Reflections on 2018

2018 was the year I spent reading picture books! I reviewed a picture book on my blog every single day of 2018 – that’s 365 picture book reviews. If you missed any, check out my complete list of titles on the blog or on Pinterest. It was something I was interested in trying after reading about #ClassroomBookaDay where teachers read a picture book every day of the school year to students from all grade levels. After thinking out loud on my blog about trying it myself, Josh Funk, an author of some amazing picture books, told me to go for it. And the rest is history!

#BlogBookaDay

I didn’t really give myself too many rules or requirements for this project. Hoping that I could actually be able to actually finish it. I tried to keep most titles to things published in the last couple of years and created a format that helped keep me focused. Other than that, I perused bookstores and my library for new titles, checked out booklists and Twitter for ideas and just went with it. Each post took anywhere from 30-60 minutes which means I spent a lot of 2018 writing about picture books!

I really enjoyed myself – was acquainted with a lot of authors and illustrators that I wasn’t familiar with and found familiar names with new titles that I loved. I’ve had a lot of people ask if I plan on doing it again this year and I’ve decided to take a little bit of a break – at a minimum these posts took up over 180 hours of my time and I want to be able to focus on some other projects this year.

Blog

The blog got a major overhaul this year! A HUGE thank you goes out to my partner for being an amazingly talented graphic designer and web guru. He created this fantastic site where I live on the Internet! I had some really great numbers and posted a record amount of time, plus my new mascot is probably the cutest thing ever!

I was interviewed for the first time ever on a podcast – Hi Ann and Saadia! I’m getting a little better about posting to social media (other than my blog). Plus I had a good friend (Hi, Becky!), guest post on my blog as well! It’s been a busy 2018!

Work

I feel like after two years, I can finally start breathing a little bit more in this position. I’ve got a pretty good idea of what each calendar year looks like – major due dates and the like. We almost got a full staff and I’m excited to keep looking toward the future. I’ve got a number of major goals this year to work toward, including a driveup book return! I’m going to continuing reaching out to community organizations to create new and stronger partnerships.

Personal Life

After having some flooding event happen in August, we’re still working on getting our lower level back in working order. Plus, we’re doing a lot of the improvements ourselves so it’s been a learning curve! Otherwise, I was able to visit my close friend in Florida this year with her adorable kids (who are huge readers). I spend a lot of time with family at the shore for vacation. And I took my crazy dogs for more walks around the neighborhood than I can count. With more house renovations in the future, I’m excited to see what 2019 has in store!