Two Years at she reads and reads + Giveaway Winners!

As you know, I recently celebrated my two-year anniversary, and to mark the occasion I wanted to share a few stats with you (as well as let you know who won my giveaway!).

This is my 479th post!

Top five reviews:

1. Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott (highly recommended)
2. Testimony by Anita Shreve (not recommended)
3. My Little Red Book edited by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff (recommended)
4. Simon’s Cat by Simon Tofield (highly recommended)
5. The Corpse Will Keep by Pat Capponi and Farthing by Jo Walton (recommended and highly recommended, respectively)

Top five non-review (non-giveaway) posts:

1. What Is the Nature of Reading, What Are Its Rules and Its Gifts? (guest post by my sister Brogan)
2. Similar Covers: Have You Seen These Women?
3. Similar Covers: A Bevy of Skirts
4. Again, Similar Covers
5. Similar Covers: More Women from Behind + How Do I Find These Covers Anyway?

Top referring sites (thank you!):

1. Reusable Cover Art at Reading the Past
2. Should Be Reading
3. Cindy’s Love of Books
4. Jacket Whys
5. My Friend Amy
6. The Printed Page
7. BookBound
8. Book Chatter
9. A Work in Progress
10. A Reader’s Respite

Over the past two years, my site has had nearly 30,000 visitors hailing from 117 countries!

Enough of that, you say, you want to know who won my giveaway? The winners were:

1. allisonsbj3, who requested American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld (my review)
   
2. buddyt, who requested Careless in Red by Elizabeth George (my review)
   

Congratulations and thanks again to all of you for reading (and commenting on!) my blog!

Book/blog stats for October 2009

October was a so-so month for both reading and reviewing: I read nine books (six of which were graphic novels) and reviewed two (both of which were negative reviews). The books I read were:
When Autumn Leaves by Amy Foster
Owly: Just a Little Blue (vol. 2) by Andy Runton
Persepolis 1 and 2 by Marjane Satrapi
La Perdida by Jessica Abel
Aya de Yopougon 2 and Aya de Yopougon 3 by Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie
When the Body Says No: The Hidden Cost of Stress by Gabor Maté
Boys, Girls and Other Hazardous Materials by Rosalind Wiseman

The books I reviewed were (click on link for review):
Chiggers by Hope Larson
A Change in Altitude by Anita Shreve

My friend Louise guest posted a review (click on link for review):
Close Encounters of the Third-Grade Kind: Thoughts on Teacherhood by Phillip Done

If you missed any of my “similar covers” posts this month, they were:
Balancing acts
More women from behind (in which I also explain how I find these covers)
Two couples
Headless woman in a black dress
Red and white robe

A few blog stats:

Top viewed post: More women from behind

Number of books acquired: 53 (I blame Book Fair Week!)

Book/blog stats for September 2009

September was another excellent month for reading and a terrible month for reviewing: I read 21 books (20 of which were graphic novels) and again didn’t review a single one. (I promise this won’t happen in October too!)

The books I read were:
Summer Blonde by Adrian Tomine
Y: The Last Man (vol. 1 to vol. 9) by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra et al.
Aya de Yopougon (vol. 1) by Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie (in French)
Aya (vol. 1) by Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie (translated by Helge Dascher)
Lillian the Legend by Kerry Byrne
Dykes and Other Sundry Carbon-Based Life Forms to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel
The Summer of Love by Debbie Drechsler
Owly: The Way Home & The Bittersweet Summer (vol. 1) by Andy Runton
Maus: A Survivor's Tale — My Father Bleeds History (vol. 1) by Art Spiegelman
What Girls Learn by Karin Cook
The Big Skinny: How I Changed My Fattitude by Carol Lay
Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine
Pride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughan and Niko Henrichon

I also participated in Book Blogger Appreciation Week this month: I interviewed Hannah of About Books and gave away four books (winners were announced on Wednesday).

