8 Years of GReadsBooks!

Oh hello there! This week my blog turns 8 (yes, EIGHT!) years old!! It's hard to believe that I have been a constant in this bookish community over the course of eight years. That is such a long time if you consider how much has evolved since my early days here. What can I say, I love to read, and I will never grow tired of sharing that love with the world.

If you've been with me since the beginning, THANK YOU. I appreciate your views and your comments, so much. When someone tells me that they've picked up a book (& enjoyed it!) because of my recommendation, it brings me such joy. I do this not because I have to, but because I simply want to. Reading is such a personal journey and when I have any sort of influence on that in a positive way for someone else, it creates such a good feeling inside of me.

I've witnessed young writers in their early days blossom into beautiful, published authors. It's always been important to me to support their talents and I do it because I believe in their craft. To all the authors I've worked with in the past eight years, thank you for trusting me with your words -- it will always be an honor to read something early from you and promote it here.

To the amazing publicists and editors I've worked with, thank you for thinking of me and taking a chance on my little space of the internet to share your authors' work. I know there is A LOT to choose from, especially now.

For every reader out there, young & old, thank you for taking the time to visit my blog. Even if you don't leave a comment, I appreciate you checking out what I have to say and possibly discovering something new to read. If you've ever read a book because you saw me mention it, I would love to know!

In celebration of my eight years in this bookish community, I want to say thank you by hosting a giveaway & supporting an indie bookstore that I have grown to love (& hope to visit one day soon!). This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only (due to shipping costs). Please enter the rafflecopter below for an opportunity to win a $25.00 gift certificate to The Ripped Bodice - A Romantic Bookstore.

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Celebrating 7 Years of GReads with Morgan

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.

*~* Click Here for Intro Post & GIVEAWAY *~*

I'm excited to be featuring Morgan from the Bookish Beagle on on my blog today because I feel Morgan's blogging story is unique. I first met Morgan on twitter through bookish talks. It wasn't until she joined Jess at Gone with the Words, that I got to know her better. She's become a fun, fresh, and joyous voice to follow in the community. I adore her picture of her dog Andy, and always admire her pics from California with heart eyes. As someone who has been doing this for seven years, it's interesting to see the community grow and change. I'm excited for people like Morgan, to bring a fresh voice about the books we read. Please welcome Morgan to the blog...

My Blogging Journey

I'm so honored to help Ginger celebrate 7 years of blogging! Such an amazing accomplishment that I hope I'll be able to reach someday. I love her blog and how creative she is! My path to blogging is a little different than most, I think. For starters, I joined Twitter in 2009 to talk sports. I had a Lakers blog that I would update with my thoughts about each game because that was my outlet- at the time I had no one in real life to talk with about my passion so I turned to blogging. I didn't even know that the book blogging community existed! I'd always been a reader but I found most new books by browsing at Borders or the library (including Twilight). Ironically, the only YA I read was courtesy of my sister: she gave me The Hunger Games, The Golden Compass, and Graceling!

I honestly can't recall how I found Christina's blog Reader of Fictions but hers is the first I remember following and reading. I was starting to dip my feet back in the reading pool after years of casual reading (lots of Harry Potter and thick historical fiction) and here I found an amazing resource for books I'd never heard of but that sounded right up my alley.

I met one of my best friends (Lindsey @ Bring My Books) through Christina's blog and soon began following others- Gillian @ Writer of Wrongs, Jamie @ The Perpetual Page Turner, Ginger @ G Reads Books, etc- until it snowballed into the community I'm now part of. I met so many wonderful people just by getting into book conversations online- It felt amazing to have a place to really truly discuss books with other bookworms, to get recommendations and find new favorites, and to find other things in common as well. It kept me glued to twitter as I made friendships and discovered my love of Young Adult fiction. I also loved seeing everyone's creativity! So many original posts and memes and writing styles.

