Happy New Year - and Happy Blog Birthday

Happy New Year to you all! I hope 2019 is full of good things for you - happy times, good health, good wealth and good reading.

It's not only a New Year, but also a new blog year for me. I posted my first ever blog post back in January 2014, making my blog 5 years old this month. If you want to see any of my past posts they are all accessible via the blog archive menu on the right (desktop site only).

To celebrate my blog's birthday, I will be having a little giveaway, but more of that later :)


So, you might wonder what my reading plans are for this month, and indeed year. Well, this month I will be mostly reading some books I featured last month. I doubt I'll manage them all this month, because this is quite a bit of reading!

I am really looking forward to all of them. They are all P&P based, but all very different. For more details on these, see last month's planned reading, rather than me repeat the info.

I am also hoping to bring you some visitors in January, with a couple of blog tours stopping by - an Austenesque Valentine's anthology plus a debut author!

As for the plans for 2019, previous visitors to my blog might remember my backlog, which by now feels almost like an old enemy. It's only become more weighty and worse, because all the books sound so good that I want to read them all. I take on things filled with good intentions and then real life diverts me away. So I am determined to tackle the backlog of reviews. I have a list of shame, which I am going to reduce.

I made a list of books that I wanted to read in 2018 and I managed about 2 of them (sob!). Therefore I also need to make time to read some of the books that really piqued my interest. I would list some here, but it's just too depressing to contemplate that I might go a year without reading any of them. It doesn't help that the list is far too long!

How about you? What do you plan to read in 2019? Please let me know in the comments :)

Giveaway Time!

As mentioned above, it's my blog birthday. Happy blog birthday to meeeeeee! To celebrate, I have a little giveaway for you.

Prize A is a British £10 note that features Jane Austen. This is not a special presentation note, just one an average person uses for spending, but for some of my blog visitors they are less common than they are here! Plus a Pride & Prejudice Journal for  you to make notes in, and a set of 1975 UK stamps which commemorate the bicentenary of Austen's birth. If you would like to win this prize but already have a Jane Austen £10 note, then you could have the equivalent value in a gift card :)

Prize B is one pair of Coryographies' Handmade Book Jewellery book bundle earrings or cufflinks. The earrings are also available as clip ons if you don't have pierced ears. These are handmade so the finished item might differ from the picture.
Disclaimer: I may need to buy some for me as well!

Prize C is a book of your choice, up to the value of £15 GBP, from The Book Depository. You can change the currency on the top right of their website, so you can tell what it will buy you.

How to Enter

There are two ways to enter. For one entry, just leave a comment on this post, telling me what you are looking forward to reading this year, and letting me know your preference of prize (e.g. B, C, A). Please can you also leave me a way to contact you. If you'd like to comment without entering the giveaway, please do, just add a note not to include you :)

For 2 bonus entries to the giveaway, please can you fill out the following questionnaire giving me some feedback on the blog? It would really help me to know what you think and decide whether I should make changes to format or content. If you want to give me feedback but not enter the giveaway you are welcome to do that too!

The giveaway closes at the end of the day, worldwide, on Monday 7th January, and is open worldwide.

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