HAPPY 2011!

HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!!

It's officially 2011 here! I'm doing this blog post while in the midst of our 2-day celebration! It's my nephew's birthday today, and since I have the social skills of a 2 year old kid, I'm posting this instead.

Wherever you are in the world, I hope you are welcoming the new year with a bang!

Looking back, I have to say I had an awesome year. Though I started this blog less than half a year ago, I've had lots of fun, met new friends, and learned a lot through book blogging. 2010 was a blast, but I hope to raise the bar further and promise myself to do my best to have an explosive 2011, in terms of book blogging, and personal life.

So to sum up 2010, my stats are:

Total no. of books read: 75
Total no. of books reviewed: 58
Total no. of pages: 20, 353
No. of books Kai reviewed: 40
No. of books Tin reviewed: 18

Challenge status:

50 books a year - COMPLETED!
Indie/ Self-Published challenge - 3/16!

Jennilee and I decided to extend the deadline for our Indie challenge since half of my December has been dedicated to a blog event which didn't really leave me much time to read.

What to do on 2011:

Let's see. First off, I'll probably not participate in much challenge this year. I'm all set to sign up for The Story Siren's Debut Author Challenge for 2011 but I haven't gotten around to posting my list yet. I have a few goals for me and the blog, namely:

• Re-invent myself and Amaterasu Reads
  The last thing I want to happen to this blog and myself is to stay stagnant for a long time. I want to come up with more interesting things to do with the blog (and my life) and hopefully use some, if not all, of my ideas for AR, and make it more lovable than it already is. :D
  
• Stop pressuring myself
  I'd like to step on the brakes a little and read more "leisurely". Or create a solid, proper schedule for all the books I'll be reading. I crammed a lot last year, and I found myself at a loss of books to read even when I know I still have a HUGE TBR pile. I don't know how I'm going to do this since I'm aiming to read 100 books this year, so I gotta start planning. I'd like to put on a little more direction on my book blogging journey. I'll try to be more firm with my decisions as well.
• Be more organized
  Seriously, I don't know how I was able to pull through 2010 judging by how messed up my schedule was.
• Read faster
  I have to learn how to do speed reading. I'm a slow reader, and for me, reading is something I need to enjoy and savor so it's taking me a while to finish one book, but I still think I'm too slow. If I can read a bit faster, say, reduce my reading time from 3 days to 2, it would be awesome.
  
• Be more friendly
  Like I said, I suck at making friends. I can barely hold a conversation, sometimes, even with my own friends. I'd like to make myself look more approachable. It might not be much, but I know I have to work on this.
• Try to be a little less intimidating
  I think I'm known more because of my 'intimidating' personality than anything else. It's like I can beat up a guy or hurt him good, which isn't really me. It is a part of me, yes, but I'm not just that. I hope to put out myself more and maybe make people see beyond the tough personality I project.

And here is the part where I say my thanks to everyone.

To the lovely authors I've met and interacted with this year, YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME! I've somehow overcome my fear of talking to all of you since I know you guys have a lot of better things to do than to talk to a book blogger like me, but I am very happy to have met you all. Thank you for the swag, the books, and most of all, the time you've given me to know you all better. I hope to do more interviews with you all, and hopefully get to know you better, so I'll try my best! Remember that without you guys, we book bloggers wouldn't be here. Thank you for crafting such wonderful stories for everyone to read.

To the publicists and publishers, thank you for trusting me and Amaterasu Reads enough to send books that I can read and write my opinion about and share with fellow readers. You don't know how much it means to me, knowing that I have your support. My reading journey was more interesting and fun because of you all. Looking forward to working with all of you again this year!

To fellow book bloggers who became good friends, YOU GUYS ROCK!!! I've met a few amazing people this year, and you guys are one of the biggest reasons why I continue book blogging! A lot of interesting people have crossed paths with me this year, like Jennilee of Reading Lassie, who became one of my book blogging buddies, the energetic and fun Louisse from The Soul Sisters, Precious of Fragments of Life, who I've done an event with, Royce of Isa Book Whore, because her hyper personality is just so cute! Kris of Frazzled Book Nommer, who I found out, is half-Filipina, which is just plain awesome because she's so easy to talk to! *hugs* Mavie of The Bookologist, the super-human ninja who is just great! And Mia of Girl About Books, who I'm sure is going to be one heck of a book blogger too! :)

The most memorable peeps I've met this year are the Filipino group from Goodreads. Of course, Tina of One More Page, one of my closest friends ever slash fellow bookworm, who I got the idea of book blogging from. Aaron of Guy Gone Geek, who is an evil overlord just like me (and writes reviews which are out of this world and are just insanely good), Ariel of Pinoy Peter Pan, Jzhun, Ace, Chachic of Chachic's Book Nook, Kwesi, Ishay, Happie, Kuya Doni and tons of other Filipino book lovers!

Thank you, thank you to every single one of you who made 2010 an amazing year! I'd hug all of you if I can! I'm pretty sure 2011 has a lot of great things in store for us, can't wait to know what they are!

Bye bye 2010, hello 2011!