I started book blogging when I joined Gone with the Words in August 2014 after seeing a tweet that Jess was looking for contributors; I didn't know Jess but we had many mutuals and I felt so lucky that she picked me! It was so funny because lots of people assumed I was a book blogger already! Nope, just a girl enmeshed in bookish twitter and blog comments. Jess made it easy to dip my toe in the water and find that I really enjoyed blogging. She's one of the best people and so thanks again to blogging, I had another wonderful friendship! My first review: All Lined Up, perfect for football season. I still remember many of my firsts- my first physical arc: Lion Heart by A.C. Gaughen, o happy mail day! My first conference: ALA Annual in June 2016 where I got to meet blogging friends in person for the first time. Blogging has brought such joy to my life for so many reasons.

At the beginning of this year- February 13, 2017 to be exact- I started my own solo blogging journey for the first time. Starting The Bookish Beagle was scary because I wasn't sure if I could handle the pressures and expectations of doing everything by myself- reading enough, reading fast enough, posting on time, building an audience... even creating a website. But I've slowly relaxed and learned that content is more important than quantity, even though I try to post as often as I can. I'm still surprised when people comment or tell me how much they love my baby blog. And I love having an outlet for my bookish thoughts, which was my whole reason for blogging in the first place. I really enjoy being a book pusher ;)

There have been a lot of changes and shifts in the blogging community, even since I first started participating- some blogs are gone while many more have popped up. I'm not one for booktube but I enjoy posting pictures on Instagram even if mine aren't elaborate enough to be part of Bookstagram. I hope I'll be able to weather the changes as well as Ginger has! We'll see where the blogging world takes me next :)

Celebrating 7 Years of GReads with Trish Doller

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.

*~* Click Here for Intro Post & GIVEAWAY *~*

I could not celebrate 7 years of book blogging without including one of my most favorite people: Trish Doller. I first "met" Trish as her debut novel SOMETHING LIKE NORMAL was coming out into the world in 2012. I knew immediately this woman's work was something to keep on my radar. Through the years Trish and I have become good friends, and it's all thanks to books. We've shared a lot of conversations about what we're reading, what we're listening to, and what we're feeling. She is someone I am so grateful to this community for. If it weren't for our mutual friend Carla in the UK, I'm not sure if our paths would have crossed. I will always be a champion of her words, always. Please welcome Trish Doller to the blog...

When people ask me how long I’ve been writing, I usually tell them that I started as soon as I learned how. My mother still has one of my kindergarten stories—written on primary handwriting paper with a thick blue pencil—about a leprechaun in search of gold. But I’ve been a reader just as long as I’ve been a writer. Longer, if you ask my mother, who claims I learned to read when I was three years old.

One of my earliest memories is an evening when she was reading to me before bed. We were working our way through an old chapter book called “B is for Betsy” and I adored it. After my mother finished that night’s chapter, I begged her to read just a little bit more. She said, “If you want to read more, you’re going to have to read it yourself.” So I did.

That book was the key that unlocked a hunger for reading. I finished the rest of the Betsy series. I revisited the Little Golden books that my mother had read to me. I went to the library once a week and I’d spend the next seven days rounding up wild ponies on Chincoteague Island. Crossing the prairie in a covered wagon. Traveling down the Mississippi with a turtle named Minn. Getting lost in the Alaskan tundra. Falling in love with a boy named Johnny Tremaine.

These stories grew inside me, inspiring me to put my own words on paper. My first attempts were basically fanfiction, trying to insert myself as the main character of my favorite stories, but my hand usually got tired of copying whole pages. As I got older, I wrote short story romances, usually spending more time on character creation and world-building than actual writing. Older still, I tried my hand at historical romance, but by then I had children and barely had time to write, let alone finish anything.

It wasn’t until I took a job as a bookseller that it all came back. I was walking past the YA section and the cover of Maureen Johnson’s “13 Little Blue Envelopes” caught my eye. I read it in one sitting and as I turned the last page, I thought maybe I could write a book like that. I thought that the ideas living in my head might finally find a home in YA. So I started writing again.

It’s been ten years since I completed my first manuscript (which didn’t get published, by the way) but I wouldn’t be here now, if I hadn’t first fallen in love with reading. Thanks, Mom.

Follow Trish Doller on twitter

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Celebrating 7 Years of GReads with Heidi

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.

