This is the third time I've attempted to write this piece. Because no sooner had we survived the gatherings of Christmas than all three kids fell sick with gastroenteritis.

The joyful episode peaked last night with Ms Nine-Year-Old and Mr Three-Year-Old regurgitating semi-digested strawberries over the living room floor, then a beanbag, followed by two complete sets of bedclothes each, several items of clothing and pyjamas, and two bedroom carpets.

For several hours the washing machine was running uninterrupted, which is more than can be said for the film we were attempting to watch, A Very Long Engagement. (Recommended, by the way: the storyline and magical cinematography are good enough to sustain several interruptions over a five-hour period.)

Oh, and yesterday also saw an emergency dash to the dentist with a pulsating toothache that was revealed to be a precursor of wallet-draining root canal work.

Anyway, these things are sent to test us, and the relative quietude of today means I can grab a minute and look back in languor over the year.

For me, the literary highlights were disparate. Gerald Hensley’s Final approaches: A memoir was a surprise find – an unexpectedly delightful read, both gentle and insightful. At the moment I’m reading Carl Shuker’s The Lazy Boys in fits and starts – a very good book, I reckon, although somewhat depressing. (Why do so many contemporary New Zealand novels have such hearts of darkness?) On the other hand, Scouts In Bondage – an English novelty book, I’m afraid - made me laugh harder than virtually any other.

Harry Ricketts’ How To Catch A Cricket Match (from Awa Press’ sublime Ginger Series) was entertaining; I managed to suspend my loathing of the game itself and gain at least a little understanding of why some people enjoy it. A proof copy of the gorgeously handcrafted Specimens of Metal Type from Tara McLeod’s Pear Tree Press in Waitoki was a wonderful Christmas present. Bill Manhire’s Lifted and Chris Price’s Brief Lives were inspiring, as was Classic New Zealand Poets in Performance.

The New Zealand Historical Atlas, Eagle’s Complete Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand and Landscape Painting of NZ: A journey from North to South were our reference hits of the year. And numerous Craig Potton photography books enthralled – how do they keep the quality so high? (The bizarre Adventures of Mr Marigold struck a discordant note, not least due to its 1,836-page length. Not quite as long as Proust's À la Recherche du Temps Perdu but certainly longer than Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy. Such a massive undertaking deserves respect, but I’ll wait for someone else to review it before I invest the considerable time it will take to read.)

On a less parochial note, the always-excellent Fimoculous has released its 2006 book lists, a single page linking to the best of the literary ‘best of’ lists. Here you’ll find the favourites of publications from the LA Times to the Financial Times, plus sideways looks such as Design Observer’s Holiday Reading List, and populist choices such as Amazon’s customer favourites.

Last on Fimoculous’ list is Metacritic, itself a list site we’ve mentioned before - but well worth a visit in its own right. Metacritic’s analysis of reviews shows that the year’s top book is Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky, which is also Metacritic’s all-time high scorer. (Well, since 2004, when the site started.) Suite is well ahead of the 2006 runners-up - The Road by Cormac McCarthy and The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos - so I may just keep an eye out for it next time I’m in Unity on High Street.

LeafSalon itself has gone from strength to strength. A story on the Bibliochaise, an armchair-cum-bookshelf, got picked up on the internet word-of-mouth, attracted links from all around the world, and drew over 20,000 visitors to LeafSalon in the space of a few days. This blew our bandwidth limit to smithereens and triggered a site shutdown for a few hours. But when the dust settled and the tourists departed, visitor numbers were still strong.

From July to September 2006, LeafSalon was ranked #1 in the Hitwise New Zealand 'Entertainment - Books and Writing' industry based on number of visits. This ranking relates to New Zealand based users visiting New Zealand websites, and given that LeafSalon is run on the smell of an oily rag, it's something we’re inordinately proud of.

Incidentally, between 60 and 70% of our visitors are identifiable as resident in New Zealand, and the real figure is probably slightly higher. The sites that refer readers to us most often are Andrew Johnston's The Page and the New Zealand Society of Authors, and strangely enough, one of the most common search phrases on Google NZ that sends visitors to LeafSalon is ‘Polly Greeks’.

We’ve had the odd rant from authors annoyed at bad or indifferent reviews. Hell hath no fury like a writer scorned, and methinks some would do well to take Justine Larbalestier’s recent advice to heart.

On a brighter note, the New Zealand Book Forum was up and running in a very short space of time, and now has over 100 members. At first we wondered if there was actually any call for an independent, no-holds-barred literary forum in NZ, but it turns out that the demand is there and the NZBF now has a life of its own.

During 2007, we’re looking to freshen up the design on LeafSalon: it’s changed little since we started. With Kathy’s appointment as web editor of New Zealand Book Month and the increasing pressures of my day job, the main issue is time. We’ve made a few enquiries to see if we can get funding to employ a designer to tackle the job for us, but these have been to no avail.

The cynic in me suspects that if we were asking for a $100,000 grant we’d have more luck; our early forays into the labyrinthine network of cultural and enterprise-related funding systems has been mind-bogglingly confusing. And being the #1 book-related site in New Zealand does not seem to open any doors. If you happen to have any inside knowledge of grant-getting techniques, do drop us a line.

We'll be in touch again soon, but if you don't hear from us by New Year's Eve, have a great night and an even better year ahead - and thank you for visiting.