Happy New Year 2020

On the stroke of midnight..

Welcome in the new year

Happy 2019 everyone and lots of lovely reading!

Happy New Year 2018

Just taking this opportunity to wish everyone all the best for the coming year.

I am still away from home and so this is a "scheduled" post.

I hope you have had a good break and have some good reading lined up for 2018.

Ringing Out the Old Year

I am hooked on this image.

Imagine for yourself the noise those bells must be making!

Ringing out the old year

I never get tired of looking at this image.  

How big this bell tower must be to house all these bells.

And who are the people ringing them?

And how secure is the floor with all those bits of timber?

Goodbye 2016

Happy New Year 2016

Out with 2014, In with 2015

How quickly a year passes. Some of last year's resolutions will have been forgotten, others renewed.

Best wishes to everyone.

Farewelling 2012

My annual post to ring out the old year and welcome the new.
Where does time go?

This year my post comes from North America where the landscape is covered with snow.  We have another 10 days here before we return to Australia.

MiP (MYSTERIES in PARADISE) will have been around for just on 5 years in a couple of days time. I created it as the result of a resolution on New Year's Eve 2007.

Some statistical reflections.

• I've read 142 books this year, not quite as many as I had hoped, but still a respectable number. This brings my total since I have begun to keep records (1975) to an even 3302 in the last 38 years.
  
• I've written 350 blog posts on MiP this year, an decrease of 100 on last year. I reached some milestones: 643 book reviews added in 5 years, 2400 blog posts, and over 8000 comments.
  
• According to my main counter about 100,000 visitors have come to my blog this year, an increase of about 1,000 a month.
• I have participated in a number of reading challenges this year and am still thinking about which ones I will participate in next year. I hosted the 2012 Global Reading Challenge (and will run it again in 2013) and ran the Crime Fiction Alphabet.
  
• I also continued with my Agatha Christie Reading Challenge and the monthly Agatha Christie Blog Carnival 

So if you are a visitor to my blog, regular or not, thanks for coming; and if you've left comments, thanks for the encouragement. I hope to hear again from you in the new year.

So farewell the old year with gusto, and think about those New Year's resolutions!

But please, if you drink, don't drive!

Farewelling 2011

This post is becoming an annual event  and so you may notice some similarities between this post and previous New Year's Eve ones.

Time to ring out the old year and welcome the new.
Where does time go?

MiP (MYSTERIES in PARADISE) will have been around for just on 4 years in a couple of days time.

I created it as the result of a resolution on New Year's Eve 2007.

Some statistical reflections.

• I've read 160 books this year, quite an increase over last year's 136, and bringing my total since I have begun to keep records (1975) to an even 3160 in the last 37 years.
  
• I've written 450 blog posts on MiP this year, an decrease of about 25% on last year. I reached some milestones: 500 book reviews added in 4 years, 2000 blog posts, and 7000 comments.
  
• According to my main counter about 85,000 visitors have come to my blog this year, still about 2,000 a week, but a bit of a drop from last year.
  I have installed a number of different counters this year and they all tell different stories. I guess it doesn't matter a tinker's curse really - the blog gives me great satisfaction to write.
  
• I dropped out of a couple of memes like Sunday Salon and Weekly Geeks mainly because there seemed to be so few crime fiction readers participating. However I have kept up with Friday's Forgotten Books and the Book Bloggers Review Carnival.
  
• I ran a couple of memes myself this year: the Crime Fiction Alphabet attracted a goodly number of participants each week, as did the shorter Crime Fiction on a Euro Pass. I'll run another round of the CFA at least in 2012.
  
• I also continued with my Agatha Christie Reading Challenge and the monthly Agatha Christie Blog Carnival 
  
• I've completed a number of reading challenges this year, and yesterday wrote a reflective post on what you get out of participation. I did worry that I had taken on too much, but I think it paid off, even if I did only get the final 2 books read this week. I thought that the challenges would help me out by reducing Mt. TBR but unfortunately it is still growing.

So if you are a visitor to my blog, regular or not, thanks for coming; and if you've left comments, thanks for the encouragement. I hope to hear again from you in the new year.

So farewell the old year with gusto, and think about those New Year's resolutions!

But please, if you drink, don't drive!

Farewelling 2010

Time to ring out the old year and welcome the new.
Where does time go?

MiP (MYSTERIES in PARADISE) will have been around for just on 3 years in a couple of days time.

I created it as the result of a resolution on New Year's Eve 2007.


Some statistical reflections.

• I've read 136 books this year, quite an increase over last year's 104, and bringing my total since I have begun to keep records (1975) to an even 3000 in the last 36 years.
• I've written 610 blog posts on MiP this year, an increase of over 60 on last year, after resolving at the end of 2009 that I ought to write less. Only 25% of them are actually book reviews and there always seems to be plenty to write about.
• According to my main counter about 107,000 visitors have come to my blog this year, about 2,000 a week. Having a good number of reviews available obviously does draw quite a number.