*~* Click Here for Intro Post & GIVEAWAY *~*

To help me celebrate today, Heidi from YA Bibliophile is here to share some of her most memorable reading recs from the book community. I've known Heidi since my early days of blogging and feel that we've grown together in this community. I love that I can still recommend books to her, and she can also influence what I read. Heidi's voice online, as well as offline as a school librarian, is so important for YA books. She's been an amazing advocate, and her enthusiasm for reading is so contagious! Please welcome Heidi to the blog...

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First things first, I’m so pleased to be here celebrating 7 years of GReads! Ginger and I started blogging around the same time and I’ve loved getting to know her and talk books (and life.)

One of my favorite things about being a blogger (and part of the online bookish community) is being surrounded by people who love to read and recommend books as much as I do! To celebrate this, I thought I would share ten favorite books I've read because someone else recommended them! For most of them I no longer remember exactly who raved about it. It was likely lots of people! There are a couple I remember and I've noted the recommender :)

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han (Recommended by Ginger, of course!)

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler (I think maybe because Andi from Andi's ABCs raved about her books!)

Raise by Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Read because Melissa Marr blurbed it)

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Grace Mercy by Robin LaFevers

The Ruby Oliver Books by E. Lockhart

Open Road Summer by Emery Lord

Of course there are so many more I've read because of the buzz pre-pub. These are just the ones I picked up because bloggers and authors I trust were talking about them! Thanks to Ginger for always having great recommendations and for sharing her love of books for seven years!

Celebrating 7 Years of GReads with Sara

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.

*~* Click Here for Intro Post & GIVEAWAY *~*

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 7^th 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.

* * *

Sara is the founder of Novel Novice, where she blogs about books. She lives in the Portland, OR area with her husband, in a house full of books, and has been known for reading past her bedtime.

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Celebrating 7 Years of GReads with Amy

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.

*~* Click Here for Intro Post & GIVEAWAY *~*

Today's guest post comes from Amy at Tripping Over Books, who I've gotten to know in the last few years thanks to the bookish community through twitter. It was there I first discovered her blog and learned we share a love for romance reads. Amy has always been a positive light in this community, especially when she started the On the Same Page Secret Sister project with her fellow besties. Her kindness shines bright and I loved learning more about the inspiration behind her own book blog. Please welcome Amy to the blog...

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Hello Friends! I’m so excited and glad that Ginger asked me to be a part of her SEVEN YEAR BLOGIVERSARY feature. First of all, CONGRATS, GINGER! That’s amazing. You’ve been doing you and creating excellent content for seven years. WOOO! Second of all, thank you for prompting so many people, including me, to look back on what made us blog in the first place. I think that getting back to your foundations is so important for perspective, direction, and keeping things fresh.

So, with that in mind, I’m feeling excited and nostalgic to share some of my early inspirations for my blog, Tripping Over Books!

I went to library school in the spring of 2009 because I’d recently lost my science/medical publishing job, like so many other people lost jobs in every field, and wanted to pursue a career in something I loved: Books. Library school had been on my radar for a long time, but knowing myself incapable (read: too lazy) to work and go to school at the same time, I’d always put it off. I viewed this as one of those “one door closes, another one opens” kind of moments.

When I started my classes, I was focusing on school librarianship, which meant a focus on YA and MG books. Taking my first Young Adult Literature class was like coming home. I’d already dipped my toe into YA: I’d read all of Twilight, and of course, Harry Potter. But to my awesome surprise, one of the books we were assigned to read that first semester was GRACELING by Kristin Cashore, a book I’d actually already read because I saw a review of it in People Magazine. It all felt like things were falling into place.

But what made me start to notice blogs? Once we’d read a few books--THE HUNGER GAMES was one; it had just come out--I wanted more. So I Googled. And I found some great blogs that helped feed my addiction, and I thought, “I could do this. Maybe. Probably.” The Story Siren had the best posts for putting books on my radar, The Book Smugglers had all-around great content and thoughtful reviews. Good Books and Good Wine had a unique and very conversational voice that I loved. Makeshift Bookmark was the same.

I stewed for a long time because I’d tried starting personal blogs before and lost interest, but I thought that if there was one thing I could always be interested in talking about, it would be books.

I wrote up and posted by first post while I was living in a hotel with my family after Hurricane Sandy, when we had no power for three weeks. I was basically terrified and exhilarated that I did something on the internet.

