My First Book of 2019

This is the sixth year of First Book of the Year for Sheila at Book Journey. 

What is First Book? Sheila encourages everyone to pick a book to start out 2019.

The First Book of the Year should be:

A.  A coveted book that you have wanted to read but have just not found the time.

B.  A delicious favorite… one you have read before, but crave to read again.

C.  Really whatever you want it to – it is after all YOUR First Book Of the Year.

What am I reading on the first day of 2019? I think it's quite telling....

I renewed my vows to the Baking Beings last year and I hope to become a Star Baker (at least in my own kitchen) this year. 

Curious about what other people have chosen? Take a look here on January 1, 2019.

My 2019 End-of-the-Year Reading Survey

It's time for one of my favorite events of the year.... 

It's Perpetual Page Turner's 9th Annual End-of-the-Year Reading Survey!

***2018 READING STATS***

Number of Books You Read: 

415 books, with 55,199 pages

Fiction 308 vs. Nonfiction 107

Children 276 vs. Adult 139

Genre You Read The Most: 

Children's Picture Books

Best book you read in 2018?

The best book I read was Excellent Women by Barbara Pym.

Book you thought you were going to love, but didn't?

I was terribly disappointed with Old in Art School. 

Most surprising book?  

I was surprised to find that I loved (almost) every classic---Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, Kafka's Metamorphosis, Thoreau's Walden, Frankenstein, all the Jane Austen books---I read this year.

Book you pushed the most people to read?

I told everyone I met about American Wolf.

Best series you started in 2018? 

I was wild about Holly Black's new series, The Folk of the Air. The first book is The Cruel Prince.

Favorite new author?

I have fallen in love with Jason Reynolds.

Best book from a genre you don’t typically read?

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet was the rare scifi novel this year.

Most action-packed book?

The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff was full of action and adventure. Wild Fang was amazing, too.

Book you read in 2018 you will be most likely to reread in 2019?

I predict that I will be reading lots of board books over and over to my grandchildren next year.

Favorite cover?

Take a look at Julián is a Mermaid. 

Most memorable character?

I was happy to make the acquaintance of Charlie Hernández. 

Most beautifully written book?

Winter by Karl One Knausgaard was a lovely read.

Most thought-provoking book?

Forest Bathing...a book about trees as living beings, with deep lives. I'll never think about trees the same way.

Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2018 to finally read? 

Most people seem to read Jane Austen in high school, but I waited until I was sixty-one to read Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion.

Favorite quote from a book you read in 2018? 

"I am stockpiling antibiotics for the Apocalypse, even as I await the blossoming of paperwhites on the windowsill in the kitchen," Anne Lamott writes in Almost Everything.

Shortest and longest books?

The shortest was How to Say I Love You in 5 Languages, with 10 pages.

The longest was 1000 Books to Read Before You Die, with 960 pages.

Book that shocked you the most?

A Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds was a difficult read.

OTP OF THE YEAR (You will go down with this ship!) (OTP = one true pairing if you aren’t familiar)

Meant for each other: The boy, Ken McLaughlin, and his horse, Flicka. 

Favorite non-romantic relationship of the year?

It was beautiful to read about the relationship that Fred Rogers had with every human being he met in The Good Neighbor. 

Favorite book you read in 2018 by an author you read previously?

I was thrilled to get a review copy of the latest book by one of my favorite authors, Richard Powers. The book is The Overstory. 

I also loved the latest Anne Tyler, the latest Barbara Kingsolver, the latest Patricia Polacco. Wonderful stories.

Best book you read in 2018 that you read solely based on someone else's recommendation?

The Sufi Book of Life was a book I'd never have read had not it been recommended to me.

Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2018?

Everyone should have a dad like Alma's patient and kind dad in Alma and How She Got Her Name.

Best 2018 debut you read?

I'd have to pick The Library Book by Susan Orlean. 

Most vivid setting of the year?

Escape from Aleppo takes place during a violent war. 

Book that was the most fun to read?

You mustn't miss Baking With Kafka. And Confederacy of Dunces. 

Book that almost made you cry in 2018?

The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan was a deeply moving read. 

Hidden gem of the year?

