Wrap-Up: January 2020

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January Snapshots

1. Now we’re all traumatized for life. Sorry about that. My bad. January started with the ads on my blog’s mobile site breaking. They weren’t hard to fix, but when I did it, all of my blocked ads became unblocked. Oops. I have a lot of blocked ads. For a few days, the blog was flooded with a Pandora’s Box of horrors. I apologize if you came here in January and witnessed any of the following:

• A topless woman with an irreversible and life threateningly deep wedgie.
• A medieval torture device meant to straighten the spines of elderly cartoon characters.
• A colorful foot fungus slideshow.
• A mysterious substance in some guy’s ear.
• Donald Trump.

They’ve been re-blocked. I’ve (hopefully) managed to wrangle all the ad demons and stuff them back into their pit. Let me know if you see any ads on the site that make you vomit. I’ll get rid of them.

Basically what happened, but everyone was naked and covered in fungus. Or spray tanner.

2. Excellent! A chance to unleash my stupid. I signed up for Pondathon Readathon at the end of January. It’s a very complicated ‘thon, but it’s creative and fun. You can still sign up, if you want. I mostly signed up because I got to make a pond-themed avatar. I made a warrior fish with a magic dagger. If you’re fishing at the pond, you don’t want to catch this one. She’ll cut you. She already has badges for surviving two quests. She does look delicious, though. 

Wayward Googlers

Here are a few amusing Google searches that led people to Read All The Things! last month. I’m sorry to the unfortunate souls who ended up here instead of finding what they were Googling for.

“More and betterer Black Friday sales.” I hate to tell you this, but you’re either really early or really late for Black Friday. You’re Googling in January. Black Friday is in November. You’ll have to wait a long time for your “betterer” sales.  

“+strabnngths and weaknes.” Good luck with that.

Books I Read

I finished 5 books in January, and I didn't hate any of them! Educated and Nevermoor are brilliant. 

Remember those months where I read 12+ books? Those were nice, but I don’t know if they’ll ever happen again. Being an adult is exhausting.

Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover

Best-Loved Folktales Of The World by Joanna Cole

Nevermoor: The Trials Of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

Best Books Of January

1. Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover

2. Nevermoor: The Trials Of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

3. Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Most-Viewed January Posts

1. Top Ten Tuesday: Upcoming Young Adult Book Releases

2. Discussion: 15 Goals For 2020

3. Top Ten Tuesday: Upcoming Adult Book Releases

January Bestsellers

Here are the books that people bought on Amazon or Book Depository last month after seeing them on Read All The Things! (Don’t worry, the link-tracking robots only tell me which books people are buying, not who is buying them. That would be creepy.)

1. Best-Loved Folktales Of The World by Joanna Cole

2. Wranglestone by Darren Charlton

3. The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes by Suzanne Collins

All The Things!

Number of unread books on my TBR shelf = 56 books

I’m currently reading = No True Believers by Rabiah York Lumbard

What did you do in January?