Can you believe it? I definitely can’t. You’ll see down below that I’m a huge quitter. I have a tendency of taking up hobbies or sports and quickly abandoning them – sometimes even before I start. (I have a closet with blank canvases and unopened paint from about a year ago…) The fact that blogging has stuck with me for a year is a pretty big deal for me. I feel like I’ve totally found myself a home on the internet. (I’ve also had countless blogs that I abandoned after a few posts.) The community here is so amazing and it makes me so happy to speak with you guys every day! I’ve met a few people IRL thanks to my excellent time at BEA, and I hope that number only grows with time. I’m beyond thankful for so many people (all of you listed below, because apparently I can’t help myself and wrote the longest shoutout section ever).
There are some other great bloggers who started up in July 2014 as well, so this celebration post will also be sharing some love with them! I started my blog after reading Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. I checked Goodreads, which I had been using since 2010, and saw a bunch of reviews with links to book blogs. I had made and abandoned plenty of blogs in the past because I didn’t really have enough information to share on them. I liked makeup and clothes, but not enough to talk about them all the time! Something finally clicked in my head: books were something I was always interested in. I would always have something to say about what I was reading. And so, Bookmark Lit was born!
Be sure to visit the other Class of July 2014 bloggers and their giveaways for their blogiversaries!
Erin @ The Hardcover Lover | Tika @ fANGIRL Confessions | Amber @ YA Indulgences | Eileen @ BookCatPin | Sheridan @ I Turn the Pages | Kaitlin @ Next Page Please | Talina @ Sassy and Dangerous | Nori @ ReadWriteLove28
I’ve got some random info to share here – stats over the last year, shoutouts to some of my favorite bloggers, and (obviously) a giveaway. Thanks for being a reader of my blog; I appreciate every single one of you! Without you guys, I would just be talking to myself.
Books read since I started the blog: 178
Book rating average: 4.01
Number of reviews posted: 153
Number of discussions, rec lists, memes, etc. posted: 280
Total number of posts: 433
First post ever: Review: We Were Liars
Month with the most posts: August 2014 – 84 (holy crap)
Month with the most visits: April/May 2015 (pretty close)
Day with the most visits: February 3, 2015
Post with the most comments: Getting To Know You – Blog Hop & Giveaway
Post with the most views: Organization Part 2, My Traveler’s Notebook
Top searches to refer people here: “damsel distressed” and “blog weekly memes”
Popular post view time: Tuesdays at 10:00AM (no surprise, TTT!)
Favorite discussion post: Thoughts on Book Ratings Part One or Part Two | It’s my blogiversary so I can cheat if I want to. I liked these two posts that discussed how I rate books and when/why I may change a book rating. I also really loved my post with Thoughts on Book Tropes. Lots of excellent gifs in that one, so it’s totally worth mentioning.
Favorite feature: Inside & Out or Cover Colors | Again, cheating. It’s a tie. I love having different bloggers sharing their favorite bookmarks and book covers! They’re my favorite things. But, I’m also a major fan of my Cover Colors feature because it’s so fun to put together.
Favorite review: Girls in White Dresses| This is tough! I feel like a loser when I say that I think my voice was a bit more fun in my earlier reviews. I’ve tried to become more articulate and a little less snarky (sometimes) in my reviews, for the sake of publishers and other people that may be reading. I hope to bring back some of the humor I originally had. Anyways, I think this review is pretty spot-on in terms of my actual, real life voice. I can’t lie that it kind of makes me laugh out loud every time I go back and read it.
“…this book had a million characters! Some of the bitches would only be in ONE chapter. What happened to them? Why even bother introducing them in the first place if they weren’t going to have an relevance at all?”
“But come on, dude. How are you going to write a book that should be extremely relatable to mid-20s girls and then leave the two main characters with the weird/wrong boyfriends? What is the moral of that story? “Settle for whoever you can kind of tolerate and then stay with them because there’s no one else out there” is the message I got at the end of this.”
Favorite TTT topic: Top 10 Things Books Inspired Me to Do | The topic was actually inspirational book quotes, but I had just posted a list of favorite quotes previously. I decided to make my own twist by talking about some of the things books have inspired me to do. I really, really love how this post came out – both with the graphics and the content!
Favorite post with blogger help: Thoughts on DNF | I put out a poll on Twitter to ask people about when and why they DNF books. I had a lot of great responses and this was a REALLY fun post to put togther!
(1) I have to say, I’m utterly shocked that I’m still blogging and still enjoying it. I’m such a huge quitter of hobbies. I played clarinet for a year, basketball for a year, softball for a year, gymnastics for maybe two years, chorus for two years, etc… I just never stick with anything.