Paris in the Present Tense was marvelous. 

Book that crushed your soul?

 Ah, Frankenstein.

Most unique book you read?

(I can't talk about most of the children's picture books I read this year, as I'm a sworn-to-secrecy-Cybils-judge.) I can tell you that you must read The Little Barbarian, (as it was not published in time for this year's Cybils).

And you really must read Bibliophile and 1000 Books to Read Before You Die.

Book that made you the most mad?

Reading children's picture books like The Old Man (homelessness), Night Job (boy's dad works nights), and Tomorrow by Nadine Kaadan (war) make me angry that children must suffer so much in the world.

One book you didn't get to in 2018 that you will read in 2019?

I am waiting to read An American Marriage until the author visits Houston in the spring of 2019. 

Book you are most anticipating in 2019 (non-debut)?

I will read Anna Karenina. I will.

2019 debut you are most anticipating?

Lots of these: a new Angie Thomas, a book by the comic "Cathy" author, and a book about our news media.

TBR that you will read in 2019?

I have a ridiculous number (5) of Book of the Month Club books that I have not yet read. I will read these in 2019. 

One thing you hope to accomplish in your blogging life in 2019?

I will blog more often. I will shake things up a bit. I will write more about my reading. I will visit more blogs. I will paint my own header. 

A 2019 release you’re already recommending to everyone?

I adored Holly Black's new series, The Folk of the Air, and I can't wait to hear what people think about book #2, The Wicked King. 

What were your favorites for 2018? 

Leave me a link in the comments, please. 

I'd love to see what you enjoyed this year.

Book Blog Memes: An Exhaustive List

One of the most wonderful parts of blogging is talking books with others.

It can be hard to connect with other bloggers. It was hard for me at first, when I first began blogging, back in 2008.

Then I discovered memes.

Meme
meme n. (mëm): A unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another. From the Greek mimëma, something imitated, from mimeisthai, to imitate. (Definition from Booking Through Thursday.)

Memes are linkups of bloggers who post about (basically) the same subject. They are published on a regular basis, and include a linkup of some sort. If a blogger grows weary of a meme, she often passes the meme on to a new blogger. 

Here’s a list of bookish memes you may like to check out. I've included memes that are currently active as well as those that do not appear to be active now. Perhaps you might like to try to contact the host of an inactive meme and revive it on your own blog.

Weekly
Memes
(Monday)

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? at Book Date. Weekly. Link to your post about what you’ve read recently, are currently reading, and plan on reading next.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? KidLit at Unleashing Readers and Teach Mentor Texts. Weekly. It is a variation of the meme hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date. Kellee Moye of Unleashing Readers and Jen of  Teach Mentor Texts invite all who read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels, anything in the world of kidlit – to join them! It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It’s also a great chance to see what others are reading right now…you just might discover the next “must-read” book! Everyone who participates is encouraged to support the blogging community by visiting at least three of the other book bloggers that link up and leave comments for them. If you tweet about your Monday post, tag the tweet with #IMWAYR. 

Mailbox Monday at Mailbox Monday. Weekly. Link to your post about the books you recently received. Every week we will each share two books that caught our eye from that week’s Mailbox Monday.

Bookmark Monday at Guiltless Reading. Weekly. Share your love for bookmarks, whether yours or your dream of making them yours.

Monday Highlights at Dual Reads. Sporadic. Link up your favorite post from last week.

Bookish Images Monday at Cindy’s Book Club. Inactive. To participate in Bookish Images Monday, post a bookish image. You do NOT have to post a ton of images–one will be fine if that’s all you want to do! They can just be interesting or pretty book covers if you want. Or just pictures of books, bookcases, libraries or bookstores. Or they can be humorous, or vintage, or related to movies based on books. They just need to be book-related in some way.

Ten Good Things on a Monday at Brush Up on Your Reading. Inactive. 10 Good Things on a Monday is a weekly feature dedicated to every person’s compulsive list-writing. Every Monday we are going to make a list of 10 things that will cheer us up and help tide us over the whole week.