If you missed any of my “similar covers” posts this month, they were:
Kids on swings
Another bathtub cover
Flying book

A few blog stats:

Increase in number of unique visitors (compared to August): 62%

Top viewed post: A bevy of skirts

Number of books acquired: 5

BBAW giveaway announcement & belated happy blogiversary to me!

Technically I started my blog a year ago on July 15, but I consider that I started blogging on August 25, 2008. This is in part because before that I didn’t really understand the near-dailiness of blogging and did foolish things like post all the reviews I’d already written for LibraryThing one after another on two different days even though nobody was reading my blog yet. August 25 also happens to be the day I set up Google Analytics, so my stats start from that day. Unfortunately, however, I never finished writing my “happy blogiversary to me” post before I went on vacation in August so the big day slipped by with nary a word from me about it. So now that Book Blogger Appreciation Week is just around the corner, this seemed like the perfect occasion to celebrate both my one year of blogging and BBAW with a few giveaways!

I have four different giveaways in store for you next week and each will involve a choice between two brand-new books that I’ve read (and loved) since I started blogging. (Each winner will only receive one of the two books offered.) All giveaways will be open worldwide, as I want all my readers to be able to enter. Giveaways will be announced every day from tomorrow to Thursday next and winners will be announced on Monday, September 21. Come back tomorrow for the first giveaway!

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And now for a few stats for the year (more or less)...

Total number of posts: 318
Total number of visits: 13,157
Total number of pageviews: 26,690

First review written for this blog:
Review of So Long at the Fair by Christina Schwarz

Top 5 posts (excluding giveaway-only posts):
1. Review of My Little Red Book edited by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff
2. Review of Testimony by Anita Shreve
3. Reviews of The Corpse Will Keep by Pat Capponi and Farthing by Jo Walton
4. Review of Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott
5. Review of Aberrations by Penelope Przekop

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Oh and for those of you who are not new around here, what do you think of my new header? (About time I put one up!)

Book/blog stats for August 2009

August was my best month yet for reading and my worst ever for reviewing: I read 12 books and didn’t review a single one. The books I read were:
Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris
Her Fork in the Road: Women Celebrate Food and Travel edited by Lisa Bach
Chiggers by Hope Larson
The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg
Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki
Salamander Dream by Hope Larson
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
We Are on Our Own by Miriam Katin
Ethel & Ernest by Raymond Briggs
Learning to Swim by Clare Chambers
The Likeness by Tana French

My sister Brogan guest posted her second review (click on link for review):
Hands of My Father: A Hearing Boy, His Deaf Parents, and the Language of Love by Myron Uhlberg

If you missed any of my “similar covers” posts this month, they were:
Gone to soldiers again
The grass is always green(er)
Flower with fish hooks
Closeups of women’s faces

A few blog stats:

Increase in number of unique visitors (compared to July): -14%

Top viewed post: The Impostor’s Daughter: A True Memoir by Laurie Sandell (a review)

Number of books acquired: 11

Book/blog stats for July 2009

First off, I want to apologize to all of you lovely folk who have been commenting on my blog this past month; I know I’ve been remiss in replying to your comments. I’ve been scrambling to finish various projects before I go on vacation in 10 days and have been neglecting this aspect of blogging. Does this happen to other folk? What do you do? Do you comment on old comments anyway even if a month or more has gone by? (Or do you not reply to comments anyway?)

Back to regular programming...

I read seven books in July:
Annie’s Ghosts: A Journey into a Family Secret by Steve Luxenberg
The Impostor’s Daughter: A True Memoir by Laurie Sandell
The Condition by Jennifer Haigh
Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter
Clay’s Ark by Octavia E. Butler
Conscience Point by Erica Abeel
Intimate Worlds: How Families Thrive and Why They Fail by Maggie Scarf*

I reviewed three books (click on links for review):
The Local News by Miriam Gershow
The Impostor’s Daughter: A True Memoir by Laurie Sandell
Places I Never Meant to Be: Original Stories by Censored Writers edited by Judy Blume

Of these three, my favourite was definitely The Impostor’s Daughter by Laurie Sandell (which I read twice!); you can still enter my giveaway for one of five copies (until August 7).

