One Year in blogging.

I've been trying to write this post for like, three days now, so don't give me crap if it sucks. It is also super, super, SUPER cheesy! You've been warned.

A year. Wow.

I don't know what it is, but something feels like this is a big accomplishment and something feels like it's just a little one, at the same time. It's a weird experience.

To be completely and totally honest, I've had several blogs before. A ranty one, one about becoming a vegetarian (which, sadly, I failed.), another about nerdy fashion. You name it, I've tried to blog about it. With each and every one of these blogs, I figured that the people would somehow just find you. I was, of course, wrong. It takes work. It takes a backbone.

So somehow with my little book blog, I decided to make a twitter to follow some people, and hell, maybe I'd get some people to read my blog. I'd previously tried and hated twitter for the same reason I'd hated blogging before: I thought it would just happen.

I think from the outside, blogging seems so easy. You read something, you write your thoughts about it. But it's a bit more stressful than one would think. You feel like you have to have a super pretty blog. You have to find your own review style and stick to it. You'll start to get stressed because you aren't reading fast enough, and therefore aren't posting enough. There's drama, be it over the relationships people form with other bloggers (or the lack of those.) or how many ARCs someone gets.

But while it can be hard, it's the most fun I've had in a long, long time. I've read books I never would've read before. I feel comfortable wanting to be a writer, knowing that there are at least a hundred other people on my timeline who want the same thing. I've actually let people other than Riley and my other friends read my work. (Not that I don't trust their opinions. It's just nice to have someone who has nothing to lose by saying they don't like your work.)

It's so much fun, you guys. I've talked to authors whose books I adore, and they'll talk back. I go to liveshows and read their blogs. It's nice to know that they're not as high up as the name on the book can make them out to be.

I've talked to book lovers galore. When you only have two or three people to talk to, it's nice to talk to others about books. I mean, I write down my thoughts for over 200 of you, and believe me when I say that I'm thankful for everyone of you.

So next year, around this time, I'll write another post about how much I love you and I'll still mean it, whether some of you leave or some new people start to follow along. Here's to hoping that I'm still around. Blogging's been a heck of a ride.