Happy New Year!

It's been over two years since I last posted, so this feels like starting all over again.  Nine years ago I started book blogging with my review of I Capture the Castle.  Back then I did quirky things like make some words really big and I divided my reading  into categories like "Read Aloud" and "Comfy-Chair Reading." I remember the discovery and subsequent addiction to reading challenges, and the novelty and genius of Dewey's first 24-hour-Readathons when there were actually less than 100 participants and you could visit everyone. I remember signing up for my first A to Z Challenge and thinking it would be impossible to read 52 books in a year.  How young and naive I was then!  By the end of the year I had read 126 books, completing the 100+ Challenge.  After that honeymoon phase of binge reading and book blogging--my blog was entitled "ChainReader" back then--I tapered off a bit, but still find my life unfulfilled if I'm not juggling a few books at a time, and I feel like a good benchmark is around 75 books a year.

So here I am at the beginning of 2016, ready to blog again, for pretty much the same reason:  I actually want to remember something about the books I read!  My goal is to review every book I read this year.  I used to do that, but then I didn't.

The last couple of years have been pretty busy.  I went back to school and earned my Bachelor's Degree in History. We moved to a new house.  My husband got a new job.  I sent one daughter off to college in Idaho, and one son off to college in Utah and then on a church mission to Kansas. I served in a stressful but rewarding position at church with the youth.  And I gained about 30 pounds, darn it!

But now I have a little more time to commit to reviewing.  I plan to go back to school in the sort-of-near future to either get a teaching credential or a masters degree.  In the mean time, while I decide what I want to be when I grow up, I figure I have time to read and review. I also have dreams of opening an Etsy shop to sell wooden signs of movie and book quotes and training for a half-marathon.  Oh, and I'm going to lose that 30 pounds, and then some.

I realize I maybe be writing to the air.  The last time I blogged I was still bemoaning the death of Google Reader, and reluctantly signing up with Feedly and Bloglovin. I don't even know if Feedly is still a thing.  I check Bloglovin from time to time, so I know it's there, and I'm on it.  If that even means anything anymore.

So if by chance you're reading this--

Hi!  I'm back.