Good morning (or afternoon or evening depending on where you live).
Over the weekend I got it in my head that I was going to go through all my old posts and make an alphabetized page of all my book reviews for easy reference. For the record… it was a bigger project than I had anticipated. I worked on it in afternoons while listening to audio, and in the evening while watching movies, and off and on throughout the days…. and it took me three days to complete it. It is however… done.
While it was a LOT OF WORK (I have been reviewing since early 2009), it was also quite the walk through Book Journey history. As I made my way into the older reviews I actually discovered a lot.
I had forgotten many of the older titles that I had once reviewed and was surprised by some of the earlier titles that I had accepted. There were a lot of so-so books in the early years, but there were also great reads such as this one and this one . And this one. Ok there were a lot. I also discovered that I have reviewed Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone between book and audio… 4 times. Yes! 4 times! I interviewed many authors in the early days and almost every review had a giveaway. I also read a lot more James Patterson and Kristin Hannah than I had thought.
Many of the books that I reviewed in the early days were my own, from the library, and often for book club. I used a lot of color in my writing then… blue, red, green… and I bolded my entire posts. My first book sent to me from an author was Dragon House by John Shors. It was an excellent read. My first book tour was a book called A Will To Love by Kim Smith and I used a little picture to represent the tour:
Some of the non book review posts I ran into were the very first Morning Meandering was in August of 2009. I also discovered that in 2009 I was signed up to participate on another Harry Potter Readalong! I had also created a meme called Word Verification Balderdash (Ryan from Wordsmithonia will remember this one, he was great at it!) We would create meanings for the fun word verifications we had found while commenting on blogs. Some of them were hilarious! My favorite non bookish post was one where I interviewed myself as the Wicked … err sorely misunderstood witch of Snow White (I have no idea why I did this and had actually forgot about it), the post is actually a bit funny…
So over all the project was a success. It was more work than I had anticipated but it was fun to go back through every post I have written. I laughed and I eye rolled. It was all good. 🙂
Before I go today I wanted to share another Library Challenge. I had started a Library Challenge here for 2015 and forgot that Felicia from Geeky Bloggers Book Blog hosts one as well. I would encourage those of you interested in the library challenge to take a look at hers too… in many ways they are the same (so its really no more work), but she has a cool link to join in a Goodreads group which is pretty cool. Also… check out her challenge pic…. SO COOL. I am joining in and will do this one along with my own challenge. On hers I think I will go for Thrifty Reader which is a goal of 24.
Book Journey 
I did that a few months ago and it was a pretty big job. I think it is worth it though. I felt good about it once it was done. The new challenge is remembering to update it! 🙂
Laura
Right! I have been good at updating my review to Good Reads this year so one more link shouldn’t be too hard 🙂
Thanks Sheila for sharing your update. Your Archive is amazing. Good Luck with your Library Challenge.
I am impressed with the outcome but not sure I would have done it if I would have known how long it would take 😀
I’ve seen databases like that on other blogs but I don’t have the energy to tackle a project like that right now. Kudos to you for doing it!
I like it but yeah… a lot of work. Upkeep will be easier. 🙂 I like that people can access the archives and maybe find an older title they would enjoy.
Very impressive! I especially like how you designated some as your personal favorites. As much work as this project was, it did give you an opportunity to reflect on how you have progressed as a blogger. I think that is always time well spent. Well done!
Thanks, I think it was worth it but WOW. I probably spent 15 hours on this. 😀
You are encouraging me to catch up. My review index goes from 2008 through the end of 2013. Then I stopped. I guess I could get this year done… maybe while watching football on New Year’s Day.
That’s the best way to do it Candace. I had Harry Potter movies and Hunger Games was on tv last night… mostly background noise and the occasional watching while I worked on this 🙂
I did that with Rainy Days and Mondays, before moving it from Blogger to Word Press. I didn’t transfer everything, but checking out those old posts and reviews was fun.
And I do remember the Word Verification Balderdash…it helped us through those awful moments with Captcha. BTW, have you noticed Blogger has a new system, where you check that you are not a robot? So much nicer.
But I don’t miss Blogger! I still have one blog there, however….
Right??? Capcha did got through a hard phase there when we had to enter codes to comment on anything. I have seen the blogger robot button, I like it. I have never used Blogger (other than to guest post). I think I lucked out by choosing WordPress right from the start. I have never wanted to switch 🙂
Wow your list is some achievement – I thought I’d done well to get my reviews listed by author last month, a job I kept starting and putting down that made it even more complicated to finish! Wishing you a very happy reading year in 2015.
Thank you! Happy New Year!
Sounds like quite a project! Though it sounds like you found some great posts! I’m already signed up for your library challenge but I’ll have to check out Felicia’s. Have a great day!
Oh good thanks Katherine 🙂
I tried creating a link to all my reviews once, but it took so long that I ended up deciding to post my list of books from Goodreads. Kudos to you.
I hear you! It was a big undertaking. Someday I have always wanted to create a master list of banned books but holy smokes, that would even be bigger 😀
Wow such a lot of work. And so many years enthusiastic blogging. I am doing your library challenge and I have reached the cut off point of any more, however I have been thinking about Felicia’s challenge as well. Maybe I will piggyback the two together.
I am glad you are doing Felicia’s as well 🙂 I didn’t mean to duplicate a challenge already happening 😀
Congrats on a big job accomplished. I did it a few years ago too and have kept up on it and am glad that I did as I have referred to it often.
It was a great walk down memory lane!
Sheila, so many of my projects and organizing takes days like this, but as long as they’re satisfying, they’re usually worth it. (I just spent a good portion of the past 3-4 days getting music links and organizing my Basement Bops playlists which will post in January.) Did you count how many books you’ve reviewed? Hundreds, I’m sure! That’s SOME list, woman! 😀
I did not count them. There were a few that I did not link as I got lazy by the end… (like cook books, or books like that) 😀 I would guess around 500.
I use the Ultimate Book Blogger plugin so I kind of cheat on my archive. I still have 2009, 2010, and 2011 to get put in LOL 🙂
Such a smart idea! Good on you for spending the time. It’s looking nice and pretty and organized.