March Wrap-up 2022 – Five-Year Anniversary! #books #bookreviews #music

On By MischenkoIn Reads

Hi, friends! Hopefully, you’ve had an excellent weekend. I wanted to post a quick wrap-up for March and announce that this blog (readrantrockandroll) hit its fifth anniversary! It’s hard to believe that it’s been five years. Over that time, I’ve come close to quitting, but it looks like I’m not going anywhere. I can’t get enough of you guys. ❤ The idea to switch to Instagram was not a good one. It won’t work for me, so I’ll be staying here in the book blogiverse indefinitely because it seems like the best place for me.

Unfortunately, in March, we lost our 14-year-old cat, Rambo. His brother passed last fall, and we had a feeling Rambo might not make it through the winter. Rambo was a cat who loved his outdoor life in the country and would never attempt to come in the house unless you had food. He did fine over the coldest months, and in late February, he just started wasting away quickly. Rambo began coming into the house, and we knew there wasn’t much time left. He stayed in the house with us for four days until he passed away. I was with him every minute, and either my son or I slept in the dining room so he wouldn’t be alone. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to go through. It’s not like we haven’t lost pets in the past, but Rambo was my best bud. Rambo was our escort because he and his brother, Ishmael, would be with you the moment you walked out the door, and Rambo specifically would stay with you until you went back in. It’s like a ghost town outside without them. It’ll take some getting used to this summer without them in the greenhouse and the gardens with us. I contemplated sharing a post about Rambo because he has such a neat story, but I don’t want to bring depression to anyone. We’ve all been dealing with a hefty amount of that over the past few years.


March was a decent month for reading. I managed to post five regular book reviews, not including Shabby Sundays. None of these were ARCs, even though there are a few on my backlist. 🤭

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover

The Babysitter by Liza Rodman and Jennifer Jordan

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Wish by Nicholas Sparks

Shabby Sunday posts were up in March. I managed to post three of our old, favorite books. The only downside with Shabby Sundays is that they seem to be–statistically speaking–my least-favored posts. I’m not sure if that’s because it’s Sunday or people don’t really like old books. Regardless, I love Shabby Sunday so much that I won’t stop doing it. It holds me accountable because it forces me to revisit some of our older books that might otherwise get a little dusty. Since sharing The Book of a Thousand Poems, we’ve been opening that book every morning and reading four or five poems a day.

The Book of a Thousand Poems

No Such Thing as a Witch by Ruth Chew

The Big Book of Favorite Horse Stories

There were four Music Mondays in March. It’s one of my favorite memes created by Drew@thetattoedbookgeek, who I believe is on hiatus. Since I began sharing favorites for Music Monday, I’ve posted nearly two hundred songs. Maybe you would like to join?

Sting “Russians”

Milky Chance “Losing You”

Nathaniel Rateliff “And It’s Still Alright”

James Taylor “Fire and Rain”

I managed to share three book hauls last month. Book hauls will likely slow down now so that I can catch up with the books I purchased before buying more. I’m horrible about that. I still have new books on the shelf from Christmas to finish. You know how it goes. 😉

Middle-Grade & YA Book Haul

YA Book Haul

Book Haul

I did one tag this month: The Bookaholics Anonymous Book Tag. It was fun! Maybe I’ll incorporate more tags in April. When I’m not reviewing as much, it’s nice to have some content to share.

The Bookaholics Book Tag

Goodreads has managed to turn things upside down for me, so I ranted about it. It wasn’t completely worthless because it did make me feel better, and it was nice to see that others were having some issues too. That seems silly to say; I definitely don’t want others to have issues. Sadly, it doesn’t look like anything is going to change over there.

Thanks For Nothing: Goodreads

There were only two reading updates for March: March 11th and 22nd. I like to share reading updates weekly, but it doesn’t always work out when books are carried over into the next week.

Reading Update March 11th

This Week’s Reads March 22nd

So that’s it for March. There were a total of 19 posts, which I’m very happy with. Stats, however, are very disturbing pieces of information that I wish would just go away. It’s probably bad to compare, but comparing with previous years, my currant stats are lower than ever. For now, I’m pushing forward and will try to stay as active as I can.

37 thoughts on “March Wrap-up 2022 – Five-Year Anniversary! #books #bookreviews #music”

  1. Oh, I am so sorry to hear about Rambo. I love, however, that you took care of him (and his brother) for so long and that you and your son stay with in during his last days so he could feel how much he was loved.
    Congratulations on your 5th year blog anniversary, and if it helps at all, I never look at my stats. I’m not even sure I’d know how!

