My blog turns two years old today!
Gosh, two years. *whistles* It’s hard to believe that two years have already gone by and yet it seems like SOOOO much longer. This past year has been nothing short of amazing and I could not be more pleased with how it went.
Before I get into a recap of some of my favorite things from the past year, I wanted to first share some of my blogging expectations and how they’ve changed.
- BLOGGING FALLACY #1: Book blogs should be almost entirely reviews. When I first started blogging, I felt like if the majority of my posts weren’t reviews then my content wouldn’t be legit. Reviews were why I started my blog and the whole reason why I was writing! Obviously I know now that this isn’t true. I DO still want my reviews to be a major part of my blogging and it still is the basis of my entire blog BUT. That’s not the only thing that my blog should be about. For me, blogging has turned into so much more than just writing reviews. It’s interacting with the blogging and reading community in whatever way that may be. I’ve written discussion posts, done surveys, started new blogger spotlight features, started new features specifically for showing off new obsessions, and participated in weekly memes. They’re all important because each one shows off a different side of my personality — both in my reading tastes and personal life. They help me connect with the people who read my blog and really, that’s what it’s all about.
- BLOGGING FALLACY #2: Let’s go ARC crazy! Bad baby blogger Brittany found Netgalley and started to request ALL THE BOOKS. I’m still suffering from that, honestly, and now I feel terrible for all of the books that have gone unread. Sometimes it’s STILL hard not to request or download everything from Netgalley and Edelweiss that looks remotely interesting but I’m really trying and it was actually one of my “resolutions” for 2014. You know, I think it will always be exciting to get ARCs. It’s something special and it’s exciting to be able to read a book — especially one you’re super excited for — before other people… But I also learned that ARCs are not everything. I had a FANTASTIC time at BEA and got a bunch of ARCs that I was really looking forward to and put them on my “omg-cant-wait” list on Goodreads… And some of them have been published are still on that list and I still haven’t gotten to them. When you’ve got a lot of ARCs, it becomes difficult to read them in order of pub date or read them before they come out, regardless of all the OTHER books sitting on your shelf. I’m sure publishers know we won’t be able to read ALL the ARCs before they’re published, but that was another resolution of mine… And also not to neglect those “older” books on my shelves either! ARCs are glamorous, but they aren’t everything and if you try to read them all before the books are published, it may cause some reading stress! If I have any advice, it’s to cherish the ARCs but don’t make yourself go nuts over them — either requesting them or that you don’t have as many or that you have TOO many. Our hobbies should be fun and it’s great to be as organized as you can be and stay on top of things but don’t let it stress you out!
- BLOGGING FALLACY #3: I probably won’t stray too far out of my usual genres. WRONG. Wrong. So wrong. I started blogging as a cozy mystery & adult contemporary reviewer. Then I switched to YA reading almost all dystopians and paranormal. Then I slowly started to realize that contemporary books were pretty cool too. Then I found *gasp* what!? Fantasy books that appealed to me!? Even things like historical fiction that I swore I’d never read or enjoy. I realized that I can’t put my reading tastes into a box. Sure, there may be genres I lean to or aspects of certain genres that I usually won’t like, but there are always always exceptions to the rule.
- BLOGGING FALLACY #4: Blogging is awesome, but these people will always be strangers to me. MY WORST THOUGHT OF ALL. I could not have been more wrong. By the time I decided to get a Twitter account for my blog (a few months after I started it), I had already established a few favorites and some people I really got along with. It was nice chatting with them via comments but then talking with them on Twitter really got the ball rolling and well, you know the story. Twitter moved to texting, texting moved to marathon texting, marathon texting moved to constant contact which led to going to BEA together which meant everything got REAL. I got to meet all my blogger friends in person for the first time, meet more authors, connect with publishers, and spend a weekend with my best friends. BEA just made us closer and we became BFFs with more visits to each other and more involvement in each other’s lives! Literally best friends.
So what do you think, guys? Did you feel like any of these were true when you first started blogging? How long have you been blogging and how has your opinion of it changed?
Okay, since it’s my TWO year blogoversary, I’m going to share my top TWO favorites in a couple categories. If you haven’t been following me since the beginning, here’s a chance to sort of “catch up”!
Top Two Posts (by views): The Best-Friend-Turned-Boyfriend Romance // Which Lunar Chronicles Character Are You?
Top Two Reviews (by views): Beauty Queens – Libba Bray // Cress – Marissa Meyer
Top Two Reviews (favorites): Cress – Marissa Meyer // Siege and Storm – Leigh Bardugo
Top Two Events (favorites): BEA 2013 // Fierce Reads Fall Tour 2013: Chicago
Top Two Discussions (by views): DNF Reviews // Spoiler Alert or Spoiler-Free?