My sister Brogan also guest posted her first (though definitely not her last) review (click on link for review):
Assembling My Father: A Daughter’s Detective Story by Anna Cypra Oliver

If you missed any of my “similar covers” posts this month, they were:
Blue notebook, red notebook + another skirt cover
Obscuring women’s faces
Woman in red coat
Parasols and umbrellas
Bathtub times two

A few blog stats:

Increase in number of unique visitors (compared to June): 10%

Top viewed post: More awards!

Number of books acquired: 5 (which is a third to half as many as usual!)

*I won’t be reviewing this book, but if you like this type of thing I highly recommend it.

Book/blog stats for June 2009

June was a BIG month, a month of many bloggy milestones! As I mentioned in my first giveaway post last month, I graduated to 100+ followers, slipped over the 250 posts mark and hit the 10,000th visitor mark (sometime on June 9, according to Google Analytics)! Plus I currently have 250+ subscribers, according to FeedBurner! Yay for me! And thank you to all of you!

June was also the month I participated in the Bloggiesta, an event organized by Natasha at Maw Books Blog. I spent 15 hours working on my blog (over a 48-hour period), though I didn’t manage to catch up on my backlog of reviews. :(

I read six books in June:
Keeping Watch by Laurie R. King
Katherine’s Wish by Linda Lappin
Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel
The Local News by Miriam Gershow
Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos
The Opposite of Love by Julie Buxbaum

I reviewed four books (click on links for reviews):
Crossed Wires by Rosy Thornton
Sister Wife by Shelley Hrdlitschka
Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel
Katherine’s Wish by Linda Lappin

I enjoyed them all, although Crossed Wires was my favourite. And to think I almost didn’t read it because of its pink cover!

I abandoned one book this month:
The Professors’ Wives’ Club by Joanne Rendell

I posted about two giveaways in June:
Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel (giveaway closed; winner announced soon!)
Katherine’s Wish and The Etruscan by Linda Lappin (deadline July 17)

If you missed any of my “similar covers” posts this month, they were:
Reflection times three
Pomegranate times three
Mostly pink animal slippers
Braids, polygamy and what girls learn

A few blog stats:

Increase in number of unique visitors (compared to May): 23%

Top viewed post: Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel (a review)

Number of books acquired: 13 (though 2 are for giveaways)

What good books did you read last month?

Book/blog stats for May 2009

May was my slowest month so far, in terms of both reading and reviewing: I read three books and only wrote one review. The books I read were:
In Summer Light by Zibby Oneal
What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman
Escape by Carolyn Jessop (with Laura Palmer)

I reviewed this book (click on link for review):
Escape by Carolyn Jessop (with Laura Palmer)

I abandoned two books this month:
The Debs by Susan McBride
The Smart One and the Pretty One by Claire LaZebnik

I’m also currently reading four (!) other books:
Katherine’s Wish by Linda Lappin
Bliss and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield
Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood by Taras Grescoe
Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel

If you missed any of my “similar covers” posts this month, they were:
Birds of a feather
Have you seen these women?
Another trio of the same woman

I posted my first personal pics this month, including one of me!

A few blog stats:

Increase in number of unique visitors (compared to April): -8%

These visitors hail from 32 different countries (the U.S., Canada and the U.K. being the top three). I’ve had visitors from 46 regions of the U.S. (every state except Arkansas, Montana, Vermont and Wyoming; top state: California) and 45 Canadian cities.

Top viewed post: Sometimes I want to read negative reviews...

Number of books acquired: 13

What good books did you read last month?

