Pam Webb

a writer's journey as a reader

Archive for the tag “January”

16 Jan 2025
4 Comments

Old Stats, New Start


I really like January. It’s the start of a new year, and like an Etch-A-Sketch, the slate is wiped clean, ready for fresh beginnings.

No batteries needed

That’s one reason why January 1st was the day my husband and I chose to get married. We wanted a day that signified a fresh beginning together. It’s also an easy day to remember.

This year marked 43 years together. It might be one of the only we have spent apart since I was in Okinawa helping out with our new grandson. FaceTime is handy in that regard, although my January 1st was my husband’s December 31st.

Another anniversary to celebrate is my time with WordPress: 13 years, so said the little pop up sent to my inbox. Wow! Really? That’s a long time, almost more impressive than being married over four decades, since a quick AI info grab indicates most blogs last about 2 years, and first marriages last roughly 21 years.

Surpassing the odds is an excellent way to start out 2025.

January is also when I begin anew my Goodreads reading challenge. I always plunk in 101 as my base goal with hopes of squeezing in twice that amount. The best I’ve achieved is 171.

As of today I have already read 8 books so using some quick math—8 books read in 15 days means the possibility of reading 8 more books in a month of 31 days which computes to an average of reading 16 books a month times 12 equals 192 books. Hmm, this could be the year of 200.

I’d finish this post but I have get down to the library to check out more books.

Later and Happy New Year!

Posted in blogs, Books, celebrations, Reflections and tagged , , ,
10 Jan 2022
9 Comments

Word Nerd: January


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While some revel in the Christmas season I am all for the New Year. New digits on the paystub, closer to spring, which means closer to June, which means summer break!

Celebrating the joy of the new year requires presenting a menu of festive, inspiring words that ring out the gladness of a new, and it’s hoped, better year.

proceleusmatic: inciting, animating, or inspiring

sweven: a vision; dream

pandiculation: the act of stretching oneself especially on waking

pulchritudinous: physically beautiful

perorate: to speak at length; make a long usually grandiloquent speech

Fletcherize: to chew (food) slowly and thoroughly

celerity: swiftness; speed

irrefragable: not to be disputed or contested

chuffle: to make a low snuffling sound analogous to the purring of smaller cat species, often as a greeting

heigira: any flight or journey to a more desirable or congenial place

mickle: great; large; much

prelapsarian: characteristic of or pertaining to any innocent or carefree period

rapprochement: an establishment or reestablishment of harmonious relations

yclept: called; named

azure: of or having a light, purplish shade of blue, like that of a clear and unclouded day

evanesce: to disappear gradually; vanish; fade away

hiemal: of or relating to winter; wintry

cavort: to behave in a high-spirited, festive manner; make merry

A broad range of words, ’tis true. Yet January can be a month of variance. There is the hiemal aspect, the evanesce of snow, it’s hoped, unless a new snowfall creates a mickle of the white muck, which generates a heigira urge for sunnier locale. Once January’s snows lessen, the landscape becomes more pulchritudinous as azure skies beckon overhead leading to prelapsarian attitude, although some would state the new year still holds over the old winter. Aye, that fact is irrefragable; however, a proceleusmatic sweven inspires the need towards pandiculation of outlook. Spring is closer in January than it was in November and I shall indeed cavort when the last snowflake falls. I might even chuffle once January’s page is turned aside to welcome February. Longer days and Valentines to anticipate create the need to Fletcherize in preparation to perorate upon the celerity of winter’s passing.

May your January and the meeting of the new year be one of rapprochement since the first month of the year was named for Janus, the Roman god of beginnings. A fitting yclept month as January is the doorway to the rest of the year.

Posted in Reflections and tagged , ,
01 Feb 2020
2 Comments

Reading Round Up: January


January is a complex month: it’s a fave in how it ushers in a new year full of promise, yet it drags in with it the continuance of winter. There is also a remainder of the semester, about two weeks before a week of finals with a scant couple of days into the second semester.

Not that anyone is asking me, but I would like January to be a reset month. Turn the corner, flip the calendar over, and it’s a new year, new month, new semester, new weather. None of this leftover stuff. Until that grand plan gets off the drawing board I will continue to forge on and meet my goal of reading 101 books this year (I’ve met my goal for the last three years with a bonus reading *woo hoo*).

Setting up the Goodreads Reading Challenge is a marvelous way to keep track of my books. Some I remember clearly, some are hazy. Some are “I read that?” I should read as Francis Bacon suggests, which is to savor and digest slowly; however, even he acknowledges some books end up being consumed quickly since they are so tasty, like in that chocolate truffle was so yummy that I consume it in one bite and can’t really remember how it tasted, except it was really, really good. Some books are like that.

Here are the highlights from January. I have added the links should you be prompted to read the review. Reading gets me through the gloom of January’s continuous wintry days.

Mozart’s Starling by Lyanda Lynn Haupt ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Conan Doyle ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

The Diary of River Song: Series One by Jenny T. Colman, et al ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

The West End Horror: A Posthumous Memoir by John H. Watson, MD by Nicholas Meyer ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

A Solitary Blue by Cynthia Voigt ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

The Breaking Wave by Nevil Shute ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

The Goodreads Challenge minder gently admonishes me to stay on track by letting me know how many books I am behind. This sets up a bit of panic as I imagine this growing pile of unread books trailing after me from month to month. I basically have to average eight books a month to hit my goal. Not always easy when there is a riveting PBS Masterpiece series on. We’ve been immersed in Howard’s End with Haley Atwell and Matthew MacFadyen. Of course the series prompts me to go and grab Forster’s book from the library. Maybe there will be a comparison between the book and the film (Emma Thompson) and the PBS series…hmm, is the library got late hours today?

Posted in authors, Books, Reading, Reflections and tagged , , ,

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