Post no 1000

1,000 posts! I'm amazed I made it this far. I think I wrote in my 500th post that I was amazed I made it past the first two weeks... This blog started as a reading diary & has expanded into much more than that. It's still a reading diary, & I love being able to look back at some of my favourite reads & be reminded of the books I'd completely forgotten. It's also become a place to show off photos of my cats - Abby, Lucky & Phoebe - & sometimes the garden & my baking. Any post with a cat photo is guaranteed to attract a lot of hits, often more than the book posts...

I thought I'd celebrate by choosing one post from every hundred that I've written over the past 5 1/2 years. Thank you to everyone who visits & comments or just visits & lurks. It's lovely to know there are so many other people in the world who enjoy the books, poetry & cats I love & want to have a conversation about them.

Abby, hot cross buns & reading progress - a post about Abby, who died just over four years ago, but who made her presence felt on the blog in that first year. Also, baking & the books I was reading that Easter.

Judging a book by its cover - Sometimes the posts that generate the most comments aren't reviews but general ramblings about books & reading. This post looked at some of my favourite imprints & the changes over the years to the cover art & the way the books are made - font, paper & binding. I also wrote that I didn't see that I would ever want an e-reader. Oh well, it just proves I'm not ashamed to change my mind as I now have a Sony, Kindle & several apps on my iPad devoted to e-books.

Memoirs of a Highland Lady - Elizabeth Grant - I know that Blogger's statistics can be a little dodgy but I'm always fascinated by the posts that are in my Top 5 in my stats overview & also by the posts that have generated lots of hits. Sometimes I can guess that it's because the book is on a school syllabus but sometimes I have no idea. This post has had over 2000 hits since January 2011 & I have no idea why.

Introducing Lucky & Phoebe - First impressions (without pride or prejudice) of the girls when they came to live with me nearly four years ago. Nothing has changed - Lucky is still timid & Phoebe is still adventurous.

Gaudy Night - Dorothy L Sayers - I love rereading my favourite books & I enjoyed writing this post which is more an appreciation of DLS than a review of the book.

Sunday Poetry - Sir Walter Scott - Sunday Poetry was one of my better ideas. I hadn't read much poetry for years until I thought about posting a poem each week. It's taken me back to old favourites & to anthologies on my shelves. This post about Scott's Lochinvar took me from the anthology I was reading then to a book I've had since I was a child. Scott, Scotland & a little nostalgia.

Plotting for Grown-ups - Sue Hepworth - I've been very lucky to receive review copies from authors & publishers over the years. Sue sent me a copy of her novel, But I Told You Last Year That I Loved You, & I then read & loved her other books. I'm always fascinated by how writers write & authors like Sue & Linda Gillard have discovered that publishing their work themselves gives them a lot more control over the finished book.

New arrivals - Buying books is one of my favourite hobbies & posts about my latest purchases & preorders always create lots of comment. I once mentioned to my online reading group that I counted my preorders (like sheep) when I couldn't get to sleep, which caused much hilarity but also made a lot of sense to several members of the group... I just tell myself that I'm building up a good stock of books for my retirement.

The joy & the curse of the tbr shelves - I do a lot of dithering in my life & sometimes I dither on the blog as well. Usually it's a not-too-serious complaint about being unable to decide what to read next because I have too many choices & want to read everything at once. Since I discovered podcasts the problem has only increased. When I think that once, all I had to worry about was the review pages in the Saturday paper & the books I saw at work. Now, there are so many wonderful blogs that I read, three online reading groups constantly mentioning books I either know, own & haven't read, or (even worse), have never heard of but must own as soon as possible, plus podcasts that I can listen to while I'm driving, ironing or cooking - no wonder I buy a lot of books!

And finally,

Bookish ramblings - which could be the alternate name for this blog.