Top Two Infographics (by views): The Book Addict’s GUIDE to contemporary // Seriously Social Survey
Top Two Other Fun Features (by views): Eleanor & Park playlist // Bloggiesta Mini Challenge: How to make Goodreads work for YOU
GIVEAWAY
Okay, okay, I know you guys are mostly excited about the giveaway so heeere weeeee goooo!
The details: I have STACKS of books to giveaway.
- I have forty-five books to choose from and since it’s such a large amount, I will choose four winners. Each winner will get to choose up to ten books they want from the stack shown in the photo.
- Since there are four pre-pub ARCs available, each winner will only get to choose one ARC and the other nine can be any available books.
- Sorry, but this giveaway will be US ONLY. I just can’t afford to ship so many books outside of the US 🙁 Believe me, I wish I could!!
- You can earn extra entries to the giveaway by following me in the various ways listed in the Rafflecopter form below.
- Since I just got my fancy-schmancy new bookcase done, I thought it would be fun to do some photo-ops for extra entries! Here are the guidelines: Take a picture of either A) your bookcase/bookshelves or B) your favorite reading spot and post using the hashtag #BookAddictTurns2! Only ONE photo entry will be valid so please do not submit multiple entries. Submissions MUST include hashtag to be valid since that is how I will be keeping track. Each photo will be worth 10 extra entries into the contest! Photos can be posted anywhere that you can link me to and I can find a hashtag! Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, you name it! (And thank you to Alyssa, Stormy, Emily, and Lindsay for helping me refine this idea!)
Okay, pesky rules, I know. But that’s that and don’t worry, we’re all done.
Time to enter the giveaway and cross your fingers for some good luck!
42 thoughts on “The Book Addict’s Guide’s Two Year Blogoversary!”
I am late to this party but HAPPY TWO YEAR BLOGOERSARY!!! I think we all have misconceptions when we start blogging that we break as we go. The important part is that we are always learning and growing and improving 🙂 I think you and your blog are wonderful and I can’t wait to see what you bring us in the next year. Maybe a Which Daughter of Smoke and Bone character we are? 😉 Congrats on this milestone!!!
A huge congrats to you for hitting two years!!! Best wishes for many more years!!
What a great giveaway! It looks like you have lots of entries–awesome.
Hopefully your newfound reservation with ARCs will spread at BEA. I’ve heard a lot of stories of book hoarding; people leaving with hundreds of books while latecomers get nothing. I guess when it comes to free, it’s hard to pass up. But realistically, how many books can one person read? There are always going to be more and more books.
Congratulations on two years, Brittany! I think I fell into almost all of those fallacies when I first started book blogging, too (even worse, I thought my blog was supposed to be reviews and cover reveals and not much else — oops, lol!).
Happy (belated) blogversary, Brittany! I agree that there is definitely a difference between what you expect to happen from your blogging experience and what actually happens! I really didn’t think I would get to know and enjoy other bloggers so much!
I really love how you broke down this post into what you thought and what you learned – I think we’ve all gone through a similar learning journey, as we grow as readers and bloggers.
Happy blogoversary and here’s to many more! I’m off to check out a couple of your favourite/popular posts from the past couple years 🙂
Happy 2 years! I think we have all gone ARC crazy at one point or another. hahaha
Thanks, Kay!!! 🙂
Happy blogoversary! I loved reading about how you’ve changed over the last two years and how many of your preconceived notions were blown away (love that). Here’s to many more years!!
Thanks, Maggie!! Isn’t it crazy!? I can’t believe what I originally thought about blogging and how much my opinions have changed 🙂
Happy blogoversary! I love your blog, and I love the uniqueness of your reviews. I enjoy reading what things in a book kept you hooked, and the things you were left wanting more of. It honestly helps me when I decide if I want to give something a shot. Keep up the awesome work! =)
Thanks so much! That makes me SO happy to hear that that section is helpful to you! It’s always incredibly nice to hear that my reviews and specific parts are helping someone out 😀
Congrats on your two-year blogoversary!! That’s incredibly exciting!! I definitely agree with Blogging Fallacy #4! Some of my best friends are the bloggers I have met in the last ten months. When I first started blogging, I was fairly established on Twitter but I never imagined that all the bloggers I chatted with casually would one day become my best friends. I don’t know where I would be without of them now!
Again, congrats on your blogoversary! And thanks so much for a wonderful giveaway! I’m drooling over so many books in that picture!!!
Thank you so much! Isn’t it funny how much our initial opinions of how things are/should be change? I’m so happy to have found my best blogging friends too! It’s such a fantastic community!