Weekly
Memes
(Tuesday)

Top Ten Tuesday at That Artsy Reader Girl. Weekly. Writing prompts (posted in advance) for “10 Books That …”

Teaser Tuesdays at The Purple Booker. Weekly. To participate, grab your current read, open to a random page, and share two teaser sentences from somewhere on that page, being careful not to include spoilers. Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add to the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.

Tell Me Something Tuesday at Rainy Day Ramblings. Weekly. Post about the weekly question on your blog and link up (topics are posted one week in advance).

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros at I’d Rather Be at the Beach. Weekly. Share the first paragraph (or a few) of a book you’re reading or thinking about reading soon.

Readers' Workouts at Joy’s Book Blog. Weekly. A weekly event where readers share workout stories, goals, successes, and challenges.

Top 5 Tuesday at Bionic Book Worm. Weekly. Make a list each week and ping back to the original post so that you will be added to the list of participants. Topics are announced at the beginning of each month.

Children’s Book Tuesday at Ginger Mom and Company. Sporadic. This is a linkup for the hashtag #childrensbooktuesday where we share our favorite kidlit books (all the way up to middle grade). We also want to add interviews with kidlit authors, as the meme grows. 

Dusty Reads at Xpresso Reads. Inactive. Dusty Reads is a weekly post featuring a book that has been sitting unread on your home shelf for some time. To participate, add your name to the linky below the post and try to visit a few of the others. The posts go up every Tuesday, but you can chose a different day.

Really Random Tuesday at Suko’s Notebook. Sporadic. Appearing on random Tuesdays, Really Random Tuesday is a way to post odds and ends–announcements, musings, quotes, photos–any blogging and book-related things you can think of. If you’re inspired by this idea, feel free to copy the button and use it on your own blog. Please leave a link in the comments if you’re participating and you will be added to the original post.

Weekly
Memes
(Wednesday)

Can’t Wait Wednesday at Wishful Endings. Weekly. Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they're books that have yet to be released. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday created by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Wondrous Words Wednesday at Bermuda Onion. Weekly. Share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love.

WWW Wednesday at Taking On a World of Words. Weekly. The three Ws are: What are you currently reading? What did you recently finish reading? What do you think you’ll read next?

Shelf Control at Bookshelf Fantasies. Weekly. Shelf Control is a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves. Pick a book you own but haven’t read, write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up. For more info on what Shelf Control is all about, check out the introductory post, here.

Library Loot at The Captive Reader and Silly Little Mischief. Weekly. Share the books that you got from the library each week.

Wordless Wednesday at Wordless Wednesday. Weekly. Post a photo without words.

This Week in Books at Lipsyy Lost & Found. Weekly. A post to share what you’re reading — now, then, and next.

My Favorite…at Bookishly Rebecca. Weekly. Each week I will post a new My Favorite.. post about one subject and I’ll tell you all about it. And the best part? Everyone is welcome to join. The only thing you’ll have to do is sign up on my weekly post, link back to this post, and visit others. Feel free to use my My Favorite.. image or make your own.

What Are You Reading Wednesday at Marissa Writes. Inactive. Share the book/s you are reading with their author, maybe even the cover… and then answer these questions for at least one of them. 1. Why did you decide to pick up this book – cover or content? 2. Who is your favorite character so far, and why? 3. Will you finish this one? 4. Finish the sentence:  This book reminds me of… (other books, movies, TV shows…) 5. What type of read is this one? (slow but interesting, cannot put it down,…)

Waiting on Wednesday at Breaking the Spine. Inactive. A weekly event that allows you to spotlight and show off your most anticipating books.

Wishlist Wednesday at Pen to Paper.  Inactive. Wishlist Wednesday is a book blog hop where we will post about one book per week that has been on our wishlist for some time, or just added (it’s entirely up to you), that we can’t wait to get off the wishlist and onto our wonderful shelves.

Weekly
Memes
(Thursday)

Bookish (and not-so Bookish) Thoughts at Bookishly Boisterous. Weekly. Write what’s on you mind and link up at the host blog every week.

Thirsty Thursday & Hungry Hearts at (un)Conventional Book Views. Weekly. Write a post that features a quote with food or drinks that showed up in a recent read, as well as if it’s something you think you’d like or not. Then share it in the link-up at the hosts’ blog.

