June 30th marked ten years since my first blog post, which was a review of The Martian. Since day one, this blog has been such a welcoming place to meet fellow book lovers and authors. It is rather remarkable to think back on how my life has evolved in the past ten years. Ten years ago I was just married and having finished my PhD in analytical chemistry. Since then, I’ve been able to traveling all over the world, become a farmer, and found my way in to a career in public health that I love and am challenged daily by. Since beginning this blog Luke and I have become farmers and beekeepers, not to mention having two of the sweetest kids. Our lives have felt blessed, though there has been much loss over the past decade with the losing five grandparents and two parents. Adding to this is the knowledge I’ve learned after my Grandma passed away that I carry the PALB2 gene mutation that is similar to the BRCA mutation. This has led us down a difficult path, though an easy decision, to have a double mastectomy to reduce any risk of breast cancer. I’m still healing from the surgery in July, which is part of the reason this blogiversary post is so delayed. I find myself so grateful for the knowledge to be proactive when so many women in my family have not has the same opportunity.
Book wise, the blessings have been bountiful with me having read some amazing books over the past ten years. This year alone I discovered the Dungeon Crawler Carl series and I seriously can’t get enough. I’ve debated making this post one that covers the past decade but am leaning more toward my more traditional format of covering the past year, as I’ve read so many great books. To recap the highlight from year one I’ve had some pretty remarkable book moments that have me pinching myself. I was a beta reader for Brent Weeks and received advanced review copies from some of my favorite series months before they hit the shelves. I have been able to interview and meet the talented Peter V. Brett and be a judge in Mark Lawrence’s Self Published Fantasy Blog Off for five years. I’ve met many talented and kind authors and bloggers through The Critiquing Chemist. I’m so deeply grateful for this experience as a whole.
Ten years ago, my experience traveling out of the country was limited to a single senior trip on a Caribbean cruise and a few trips to Canada. Since then, we have traveled to stunning locations such as Peru, Jordan, Spain, Egypt, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Iceland, Dominican Republic, and all over Canada. We’ve survived a 10 day road trip from Alaska to Michigan with a 2 year old. We have visited 27 national parks in the United States and 9 in Canada, plus many other remarkable provincial parks. Growing up on a farm in rural Michigan and being able to visit even a fraction of these special places was such a remote dream.
My reading progress has slowed with the distraction of two sweet kids, but I hope to continue this journey for at least another 10 years. I’m so glad I’ve been able to compile my statistics over this time period. It is fun to see how my reading tastes have evolved over a decade, though year to year has average ratings have been steady.
Statistics
This year was my lowest book total since I’ve started blogging at a low 38 books but I didn’t get a chance to finish writing my review for Winds of Truth by Brandon Sanderson and several Dungeon Crawler Carl books before the end of June. They’ll roll over to next year. Overall though I was please with reading as many books as I did with how busy the kids have kept me. I also rediscovered physical reading. I’ve been reading to the kids at night from whatever I’ve been reading. It has been really nice to be able to pick that part of reading back up again. I went from roughly 8% ebooks or physical books in year 10 to almost 38% in year 10. I read very little nonfiction this year. With the current political climate, I was eager to get lost in lighter fantasy.
One quick glance at my overall totals for the past ten years is its own level of satisfaction. Over 650 books in 10 years totaling over 93 million words and 300 thousand pages. Here’s to the next ten years of reading!
SPFBO
In year 10, I finished my last year as a judge for SPFBO. I spent 2 years as a judge with friends who were kind enough to go on this journey with me. The last three years, Jennie and I partnered with the lovely Lynn’s Books. I so enjoyed my time on the contest, but had to eventually step away due to being pulled in too many directions. Jennie and I helped Lynn get through the initial group of 30 books before we let her tackle the finalists for SPFBO9.
Travel
Washington DC, USA
Seattle, WA, USA
Portland, OR, USA
Prince Edward Island National Park, PEI, Canada
Kouchibougiac National Park, NB, Canada
Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park, NB, Canada
Bay of Fundy National Park, NB, Canada
Bay of Fundy Provincial Park, NB, Canada
New River Provincial Park, NB, Canada
Ministers Island and St Andrew’s, NB Canada
Acadia National Park, ME, USA
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, MI, USA
Farming
Farming in year 10 was a big year for us as we built a new pole barn across from my Dad’s farm. It has been so much fun to share traditions with the kids as they get older from going strawberry picking with their Grandma the Great to picking up rocks or going on combine/tractor rides. Quinn is a big helper with our honeybees too.
The Critiquing Chemist 
Happy Blogoversary!
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