It makes sense, of course, that I would be inspired to blog by the books I was now devouring. In addition to GRACELING and THE HUNGER GAMES, I started venturing out on my own and grabbed books from the library that I’d seen on my blogs: THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE, AMY & ROGER’S EPIC DETOUR, and my very first Maggie, SHIVER. I read all of these books before I started blogging, so I don’t think I’ve ever reviewed them properly, but I’ve loved them all for ages, and SHIVER led me to my heart book, THE SCORPIO RACES. Hashtag grateful.

Aside from the other adults in my library classes, I knew NO ONE even close to my age who was reading YA. I made some friends in library school, and that was magic. But then I discovered the community on Twitter, and I was agog at all the people who shared my love. It was hard to put my thoughts out there, even though no one was following me at first. As I continued to post things on my blog, though, including two awesome features for newbs, In My Mailbox and Top Ten Tuesday, the following began to grow, and connections were slowly made.

It was like--CHEESE ALERT--a whole new world opening up to me. It kept, and continues to keep, me going, albeit at a much less frequent rate these days (jobs ruin everything).

All in all, my blog has been so wonderful for me, even if my posting has dwindled lately. It’s brought me some of my best friends, my fondest memories, and legit helped me really come into my own, even when I was well into my 30s.

Congrats again, Ginger!

Celebrating 7 Years of GReads with John Corey Whaley

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.

*~* Click Here for Intro Post & GIVEAWAY *~*

Today's special guest is very dear to my heart. I first met author John Corey Whaley (or Corey as I know him), back in my early years of blogging. His debut novel WHERE THINGS COMES BACK had just published and I remember thinking: Wow, this is one talented dude! We first met at the Austin Teen Book Fest (now called the Texas Teen Book Fest), and kept up a habit of meeting up at future author events in the Texas area. He's been a great supporter of me and my blog, but also in my personal life as a teacher and educator. His voice in this YA community is profound, and one you should definitely be listening to. It's an honor to not only call him an author I admire, but also my friend. Please welcome John Corey Whaley to the blog...

Why, eh?

There's this funny thing that happens when you write books primarily for teens--you meet people who tell you, in earnest, that maybe one day you'll get to write an adult book. Or, more often, they ask Do you want to write adult books someday? And after this happens a few dozen times, you stop laughing at it and you start to question what this kind of attitude really means--especially for young people.

Why do so many adults still think stories written about teenagers aren't appropriate for them? Adolescence is one of the very few universal experiences that connects us all. We all have to be teenagers. It's one of the reasons I'm fascinated by it, really--it's like a physical and mental purgatory between childhood and adulthood, a cocoon where innocence starts to fade and the cynicism and anxiety of adulthood start trickling in.

I write YA because that teenage experience fascinates me in a way that "adult" life never has. I actually find being an adult quite boring most of the time, which is another reason it's nice to escape into stories of youth and coming-of-age and first steps into the chaotic world.

It should be no surprise that when I found myself welcomed into the YA Community almost seven years ago, blogs like this one opened my eyes up to a world where the cynicism and negativity directed at young people wasn't just unacceptable, but was being actively challenged--not just through the power of fiction, but in the voices of librarians, teachers, booksellers, and authors who set aside competitiveness and the bottom line to constantly come together for the better good of their readers. I met a community where being yourself was celebrated and where discussions of diversity and proper representation continue to evolve and progress everyday. I met a community devoted to speaking up for LGBTQ rights and fighting to get queer kids the respect and dignity they deserve. And I met, became a part of, and fell in love with a community that never, ever devalues young people and always appreciates what we can learn from them about ourselves.

I certainly didn’t find myself hanging around with a bunch of adult literary flunkies who'd settled on writing teen books just to pay the rent. These were artists and teachers who knew the impact they had with their stories could reach beyond the page. And now, after this year of political turmoil, I've found myself in a community that has risen to the occasion of fighting in the Resistance.

Reading has brought me many things. My career. My inspiration. Lessons about humanity and life that can't really exist outside of a good, authentic literary journey. But of all the inspiring things that reading has brought me, that books have provided, I've come to realize that none of them hold a candle to the inspiration I've found in this community of fellow booklovers.

