GUESS
WHOSE BLOG TURNS 4 today?!
Mine!
*throws confetti and hands out cake*
*throws confetti and hands out cake*
I
cannot quite comprehend that it's been four years since I started my
book blog. Looking back it makes me smile to think of that clueless little thirteen year old sitting in front of her computer and
deciding to make a blog, not having a clue what she was doing, to the
seventeen year old I am today. Looking back I never expected the
things I would achieve, the people I would meet, the opportunities I
would get...I never expected blogging to become such a big part of my
life.
There
have been times where blogging hasn't been easy. Times where guilt
sinks in as schoolwork stares at me as I blog or read, times where my
anxiety has been bad and I've just been too exhausted to
think of something witty or even coherent to say...but it's always
been there for me. My blog is a safe haven for me to escape to when
things are tough. There's all the amazing, wonderful people
in the book blogging community who are there to speak to, there's the
books I can read that I've been given the opportunity to read, the
authors I get to speak to on Twitter (this still blows my mind.
Seriously.) - I can talk about books and cry about books and no one
will judge me for it - in fact, they generally join in (if that
doesn't prove that book people are the best people than what
does?!)
I
started this book blog because I loved reading, I never knew there
was a whole community of people who also blogged about books, I
didn't know I'd be working with such awesome publicists who
would actually send me books. I've become more
confident in myself, my writing has improved (those first reviews are no. Just, no.), I've made friends and I've just grown as a
person. This blog has opened me up to so many amazing things and
I'll always be grateful for that.
Now,
there are so many people I want to thank and I apologise if I miss
anyone out!
❤️ Jolien from The Fictional Reader for being such an amazing
blogging friend. I absolutely love Jolien's blog and she is such a
spectacular person and always there for words of encouragement and
I'm so grateful for her friendship!
❤️ Cait from Paper Fury for her fabulous posts, her enthusiastic flailing, incessant fangirling and brilliant book recommendations that always makes me smile!
❤️ Beth
from The Quiet People for her kindness and her wonderful comments
that always leave a huge smile on my face.
❤️ Ranu
from The Araylia Bookshelf who is such a wonderful person! She's got
brilliant taste in books, she's so kind and wonderfully funny and
it's always lovely chatting to her!
❤️ Shannon
from It Starts at Midnight is such a wonderful person and she always
leaves the sweetest, most supportive comments and they always, always
make me happy! <3
❤️ Kristin
from Simply Bookish Things is actually my best friend in real life
and it's been awesome her starting a book blog as we discuss
bookstagram photos, review copies, picture editing etc which is
fantastic!
❤️ Zoe
who used to own the book blog Bookhi and who's been my bookish buddy
for the majority of these four years. She's also such a kind person
and so wonderful to chat to!
These are just a few people but there
are many, many
more!
I'd
also like to give the following bloggers a shout out for being there
at
points in this blogging journey: Lucy from Queen of Contemporary,
Amber from The Mile Long Bookshelf, Jess from My Reading Dress, Emily
from Loony Literate and Becca from Reading Teen, Aentee from Read at Midnight, Alise from Readers in Wonderland, Hawwa from HAWWA, ETC and Joy from Joyous Reads...thank you for the
tweets and the kind comments on my blog! <3
I
also want to thank all the publishers I've worked with: Pan Macmillan
SA, Penguin Random House South Africa, Jonathan Ball Publishers,
Penguin Random House UK, Usborne Publishers, MIRA Ink and Abrams &
Chronicle! Thank you for all the books you've sent me and the opportunities you've given me!
I
also thought it would be interesting to see the stats I've
accumulated over the past four years. SO LET'S SEE!
Page
views: 309,440
GFC:
508
Twitter:
1,021
BlogLovin:
412
Instagram:
943
Wow!
Thank you! I'm so happy with that and although I don't really focus that much on stats anymore, it makes my heart swell with pride that at some point each of these people wanted to hear what I had to say - thank you!
I'm so thankful to all you guys who read and comment on my blog, it makes me so indescribably happy! <3 I'm really excited to see where Blog of a Bookaholic takes me in the future and I'm excited to see it grow alongside me. :D
I'm so thankful to all you guys who read and comment on my blog, it makes me so indescribably happy! <3 I'm really excited to see where Blog of a Bookaholic takes me in the future and I'm excited to see it grow alongside me. :D
To
show my appreciation I thought I'd treat all you lovely people to a
giveaway! You can win any book of your choice as long as it's under
£10 GBP and The Book Depository ships to your country. A few other rules are:
- You must be over 13 to enter or have your parents' permission.
- Be able to provide a legit shipping address
- The winner has 48 hours to reply, otherwise another winner will be chosen!
- The giveaway will run from today, March 22nd, up until April 22nd!
- That's all! May the odds be ever in your favor! ;)