Today is the last Sunday Bookish Discussion of 2024, and I wanted today’s topic to echo the reflection that I naturally do at the end of the year, so I’m talking about Wrap Up Posts today.
When I first started blogging, I loved checking out everyone else’s wrap up posts, whether it was for the month or the year. Years later, those are still my favorite posts to see, and there are many reasons why. First of all, these posts tend to reflect people’s characteristics and personality more than any other post. Even in my own posts, I’m usually a lot more serious and adult (or I try to be) when I write reviews, while the monthly and yearly wrap up posts really let me showcase my personality. I get introduced to multiple books at once, and get to see where they stacked up against other books, especially since my friends and I tend to have a lot in common when it comes to reading preferences. Also, most of the wrap up posts that I’ve seen also include a little about the person behind the blog, and what they’ve been up to recently in their lives. Finally, I love seeing how everyone organizes their posts, and seeing stats and graphs.
Wrap up posts are typically the most labor-intensive and time-consuming of all of my blog posts, and I’m sure that I’m not the only one who participates in this labor of love without complaint. I make it easier for myself by following a few different steps: I keep a document on my desktop of a monthly wrap-up post, and just change the numbers around and update the sheet when I finish a new book for the month. Once the month finishes, I just have to update my monthly statistics, and then just cut and paste. When it comes to the yearly wrap up, I just pull my stats from StoryGraph, and I’m thinking about using the graphs that they handily compile on demand. This works out well as long as I stay active on tracking my books in StoryGraph, which I’m really good about, and I’m sure no one wants a post that lists every book I read in a year.
How do you feel about wrap up posts? Do you do monthly or yearly wrap ups?
Categories: Sunday Bookish Discussion
Leah's Books 
I like to do weekly and monthly wrap ups, where weekly posts are a little more personal and monthly posts are stats driven. I do enjoy reading other’s wrap up posts, particularly where they share aspects of their life beyond what they are reading.
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That’s really a great idea! I always looks forward to checking out the wrap up posts of others.
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I LOVE wrap-up posts – reading them, writing them, I just think they’re neat! Like you, I think it’s a great insight into the person behind the webpage, so to speak. For me, I decided to do quarterly wrap-ups of my reading in 2024 rather than commit to weekly or monthly wrap-ups, because that way I would always be looking forward to writing the post and posting it instead of feeling like I had a weekly or monthly chore to tick off.
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I’m so glad you found a way that works for you! Except I’m the opposite – I’d dread having to compile a quarterly list because it would be so long. The start of a new month or year is always exciting for me, I guess I never got over the school-aged excitement.
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Both monthly and yearly- the monthly posts tend to show up the next month. My year in review is usually one of the longest posts of the year
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I can’t wait to check it out! My monthly posts also get posted the next month, but I try to post it within the first week.
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I always put together end-of-year lists and then check back on them myself periodically. I guess they are really for me.
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I always love how you structure your lists. And there’s always at least one book added to my TBR because of you!
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I only do one wrap-up post a year due to how time-consuming they are. It’s fun to read other people’s wrap-up posts, though!
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They are so time-consuming, it’s the worst. My template saves time, but it’s still the longest post I write.
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