It’s already time to do the December recap!?! AND 2013 is OVER!?!? Where has the year gone!? Well, I’ll tell you. 2013 was a pretty good year, both personally and for The Book Addict’s Guide so I’m really excited to do my wrap up of the whole year!

• Number of Books Read In December: 10! Better than last month (nine) but I still wish I had done a little more. Then again, FINALLY finished my quest to read all of the currently released Song of Ice and Fire books so BAM! Done.
• Popular Search Terms:  “monument 14 sky on fire” || “book addicts guide” || “the book addict marissa meyer” (WIN!!!!)
• More Amusing Search Terms: “talk nerdy to me bag” (I own that!) || “let’s read a song of ice and fire” (Boy, did I!)|| “casting calls dead body”  (haha, weird. But this was for when we did Casting Call for The BODY Finder lol) || “best got fanart game of thrones” (booyakasha!)
• Most Referrals (Non-Twitter/FB/Wordpress, etc): The Librarian Who Doesn’t Say Shhh, The Perpetual Page Turner, The Broke and the Bookish
• Where My Blog Most Often Leads You (Non-Goodreads/Internal Links, etc): Alexa Loves Books, The Perpetual Page Turner, Tripping Over Books

• I made a quiz to tell you which Lunar Chronicles character you’re most like AND gave away a pre-order for CRESS because I’m just so excited!
• I did Jamie’s End of Year Bookish Survey for 2013!
• Top Ten Tuesday on December 3rd was super exciting as we fangirled about future releases in 2014!
• December 10th’s TTT was also a lot of fun as I recapped the top ten books on my winter TBR

Other Reviews Posted

• My big sis Melissa stopped by with a guest review of The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World – 2014 and offered some Disney goodies and advice!
• I did a collection of mini-reviews of some Tor.com novellas: The Stranger, The Department of Alterations, and The Memory Coder
• We got to read Loud Awake and Lost by Adele Griffin for a Selective Collective feature in November and my review went up this month!
• I adored Roomies by Tara Altebrando & Sara Zarr!
• I read the novella Brooke, a part of Veronica Rossi’s Under the Never Sky trilogy
• Into the Still Blue was just the perfect ending to the Under the Never Sky trilogy

An Updated Look at my Goodreads Reading Progress

Bloggers featured on Book and a Beverage

• 12/9/13: Cass from Books With Cass
• 12/12/13: Nichole from YaReads
• 12/19/13: Christy from Christy’s Book Addiction
• 12/26/13: Alexa Loves Books

Other Features & Discussions

• On 12/17, I shared my Top Ten “New-to-Me” authors!
• The Selective Collective featured The Promise of Amazing this month and I had a fantastic interview with Robin Constantine!
• I had an AMAZING Christmas, made wonderful my amazing friends, family, and holiday cheer! I shared my Christmas traditions and updates with you!
• I had a heartfelt discussion and shared my feelings & passion for why I read YA and how it’s really changed my life for the better
• My top ten books of 2013 were surprisingly easy to pick and I posted them proudly on 12/31’s Top Ten Tuesday!

WHAT’S IN STORE FOR JANUARY?

• NOTHING. Okay, well not nothing, but I’m REALLY REALLY REALLY looking forward to starting over with a new year with SO many less commitments. I absolutely love participating in ALL THE THINGS but I think I need to start out 2014 with my own agenda: catching up on ARCs, reading ahead on ARCs, reading older releases and not having a schedule! I missing reading on a whim and not planning out what I need to read (minus things according to date). I really need to start January off casually and pick and choose my commitments this year!
• MY REVIEW FOR CRESS IS GOING UPPPPP
• I have an idea rolling around in my head…… But that also involves me making a commitment to read specific books and I just don’t know if I want to do that. I really just want to roam where I may this year or at least until I feel relatively “caught up” (Ha! What is that?)

2013 YEAR IN REVIEW!

• Number of Books Read: 131. PHEW. Beat last year by two books!
• Popular Search Terms:  “book addicts guide” (well that’s always good!) || “laura buzo” (I interviewed her!) || “best friend romance books” (we all know what post that is!) || “i didn’t like the fault in our stars” (hahaha) || “monument 14 sky on fire” (huzzah!)
• More Amusing Search Terms: “read fear street as an adult” (you know, I should do that!) ||  “ron and hermione romance” (heck yes) || “what is the worst part of the messenger by lois lowry” (you tell me!)
• Most Referrals (Non-Twitter/FB/Wordpress, etc): The Librarian Who Doesn’t Say Shhh!, The Perpetual Page Turner, The Broke and the Bookish, Teen Lit Rock, YA Crush (THANK YOU ALLLL!!!!!)
• Most Referrals (Search Engines & Social Media): Search Engines (#1), Twitter (#2), Bloglovin’ (#3), WordPress Dashboard (#4), Facebook (#5)
  
• Where My Blog Most Often Leads You (Non-Goodreads/Internal Links, etc): The Grown-Up YA, Gone Pecan, Books Take You Places, Teen Lit Rocks, The Cheap Reader

These were not only some of the posts with the most views but also some of my FAVORITES from this year!