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Celebrating 7 Years of GReads with Sarah

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.

*~* Click Here for Intro Post & GIVEAWAY *~*

Today on the blog, I have my good friend Sarah from What Sarah Read helping me to celebrate my seventh year of book blogging. I first met Sarah as a fellow reader through twitter, about four years ago. Immediately we connected because we liked to read the same books. Our friendship has since grown, and she is someone I consider very close to my heart. When I have something funny to share, she's only a text away. Or when I need to just vent, I know she's there to listen and be a shoulder to lean on. I am a lucky girl to have found Sarah, and it's all because of books and this community! Please welcome Sarah to the blog...

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More than three years ago, I started on this wild adventure called blogging and my life hasn't been the same since! discovered the book blogging community via Twitter in January of 2014, and by May of 2014 I was ready to give it a try. With a little encouragement and support from some amazing friends I had met just a few months earlier on Twitter (thank you Ginger and Andi), I decided to start my very own book blog on May 15th, 2014. I was totally nervous and intimidated at first but they were super encouraging of my desire to start a blog and showed me a LOT of love. Little did I know what an amazing journey these past three plus years would be, how many cherished friendships I would make, and how life-changing this whole experience I was embarking upon would be.


I won’t lie though, the journey has been overwhelming and discouraging at times. I’ve worried over how many posts I should be publishing each week and if I’ll be able to read a book fast enough to post a review in time for its publication date. For the first year or so my stress levels over how many visitors I had to my blog each day or how many official blog followers I had got little out of hand. I got really insecure a lot and wondered if my posts were even interesting to other readers and how I’d never be as “cool” as the other bloggers I’d met. Then in the Summer of 2015 my life got super busy and I was forced to take a more casual approach to my blog. I slowed down, stopped stressing out as much and just started blogging for ME...and I haven't looked back since.

More than anything, what I LOVE about blogging is the joy I get out of reading and sharing the excitement with other readers. I’ve fallen in love with books that I never would have heard of otherwise and fangirling with the rest of you over amazing books is basically the best thing EVER! There is nothing I love more than finding a good book and then convincing a friend or family member to pick it up and start reading it too.


When I was putting together this post to celebrate Ginger's AMAZING seven years as a blogger (seriously how epic is that?), I thought it would be fun to share the ten books or series I would recommend to someone who is new to the Young Adult books community.

Before I share that list, I just wanted to wish my dear friend Ginger a very happy seventh anniversary! She's been such an amazing source of friendship and inspiration and I cannot wait to see all the wonderful ways she shares her voice and spirit in the years to come. Thanks for being you, G! We love you!

OK...on to THE LIST! This is by NO means THE definitive top ten list, it's just my picks for books I've read over the past three plus years that have stuck with me. There's swoony love stories and epic adventures, and my hope is that you find one (or two or three) that are new to you and you find a new book or author to fall in love with! That's the whole point of this book blogging thing anyway, isn't it?

I'll Meet You There / An Ember in the Ashes Series / The Grisha Trilogy / The Remnant Chronicles / The Scarlet Series / Fangirl / The Start of Me and You / My Life Next Door / Just One Day / The Star-Touched Queen

I also want to share two of the most recent additions to my faves list! The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue and Warcross are both 2017 releases that will are now permanent fixtures of my best of lists! Seriously, these books are some of the best of the best!

Celebrating 7 Years of GReads with Alexa

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.

*~* Click Here for Intro Post + GIVEAWAY *~*

When I thought of inviting friends to help me celebrate my 7 years of blogging, Alexa (from Alexa Loves Books) immediately came to mind. She is one of the few bloggers I met in my early years of GReads and is still going strong with her own blog. It's been a lot of fun to collaborate with her over the years and see her own blog's successes. We got to meet in 2016, but it was only briefly. I'm hoping our paths will cross again soon and we can spend more time face to face. She's been a great support, and friend, and I love what she's done with today's post. Please welcome Alexa to the blog...

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Hi everyone! I’m so honored to be a part of Ginger’s blog celebration for seven years of blogging. Before anything else, I want to say congratulations on seven years, Ginger, and that it’s really wonderful that this community brought us together years ago! Looking forward to many more to come of course.