Book/blog stats for April 2009

April was a more standard month for me as I only read five books (as opposed to the 10 I read last month). As for reviews, I only managed to write three, which means I’m more behind than ever. The books I read were:
Between Friends: A Year in Letters by Oonagh Berry and Helen Levine (read guest review)
Giving Up: The Last Days of Sylvia Plath by Jillian Becker
A Troubled Guest: Life and Death Stories by Nancy Mairs
Crossed Wires by Rosy Thornton
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

I reviewed these books (click on links for reviews):
Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer’s Life by Kathleen Norris
In the Woods by Tana French
Pathologies: A Life in Essays by Susan Olding

I enjoyed all the books I read this month; the only one that disappointed me a bit was Giving Up: The Last Days of Sylvia Plath.

Of those I reviewed, the best was definitely Pathologies: A Life in Essays by Susan Olding.

If you missed any of my “similar covers” posts this month, they were:
Backs of women’s heads
Familiar dresses
A couple more similar covers
Love and coffee
Girl in pigtails

Hmm, those posts are obviously easier to write than reviews!

A few blog stats:

Increase in number of unique visitors (compared to March): -21% (no giveaway this month!)

These visitors hail from 31 different countries (the U.S., Canada and the U.K. being the top three). I’ve had visitors from 46 regions of the U.S. (every state except Montana, New Hampshire, Nevada, North Dakota and Vermont; top state: California) and 45 Canadian cities.

Top viewed post: More awards!

Number of books acquired: 14

My plan was to review two books a week this past month, which I clearly didn’t do!

What good books did you read last month? Do you also have a stack of read-but-not-reviewed books or do you keep on top of your pile?

Book/blog stats for March 2009

March was a great month for reading and a terrible one for reviewing: I read 10 books (more than twice as many as in January or February), but only reviewed 2 (ack!). The books I read were:
The Perseids and Other Stories by Robert Charles Wilson
Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott (reread)
Willing Spirits by Phyllis Schieber
Sing Them Home by Stephanie Kallos
Pathologies: A Life in Essays by Susan Olding
In the Woods by Tana French
Coventry by Helen Humphreys
The Next Big Thing by Johanna Edwards
Places I Never Meant to Be: Original Stories by Censored Writers edited by Judy Blume
The Wishing Year: An Experiment in Desire by Noelle Oxenhandler

I reviewed these books (click on links for reviews):
My Little Red Book edited by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff
The Perseids and Other Stories by Robert Charles Wilson

I also wrote a post on rereading Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott.

Favourite new books read this month:
Sing Them Home by Stephanie Kallos
Pathologies: A Life in Essays by Susan Olding
The Wishing Year: An Experiment in Desire by Noelle Oxenhandler

While I was sick last month, I spent waaaaay too much time on LibraryThing, looking through other people’s libraries to see if I could spot any familiar covers. (I found more than 20 different matches!)

If you missed any of my “similar covers” posts this month, they were:
Red shoes and white dress
Blue butterflies
More red shoes
A bevy of skirts

I also ran a giveaway for five copies of My Little Red Book edited by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff, courtesy of Hachette. I haven’t announced the winners yet, but hopefully will do so tomorrow!

A few blog stats:

Increase in number of unique visitors (compared to February): 7%

These visitors hail from 32 different countries (the U.S., Canada and the U.K. being the top three). I’ve had visitors from 50 regions of the U.S. (every state except North Dakota; top states: California and New York) and 46 Canadian cities.

Top viewed post (excluding giveaway): Blue butterflies lookalike post

Number of books acquired: 12

My plan is to review two books a week this month, to put a dent in my to-be-reviewed pile (I currently have 14 books waiting to be reviewed!).

What good books did you read last month?

Book/blog stats for February 2009

Again I only read four books in February, but this time I haven’t posted reviews for any of them yet! (Oh dear.) The four books I read were:
The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade by Thomas Lynch
My Little Red Book edited by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff (review & giveaway coming tomorrow)
The Pages in Between: A Holocaust Legacy of Two Families, One Home by Erin Einhorn
Skin Deep by E. M. Crane

Reviews are in the works, and I enjoyed all four of these books!

