All month long I'm celebrating my 7th year of book blogging with the help of my bookish friends. To learn more about the event, please visit my introduction post I've linked just below. There, you can also enter to win a book by one of the fabulous authors who will be joining me this month to celebrate, as well.
I am honored to have one of MY blogging heroes on the blog today, sharing her own story on how it all began. Sara from Novel Novice is someone I've admired and followed since I began my own book blog back in 2010. I remember reading her reviews and following her twitter interactions for awhile before I really got to know Sara. It wasn't until Instagram that we became closer. She's been someone I've looked up to in the community, who's ideas are always thoughtful and true, and her reading tastes are phenomenal, ones I highly trust. She's a great asset to this community and I am so thankful she's still an active participant. Please welcome Sara to the blog...
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I’m so excited to help Ginger celebrate SEVEN YEARS of blogging! This book blogging world … man, what a wild ride it’s been. I started Novel Novice in January of 2010, but my book blogging dates back about two years earlier – when I helped teacher (and now author) Tiffany Truitt manage and run her then-fledgling site, Novel Novice Twilight. Tiffany used the site as a way to chronicle how she was using the Twilight books (pre-movie craze) to get her 7th grade students excited about reading and learning. Her students had a reputation for being “difficult to teach,” but using the books they wanted to read and were sneaking under their desk during class, she got them excited about the curriculum and helped propel them towards academic success.
I loved blogging with Tiffany, and getting swept up in the excitement of the Twilight fandom as the movies become a hit was a wild time, and tons of fun. But after a couple years, I started to get Twilight burnout – and I started thinking about where the blog would go next.
I was on a road trip with my dad in October of 2009 when the idea for Novel Novice in its current form was first born. He took notes while I drove, and we brainstormed together. Always, the idea was to remain true to the site’s roots: using the books kids wanted to read to get them excited about the books they were required to read.
Over the years, many things have changed. The Twilight site has since faded away (though you can still find it online, if you know where to look). The look and feel of Novel Novice itself has changed; and my blogging habits have changed as contributors went their own ways, and I moved on in my life to a new career, a husband, a house. And while you can still find me on Twitter and Facebook, I’ve fallen in love with Bookstagram – plus, blogging has also seen the rise of “book tube,” even though I’ve found it a poor fit for me personally.
All this is to say: book blogging has changed a great deal in the nearly ten years (WHAT?!) I’ve been blogging. But one thing has stayed the same, and that’s the people.
I have made some of the best friends through book blogging, in whatever format it takes. I still talk to Tiffany sometimes on Facebook or Twitter. Early in my blogging days, Katie at Mundie Moms was a huge inspiration and supporter of my work – and we finally met in person for the first time last year, and it was like seeing an old friend – not meeting someone new. I’ve met local friends through blogging, and now we get together for drinks or dinner or just to hang out. (In one case, our significant others have become best friends!) And there are people all over the WORLD whom I consider my friend, because of how book blogging has brought us together.
And here I am with Ginger, helping her celebrate her own blogging milestone.
Because that’s what we do. We support each other; we become friends. We form bonds. And that’s what I cherish most about being a book blogger.
The books are great. The friendships are better.
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Happy 7 years, Ginger! So glad I could help you celebrate!!!
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