Bookstooge Reviews 2022

~ Bookstooge

THE STATS:

Annual Blog Stats

Posts – 380 (↑61)

Words written – 185.5K (↓10.1K)

Views – 28.3K (↑1.1K)

Visitors – 7.5K (↓2K)

Followers – 400 (↓19)

Comments – 9.3K(↓1.5K)

Book Stats

Books read – 247 (↑ 54)

Pages read – 52769 (↑3.3K)

words read – 16487K (↑ 1.1K)

average rating – 3.23 (↓0.15)

GENERAL THOUGHTS:

General Life Thoughts:

The year in general sailed along for both Mrs B and me. We both ended up working more than usual (I think our average weekly was 42 or 43 hrs). Those extra hours made a big difference. Student loans are finished! So now we’re using that money to pay down extra on our mortgage. I’m hoping we can shave off 5-6 years off the loan life. That’s my next big life goal, to get that mortgage out of the way.

We helped out each month with super church (sunday school) and live streaming (so 2 sunday’s a month) and I’m finding my tolerance for the kids is waning. There is one parent who pretty much brings her kids to be babysat and they’re not disciplined at home so they’re not model kids. Thankfully, after having used the “nuclear option” once, (take them out of class and march them up the middle of the aisle and drop them back off to their mom in the middle of the sermon) they’re learning I mean business. They’re not bad kids, just unruly and undisciplined. But it’s exhausting and those Sunday’s I come home and flop on the couch. Streaming is easier but mainly because I refuse to treat it like a show. I use 4 camera angles and that’s it. I don’t zoom around, I don’t focus on people playing special music, etc, etc.

This year was just a blur. Not that good things didn’t happen, or bad things, but overall it went so fast that it was over before I realized what was going on. Which is fine when you’re concerned about who is elected to political offices, but not so fine when it comes to paying bills. Actually had one bill go to a bill collector because I completely forgot to pay it. Sigh, life moving faster isn’t necessarily a good thing.

One of the kids at church expressed interest in Magic earlier this year so I’ve been getting together with his Dad and him once or twice a month and turning him into a life long addict. Someone’s gotta do it, so it might as well be me 😀 Speaking of Magic, I began collecting the Mirage set from 1996. Along with 4th Edition, those cards are some of the iconic visual memories of my late teen years. Plus, collecting cards doesn’t take up nearly as much space as collecting books does, hahahahaa!

General Bookish Thoughts:

Looking at those numbers, man, did my book numbers go up! Part of that is because I was reading individual issues of comics all year (whereas I had only started doing that in July of 2021), but even that only accounts for about an extra 25, so I simply read MORE this year. The Pages and Words metric fully back that up. It didn’t “feel” like I had read more, but with not picking up any other new hobby, Reading picked up the slack.

The rating is down only a little bit from last year, but 2021’s rating was down from 2020’s, so I’m on a downward slide, albeit a very slight one. I think that is because I’m reading more. There are more crap books than fantastic books out there, so the more I read, the greater my chance of a getting a crap book. All it takes is ONE one star book in a month to drag the whole year down. And since I am so picky about handing out 5stars, well, it doesn’t surprise me. But as long as I stay above a 3star average, that means I’m enjoying the majority of what I read. I’ll try to be content with that.

With all of that being said, I only had FOUR 5star reads this year and all of them were re-reads. I had NINE 4.5star reads as well. On the other side, I only had TWO half star reads and NINE 1star reads. So I feel that I balanced everything out in the end.

With around 57 of the reads being re-reads (including ALL of the Bone comics), I’m still sticking around the 25% mark. I have a feeling that number is going to drop in ’23 as I am becoming more leery of re-reading my “old favorites” as I move into the phase of life (fully middle aged now) and all of my manga will be new to me as well. I am ok with this change.

Well, despite my issues with WP.com in 2021, I still came crawling back for more in 2022. To the point where I have a paid plan and Dotblog Site, sigh. Thankfully, I haven’t experienced some of the problems that I did last year, but I never count WP.com out of the problem fight. If they can’t make one problem get you, they’ll invent a whole new one, the wretches.