I reviewed four books this month, again one every Monday (click on links for reviews):
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker
No One You Know by Michelle Richmond
Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott
The Only True Genius in the Family by Jennie Nash

My “similar covers” posts have become a more regular feature: I posted about them three times in February, the latter two being examples of the same image being used on the covers of two different books.

If you missed any of these posts this month, they were:
Sealed letter
Girl in bathing cap
Lace-up back

I also joined in Bermudaonion’s new weekly meme, Wondrous Words Wednesday, twice this month.

Last month, I forgot to mention that I also joined another new-to-me meme, the monthly What’s on Your Nightstand (at 5 Minutes for Books).

Finally, I gave away three copies of the excellent The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker, courtesy of Hachette.

A few blog stats:

Increase in number of unique visitors (compared to January): 47%

These visitors hail from 31 different countries (the U.S., Canada and the U.K. being the top three). I’ve had visitors from 51 regions of the U.S. (every state except Montana; top states: California and New York) and 46 Canadian cities.

Top viewed post (excluding giveaway): Review of Testimony by Anita Shreve

Number of books acquired: 17

My resolution for February was to write more reviews and acquire fewer books, at which I failed miserably! Ah well, I’ll try to do better in March.

What good books did you read last month?

Book/blog stats for January 2009

Well, January ended nearly a week ago, but I’m sticking to my better-late-than-never argument and posting this anyway (with thanks to Ramya for her encouragement!).

I only read four books in January and of those, only managed to review one last month (another I’ve already reviewed in February), partly because I’m still catching up on last year’s reviews. The four books I read were:
Love and Other Natural Disasters by Holly Shumas
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker
The Only True Genius in the Family by Jennie Nash
Sister Wife by Shelley Hrdlitschka

I did review five books this month, posting a review every Monday (click on links for reviews):
A Wood Engraver’s Alphabet by Gerard Brender à Brandis
The Grift by Debra Ginsberg
Love and Other Natural Disasters by Holly Shumas
Beautiful Lies by Lisa Unger and A Likeness in Stone by Julia Wallis Martin

Of the books I read in January, my favourite was definitely The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker, which I highly recommend, but I would recommend all the others as well.

Of the books I reviewed in January, I was most disappointed in Beautiful Lies by Lisa Unger and The Grift by Debra Ginsberg.

A few blog stats:

My visitors this month hail from 18 different countries (the U.S., Canada and the U.K. being the top three). I’ve had visitors from 42 states (top states: California and Washington) and 33 Canadian cities (top cities including suburbs: Montreal and Toronto).

Top viewed post: Mailbox Monday (January 5)

Number of books acquired: 10

Guess my resolution for February should be to write more reviews and acquire fewer books!

What good books did you read last month?

Book/blog stats for 2008

I realize it’s a bit late to be posting my stats for last year, but better late than never! (And besides I want to record these for comparison purposes in future years.) So here goes...

Books read: 62
Books reviewed: 22 (35%)
2008 reviews to be posted in 2009: 7

Fiction: 51 (82%)
Nonfiction: 11 (18%)

Books by female authors: 53 (85%)
Books by male authors: 9 (15%)
Books by multiple authors: 4* (6%)

Rereads: 4 (6%)
Books read to me: 1 (2%)

ARCs read: 11 (18%)
Review copies read: 12 (19%)

Books won in giveaways: 10
Giveaways on my blog: 2
Books given away: 6

Challenges started and completed: 1

Blog posts: 116
Guest posts on my blog: 1
Guest posts I’ve done on other blogs: 2

Blog visitors (Aug 25 to Dec 31): 3812†
Average # reviews posted per month (Aug to Nov): 3.25‡
Most read post (other than giveaways): Reviews of The Corpse Will Keep & Farthing

I should have kept track of how many books I bought in 2008! Now that might be a bit of a scary number when compared to how many I read...

*The books by multiple authors are either all male or all female.
†According to Google Analytics, which I only set up on August 25.
‡I only started posted reviews regularly in August and didn’t post any in December.