My Birthday and My Reader's Block Birthday

Well...my blogiversary (April 24th) came and went in a COVID-19 haze and I forgot all about the post I wanted to do to celebrate until it was a few weeks too late. So, I decided to wait and produce the fanfare on my birthday. This year My Reader's Block is ten years old! And I...well...I am older than ten (by a fair amount). As is fitting for a Book Blogger, I celebrated this morning in style with a gift bag full of bookish goodies

My husband came through with some much-desired vintage mysteries. Murder Wears Mukluks by Eunice Mays Boyd (Dell Mapback edition!), The Taste of Murder by Joanna Cannan, Nothing Like Blood by Leo Bruce, Murder by the Book by Frances & Richard Lockridge, and Spence & the Holiday Murders by Michael Allen (post-1960--but still much sought after).

 

Mom and Dad also sent some birthday funds which I promptly used to snap up some lovely editions of Lord Peter Wimsey that I just needed as well as About the Murder of a Startled Lady by Antony Abbot.

 

 


Two more birthday books are still making their way to the Hankins household. Over all, a very nice birthday indeed!

As far as blogging goes, the past ten years have been so much fun! I started out just wanting to have a place to log my books so my rapidly-more-sieve-like-as-the-years-go-by memory would have a resource to look back upon when books that I've read come up. It didn't take me long to realize that blogging was so much more. It's a place to let my reading challenge addiction run wild--both taking part and hosting. It's a place to meet the most amazing people who also love books...and especially those who love vintage mysteries just as much as I do. I've made virtual friends who I hope to meet in person one day (we came one COVID-19 outbreak short of making it happen this summer--I will make it to England one of these days!). 

I owe huge debts of gratitude to John @ Pretty Sinister Books, Kate @ Cross Examining Crime, the Puzzle Doctor @ In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel, JJ @ The Invisible Event, Brad @ Ah Sweet Mystery Blog, Curtis @ The Passing Tramp, Moira @ Clothes in Books, Les @ Classic Mysteries, the departed and sorely missed Noah @ Noah's Archives as well as a host of others who have shared their knowledge about Golden Age mysteries and even, on occasion, have shared books with me. A number of us have taken part in the Tuesday Night Bloggers--sharing mysteries based on a mutually agreed theme--where I again I learned more about the genre I love.

More recently, I've had the great good fortune to be a participant in Kate's mystery quiz game and to host my own version under the title "Who Wants to Murder a Millionaire" where we whiled away the hours in the early stages of virus lockdown. And we've helped Brad with his continuing mystery saga Murder at Dungarees (and I even have a character running around the estate...). I'm on the edge of my seat waiting to see what happens next.

I want to thank all of you who stop by the Block to see what I've been up to and especially those who have stuck with me through ten years. I've appreciated every comment and hope that everyone who visits finds something they like or even a new book to hunt down. Here's to another ten years of reading and having fun.

Reading Challenge News & Upcoming Celebrations

2020 and 2021 are anniversary years here at the Block. In April of next year, My Reader's Block will be ten years old (my how time flies!) and January 2021 will mark the 10th anniversary of the ever-changing Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge. With those two things in mind, the upcoming edition of the Vintage Mystery Challenge--named for 2020 and 2021 "Vintage Mystery Extravaganza"--will include a brand-new section as well as a look back at all the versions of the challenge over the last ten years. 

I will begin posting sign-ups for next year's challenges in the coming week. The Calendar of Crime, Mount TBR, Virtual Mount TBR, and Color Coded/Read It Again, Sam Challenges will all return to the Block as well. 

A bit of news for Monthly Key Word Challenge fans: Kim from Bookmark to Blog was the original host for this challenge. When she started blogging with Tanya at Girlxoxo, she handed the reins over to Claudia at My Soul Called Life with the understanding that Claudia would hand it back if she decided not to do it anymore. Claudia's blog abruptly disappeared and when I couldn't get in touch with her, I (not knowing about the arrangement with Kim) decided to host a variation myself. Kim has been in touch and I am handing the challenge back to her. Stay tuned--I will most definitely be signing up and will point you all in the right direction once she has the challenge posted.

Other challenge news: Sign-ups and final wrap-ups will look a bit different this year. My linky provider has put a limit on the number of link-ups I can have open at one time, so I will be using my limit to cover the monthly review link-ups for most challenges and all other sign-ups will be done through Google forms. I thought folks might be most interested in having review links visible--to check out any tempting titles. I will have to rethink the Color Coded and Read it Again Review links (if I can find an alternate way to make review links visible for those, I will).

Happy Belated Blogiversary...to Me!

I somehow manage to miss this every year. I think about the fact that my blogiversary is coming up at the beginning of April, but when April 24th rolls around it zips right by me. Yep, I've been doing this book blogging gig now for six years. Where, oh where has the time gone? It hardly seems possible that I've been plugging away at reviews and challenges and memes (albeit a bit more hit and miss on those these days) for that amount of time. Thanks to all my faithful followers who have hung in there with me even as I seem to have less and less time to stop and chat at your place. Thanks as well to all my fellow challengers who join me for Vintage Mystery, Mount TBR, Color Coded, and Read It Again, Sam--I love having you all with me in the reading challenges. And a HUGE thank you to the friends I've made through my love of vintage mysteries. Noah, John, Sergio, Rich, Curtis, Les, Petra, Lisa, Kate, TomCat, Brad, JJ, Yvette, Peggy Ann, Moira, and everyone I'm forgetting to mention--thank you for teaching me so much about the genre I love and for dangling so many titles, authors and editions in front of me that my To Be Found list is an ever-growing, impossible to achieve dream. But what a wonderful dream. It's been so much fun! Let's keep going, shall we?

My Reader's Block: Blogiversary!

I knew it was going to happen....I knew that I would miss it. But, as of April 24th, I have been blogging for a whole year. Happy Blogiversary to me! My goodness, how time has flown. And how much I've learned since those first, few tentative steps into the blogisphere. I've had such a good time with this. What started out as a plan for a simple reading journal has put me in contact with some of the most fabulous people. I have enjoyed getting to know all of you out here--both my fellow book bloggers and those of you who have other interests.

And I want to say a big THANK YOU to all my followers...whether you visit all the time and comment like crazy or just peek in every now and then...I'm grateful to know that there are those out there who are interested in what I do here. I can't believe that I'm almost up to 300! I had thought I might do something when I reached 250, but life was a bit too crazy then. So...when I do reach 300, we're gonna party like it's my birthday. Or at least like it's my blogiversary!