Tuesday, December 31, 2019

The Wrap Up

This has been an . . . interesting . . . year, dominated by three things: the knee surgeries that had Sammy, our Great Pyrenees, laid up for the first part of the year; storm damage to our roof in March that led to a three-month struggle with the insurance company before we were able to get it replaced; and finally Livia’s cancer diagnosis in July, followed by surgery, radiation treatments, and many, many doctor visits. Yet we’ve come through all of them. Sammy doesn’t get around as well as he once did, but other than that he’s doing fine. We have a really nice new roof. And Livia’s radiation treatments will be wrapping up soon. In the midst of all this, we decided to get in better shape and have been walking, walking, walking, around five miles a day for me and more than that for her. I really miss it now when things interfere with us getting our steps in. So in some ways, it’s been a good year.

I can’t say I’m sad to see it end, though.

Moving on to the usual items in this year-end post:

WRITING

As I mentioned yesterday, I wrote a million words—barely—again this year, for the 15th consecutive year. That works out to nine-and-a-half novels and one short story. It’s a very nice achievement, and I’m proud of it, but I’ll be fine with it if I actually manage to cut back next year, as I’ve been threatening to for some time now. There are a lot of other things I need to do, and want to do, that I haven’t been able to because writing that much sucks up so much time.

READING

I read 107 books this year, the second-lowest total since I started keeping records of what I read in 1980. But a lot of them were pretty darned good books. Here are the ten I liked the most, in the order in which I read them:

BUZ SAWYER, VOLUME 1: THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC, Roy Crane
THE OFFICE, Fredric Brown
MADBALL, Fredric Brown
CONAN AND THE LIVING PLAGUE, John C. Hocking
ROBERT E. HOWARD: A LITERARY BIOGRAPHY, David C. Smith
THE STRANGEST SIN, Orrie Hitt
GAMBLING MAN, Clifton Adams
TOUGH AS NAILS: THE COMPLETE CASES OF DONOHUE, Frederick Nebel
SLUGFEST: INSIDE THE EPIC, 50-YEAR BATTLE BETWEEN MARVEL AND D.C., Reed Tucker
BURNED WITH THE COYOTE BRAND, Dan Cushman 

I don’t claim these are “bests”, but they are my favorites from my reading this year.

THE STATE OF THE BLOG

Readership here still isn’t what it once was . . . but what is? It’s enough for me that most of you seem to be enjoying it, I’m still having fun, and so it goes. Thanks to all of you who drop in. I’ll be here.

14 comments:

August West said...

Thrilled to see that Clifton Adams made your list.

Jeff Meyerson said...

Yes, it has been another good year on the blog, and it was great meeting you at Bouchercon and especially seeing you at the Bill Crider tribute party.

Happy New Year!

Scott D. Parker said...

I always read your posts and enjoy them. Have added numerous books to be Never-Done TBR pile, so thanks for that. And thanks for all the support over the years.

Richard Krauss said...

Happy New Year, James, to you and yours. Best wishes for the year ahead. Thank you for all you do.

Unknown said...

I got in a lot of reading this year, and broke 100,000 words for the second year in a row so I'm happy about that.

Anonymous said...

Happy 2020 James, and thank you. Reading your blog is always a pleasure.

Jim Meals

Rick Robinson said...

That's a pretty good reading total, James, and your favorites list is intriguing. I've yet to total my reading, but I know it included two of those, both after reading your posts on them. Happy New Year!

W Robjertson said...

James, thanks for another wonderful year of your blog, which is such a pleasure and the 1st place I visit nearly every morning. Most of my reading over the last decade and more (probably double that -- I don't remember when I 1st discovered you) has been almost entirely directed by your comments and insights RE authors and titles.

It's been fun watching you plod through the Ki-Gor stories while Howard Andrew Jones and others gently prod you to move on past some of the early ones. You manage to find something positive about nearly every one, though even you have been stumped for something positive to say about one or two (and I'm careful to avoid those).

It's all great fun! Thank you James!

-Will Robertson

Glen Davis said...

Happy New Year!

Good list!

James Reasoner said...

Thanks for the comments and good wishes, everyone. Will, I'm skipping around in the Ki-Gors now and will have a review of a later one in the series coming up in a couple of weeks.

Walker Martin said...

James, I've enjoyed your reviews of the Ki-Gor series from JUNGLE STORIES. I've even printed them and sort of followed along with my set of JUNGLE STORIES. Actually the magazine is better than we might think. It's not just the Ki-Gor novels but many of the shorts and novelets are also of interest, especially the Dan Cushman novelets about down on their luck white men in the jungle and small African towns. Armless O'Neill is the most famous character but there were also about a dozen long stories about other characters.

Gary Dobbs/Jack Martin said...

I think readership is dropping off all over the blogosphere, but we're all still year. Have a great new year.

Prashant C. Trikannad said...

James, I'm glad 2019 turned out well in spite of all the issues you had. I wish you and Livia the very best in 2020.

TiedGame said...

Best of the season to you, James. I greatly enjoy the blog, learn a lot from it, and am glad to hear that you plan to continue. It is easily one of my favorites.