Okay, on to the post! I thought it’d be fun for me to share seven things about me at the start of my book blog, seven things about me that are currently true and seven predictions I have for future me so you could get to know me a little bit better!

Alexa (Loves Books) in the Past

1.  I started the blog as a way to connect with other readers online, as I didn’t have in real life friends who loved books as much as I did. Inspired by The Story Siren and propelled by the way Divergent (I know!) made me feel when I first read it, I took the plunge.

2. I was very formal when writing book reviews. I honestly felt like I was a proper, professional reviewer when I wrote my reviews (with the story element breakdowns and the stiff language). It makes me cringe a whole lot to look at older reviews I’ve done…

3. I didn’t understand the concept of spoiler warnings. I think this one is self-explanatory.

4. I didn’t have any bookshelves. I was living with family friends at the time, so I only had a bedroom to myself. My books were stacked on my dresser table and my nightstand, and I didn’t own very many at the time so it wasn’t overwhelming at all.

5. I met an author for the very first time in person. The first time I ever got to meet an author I admired was when I attended an event with Meg Cabot, Maggie Stiefvater and Libba Bray at Scholastic in SoHo. It was so cool, and my best friend went with me as well!

6. I was in a long distance relationship. It was a very difficult thing being in separate countries, and communication was the only way the relationship survived. We went through really terrible downs in our relationship, but somehow managed to eventually beat the odds.

7. I had my first proper job. I had worked back in the Philippines, but it wasn’t for very long before the company downsized to just two people. So, around the same time I started my blog, I also began working an 8-5 job. It was definitely an adjustment, but also, it allowed me to buy books…

Alexa (Loves Books) in the Present

1. I have friends who love books as much as I do but are more than just bookish friends. It’s wonderful that I’ve gotten the chance to connect with so many people because of blogging and the Internet! But I’ve definitely found some of my best friends in the whole entire universe, who share my love of books (and favorite reads) but also happen to be folks I can count on when it comes to the real life stuff as well.

2. I’m not just active on the blog, but also active on other social media platforms. I still love blogging and find it the easiest form of online expression to engage in, but I am quite active on Instagram (I’ve been loving trying to take creative photos) and YouTube (which is something I collaborate on with my husband).

3. I’ve met a lot of authors. I’m incredibly lucky to live in New York, which is a big hub for publishing and a relatively common tour stop for many authors. I’ve met majority of the authors that I really want to meet! The only ones I have yet to meet in person, off the top of my head, are Tamora Pierce and Stacey Lee.

4. I have an entire wall of shelves. I’ve come a long, long way from the small stacks I used to have, that’s for sure! I’ve managed to fill a bunch of bookcases up with all the books I own, and the collection keeps on growing.

5. I became obsessed with bookish candles. This is definitely a more recent development, but hi, my name is Alexa and I cannot stop buying bookish candles. First of all, I’m a collector. Second of all, there are so many amazing candle shops out there. I can’t help myself, okay? (I’m trying to be better!)

6. I started writing again. I wrote an awful lot (of fan fiction) when I was in high school, tapering off when I got to college. I hadn’t started any stories in years… until 2012. That was the year everything changed for me, and I’ll be forever grateful that I started wanting to tell stories again.

7. I’m married! Remember the long distance relationship I mentioned? We ended up getting engaged in 2012, married in 2013 and Macky was finally able to join me in New York in 2014. We recently celebrated our four year wedding anniversary too.

Alexa (Loves Books) in the Future

1. A shift in focus. I used to do a bigger variety of posts, but that’s tapered off in the last two years. I’d like to ideally be well rounded in terms of content, since there are a lot of things that I love apart from books and would be excited to talk about.

2. A skill upgrade. I’m looking into ways to upgrade my skills in photography, video editing and handlettering at the moment. I like learning new things (especially with friends), especially when they’re useful in many aspects of life (and not just the blog or my social media accounts).

3. A steady growth. As a person, as a writer, as a blogger. I’m constantly striving towards improvement, and I’d like to be able to say I’ve grown (again) in a few years.

