The last month of the year is here, and so it’s time to play a particular game:
“Take the first line of each month’s first post over the past year and see what it tells you about your blogging year.”
It’s an idea that started with The Indextrious Reader a few years ago, and I remember that that it really is an interesting way to look back at a year.
‘An English Calendar’ by Evelyn Dunbar
* * * * * * *
December
The Cat’s Cradle Book by Sylvia Townsend Warner
A few years ago I was lucky enough to come across what must have been the collection of a devoted admirer of Sylvia Townsend Warner in a secondhand bookshop.
November
The Fortunes of the Rougons by Émile Zola
I love Zola’s writing, I have meant to read more of his Rougon-Macquart series, but I hadn’t read anything for such a long time because I was wondering just how to set about it.
October
The Story of Finding the Book that I Had Always Thought Would be Just Out of Reach
Do you have a book like that?
September
Love by Elizabeth Von Arnim
I remember, many years ago, falling in love with Elizabeth Von Arnim’s writing as I read every one of her books that Virago republished.
August
Stanhope Forbes: Father of the Newlyn School
The last exhibition at Penlee House – ‘A Casket of Pearls’ – a celebration of its twentieth anniversary – was always going to be a difficult act to follow, but I take my hat off to whoever decided that Stanhope Forbes was the man for the job.
July
Sixes
It was Jo’s idea, six years ago now, and it’s become an annual event – mark the end of the first six months of the reading year by putting six books into each of six categories.
June
Together and Apart by Margaret Kennedy
I love Margaret Kennedy’s writing, but I didn’t rush to pick up this book because I wasn’t that taken with the subject matter.
May
The Saddest Day
Just after sunset on Saturday, my mother left this life.
April
An A to Z for a New Month
A is for ALEXANDRE DUMAS.
March
Danger Point – or, In The Balance, – by Patricia Wentworth
I realised that it was a long, long time since I had investigated a mystery with Miss Silver.
February
The Trespasser by Tana French
Ten years ago, a debut crime novel was published.
January
The Quincunx by Charles Palliser
The Quincunx is an enticing, entrancing recreation of a Victorian novel, written in such perfect period prose and holding so much that is typical of the Victorian novel that you might well believe that Charles Palliser had excavated it and not sat down to write late in the twentieth century.
* * * * * * *
And that’s it!
I can’t say that it’s exactly right, but it is an interesting snapshot.
Do have a go – it’s a lovely way to look back , and I’d love to see your results.
Beyond Eden Rock 
How absolutely interesting! 😀 Amy
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I’m glad you think so. I love this way of looking back over the year.
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Will have a go, but I have a review to write first!
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How I love these annual round up of yours! Some moments of joy and other’s not so happy ones…but interesting for sure!
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Thank you. I hope you might do one too, and I’m sure I missed lots of interesting things this year.
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Ok, I’ve done it! https://anzlitlovers.com/2017/12/10/a-year-in-first-lines-2017/
Cheers, Lisa
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And I loved it!
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How does this work – do you chose the first post from each month for example?
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Yes, you do. Sorry for the confusion – I missed one crucial word from the first paragraph.
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Such an interesting way to look back over your year in books!
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It is – it seems so long ago that I read The Quincunx but the posts prove that it was only a year ago I read it – and now I remember that I started early for the TBR Dare.
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What a great idea!
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It was a great idea, and I’m glad I remembered to do this again.
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I have tried a slightly different version of this idea over on my blog; I turned my blog post titles into a poem. Quite nonsensical results but fun. Thanks for the inspiration to challenge myself.
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I’ve done mine too – and I think you’ve asked to see it? If so here it is: https://whisperinggums.com/2017/12/10/a-year-in-first-lines-2017/
BTW I fell in love with Elizabeth von Arnim in the 1980s and read all I could get my hands on, pretty well all Viragos too.
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We must have been reading Elizabeth von Arnim the same time. I picked up my first Virago from the library and I soon learned that those green spines were worth looking out for.
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Yes me too, though I remember the bookseller who introduced me to Virago when he showed me Miss Mole by EH Young. I was on a holiday at the coast. From then on every time I went to a bookshop 1 gleaned the shelves for that spine. What an exciting time that was, eh?
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This is definitely an interesting way to look back on the year, but like Karen (Booker Talk) how do you know which post to choose? The first post of the month?
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Yes, you do. I lost a word from my first paragraph and so it wasn’t as clear as it should have been.
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My first post of everything month is my round up of the previous month, which also starts with the same first line… every time. So sadly it would be a very boring post if I did this meme!
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You could do the second post of you wanted. It’s the spirit of the thing that’s important, rather than following a set formula.
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Yes, next year I think I’ll do the second or third. I think it’s good to have a “rule” otherwise you can “skew” to your favourite posts and we can’t have that, now, can we!!
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Thank you – I am very tempted to give this a go 😀
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This is such a splenid idea for a look-back, but my blogging has been so sporadic this year I would have gaps for lots of months!
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I’ve done it slightly differently, as I think I did last year: a year of TBR pictures from the first of each month! https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2017/12/17/a-year-in-first-lines-2/
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