Visitors come from all over the globe, even some really isolated spots.

• I continue to enjoy blogging and have participated in a number of weekly events including Sunday Salon, Weekly Geeks and Friday's Forgotten Books.
• This year I have completed quite a number of reading challenges which have pushed me to read outside my usual geographic limitations. I have put my name down on quite a number more in 2011. Time will tell about whether I'm over stretching myself, or becoming too organised.
•  This year the Agatha Christie Blog Carnival celebrated Agatha Christie's 120th birthday with a month long blog tour.
• MiP reached the finals of Book Blogger Appreciation week..

So if you are a visitor to my blog, regular or not, thanks for coming; and if you've left comments, thanks for the encouragement. I hope to hear again from you in the new year.

So farewell the old year with gusto, and think about those new year resolutions!

But please, if you drink, don't drive!

Farewelling 2009

You'll have to forgive me for recycling some images I found last year but I'm quite taken with these.

Tonight we are off to town with friends for dinner and to see Adelaide's fireworks show.

I thought I'd indulge in a little reflection on 2009.

• I haven't read quite as many books as last year - just 104, which makes my total since I have begun to keep records (1975) of 2,864 in the last 35 years - an average of 82 a year.
• I've written 546 blog posts on MiP this year, an increase of nearly 100 on last year, after thinking I had written too many then. That's nearly 3 every 2 days! I need to exercise some restraint!
• According to my main counter nearly 91,000 people have visited this blog - that's over 65,000 this year - but I suspect that one counts if your finger even twitches on the keyboard.
• This year I created the Agatha Christie Blog Carnival, and we also had the Agatha Christie Blog Tour, with lots of generous and knowledgeable participants in both. I'll keep that up next year.
• I played around with various memes and the most successful has been the Crime Fiction Alphabet which has a coterie of about 10 bloggers contributing. That has been great fun and we are just halfway through the alphabet with some challenging letters to come.
• In mid year Bernadette, Sunnie and I created a new blog called Fair Dinkum Book Reviews where we post copies of our reviews. That seems to have been quite successful and has attracted a small following.
  

It has been a great year, emphasising for me the value of networking in the blogosphere. I enjoy writing my blog, and visiting the blogs of others. I'm sure it all adds to my appreciation of crime fiction.

So if you are a visitor to my blog, regular or not, thanks for coming; and if you've left comments, thanks for the encouragement. I hope to hear again from you in the new year.

So farewell the old year with gusto, and think about those new year resolutions!

But please, if you drink, don't drive!

Farewelling 2008

Ring out the old year

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,

The flying cloud, the frosty light;

The year is dying in the night;

Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

It probably won't be frosty here, but I like the idea of ushering the old year out.













Most of us these days reflect on the year that has passed, what we did well, and what we could do better, and perhaps what we shouldn't have done.

Last year's New Years Eve resolution saw the creation of this blog, which it has given me great pleasure to write. This will be post 456, and that's probably way too many. I aimed for one a day though. It has given me a great venue to talk about books. I've instituted a variety of counters and one of them tells me I've had nearly 25,000 visitors this year.

I also resolved to visit the blogs of others more, and, instead of lurking, as many do when they come to this blog, to leave some trace of my visit through a comment. I don't always do that. (I can't always think of something to say.) But I'm enjoying the sense of a blogging community that has come. I created Crime Fiction Journeys to help others participate in that community.

As always I have kept records of the books that I read. According to my records I have read 110 books, possibly 111 if I manage to finish the one I am reading now. I have been keeping records since 1975, and have 2760 books listed. I am impressed with the granularity of Cathy's records, but I won't analyse mine as much as that this year. But like Cathy I have found that most of the books that I tackle are worth reading, probably because all the blogs I read and discussion lists I belong to help me choose more wisely.
My reviews are listed on Smik's Reviews and show the ratings I gave.

I've participated for most of this year in the Sunday Salon, in Friday's Forgotten Books, in What's On Your Nightstand, posted my reviews on Library Thing, some on Reviewer's Choice, Australian ones on Australian Crime Fiction, and created my own Agatha Christie Reading Challenge. I've also been part of the Carnival of Criminal Minds and tomorrow will host the first for 2009.

Have you given me your top 10 crime fiction reads for 2008 yet? If not, you have until January 4 when I try to do something with the mammoth amount of information I'm getting. There should be some great reading lists coming out of it.

So enjoy what is left of 2008.
Ring out the old year and ring in the new with gusto.

But please, if you drink, don't drive!