(2) I’m afraid of ketchup. Yep, afraid. I don’t let anyone put the bottle near me, I close my ears and look away when my friends use it, and I make people move it off of the table to the side if it’s in front of me. I don’t touch the bottle. I hate the smell, taste, sound, and look of it.
(3) The Apple ear buds don’t fit in my ears. They literally just fall right out when I try to use them. I can jam them in and they’ll stay put for maybe a half hour at most, but then they fall out again. I have to use big earphones that go over the head (thank god those are socially acceptable nowadays).
(4) I don’t talk about it on the blog, but I am definitely a blogger that would love to be an author someday. I haven’t written any books or stories since I was a lot younger, but my first email address was “writergirll9.” That’s some devotion to your craft, right there. We’ll see if any book ideas come to me, but for now I’m just a blogger and a reader!
(5) My top favorite things in the entire world include: pizza, Friends, and the Carolina Panthers. I would quit reading for the rest of my life for any of those three things. It sounds extreme, but it’s true.
Andi @ Andi’s ABCs | Andi was the first blogger that actually interacted with me once I got started. I don’t really remember much about our first conversations but I definitely consider her to be my first bloggy friend! (I’m thinking it had to do with the Isla Is Coming Read-a-long??) Regardless, she’s been a consistent friend ever since then, and it was awesome to meet IRL at BEA! Without her engagement on Twitter when I was just getting started, I doubt I would still be here today.
Brittany @ The Book Addict’s Guide | Brittany is another one who started talking to me early on, along with Andi! I feel like she’s probably the person I’ve chatted with the most on Twitter and I really appreciate that. We also met at BEA (travelled there together, hung out all day, and travelled home). I’m incredibly grateful for her friendship so far and hope we’ll be seeing more of each other soon! (Most likely, considering one of her best friends lives about 20 minutes away from me!)
Alyssa @ Books Take You Places | Speaking of her best friend that lives 20 minutes from me… Alyssa and I only recently became friends (within the last few months) but we’ve met in real life more than once. I’ll never forget some of the texts she’s sent me and I love her IDGAF attitude about most things 😉 It’s nice having another blogger in the area, especially one as awesome as Alyssa. Thanks for talking me through my first BEA and literally TAKING me there too!
Kaitlin @ Next Page Please and Cristina @ Girl in the Pages | I have to give a major shoutout to both of my Book Buddies! Thank you both so much for all of the excellent buddy reads we’ve had so far, and the many more to come. I’ve loved starting this feature and how we scramble at the last minute to get our posts together so often 😉 Thanks for your flexibility and all of the bookish fun!
Morgan @ Gone with the Words | I had a dream with Morgan in it this month, so it feels like we’ve met in real life. That counts, right? Morgan was my Broke and Bookish Secret Santa for 2014 and she was the BEST EVER. I’ve loved chatting with her ever since. (These swaps really bring people together, folks.) Through Morgan, I met Laura @ Scribbles and Wanterlust and Lindsey @ Bring My Books. They all followed each other’s Secret Santas at the same time to throw people off 😉 It’s been really fun chatting with you guys (and meeting a couple of you in person!) and I’m so glad Morgan was my SS to bring everyone together. You guys are the best.
Sarah @ What Sarah Read | Speaking of people who have been excellent gift-givers, my very first OTSP Secret Sister was Sarah! If you’ve seen any of my instagrams from when I receive her packages, you’d know how this project is more than just about what you get. She’s made my day better when it was shitty, really took care to focus on my interests, and overall been an amazing sister. She’s the best and I’m so, so beyond grateful!
Hannah @ So Obsessed With | Without Hannah, I would have a lot more money. Her Foxy Dori posts burst into the book blogosphere and got everyone addicted. It’s been a lot of fun to chat with her about them, May Books, and adult fiction. She hit the nail on the head when she said: “I love that the minute I rate an adult fic book five stars, you add it to your TBR.” Her posts and reviews are always so genuine and heartfealt; I always make sure to read everything.
Cassie @ The Casserole | Cassie is the other half of my adult-fiction-recommendation-duo. Whenever Hannah or Cassie recommend a book on their blogs or Goodreads, I’m all over it. I trust their judgment maybe too much 😉 Beyond that, I love the way she transformed her book blog into something much bigger, with other kinds of really interesting posts. She helped motivate me during No Spend April, also made me more addicted to Foxy Dori, and inspired me with #15beautifuldays.
Jamie @ The Perpetual Page Turner / Broke and Bookish | Jamie’s blog is full of honest, personal posts and how books made her feel or impacted her life. I love reading everything she writes; she’s inspired me more times than one. Of course, I also have to mention her other blog, which has the amazing Top Ten Tuesday meme! Without participating in this, I would never have met SO many poeple out there. It truly brings the blogging community together, inspires people to chat more, and adds endless amounts of books to my TBR.
