I’d like to thank Danielle at Books, Vertigo & Tea for nominating for this little award! She’s a fantastic person, so please go and check out her page!

The Rules: 

1) Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
2) Write a post to show your award
3) Give a brief story of how your blog started
4) Give two pieces of advice to new bloggers
5) Select 15 other bloggers you want to give this award to

Then comment on each blog and let them know you have nominated them & provide the link to the post you created 

I started this blog a few years ago after challenging myself to read 100 books in a year. I figured that a blog would help me keep on track, and I was right! I ended up reading 101 books that year. I let it slide for a while after that, but decided to dive back into blogging last winter, and I’m so glad I did! I’ve met new friends thanks to this little blog, and it’s inspired me to read more and different books than I would have otherwise read. In a weird sort of mirror to the start of this blog, Goodreads says I’ve read 104 books so far this year. I did not intend to do that, but writing about books has increased my desire to read more!

Two pieces of advice for other bloggers:

1. You do you. It’s easy to look at the big, popular blogs and think that you have to do what they’re doing (or read what they’re reading) because they’re popular, and you want to be popular, too. But you shouldn’t feel like you have to be reading and reviewing the latest YA fantasy novel, when what you want to write about is eighteenth-century French essays. The blogging world is a wide one. You’ll find your audience, no matter how obscure your topic is.  Don’t follow fads just to be ‘cool’.
2. Don’t obsess over stats. All those insights and daily/weekly/monthly stats are fun to look at, and it’s interesting to chart your progress from month to month, but don’t tailor your writing to what gets the most views and likes. That’s an easy way to start loathing what you’re doing, and the point of a blog is to have fun and learn about yourself and the world around you. That’s hard to do if you’re constantly poring over stats to figure out what kind of post readers like to see on the third Friday of the month.

I’m including links to my tagged bloggers pages since I feel weird about writing seemingly random comments on people’s blogs. I’d like to nominate:

waking up on the wrong side of fifty
the critiquing chemist
beach bookworm
&
captivated by fantasy