Wow, I can’t believe it’s the end of 2009… It really feels as though it should still be summer, but Christmas and New Year has come and gone and I’m welcoming in 2010. This year should be good. I have seen the future and the future looks bright… for books that is (as mentioned in my Top Ten Most Anticipated Reads & YA Reads 2010).
December was a good month. I received some great books to review and interviewed some seriously lovely authors. I also had my Christmas Week event which was fun (more about that below).
December was also the month of ‘Reading Challenges’. I have again signed up for far too many, even though I failed to complete most I joined in 2009… Oops, but I just can’t resist the new shiny buttons! I am also hosting four of my own in 2010: Thriller & Suspense Challenge 2010, The Typically British Challenge 2010, The Anita Blake Challenge (with the chance to win the entire series) and Speculative Fiction Challenge 2010. Hopefully I will do better this year than I did in 2009! If you would like to see my progress on all my challenges either hit the Challenges button on the navi bar or go here.
I also went to see one of the most anticipated movies of the year: Avatar. What can I say… BRILLIANT! It’s a film that blends amazing, jaw dropping, seamless graphics with a moving storyline. The music is pretty good too. I’m sure you all remember Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg), which was released in 1993. This was one of the first films to use a high proportion of CGI and I can honestly say that seeing those dinosaurs looking so alive brought a tear to my eye. The graphics in Avatar, although far superior, did not affect me in this way, but they are awesome all the same. Especially the animation of people (well Avatars). The body movement and facial expressions are just getting better and better. If you haven’t seen this movie yet I recommend you do, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.
Okay, onto BCC news:
• December 19th was the beginning of my first ‘Christmas Week‘ event. It was really fun and I had some lovely guests. I will be doing the same next year but a few things will probably change including the title. Christmas Week is a little boring don’t you think? 
I had the pleasure of welcoming the following guests – please click the link to read their posts:
I had the pleasure of welcoming the following guests – please click the link to read their posts:
A special thanks to KMont who designed the button for Christmas Week. She has kindly agreed to design my All Hallow’s Eve event poster/button for 2010 as well, can’t wait! 
• New Blogs on the Block, a feature I introduced in November, has had a lot of interest, much more than I anticipated. Everyone who has emailed me will be featured, but it’s on a ‘first come first served’ basis so you may not be up for a while. December’s featured blogs were:
• BCC received a few blog awards during December too from the lovely blogs below. Thanks so much for thinking of me, it really is nice of you
• Miss Cindy from Simple Life & Reading & Jamie from Confessions of a Book Junkie for the Lovely Blog Award
Click HERE to see all awards.
Books Reviewed:
• I Am Scrooge: A Zombie Story for Christmas by Adam Roberts
• Sweet Inspiration by Penny Watson
• Fallen by Lauren Kate
• Blood Sinister by Celia Rees
Authors Interviewed/Guest Posts:
• Cynthia Vespia: A Note On Characterisation
• At the end of November I ran a survey, which was really interesting. If you would like to see the results of the survey, which I posted at the beginning of December, then you can do so HERE.
I began blogging at the beginning of July and It’s been an amazing six months. So I thought I would mention a few of the things that I am particularly proud of:
July:
• Launch of Book Chick City
• First author interview: Jane Davis
• Received first book for review from publisher: Angels of Destruction by Keith Donohue (Jonathan Cape)
August:
• BBAW Best New Blog nomination: I didn’t get shortlisted but I was amazed that after just two months of blogging I was actually nominated. A big highlight.
Sept:
• Book Bloggers Appreciation Week (BBAW) – Read my end of BBAW post
Oct:
Nov:
• Introduction of On My Wishlist
• Introduction of New Blogs on the Block
Dec:
• Hosting my own ‘Reading Challenges’
Random Stats
• I have over 500 blog followers, nearly 1200 twitter followers and have had over 44,000 visitors from 100 different countries (top 10 being, 1. USA, 2. UK, 3. Canada, 4. Australia, 5. Germany, 6. Netherlands, 7. Philippines, 8. Spain, 9. France, 10. New Zealand) since July 2009.
• I’ve written 288 posts and had 3884 comments.