I have also realized that despite all of my complaining and grumbling, that I have nailed myself to WP.com. The finishing up of construction on The Hotel Bookstooge pretty much saw to that and the continued work on the Author Index is like putting up shutters on the windows. You only do that if you think you’re going to stay in the place for a while.

Between the paid plan’s upgrade to my storage, Dropbox and Caesium, space is not an issue for me.

The Churn continues apace with other bloggers slowing down, stopping or just moving on to other hobbies. I have also done my own share of unfollowing this year and finding new bloggers to follow. If I could have one blogging wish for 2023, I wish that things would stay stable in that regards. That’s a vain wish though, knowing how unstable the world in general is right now.

So the long and short? I’m here, I’m standing tall (well, kind of) and I’m not planning on leaving. But I’ll still be complaining.

Blogspot continues to be my review backup. Not in any meaningful way, as I didn’t do any work on the old reviews, so it’s as big a mess as my WordPress used to be. But it’s there for me when WP.com does something truly stupendously stupid (like they seem to do 3-4 times a year) and is a good safety valve so I don’t feel that WP.com is my only option.

Partway through the year (July to be particular) I stopped crossposting my reviews to Librarything. I had given up on the platform as a social site in 2021 and thus it was pretty inevitable that I stopped using them all together. Guess I’m more surprised it took me as long as it did than anything.

Calibre continues to putter along offline just fine. It is what I now use to check up on anything in particular. Now that it has full database searching abilities, I can look for almost anything and with enough patience, find it. I am currently using version 6.9 and will be updating as the creator puts up new updates.

THE BOOKS:

Best Book of the Year:

Without a question, A Christmas Carol read by Patrick Stewart. This is now my favorite version of this story and I suspect it will be an annual tradition.

Worst Book of the Year:

Definitely Flashman. He lies, murders and rapes his way through the book and we’re supposed to find it amusing. I definitely did not.

PLANS FOR 2023:

Personal:

The Self-Study for my Level3 Certification didn’t work out at all in ’22. I think that really needs to be a top priority for this year. I’m just afraid that I’ll slack off again though and “do it next month” all year long.

The potential move to Georgia is now indefinitely put off. It’s going to take an emergency to get us down there and even then we’d have to think about it. It is going into a closet shelf in the very back of my mind for now.

Trying not to make many, if any, plans. Because situations are easier to handle when you don’t have expectations about them.

Drink a lot of Rockstar energy drinks. Because I can.

Blog:

Continue working on my author index. Continue my Magic cards each Monday. So it’s going to be business as usual. I haven’t had a creative idea for some time about a long running series of blog posts, so I might end up not trying to do any. Which is too bad because long running series of posts is always easier to write and schedule than anything else.

I am going to try to do some more “arty” stuff but we’ll see how that pans out. I would like it to work but the logistics might be greater than anticipated.

Movies are still completely up in the air. There are so many movie reviewers out there. Besides, I don’t watch new stuff and even when I do watch stuff, I don’t really watch it that well. More like “listening to it” with glances up at the tv when there’s no dialogue to tell me what’s going on.

This might end up being a very sloggy blog year :-/

TOP 5:

Book Review Posts:

Non-Review Posts:

Commentors + Runner Up:

Movies:

Hall of Shame (5 least viewed posts)

49 thoughts on “Bookstooge Reviews 2022”

        1. Funny you should mention that!
          I didn’t win the Megamillions lottery this past Friday (hard to win when you don’t play, but that still doesn’t stop me from expecting to win!) and so, if you take the cash option, you owe me 366 million american greenbucks!

          Like

          Reply

    1. Yeah, ’22 was something else. I don’t blame you for feeling tired after perusing this monster of a post. These Year in Reviews tend to be my longest ones of the year.
      Thanks. I think we’re all going to need it…

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  4. Well, certainly a fulfilling year on so many levels! Congratulations on the amazing amount of books you read, it’s certainly an impressive number!!!
    And I have to wonder if, when forced to discipline those unruly children, you were looking like your blogging avatar: that would have certainly put the fear of retribution on them! :-D. 😀

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Thanks Maddalena. And thanks for sticking around. I really appreciate everyone who follows me and keeps on interacting with me even when I’m at my most “me” 🙂

      There was definitely some eye flashing going on, that’s for sure, hahahhahaa 😀

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  5. Happy 2023 Stooge. May it be prosperous and a success. Talking about MTG, i am getting two commander decks in tomorrow that I am planing on stealing your Magic Monday theme, just so you know🙂. I ended up just not posting anything the last days of 2022, just lost the interest for it. I am hoping to get back into it soon tho.