• The Best-Friend-Turned-Boyfriend-Romance: This is actually probably the most viewed because of all of the search hits that I get for it! You’d be surprised how many people find my blog from searching some sort of romance between a girl and her guy friend!
• Quiz: Which Lunar Chronicles Character Are You? I made a fun personality quiz to “tell” you which Lunar Chronicles character you’re most like! Oh, and I also gave away a pre-order for CRESS because I am just too excited for it!!!
• The Book Addict’s GUIDE… to Contemporary!: I made this part-flow chart, part-Choose Your Own Adventure “guide” to some of my favorite contemporary books based on what you might be feeling. I had SO much fun  making it and everyone’s reactions to it were so wonderful! Still one of my favorite posts this year.
• The Gayle Forman Read Along: Sign-Ups: I hosted a Gayle Forman Read Along this year and we read ALL of her works of fiction from Sisters In Sanity to Just One Year!
• Bloggiesta Mini-Challenge: How to Make Goodreads Work for YOU!: Unfortunately this post went up right around the time that there was a little spat with Goodreads, but I still stand by it! I unfolded all the goodies and secrets of Goodreads I could find and how to use it to your advantage!

Other Favorite Posts

• I got to interview the Fierce Reads authors for the fall Fierce Reads tour and do a ginormous giveaway all thanks to Macmillan!
• I wrote a post on my opinions on writing DNF Reviews and how I handle them
• Got some GORGEOUS new bookshelves and did a giveaway in their honor!
• I love Swoony Snark SO much that I made my My Latest Bookish Addiction!
• It really meant a lot to me to share why I read YA and how much it’s affected my life
• I really loved picking out some YA recommendations for non-YA readers!
• I attempted some fan art, combining A Song of Ice and Fire and Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha trilogy!

• My review for Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo was my most popular this year! That actually may have been because I was giving away a copy of my ARC…… But it was one of my favorite reviews to write so I’m glad it was the one with the most views!
• I’m actually a little bit surprised that Sever by Lauren DeStefano was one of my top reviews! I think it actually comes up through a lot of search engines but I’m glad because I also really liked writing this one!
• My reviews for the Monument 14 series come up a lot through search engines too and that makes me REALLY happy! I really enjoy these books!
• My review for Libba Bray’s Beauty Queens also gets a lot of hits!

Other Favorite Reviews

• My review for Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell was SO hard to write but I loved this book so much!!
• The Dream Thieves was the first ARC I read after getting home from BEA and it was amazing!!!
• I feel like The Summer I Became a Nerd slipped under the radar this year but I absolutely loved it!
• I adored listening to the audio for The Scorpio Races
• I had such a blast reading Also Known As by Robin Benway and writing the review was so much fun too!

2013 EVENTS

• 3/11/13: The Book Addict’s Guide Birthday Giveaway!
• 4/10/13: The Book Addict’s Guide One Year Blogoversary!!!
• 4/26/13: April Author Signings Recap: Claudia Gray, Robin LaFevers, Sarah Dessen
• 5/17/13: May Author Signings Recap: Lauren Oliver, Lauren Morrill, Lenore Appelhans; Richelle Mead; Pitch Dark Days Tour (Aprilynne Pike, Amy Tintera, Elizabeth Norris, Kiera Cass)
• 6/6/13: BEA 2013 Recap!
• 11/1/13: The Selective Collective One Year Anniversary
• 11/8/13: Fierce Reads Tour 2013: Chicago – Event Recap, Author Interviews & Giveaway!
• 12/25/13: Secret Santas, Thanksmas, and Holiday Cheer!

An Overview of My 2013 Goodreads Challenge

• Number of Books Read 2012: 129
• Number of Books Read 2013: 131 (+2)
• Number of Pages Read 2012: 39,811
• Number of Pages Read 2013: 42,285 (+2,474, ahem. See: A Song of Ice and Fire.)

BOOK AND A BEVERAGE

• Book and a Beverage is going STRONG. I first started the feature in July and you guys really made it sensational, signing up right away, being patient enough to wait MONTHS for your turn and showing support and excitement for your fellow bloggers!
• As of December, I’m already scheduling people out to July 2014! Sign-ups are of course always open, but just be prepared that the wait may be a while! (And sign up now so your wait will be shorter!!)
• I tried to implement a casual, additional aspect of Book and Beverage via Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #bookandabeverage for people to take photos before (or after) their featured date! It didn’t quite catch on but 2013 was also super busy so I didn’t give it the proper promotion. If you’re interested, let me know! I’m going to try harder to work on incorporation that into day-to-day Twitter & Instagram!
• I’m going to try to incorporate authors into Book and a Beverage! I’ve already contacted just a couple of authors but already had one ‘yes’!!! WOO! I’m so excited to spotlight authors on the feature as well with some specially adapted questions! (Separate from the weekly Thursday schedule — Don’t worry, your dates won’t be affected!)

WHAT’S IN STORE FOR 2014?

• I actually don’t have a lot of plans for next year yet. I’m trying to use the beginning of the year to stay away from making extra commitments and really get back to reading what I want to, when I want to. (Well, for the most part.)
• Planning to attend BEA again, of COURSE. It was too much fun not to go again!
• I think I just really want to catch up and work on my own things in respect to the blog. I LOVE working with other people but I’m going to try to not commit to as much so I can get everything back in gear! 🙂
• I’m hoping to go to a lot more events! Winter was a quiet time for author events but I can’t wait for them to start up again!

That wraps up the year! It was SUCH a good year and I can’t wait to see what happens in 2014! Thank you again to all of you who read my blog, comment, and chat with me. I couldn’t do it without you and you’re what makes blogging so special for me! <3