4. A finished original WIP (again). I’ve only ever done this once as of right now, and I haven’t been able to do it again. I’ve started and stopped many a WIP. I’ve also not started them at all, though I always jot down the ideas I have. It’s been really rough to try and get the drive to write them (especially since I’m constantly trying to improve my world-building skills at the moment), but I’m hoping that I can make it happen… and soon.

5. A home. I would really like to be able to actually own property. It would be pretty damn cool to have a space that really is our own, and a place to build a home for our little family.

6. A trip to the UK and to Japan. I’ve wanted to go to the UK since I was in elementary school, but it hasn’t happened yet. I’ve been kicking around plans with a couple of folks about a potential trip over there, so I really hope that it’s going to happen! And as for Japan, I’d just love the opportunity to go again and to explore the food, the place, the anime shops…

7. A baby (or two). While it’s not in our immediate future plans, Macky & I are very much planning to have children! We both love kids, and we both always aspired to have more than one, so that’s definitely something I’m hoping is true for our future.

I hope you enjoyed getting to know me a little bit better! It was really fun to take a look at how far I’ve come since I started my blog, and it’ll be real interesting to see if any of my predictions actually happen in the years to come.

Again, happy seven years of blogging, Ginger, and thank you for having me!

Celebrating 7 Years of GReads with Tiffany Schmidt

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.

*~* Click Here for Intro Post & GIVEAWAY *~*

It's an honor to have one of MY favorite authors on the blog today to celebrate my own blogoversary. Tiffany Schmidt has written some fabulous books (my personal fave: BRIGHT BEFORE SUNRISE) and a 2018 release that I am so eager to read (BOOKISH BOYFRIENDS). She's been so kind to always support me and my love for reading. I adore the way she took the theme of "reading inspirations" for this celebration and shared some of her own personal reading influences. Please welcome Tiffany to the blog (& don't forget to enter the giveaway to win one of her books!!)...

***

The best present my parents ever gave me was an older sister. Or, since she came first, maybe I was the world’s best gift to her? (I say with complete humbleness).

Heather is two years, two weeks older than me, but because our birthdays straddle the August/ September divide, there were three grades between us. Growing up she was the person who taught me how to blow bubbles with soap and chewing gum. How to wrangle Barbie, Ken, and Skipper in and out of tiny outfits (though I never actually got be Skipper, that was always her job). She helped me find lost earring backings, showed me how to scale the countertops to get to the candy cabinet over the stove. How to hook my first training bra. After our parents separated us into different bedrooms we developed a secret code comprised of knocks on the wall. We were always shocked when we got caught—it never occurred us that those knocks could also be heard down the hall. When her bedtime got changed to later than mine, Heather would stop in my room on the way to bed and recount the plots of Full House or Family Matters in whispers. On one memorable trip to the drive-in (when we were totally supposed to be sleeping in the back seat) she explained to me that Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman was someone who got paid to love people. I may have told my grandparents the next day that I wanted to be a hooker when I grew up. Her fault, but I got the time out.

Another thing that Heather passed down to me was books. Sometimes by choice, other times by stealth. I used to smuggle Christopher Pike books off her bookshelf—then, when I couldn’t sleep after reading them—I’d ask if I could spend the night on her floor. There was the time she left her copy of Lord of the Flies next to our computer while writing a paper—I returned it the next morning, high traumatized, and wanted to talk about Piggy over bowls of Kix. The gilt-paged copy of Little Women that currently sits on my bookshelf is one I commandeered way back when. I’m fairly certain the same is true for my Anne of Green Gables. And no one tell her, but I lost her Jane Austen anthology somewhere at college.

Little did she know—little did I know, that when I was being that pesty little sister who wouldn’t stay out of her room, I was preparing for my future career. My next series is a little bit Austen. A little bit Shakespeare. A little bit Green Gables. A little bit Little Women.

Bookish Boyfriends comes out May 1, 2018 and it is chock full of all the stories I stole from her bookshelves. (I still haven’t figured out way to work Christopher Pike or Lord of the Flies into a series about girls dating modern versions of classic romance heroes—but give me some time).

And, hey, Heather, it could’ve been worse. It could’ve been your favorite clothes or earrings I stole and kept? Oh, wait... I did that too.

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