Booknificent Thursday at Mommynificent. Weekly. Please link up any posts you have, past or present, about books, reading, and literacy. This link party is all about sharing how books are impacting you.

Thursday Quotables at Bookshelf Fantasies. Occasional. Share a favorite quote, line, or passage from your reading each week! (Note: Taking a break from weekly posts at the moment, but feel free to go ahead without me. Thursday Quotables is on a spontaneous/whenever schedule right now.)

Beyond the Books at Kissin Blue Karen. Inactive. Weekly prompts are provided on topics that focus on books and life … beyond books.

Down the TBR Hole at Zezee With Books. Inactive. A meme where we decide whether to keep or remove books on our TBR. The rules: Go to your Goodreads to-read shelf. Order on ascending date added. Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books. Read the synopses of the books. Decide: keep it or should it go?

What's Next? at IceyBooks. Inactive. If you are having trouble finding what to read next, make a post with 3-5 options for your readers to pick for you.

When I First Saw you at Sailing Through Books. Inactive. When I First Saw You, or WIFSY for short, is a meme that consists of sharing a first impressions of a book in the form of a synopsis, so basically judging a book by its cover, yes. 

I Heart Characters! at Perspective of a Writer. Inactive. This meme showcases our book blogger love for characters. Each week she’ll supply a topic and you’ll supply the character. Post on whatever day suits you, about characters from whatever media you love (books, movies, K-dramas, television, manga, anime, webtoons, whatever!) and link up on Thursday so YOU and others can blog hop and share the character love. 

Before the Blog at YA Litwit.  Inactive. You have probably read hundreds, if not thousands of books, before you started blogging. Before the Blog is a place where bloggers can post a review of a book they read and loved BEFORE they started blogging about books, along with the answers to a few questions about their choice: Why did you choose this book? When did you read this book? Who would you recommend this book to?

Booking Through Thursday at Booking Through Thursday. Inactive. Copy the questions, paste them into your blog and answer them. When you’re done, come back here and post a quick comment or trackback letting everyone know so we can read your responses. Be sure to leave a link to your actual post!

Literary Blog Hop at The Blue Bookcase. Inactive. This blog hop is open to blogs that primarily feature book reviews of literary fiction, classic literature, and general literary discussion.


Thankful Thursday Meme at Oasis for YA. Inactive. The surest way to get good things in life is to be thankful for what you already have. So why not encourage a group thankful-fest once a week in which we send out good energy and hope to get some back in return?


The Out the Comfort Zone Blog Hop at Lucybird’s Book Blog. Inactive. The Out of the Comfort Zone Hop is a new blog hop hosted here at Lucybird’s Book Blog which is designed to help you to look at books outside your comfort zone and to get you to look at blogs you wouldn’t normally look at. When you add your link you must visit the two blogs above you, no matter who they are! You can visit other blogs too but should find you are looked at by the two blogs below you.



Theme Thursdays at Reading between Pages. Inactive. Theme Thursdays is a fun weekly event that will be open from one Thursday to the next. Anyone can participate in it. The rules are simple:
• A theme will be posted each week (on Thursdays)
• Select a conversation/snippet/sentence from the current book you are reading
• Mention the author and the title of the book along with your post

• It is important that the theme is conveyed in the sentence (you don’t necessarily need to have the word).

Thursday Tea at Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog. Inactive. To play along, all you need is some tea, a book, and the answers to these questions: what tea are you drinking (and do you like it)? What book are you reading (and do you like it)? Tell us a little about your tea and your book, and whether or not the two go together. 

Weekly
Memes
(Friday)

Book Beginnings at Rose City Reader. Weekly. Share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.

Book Blogger Hop at Coffee Addicted Writer. Weekly. A weekly writing prompt for you to answer on your own blog. Prompts are posted well in advance.

The Friday 56 at Freda’s Voice. Weekly. Grab a book, any book, and turn to page 56 (or 56% on your e-reader). Find a sentence that grabs you and post it either on your blog or on Instagram tagged with #Friday56.