Also, many thanks to Debby @ Snuggly Oranges for always writing my favorite reviews ever (so funny and spot-on), Amy @ Tripping Over Books for letting me tag along with her at BEA too (I hope we see more of each other!), Alexa @ Alexa Loves Books for being one of the very first blogs I found and followed, and every single other blog on my blogroll that I didn’t mention here. I love following your blogs and chatting with you! And, many thanks to some of the people who have commented the most on my blog the most within recent months: Cynthia @ Bingeing on Books, Erin @ The Hardcover Lover, and Kay @ It’s a Book Life! ♥
I’m a big fan of giveaways that reward multiple people, instead of just one big winner. This giveaway has a few prizes. Three people will win a copy of one of the books I’ve reviewed in the past year. One other person will win an ARC of Cut Both Ways by Carrie Mesrobian, out in September. There will be an option on the Rafflecopter to say whether or not you’d also like a chance to win the ARC. If you already have it, please say “no.” I’ll be checking the winner’s responses to make sure only someone who genuinely wants it ends up winning it.
Happy blogoversary, Lauren! I’ve definitely enjoyed your posts over the year, so I’m hoping you don’t get tired of this hobby anytime soon ;o) You should totally write some writerly posts!
Congratulations Lauren! I’ve been following you for a good few months now since you commented on Book badger aaaaaages ago and I continue to follow you now and I think you’ve had an amazing journey. You’ve grown so much and learnt a lot and you’re still here which is just fabulous! Honestly, I haven’t a clue which book I’d pick, I’d have to have a good route around, but I guess we’ll just have to see what happens 🙂
Congrats on a year! I just realized it’s been 6 for me. I’m shocked I’ve been blogging that long!
Congrats on a year! I’m glad you’ve stuck with it 😀
Happy first blogging anniversary! That’s such an incredible milestone, so you should definitely be celebrating 🙂 Thank you for the sweet shout-out! I’m so glad that you’re a part of this blogging community, and I definitely enjoy visiting your blog. Here’s to more Twitter conversations and blogging experiences to come!
Happy blogoversary!! I love reading your blog and I am so happy you have stuck with it. My one year blogoversary is in November so your blog is just a little older than mine. 🙂 Thanks for the giveaway!
OMG. I am afraid of ketchup too! I thought I was the only one. My husband, my sister, and my brother make fun of me for it all the time. Last night my son was flicking his fork around while eating a hamburger with ketchup on it. Some splattered on my pants and our picnic blanket, and I lost it. I just hate ketchup so much!
One time when I was in high school, my sister, my brother, and I were out to eat at this train car restaurant in Spokane, WA, and my sister and brother found a fake ketchup bottle that shot string while I was in the bathroom. When I returned they shot it at me, I thought it was real ketchup and flipped out. OMG. It still makes me cringe.
Congrats on your one year anniversary.
If I win, I would love a copy of These Broken Stars! Thanks for the giveaway and happy blogiversary!
CONGRATS ON 1 YR. I am so excited for you, and I am so glad that I found your blog a month or so ago. I am in love with your design.
OMG that’s right! SS brought us together! Oh man. I wish you’d seen our texts when we realized everyone might’ve figured it out haha. So glad to have met you! And congrats again on your anniversary! <3
Congrats on one year!!! That’s awesome, and such a good feeling! (And your blog looks way better than mine did at one year LOL)
Thanks so much for the shout out! 🙂 Glad we became friends!
Congrats on your first blogiversary! Most bloggers quit during their first year so way to go being one of the awesome few who didn’t. 😀
Happy blogaversary! It’s such an accomplishment. 🙂 I hope you have another awesome year of blogging!
Krystianna @ Downright Dystopian
Congratulations on your one year blog birthday! I know this year had to be a huge commitment of time and energy, but you are rocking it. I’ve been following in Feedly for a few months, and I just love it. As for what book I would choose, that’s too hard! You’ve reviewed some great ones. I think I’ll leave that decision for if I have to make it! Congrats again!
Congratulations!! That is wonderful, and definitely cause for a huge celebration! Now, I love Friends but to give up reading.. couldn’t do it 😉 I am also with you on the earbud thing- I was SO glad when big headphones became acceptable again, because they do not work for me- I think it is my ear shape? I don’t know.
But wow, a lot of fellow July ’14ers! I should take some kind of Twitter poll to see if anyone else started when I did- that is so fun that you guys share the same blogoversary! Congrats on all the amazing accomplishments, and I hope you have many, many more!
