It’s officially been one year since I started Literary Escapism, however I’ve been reviewing novels since April 2006, and it’s kind of odd really.  I originally started this site as a way to exercise my brain since I wasn’t working.  My son was 10 months old and I was starting to miss the idea of a job (a year prior to this, I was used to working 70+ hour work weeks as a litigation paralegal), but I was no where near ready to actually go back to work.  I wanted to stay home with Ian, but I still needed, no craved, that extra mental exercise of a job.  I had started reviewing novels with American Bibliophile back in 2006, but they ended up going on a short hiatus and so I continued reviewing novels on my own blog.  After a while, that was all I was posting and that’s when it clicked…start a book blog.  That was all I was going to do…write a few reviews and share my love of the written word.  Now look where I am.  In barely a year, I evolved the site to what it is today.  I would have never dreamed that I would get to post interviews with authors or even receive ARCs for advance review.  I didn’t even think that was possible.  Now I know it is and it’s amazing.

In the last year, I’ve met some amazing people who love to review and read just as much as I do.  Between all the different challenges that are out there, Weekly Geeks and the Bookworms Carnival, I’ve found a whole community of avid readers that get me.  Maybe not me personally, but get the idea of a true bookworm.  Because of this community, I started keeping track of my novels and I would never have guessed that I had read 134 novels, 53 of them being new authors, in 2008.  I haven’t changed my reading habits at all and so I never would have guessed that I would read this much.  The fact that I tried 53 new authors, authors of novels I was actually interested in, would never have happened either.

With that in mind, it’s time again for those challenges to appear.  Last year, I participated in 5 different challenges and completed 4 of those.  This year, I’m joining 6 different challenges and hosting my own for the first time.

1. New Authors, which is hosted by me and runs Jan 1st – Dec 31st
2. Support Your Local Library, which is hosted by J. Kaye’s Book Blog and runs Jan 1st – Dec 31st
3. Themed Reading Challenge, which is hosted by Caribou Mom and runs Feb. 1st to July 31st
4. 1st in a Series, which is hosted by J. Kaye’s Book Blog and runs Jan 1st – Dec 31st
5. 2nds Challenge, which is hosted by J. Kaye’s Book Blog and runs Jan 1st – Dec 31st
6. Paranormal 999 Challenge, which is hosted by LibraryThing and runs Jan 1st – Sept 9th
7. R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril IV Challenge, which is hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings and runs Sept 1st – Oct 31st (as you can see, this one won’t start for awhile)

Weekly Geeks is going to be back next week and I can’t wait to see what the new managing team has planned for it. As for the Bookworms Carnival, I’m on that managing team and I know it’s still just as popular as when I first signed up.

I’m going to try and put together more interviews for this coming year.  Last year, I conducted 4 of them and I’m hoping to do at least one a month this year.  No promises though.  I still haven’t figured out one for this month, but I do have someone in mind.  As for guests posts, I will never turn one away and have 5 scheduled already.  They’ll be coming up between now and March, so keep a lookout for them.