British Isles Friday at Joy’s Book Blog. Weekly. Join us each Friday to discover British & Irish themed content around the Web and to add your own.

First Impression Friday at J. W. Martin. Weekly. First Impression Friday is a meme where you talk about a book that you JUST STARTED. Maybe you’re only a chapter or two in, maybe a little farther. Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions and predict what you’ll think by the end. Did you think you’d love and ended up hating it? Or did you think you’d hate it and wound up loving it? Or were you exactly right? Later on, link back to it from your review to say, “Look at how wrong I was!” OR “See? I knew it all along!”

50/50 Friday at Blue Eye Books and The Butterfly Reads.  Weekly. It focuses on the opposite sides of books (best/worst, differing opinions, etc).  Every week there is a new topic. Check out the master list to plan ahead and individual posts for the post link ups.

First Lines Fridays at Wandering Words. Sporadic. It is too easy to judge a book by its cover, its title or author, but how about by its opening lines? First Lines Fridays aims to get readers hooked on the first lines of a book before its details are revealed to them, allowing them to step out their comfort zone and discover new genres and authors.

F is for Friday at Nomadic Worlds. Sporadic. Close out the workweek and get ready for the weekend by answering four questions: F – Feature your latest book obsession (it doesn’t have to be your current read); I – Indicate which book/s you are looking forward to reading this weekend; F – Favorite quote of the week/day; F – Five things you’re happy or grateful for this week.

Flashback Friday at Bookshelf Fantasies. Inactive. Highlight books from our reading pasts! Pick any book you’ve read, published at least five years ago, and write a blog post about why it’s so special to you. Link up and check out other bloggers’ favorite flashback books. (Currently on hiatus – be back soon!)

Friday Fill-Ins at Friday Fill-Ins. Inactive. Just answer five (5) fill-in-the-blank questions each Friday.

Friday Finds at Should Be Reading. Inactive. What great books did you hear about/discover this past week? Share with us your FRIDAY FINDS! 

Weekly
Memes
(Saturday)

Weekend Cooking at Beth Fish Reads. Weekly. Open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs.

Saturday Snapshot, at West Metro Mommy Reads. Weekly. post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky below. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.

Saturday Situation at Pure Imagination. Weekly. Link up your giveaways and posts you want to promote – that you posted during the week.

Stacking the Shelves at Reading Reality. Weekly. A link-up of the books you are adding to your shelves, be it physical or virtual.

Talk of the Town at Jera’s Jamboree. Weekly. Talk of the Town is for book bloggers to link up a bookish post each week.  It doesn’t have to be a review – it can be anything you would like to share with others.  It could be a Q&A, guest post, book news, book event, blogging tips, giveaway, top 5 books you’ve read, your weekly/monthly roundup or even something you’ve made from instructions within the pages of a book!  As long as it is book related, go for it.

The Saturday Review at Taylor Fenner’s Bookish World. Weekly. The Saturday Review is a new blog meme for book bloggers to link up and share their book reviews for the week.

Sentranced Saturday at Reader Voracious. Weekly. Share a quote that left you entranced, i.e., it makes you think! Reader Voracious has a little notebook that she carries with her everywhere to write down quotes that inspire her in some way, and she is sure that she is not alone. Everyone is welcome to participate, please be sure to link to her current post so she can see all of your quotes.

Shelf Candy Saturday at A Night's Dream of Books. Occasional. Showcase your most favorite beautiful book covers.

Series Saturday at P.S I Love That Book. Inactive. Share your favorite series.

Quote It Saturday, at Freda's Voice. Inactive. Add as many quotes as you wish, from whomever you wish.

Weekly Geeks at Weekly Geeks. Inactive. Every week there’ll be a different theme. One week might be “catch up on your library books” week and the next might be “redecorate your blog week” or “organize your challenges” week or “catch up on your reviews” week. It’ll be fairly bookblogocentric, but not exclusively.

Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon. Inactive. Link to a book review you’ve written during the past week.

Weekly
Memes
(Sunday)

The Sunday Salon at The Sunday Salon. Weekly. Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them, and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book.

The Sunday Post at The Caffeinated Book Reviewer. Weekly. Write a post to recap the past week and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blogs. Then link-up with the hosts.

