February ’22 R&R

~ Bookstooge

Raw Data:

Novels – 15 ⭤

Graphic Novels – 6 ⭤

Average Rating – 3.40 ↓

Pages – 5220 ↑

Words – 1597K ↑

The Bad:

Hangman’s Holiday – 1star DNF is pretty bad.

Stryker’s War – 2.5stars. Galaxy’s Edge finally let me down 😦

The Good:

Wrath of Empire – 4.5stars of Epic Fantasy.

Carrying On His Will – 4.5stars of awesome manga. Good stuff!

Movie:

Fraggle Rock Season 2 was just as good as Season 1.

Miscellaneous Posts:

Rambling:

This month was very odd weather-wise. Somedays we’d get up to 60degrees, then the next week we’d be in the teens. It was just so changeable.

Work was rough, mainly because my coworker needs to retire but he is one of those people who can’t do “nothing” or even remain physically inactive for more than 10min, so he’s sick of his job and doesn’t actually need it but if he retires he’ll either be bored at home OR his wife will give him a honey-do list. So he’s been complaining the whole month. Makes it tough to enjoy your work when the other person is actively not enjoying it.

Outside of work was busy. We’re back to helping with sunday school once a month and we got sucked into helping out with the livestream video stuff. Our church upgraded the whole video system for covid tail end of ’20 and one lady has been running it by herself. She needed some help, so we’re helping with that once a month, which means we also have to deal with practice mid-week. And small groups started up. So yeah, a lot has been going on.

February has tended to be a lower activity month on the blog in terms of traffic over the last 5 years. For whatever reason, this year was a complete exception. I have had some of the best numbers that I have seen since I started blogging here on WP back in late ’16. I don’t know if Putin was worried that I’d get involved in the Ukraine situation and so was scoping me out, or if Xi Jinping was worried that I’d become Our Great Leader (he should be worried. That guy’s got a LOT of wrinkles, unlike me). But whatever the reason, this month was in the Top 5 months ever. Yeah, I like that! Oh, if you feel uncomfortable calling me Our Great Leader, you can always use the endearing Papa Bookstooge. I don’t mind, really.

In the book department, I felt good with what I read. While my average rating was down, I was not surprised because any month I get a 1star I always get a dip in the ratings. Now that I am done with Sanderson and Sayers, I can try some more new-to-me authors and maybe find the next gem that I can be effusive about, much like I have been for Neal Asher and currently am for Rex Stout. Wish me luck.

Cover Love:

Cthulhu Lies Dreaming perfectly captured the atmosphere shown on this cover. Beautiful, gloomy and slightly disturbing. A big thanks to Fraggle for her photo-work on removing all the extraneous text on the cover. This is how it should have been from the get-go!

Plans for Next Month:

Nothing new coming up at all. March, as far as the blog is concerned, looks like it is going to be a carbon copy of February. I’m ok with that.

44 thoughts on “February ’22 R&R”

    1. No, to calculate a page in an ebook I let a plugin in Calibre do a word count and then it divides it by 1024 or something like that (based on how many words are on a typical paperback page). Since I read about 99% ebooks it keeps it all equalized.

      But it is pretty similar to the count of a paper book.

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  2. I tend to pity people who have no other interests in life besides work, because I can’t help feeling that their lives – once they retire – will prove meaningless and empty. What’s certain is that your co-worker is proving to be not-good company, indeed!

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  4. Looks like you had a good month! I’m happy to hear you say that your numbers are good. I keep telling myself that blogging is dead because I’ve lost so many people—mainly those that quit.

    Have a great March and happy reading. 👍

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    1. Well, to be honest, I do think blogging is dying. It might take another generation but too many people are too video oriented to ever become bloggers. And most want to be consumers at that, not creators 😦

      I figured you’d given up when you disappeared for so long, so it was nice to see you back. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m not holding my breath that you’ll stay around.

      Thank you. I hope March treats you and yours well.

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      1. It sure looks like it’s dying when I look at stats and comments from five years ago. It’s night and day; although, I’ve taken multiple breaks, hence the roller coaster. I notice it on other blogs too though, and there are a ton of people who are still posting but just aren’t participating.

        Yeah, Instagram/ Bookstagram was an epic fail. It wasn’t what I expected at all. Post coming up on that soon. 🙄

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        1. I’ve never understood the blogger who doesn’t participate with others in one form or another. It always makes me wonder if they’re getting their social activity somewhere else?
          Like how I use blogger. I only post my reviews as backups there and do nothing else.

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          1. I’d love to comment on posts everyday, but time is hard to come by with five kids and dogs and everything in between. I’ve never used Blogger.

            There are so many social media apps now. I’ve been trying for years to get down to just one. Instagram is insane with book people and blows WP away IMO. It’s no wonder people have flown to it. Plus, it’s free, just not for me.

            One friend who left blogging told me it just wasn’t rewarding to her anymore and that it was too ‘tit for tat,’ meaning you have to comment and like to get comments and likes. It was taking up too much of her time, plus she’s an author who couldn’t get people to buy her books. I don’t completely disagree with her, although there are loyal followers out there who won’t just quit on you when you’re around less.

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    1. Dos de voinya leetle Fraggle. Pappa Booky has great big camp for you to play in with lots of other leetle fraggles. So much fun, honest!

      I was really impressed at how you took the text right off. No idea how you kept the background ok.

      At the end already eh? Man, if only other people would become such fanatical readers 😀

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      1. I got a bit more views than December even, traditionally a strong month. Likes are down for me as well btw, but I have the feeling they have been dropping for a longer period. Still, February lowest in a long, long time.

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          1. Lots of regular likers seem to have dropped out. I’d say a 20-25% drop to my most likes period. In general likes also depends a bit on the popularity of the author I review.

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  9. Excellent month of reading, Papa Booky. Of course, the most logical course of action is to consistently order pizzas, turn Fraggle Rocking up to the loudest volume and generally terrorise your co-worker until he forces himself to leave…

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  10. Weather’s been pretty insane here too. We had one day where it went up to 70 and people were in T-shirts. Not 24 hours later, it snowed and we had freezing rain. Crazy, I tell ya.

    Also, your collage reminded me you were reading Bone. I have such fond memories of that comic, I borrowed the first one from the library to give my daughter to read, happy to report she loved it and we’ll be going back to the library for more soon.

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    1. I guess crazy weather is the new thing. It’s just really hard to adjust when you work outside :-/

      Glad to hear another generation is being introduced to it 😀

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