This has been one of my favorite blogs over the past year. Congrats on making it a full year!
CONGRATS!!! Hitting your first blogoversary is a big deal. Time flies when you are blogging about books! I am so happy to have found your blog. I love reading your posts and reviews. 🙂 Afraid of ketchup? It’s kind of funny, except that I understand because I am the same way with onions! I don’t even want them near my person in any form. lol So I hear you.
Happy Blogiversary, Lauren! I’m always so glad that I found your blog in my first few days of blogging that I sometimes forget that we got into this whole thing at the same time because your blog just looked so established the day that I hit “follow”. 🙂
I completely relate to you on keeping a hobby. I quit basketball after five minutes because no one at the Y would pass a ball. I quit lacrosse after two seasons because I hated the girls. The only thing I did stick with for a long time was ballet, but I ended up quitting that after a horrible teacher came in. 🙁
And super long comment is a go:
YAY! Lauren, congrats on one year<3
I'm in awe of your 153 books reviewed. Wow! I can't believe you had a month with 84 posts! That's amazing.
I loved your Thoughts on Book Tropes. The gifs in it? So freaking on point, you're amazing. I love both of your awesome features too.
Writing reviews is tricky! You want to show your personality, but you want to be articulate for publishers, but you also want to be kind of entertaining for readers. It's hard. I understand your struggle. I need to read that review.
The ketchup thing is interesting! I'm like that…but with…mushrooms (not the same, I know, haha).
Apple ear buds are kind of bad, have you tried those new ones? I've found they kind of stick in my ears okay.
I'd love to read a book you wrote. 🙂
Pizza is the best and I've never seen Friends. 🙁
That Isla Is Coming Readalong was just so fantastic! I made my first bloggy friend through it too.<3
Aw, that's so cool that Alyssa lives so close to you!
I'm so glad OTSPSecretSister went so great for you.
Oh wow, this was a really long comment, overall, I'm glad you're still here after a year and didn't stop blogging! I love your blog and I used to visit it a lot and then I stopped because of a huge reading blog slump I was in. 🙁 Happy one year!
Ahhh! Happy Blogoversary Lauren! It’s been so great to go on this first year of blogging with you. From watching you grow into such a great blogger AND being able to witness your transition to self hosted? Oh it’s such a beautiful thing. 😉 I remember when I first visited your blog and I was not able to believe that you had started blogging the same month I did because your reviews were great. Also, it looked like you had your shit together which many people *cough* me tend to struggle with when it comes to the first few months in blogging. Anyway, we shall continue in this journey of blogging and me: finishing up my Book Buddies posts at 7am in class ahaha!
~Kaitlin
Somehow my comment didn’t appear so justto be sure i prefer to try again hoping not to do an exact double^^
Happy Blogoversary and congrats on reaching 1 year, it’s the most difficult step and you have done it so you can be proud but i do hope you will keep enjoying reading and sharing with us for a lot longer
you asked us what book we could hope to win…. your reviews made me add ( or confirm) several on my wishlist so i’m still unsure…. so far i’m hesitating between trial of fire, princess of torns, white hot kiss and court of roses and thons so it will be one of those but i really can’t decide right now
thanks
You are too sweet, I’m so glad that I was your Secret Santa!!! It was soooo hard not to be obvious and comment on all of your blog posts because I love your blog, it’s great 🙂 I’m glad you’ve stuck with it and hope you continue to love blogging! Glad I could bring you Laura and Lindsey too 😉 hehe. Happy Blogiversary!!!! Dream meetings totally count btw 😉
Happy one year blogiversary and to many more books to come 😀
CONGRATS, Lauren!! Happy blogiversary! I’m not sure what book I’d choose. Maybe Lying Out Loud or Under the Lights? I know you liked both of those. 🙂
Happy blogoversary! Wishing you many more wonderful bookish years. Funnily enough, my blog turns four today! As for what book I’d choose? Mayeb Lying Out Loud? I currently have your review open in a tab, so I’m looking forward to seeing what you thought of it!
Happy Blogiversary! I wish you many more happy years in the future!
Happy blogiversary, Lauren! I just loved this little celebration of where you’ve been and how much you’ve accomplished in the last year. I’m a huge fan of your blog, and I’m so glad you joined this community! You totally made my day by including me in your list of blogger shotouts, and I’m so appreciative of your kinds words. I’m a little bit sorry that you’d have more money if it wasn’t for me (haha!) but I’m MORE excited that I’ve introduced you to some of my favorite products AND books. And I loved that Cassie is the other half of your adult-fiction-recommendation-duo 😉
[…] and the first blogger I developed a friendship with was Andi. I did some good shoutouts in my first blogiversary post if that answers the question […]