Shabby Sunday at ReadRantRock&Roll. Weekly. I have a lot of old vintage books and one of my plans when I first started blogging was to do a post every week or so that shared one of my cherished vintage books. Then, I thought that maybe there might be other book bloggers out there that have some vintage books, heirlooms, or maybe some old books from childhood that they might want to share. I decided to start a weekly meme titled ‘Shabby Sunday’ for those who would like to participate and share some of their old vintage books. Do you have some shabby books you’d like to share? Please feel free to participate. If you decide to do this meme, please consider linking back to me so that I can see the book you’re sharing.

Sundays In Bed With… at Midnight Book Girl. Weekly. Share what book you spent time curled up in bed (read in bed) with or wish to read that day. 

5 Best Books at Indie Reader Houston. Inactive. People like lists. 5 Best Books is a weekly meme that asks participants to list what they consider the 5 best books on a given topic. Take a sentence or two to tell us why you liked it. If you want to participate, grab the button and add your blog to Mister Linky.

Know Your Book Blogger at Book Nerd. Inactive. Each Sunday (Australian time!) I will be posting a random question – thanks to Plinky and I’ll answer it here. If you want to answer it as well, simply link back to us here and answer the question on your blog. Leave your link here too and then visit others who have participated! It’s a quick way to make new blogger friends! 

Monthly
Memes

The Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up at Feed Your Fiction Addiction. End of the month. Every month, at the end of the month, there’s a monthly wrap-up link-up post where everyone can link up their month end posts. There are no specific requirements for what needs to be in your post, as long as you have a book blog and your wrap-up summarizes your month in some way.

Best of the Bunch at A Cocoon of Books. End of the month. Take a look what you read that month and share your favorite book read.

The Book Nook at Create With Joy. First Friday of the Month. Join in on the 1st Friday of every month to share any of your book-related posts – reviews, news, round-ups. You can add many links as you like.

My TBR List at Because Reading. The 1st Saturday of Every Month. Each month, make a post with three books from your To Be Read List and ask your readers to choose which book you should read next. The following Saturday you should announce the book that won. Then read the book and on the last Saturday of the month, post a review.

Quick Lit at Modern Mrs. Darcy. Monthly on the 15th. Link to your post with short reviews of what you’ve read lately.

6 Degrees of Separation at Books Are My Favourite and Best. First Saturday of the Month.  A book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain on the first Saturday of every month. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book. Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal or esoteric ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the ones next to them in the chain.

Favourite Blog Posts of the Month at Kristin Kraves Books. First of the Month. All you have to do is share all of your favourite blog posts of the month. A great way to spread the love and also discover new bloggers.

State of the ARC at Avalinah’s Books. End of the Month. State of the ARC is a monthly meme at Avalinah’s Books meant to motivate you to finish up all your long overdue ARCs (Advanced or Early Reader Copies). You can track your reading progress and link up with your own post. Most commonly it comes out on the 30th of every month.

Diverse Children’s Books at Pragmatic Mom. First Saturday of the Month. Join us in sharing your diverse children’s book links and resources, as well as visiting other links to find great suggestions and recommendations. Diverse Children’s Books is a book-sharing meme designed to promote the reading and writing of children’s books that feature diverse characters. This community embraces all kinds of diversity including (and certainly not limited to) diverse, inclusive, multicultural, and global books for children of all backgrounds. New link-ups go up the first Saturday of each month.

Banned Book Club at This is Lit.  First of the Month. You read one historically challenged book a month. We support free speech and fight censorship every chance we get. On the first of every month,  the month’s book will be announced and reviews of the previous month’s book will be featured on This is Lit. On the last week of the month, review the book on your blog or Goodreads. Join the Goodreads group and DM Shruti on Twitter to join the group’s chat.

DNF&Y at Do You Dog-Ear? End of Every Month. The point of DNF&Y is to explain why she (and you) gave up on certain books, and what about them just didn’t work. She says, “Before now, I never knew what to do with the books I didn’t finish. It felt wrong to accept books for review, or even books that I bought myself, and then pretend they didn’t exist once I decided they weren’t a good fit. It’s nice to know I now have an outlet for those books, and from what I’ve been hearing, it seems like a few of you needed that outlet, too.”

