, because I know that it will take some time before book number nine is out. In the meantime, we fans of Outlander, are looking forward to season two of the TV-series, which should be out in the spring of 2016.

Looking at the statistics for my reading in 2015, I have divided the genres into Series, Fiction, Non-fiction and Mystery. Fiction is subdivided into Classics and Historical Fiction (one of my favourite genres) and Non-Fiction into Biographies and Historical non-fiction.

Series: 20 books in four series
Fiction: 50, of which 10 Classics and 13 Historical fiction
Non-Fiction: 39, of which 15 Biographies and 10 Historical non-fiction
Mystery: 11

All in all 121 books.


Achievements

On Goodread I opted for a challenge to read 100 books, which I am happy to say I have achieved.

My TBR shelves have seen 42 of 274 books being moved to the read shelves. Although I add new books for these shelves as they come in, still the total number is slightly less than before. I start with 231 TBR books for 2016.  Just means I have to disciplin myself and not buy too many new books.

Not calculated are the books on my iPad mini, where I do download rather frequently. But trying to keep up the pace there as well. I will come back to the Challenges I would like to follow in 2016.

Studies and writing

I am continuing my on-line university course in how to write a historical novel. First half has been very interesting and I am looking forward to the second half which will continue until June.

Future Learn provides fantastic on-line courses on various subjects and length. The longest I took was six week, and others have been three weeks. I am just doing one on Magna Carta and will start a new one in the end of January on the writings of Robert Burns.

I also want to write more, whether be it blog posts, articles or short stories. For me, it is a matter of disciplin and organisation! Let’s just say that some days are better than others!

I wish you all a very good 2016 blogging year and hope to continue to exchange views with you all.

All the best for 2016!

Comments

  1. Travellin Penguin7 January 2016 at 06:14

    I had to look up where Mallorca is. It looks wonderful, I can see why you liked it so much. I agree re Future Learn. I did the class on English Lit and Old Homes. I found it well organised and I teresting. When I finish the photoshop class I am taking I will consider something else. All the best in your New Year and with continued reading.

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    Replies
    1. Lisbeth 8 January 2016 at 18:39

      It is a lovely island and for European climate, winter there is fantastic. Already George Sand went there with Frédéric Chopin to spend a winter in Valldemossa. It was supposed to be good for Chopin's health. She wrote the book "A Winter in Mallorca" after the visit. Although it turned out to be one of the worst winters in a long time and, at least George Sand, was not too overjoyed about the people. Mallorcans today are wonderful and friendly people!

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