    All the best to you and Mrs B

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thanks Dave. I hope ’23 is a good year for you too.
      Did you get the WH40K decks? When I saw that WotC was coming out with them, I immediately thought of you. But had no idea what the international distribution scene was like.

      Hope you and Milou are doing well and staying covid free.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

        1. They’re going for a premium here. I think saw a set of all 4 decks for 250 on amazon? they aren’t dropping in price, that’s for sure!
          So if you do open them, make sure you sleeve them up to keep them in good condition.

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

            1. Just be aware that the price is not going to go down and you are not going to find any deals. So either grit your teeth and go for the gusto or resign yourself to not getting them.
              I don’t care enough about warhammer to spend that kind of money so I’ve realized I’ll just have to let it go.

              Liked by 1 person

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  8. Congrats on those stats! Very impressive. I don’t count comics as books read, but you’ve got me thinking about doing that from this year. I do count graphic novels though because of the page count. Something to think about.

    I love A Christmas Carol and listen to it as Christmas approaches. I found a couple of excellent audio versions on YouTube, but now I want to get the Patrick Stewart version! Thanks for the recommendation. Best Wishes for 2023!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I noticed that Lashaan broke down his categories into something like novels, manga/graphic novels, etc. So I’m thinking of doing the same and making a category for comics. That way when I give that big X number, people can see how it is broken down.

      Highly, highly, highly recommend the Patrick Stewart version. It’s as close to perfect as I have found so far.

      No killer robots yet, so ’23 is off to a great start 😀

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  9. Impressive stats, as usual! Average rating is the only one where I beat you, am I better at selecting books or just too lenient ;)?
    Good luck in 2023, on all fronts!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thanks Piotre.
      I don’t know if you’re too lenient, but I am realizing that I am super picky. I can still like something but if there is any imperfection I ding it heavily for those imperfections. I’d like to say I am working on that, but I’m at the point where I’m pretty much giving up on it. I rate very hard and that’s just that 😀

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  10. Happy New Year, good sir! Glad to see that you’ll be sticking around with WordPress once again. WordPress wouldn’t be the same without you around. I did feel like blogging has sort of died over the years for a lot of people, as putting more energy on other social media platforms (e.g. Instagram) became more and more popular and rewarding. I for one wouldn’t change a thing about the effort and time put into my blog. I’m also glad that we continued to exchange throughout the years. It’s always a pleasure to have your special brand of humour around, and also, you not shying away from speaking your mind. I hope this coming year will be a good one filled with more good than bad!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you Lashaan. I truly enjoy our interaction as well.

      I think the internet itself seems to be fragmenting as various governments put up blocks (China being the obvious one, but haunting the wp forums I’ve seen other country wide issues from other countries). Doesn’t mean I like seeing my favorite way of communicating (words and lots of them) being dismissed by others in favor of other ways of communicating. But what are you going to do?

      I trust you have a good year as well 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  13. Nice rundown of the year, and I especially like hearing what you and Mrs. B have been doing in your real life. Sounds like a rough year with all the work hours you both have put in, but in this economy, being able to shave off debt is definitely a good thing! Getting student loans out of the way is huge, congrats! This year kind of went by in a blur for me too.

    Liked by 1 person

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  15. Might as well face it WP has us where it wants for the most part until something new and shiny comes along looks like this is home
    Happy New Year
    ~B

    PS I suppose if you read more you are likely to run into bad stuff 🤣🤣 read around and find out, the more you read the more you find out

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. took me a year to come to that same conclusion B, just can’t escape it. But let me tell you, if another blogging company comes into being with a good social interactivity for its users, I’m so going to try it out and let WP hang in the wind :-/

      Too true 😀

      Like

      Reply

  16. Congrats on so many fronts, blogging and real-life! You’ve had a great year, Bookstooge, and I hope that the next one will be at least as good to you and Mrs Bookstooge! 😀

    Liked by 1 person

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  18. Pingback: January ’23 Roundup & Ramblings – Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road

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