Saturday, December 21, 2013

A Year in First Lines

The Reading Woman 2014 Wall Calendar
My new calendar!


I'm not sure how this past year flew by quite so quickly but here we are at the end of it. It's already time for my yearly meme, A Year in First Lines!

The "rules" are simple: Take the first line of each month's post over the past year and see what it tells you about your blogging year.


January: It's a New Year! And I couldn't resist creating a new challenge of my own, which came to me as I was making my resolutions. {the Postal Reading Challenge}

February:  I was in Toronto for a library conference for the last few days (great, by the way) and made some time on my lunch break to whiz over to Toronto's First Post Office on February 1st to kick off Letter Month

March:  All of this last month (February) I've been participating in Letter Month. This is something I only discovered in January, so it was my first time joining in, which I did immediately upon finding it -- as I am already a big lover of stationery, postal mail and all its ephemera. 

April:  So it's April again, and already, and I didn't get any poetry month celebrations planned out!

May:  Another epistolary read, [Where'd You Go, Bernadette] has been repeatedly recommended to me. 

June:  For the first day of Barbara Pym reading week, hosts Thomas and Amanda have shared how they met Barbara Pym. 

July:  Happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canucks -- hope you are having a wonderful long weekend!

August:  I've been enjoying some time off from my day job, but it's been a bit of a busman's holiday. Of course.

SeptemberOn my Western kick after reading The Cowboy & The Cossack, I decided to read one of the most famous Westerns of all, by an author I have read other titles from previously. {Riders of the Purple Sage}

October:  What a delight this book was! It's the story of Canadian writer Jane Christmas, newly engaged but also wanting to explore her lifelong urging toward the contemplative life.  {And Then There Were Nuns}

November:  Another book by Cary Fagan, this is a collection of short stories that I read a while ago now, just before his novel A Bird's Eye was released. {My Life  Among the Apes}

December:  To get myself into the Christmas spirit, I picked up this small collection of stories by the great Connie Willis, author of numerous books I have loved. {Miracle, and other Christmas Stories}


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So it looks like my year was full of reading challenges, letters, and book reviews...hmmm, much the same as always! My summer holidays were reflected in my July & August posts, and April shows that I was falling down on the job a little ;) Overall, a pretty good reading year in 2013.

I hope you'll play along and post yours too -- if you do, feel free to leave a link in the comments so we can all check out your first lines as well!

10 comments:

  1. I can't wait until letter writing month comes around again. :) I had fun last year. It looks like you had a good year of books!

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    1. Yes, I loved Letter Writing Month. Going to buy some permanent stamps now...

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  2. First Lines is one of my favorite memes! It will probably be my last post for the year. Melwyk, your year of reading and book blogging is well represented here, I think.

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    1. Looking forward to yours as well -- it's always fun to see the year in a condensed form!

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  3. What a clever way to comprise a summary of one's reading year. I'm afraid mine wouldn't be as clever as yours, but I did enjoy reading your main 'events' of 2013.

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    1. I always hope that the first lines will reflect well ;) I've read other people's lists which sound so much more erudite, but oh well. It is still fun to do!

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  4. Dang it, missed it again! Well, better late than never... which I think I said last year too... mine are up now. It is really interesting to me how well they always do encapsulate my reading year, really. They don't catch everything, but they catch a lot more than I would have suspected.

    Also, I've decided I need to fancy-up my first lines of the month next year. Mine mostly appear pretty boring. ;)

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    1. Oh, it's up for anyone to do around this time of year. I put mine up a bit earlier than usual too, so glad that you still wanted to check it out!

      I find that it really does catch a lot of the year, strangely enough! And I always think in January that I should write clever first lines but always forget to do it after that ;)

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  5. Hi, Melwyk. I am a little late to the post with my List of First Lines (that I learned about from Simon at Stuck in a Book), but here is a link if you are interested:

    http://bellebookandcandle.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-year-in-first-lines.html

    I also did the Letter a Day project and loved it! I am glad to find your blog and will look forward to visiting it this coming year.

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    1. Thanks for sharing your link! It looks like your year was a varied one. I'm looking forward to Letter Month again this year as well, such fun to push myself to get writing :)

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