• I’ve posted 43 reviews and conducted 25 author interviews
• I’ve held 26 contests (17 being worldwide). Top three most popular: 1. Christmas Giveaway ’09 with 174 entries, 2. Fallen by Lauren Kate with 147 entries and 3. BBAW Giveaway – The Hunger Games & Catching Fire with 144 entries .
• My most popular posts: Freeloaders? I Don’t Think So! and To eRead or not to eRead?
Fav Bloggers:
I have come across some really amazing bloggers – I twitter with them and visit their blogs regularly. Here are five of my favourites.
• Smexy Books – for her funny outgoing manner, who I envy terribly. Mandi is so relaxed in the way she writes it’s a pleasure to read. If you haven’t stopped by her blog then make a new years resolution to do so.
• Nextread – Gav has a lot of interesting things to say on his blog and I’ve found many books when stopping by his blog. I twitter with him regularly and he seems such a cool guy.
• Speculative Horizons – I’ve only just found James’s blog but I love it already. It’s my place to go for Sci-Fi reads and I just love his reviews. He has a wicked sense of humour that just has me chuckling to myself.
• Wondrous Reads – What’s not to like about Jenny’s blog… I stop by on a daily basis to get my YA fix. She’s a really sweet girl and I love how she runs her blog. And she’s also a fellow Brit chick
• J Kaye’s Book Blog – I’m sure you all know J Kaye but I wanted to mention her because basically I think she’s great. She has a top notch blog and she is just so friendly. Whenever I emailed her with a problem when I was starting out she always emailed me back with the answers to my questions. Such a super chick
There are so many other blogs I have found this year, which I visit on a regular basis, (you just have to look at my blogroll), that I can’t possibly list them all here, but they are all brill
New Year Resolutions:
I always make new year resolutions. I don’t always keep them, but I always make them and spend my year trying to achieve them. For 2010 I am now adding blogging resolutions to the list, and they are: to read more, review more, comment more and write more discussion posts, but I’m crap at finding topics, so I will do my best
I would really love to read at least 3-4 books per week and have the same amount of reviews, at the moment I am two books/reviews per week. I also want to try and comment on other blogs a bit more. As my blog has grown it has become increasingly more difficult to comment on every blog regularly, but I will always try…
And finally – I have had such an amazing time blogging and I’ve ‘met’ some really wonderful people. Thanks so much to all of you who come by to read my blog, join in with comments, sign up for my challenges and enter the contests, you are all truly super duper! Here’s to 2010 and another great blogging year!
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!!
17 Comments
Sounds like you have a very busy schedule for 2010. Good luck and I enjoy reading your blog.
Happy New Year
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Happy New Year Carolyn!
And wow, thanks for the mention. Very kind of you!
I like your resolutions too, a few are the same as mine. I want to do a few discussion posts and comment more, I'm just hoping I can find the time!
Here's to a great 2010 on BCC. *thumbs up*
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Happy New Year (it's already past midnight for you)!
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Happy New Year!
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Happy New year!
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Hope you achieve all your blog goals in 2010.
And can I just say I saw Avatar too and it was sensational!
Happy New Year!
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Your off to a great start! I hope 2010 is an even more terrific year for you.
Happy New Year!
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Happy Happy New Year Carolyn!
You've accomplished so much since the Launch of BCC and it's super amazing. I really hope 2010 is even more successful for you =)
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Your website is so cool! Love the graphics!
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Excellent year in review post! Still find it hard to believe that you've only been blogging for six short months, as your blog is great! Looking forward to seeing what you have in store for us in 2010. Good luck with all of your challenges!
Happy New Year!
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Happy New Year!
I'm signing up for your Speculative fiction and Suspense/Thriller challenge…among the 30+ other challenges I'm joining…LOL! Pure craziness, I know. Just can't help it!
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Wow! What a great year! Good luck in 2010!
I can't believe you want to read 3-4 books a week! That is quite a goal! Best of luck!
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Stopping by to say happy new year!
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I had just gone to see Avatar yesterday and was just blown away by it. It was definitely worth the wait for a new James Cameron movie. Happy new year!
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Happy New Year! I love your blog; it's one of my favorites. You do a fabulous job! Keep up the good work!
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{{{{HUGS}}}}
Thank you and a super, duper Happy New Year to you!
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great wrap up post. Keep up the great work…love the blog
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