Month in Review at Book Date. Last Day of the Month. It's an opportunity to share your previous month of reading! Those who link up are asked to visit each other’s posts.

Spread The Love at As Told By Tina. Last Saturday of the Month. Bloggers can link up any posts that didn’t get enough love throughout the month. We all have that post that we worked so hard on but it didn’t get enough views/comments and this is a way to spread the love for those posts, so bloggers like me can check them out. The link up opens the last Saturday of the month and closes the second Saturday of the month.

The WorldReads Challenge at Stephanie Jane. The 5th of Each Month. It's designed to encourage the reading of global literature. On the 5th of each month she highlights five books she’s read from a particular country. You can take up the challenge too! Simply read 1 or more books from a different country each month, write a post about those books, add the button to your post and comment on her WorldReads post so she can visit you.

Monthly Wrap-Up at Bookidote. End of the Month. Share a summary of your entire month's work on your blog!

Books You Loved at Carole's Chatter. First of the Month. To add to the list, just pop the name of the book (and your name/blog name, if you like) into the first Mr Linky box and then copy and paste the url of your post about it into the second box. The posts you link to don't have to be recent and the book concerned doesn't have to have been recently published or read.  The only requirement is that it is about a book that you loved.

Task it Tuesday at Because Reading. Inactive. List a task or tasks that you would like to accomplish on your blog or in Real Life before next Tuesday. It can be big or small but the goal is to get something done that will make your blog/reading life/challenges run smoother, faster, or more efficient and/or get those simple or complex tasks done in your real life. 

What’s On Your Nightstand at 5 Minutes for Books. Inactive. On the fourth Tuesday of each month, share the books you’ve been reading and/or plan to read.

3, 2, 1, Go! at The Three Rs Book Blog. Inactive. This is a monthly round-up post. The idea is to blog about:
3 books you have enjoyed,
2 great blog posts by other bloggers,
1 book you are looking forward to reading.
Go! = encourage others to do the same.

Bi-Yearly
Memes

Bloggiesta at Bloggiesta on Facebook. Spring and Fall. Twice a year, bloggers are invited to fix up their blogs. 

Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon at Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon. April and October. For 24 hours, we read books, post to our blogs, Twitters, Instagrams, Litsy, Facebook, Goodreads and MORE about our reading, and visit other readers’ homes online. We also participate in mini-challenges throughout the day. It happens twice a year, in April and in October.

Yearly
Memes

First Book of the Year at Book Journey. January 1. Send a pic of you with the book you plan to read in the NY by NYE so she can create a montage of what we’re all reading. 

Multicultural Children's Book Day at Multicultural Children's Book Day. January 25. It's an event designed to raise awareness for the kids' books that celebrate diversity, and to get more of these of books into classrooms and libraries.

Paris in July at Thyme for Tea. July. Many of us love all things about Paris and France, so you can post on anything - food reviews or recipes, favourite memories or dreams of visiting Paris, movies, music, book reviews, history insights, favourite french TV shows... anything. 

Austen in August at The Book Rat. August. Austen in August is a celebration of all things Jane Austen, featuring reviews, discussions, vlogs, giveaways, interviews and more! 

Nonfiction November at Doing Dewey, What’s Nonfiction, Julz Reads, and Sophisticated Dorkiness. November. Nonfiction November is a month dedicated to celebrating nonfiction…we’ll talk about our favorites, trade recommendations, discuss our nonfiction reading habits, and hopefully discover some new book blogs! There will be a link-up for your posts every Monday.

Dickens in December at Beauty is a Sleeping Cat and Postcards from Asia. December, but Currently Inactive. An event to celebrate Dickens' work.

A big thank you to:

The Master List of Book Blogging Memes from Girl XOXO

Book Blog Meme Directory from Bookshelf Fantasies

A Meme Directory for Book Bloggers from Perspective of a Writer

The Ultimate Book Blog Memes Master List from The Reading Life

Memes from Suko's Notebook

A Meme Directory for Book Bloggers from The Book Stop