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Thank you, Mae. For some reason my picture of him didn’t upload, but it’s there now.

      It’s probably best not to look at stats anyway. I’m not sure why I bother. I’m very lucky to have the group of loyal followers that I have now. 😉

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  2. You are not the only one with stats dropping. Looking at this year so far, I’m back at ’19 levels. I think the blogging craze due to covid has run its course.

    I think a time of leveling out is going to be happening. Oh well 😦

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    1. There was a blogging craze? I must have missed it. 😆

      I started in 2017, and by 2018 it seemed like there were tons of bloggers interested in communicating and it was just a much larger community. Maybe we just need to branch out ourselves and search for new blogs? I’m just amazed at how many have left to other platforms. After getting a taste of other platforms, this is really the only other place I can be next to Devilreads of course. 😆

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      1. Oh yeah, when covid hit and people were quarantined, they took to being online. I saw about a 10-15% increase each year. Then it has started to drop off this year.
        Of course, the block editor didn’t help and then things like what is currently going on are doing even more damage.

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        1. Wow. Yeah, the block editor. 🙄 I’m not sure how many people pay for their blogs, but I do. Using other platforms like Instagram, FB, YouTube, GR, TikTok, Twitter—they’re all free. It makes sense why so many people have left, doesn’t it? Living is getting more expensive as we speak. 🤷🏻‍♀️

          Liked by 1 person

        2. I’m not paying for a hobby that has been free since at least 2003. Well, I do pay (I have the personal plan with a coupon just to get rid of the ads on my site, but keep the dotwordpress address because it was a nightmare last year going dotcom. Bad service by WP!), but not 180!!! That’s not a hobby any more but an investment.

          Yeah, gas is going up. Food is going up. We just found out our town is raising sewer and water rates by 25%, so that’s going to hurt a lot too. Cars are going up, so we’ll be forced to repair more because we can’t afford even a used one any more 😦

          Ain’t life grand?

          Liked by 1 person

        3. I hear you. $180? That’s insane. I’d rather buy books. 🤣

          That’s a horrible increase! I had to laugh that Amazon Prime went up, even though they made major profits over the pandemic. I’m starting to believe now that prices are going up with the bandwagon excuse that it’s the pandemic. Everything has gone up, even used stuff!

          Liked by 1 person

      1. Michael Mclellan

        I’m sorry about Rambo. Losing an animal friend is a tough thing.
        I’m happy you stayed around and made it to five years. Here’s to the next five. There’s plenty more books and music and flowers, as well as stuff to rant about;)

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  4. So sorry about your kitty. We are facing the same with our 16 y/o Bichon. She’s lost a lot of weight in the last few months. Was also going to mention, I’ve slacked back on Instagram as well. I get more activity from both FB and Twitter and should really devote more time on Twitter. Faster, easier for me for the returns.

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    1. Thank you, V. I’m sorry to hear that your Bichon isn’t well. This is such a hard thing to deal with. I’ll be thinking of you guys.

      Instagram is fun, but it’s too much to add on to everything else on the book side. I love it for my fish pics and stuff because it’s easy.

      Do you just post on WP and have that hooked up to Twitter? Twitter is like a thing of the past for me. There are so many platforms. 😉

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    1. Thanks, Yesha. We live in a woodland in the country, and Rambo had the life he wanted. The average lifespan of an outdoor cat is two to five years. Rambo lived to be fourteen, which is actually the average lifespan of an indoor cat. He was well cared for. He had a full life and a good one. 💜

      Liked by 1 person

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  12. So sorry to hear about Rambo, Mischenko, I can’t imagine how sad it would be to have your little follower no longer there physically. I believe he is still with you in spirit. Looks like you had a very productive month, and congrats on the five years, that’s tremendous! My stats have never been great, haha, so I can’t help you there. Maybe it will just take a bit longer for the algorithm to see you after your break? I will keep sharing your posts and being a big fan. 💜

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  15. I totally missed this post, Jenn. First, congratulations on five years of blogging. That is a great accomplishment. I had my five years last fall. I am surprised too. I am so sorry to hear about Rambo. It is so hard to say goodbye to a furbaby, especially one that has been such a big part of your life. I know he was happy to have you or your son with him during his final days. I hear you about instagram, it is not my cup of tea either. Enjoy whatever you pick up to read. I enjoy your Shabby Sunday posts, especially when they bring back good memories.

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