Definitely! So many things weren’t what I expected! But the blogging community is DEFINITELY fantastic and I think my number one absolute favorite thing about blogging is all the people I’ve met!
I’m not entering the giveaway because someone else needs to stuff their apartment with books BUT I just wanted to say how grateful I am to know you and I’m so glad that we’ve connected, been able to meet, and done a great job of staying in touch since last year’s BEA. You are so easy to talk to, I love how excited you get over ideas, and I love how thoughtful you are.
Thanks for being a friend. Here’s to a million more years of blogging + a beer or two in May! xo
Thank you, my dear! So glad that we have gotten to know each other better over this past year and I’m so thankful for your advice and support! Looking forward to getting together at BEA! We will absolutely find some time!
Happy Blogoversary!!! I love your blog! Especially the book and the beverage posts!
Thank you so much! So glad to hear you enjoy them! 🙂 🙂
Happy blogoversary to you! How exciting! I liked reading your blogging fallacies. 🙂 I have definitely fallen victim to ARC craziness, which has very quickly turned into ARC guilt. It’s so hard to keep up with them in addition to all the other books I’m reading.
Ohhh ARC guilt. I can’t escape it haha! Unfortunately I think it happens to all of us, but then you live and you learn… Well, you kind of learn and then end up with MORE ARCs and then feel guilty all over again 😉
Haha, so true! It’s so hard to stop myself from requesting an ARC of a book I really want.
This is amazing, Brittany! Congrats! I’m still new to the whole blogging thing, so I’m still finding my feet so to speak. Most of my posts are either reviews or weekly memes that other bloggers have created, and I know I’m going to need to branch out more… eventually. Discussion posts scare me because I’m afraid I won’t be interesting enough, ya know?
Anyway, thanks for the advice, and here’s to many more blogging years for you to come!
Thank you so much! I feel like my whole first year was getting used to what I wanted to do haha. It took me a while to branch out and take “risks” so to speak, like doing discussion posts and my own features and whatnot. I actually tried to do one early on and it totally flopped because I just did not plan it out well haha. I actually had two failed features ooooops. But hey, that’s what blogging is all about! Finding your best outlet and your best voice 🙂
Thanks so much for the happy wishes! 🙂
Happy Blogoversary!! Hooray!
Thank youuuu 🙂
OMG I love your list of lessons learned. YES this community is so awesome and we really do make great friends blogging. Blogging is so open to interpretation and I love to talk about books, not just review them. So yay for not having to only post reviews. ARCs omg well we all fell into the REQUEST ALL THE BOOKS trap. I’m still recovering. I’ve gotten to the point where I say I know I’ll never read them all so I have to submit “sorry” feedback to get them off my list and help my ratio of responses to requests not be disastrous.
So happy awesome 2nd birthday. We’re celebrating our 1st!
Ohhhh yay happy first! Isn’t it amazing how much things change over the course of a year or two!?
Happy two-year blogoversary! The times flies, doesn’t it? Here’s to another many years in this awesome community 🙂
Thank you!! Time really does fly! I can’t believe it!
Happy Blogoversary! I love your monthly wrap-ups!
Thanks so much! 🙂
Happy blogoversary sweet girl! I’m super glad that we have “met” and become friends over the years! It’s been super exciting and can’t wait to see what all wonderful things you have in store for us in the future! Also very glad that your views on blogging have changed; I’ve loved seeing your blog evolve and grow stronger every day. Yes, I’m cheesy like that. 🙂
Thank you, my dear! I’m so glad we’ve been blogging friends!! Thank you for always being so supportive of me and my blog <3
Happy 2 years! I’ll always be grateful to have met you so early on in my blogging career – always appreciate your help and insight!
Thank you so much! I’m so glad we got to know each other early on too! Thank you for all of your support for me and for my blog 😀
HAPPY BLOGOVERSARY! *throws confetti* I really love how you examined some of your views towards blogging & how they’ve changed. I totally feel you on the book reviews! It’s easy to get caught up in that before realizing that you can do so much more on a blog. Plus, I love your surveys & infographics so that’s always a plus. And yay, twitter!
Thanks, Stormy!!
Thank you for all of your comments and Twitter chats and every bit of support you’ve given me! So happy we are blogging buddies and hope to meet IRL someday tooooo 🙂
Congrats on your two year blogoversary! That’s so amazing that you’ve been doing this for two years now! I hope that after BEA this year, we can be friends in real life. 🙂
Thank you!!! 🙂
DEFIINTELY! Excited to meet in person at BEA! 🙂
Happy Blogoversary!! Amazing how we grow and evolve through our blogs, isn’t it? Keep up the great work! (regarding the giveaway, I am from Athens, Greece. Could I take part and *IF* I win, I pay for the shipping costs myself??)