One year ago today, I posted my very first post on Bookshelf Fantasies. Et voilà! A blogger was born.
When I started Bookshelf Fantasies, I truly had no idea what I was doing. I knew I wanted a creative outlet. I knew I wanted to write about books. I knew I enjoyed posting reviews on Goodreads. I jumped into blogging mainly just to see if I could pull it off. Would I have enough to write about? Would anyone care?
And here I am, a year later, and I’m loving it!
First and foremost, I want to send a sincere THANK YOU to all of the lovely people who have taken the time to visit, to comment, and to offer tips and encouragement. When I started my blog, I had only the vaguest inkling that there was an entire blogging community and that blogging is really a two-way street. I hadn’t thought much beyond the idea of writing and then hitting the “publish” button. What I’ve learned in the past 12 months is how many terrific, generous bloggers are out there, writing and producing amazing content, and offering friendship and connection all at the same time. I didn’t expect to find an online community, but I truly feel that I have — and I am so grateful!
Because I’m a numbers geek, I get a big kick out of playing around with my stats. (That doesn’t sound dirty at all, does it? Maybe I should spice things up a bit…) Here’s what’s happened at Bookshelf Fantasies in the past year:
- 383 total posts! That doesn’t mean that I post every day (honestly, I don’t) — but apparently, there are
days when I’m feeling prolific! - I’ve written 104 book reviews.
- I participated in 50 Wishlist Wednesdays and 30 Top 10 Tuesdays.
- I started two of my own regular weekly features and invited others to join in. So far, there have been 12 Thursday Quotables and 40 Flashback Fridays.
- I’ve written 35 posts in the category “The Reading Life”, about anything and everything in the life of a reader.
It tickles me pink and polka-dotted to realize that just this past week, Bookshelf Fantasies received its 10,000th page view!
I checked to see which posts had the most views, and it’s a weird mix — really, a smattering of everything. Here are the top 10 posts viewed the most this past year:
- Maps of Fictional Worlds — a silly little round-up of cool maps of places like Narnia, Westeros, Middle Earth and Alera.
- My one and only giveaway to date, as part of Armchair BEA. People love free stuff!
- Top 10 Favorite Characters in Epic Fantasy Fiction
- Breed: Lingering Questions (spoilers!)
- Flashback Friday: Flowers for Algernon (I think a lot of my visitors for this post are high school students looking for help with their essays, googling things like “themes in Flowers for Algernon”. Tsk, tsk. No cheating!)
- Book Review: Ocean’s Surrender. This one isn’t a mystery — the author shared the link on her Facebook page!
- A photo montage in honor of The Diviners. Photos of flappers are fun.
- Top 10 Books On My Summer TBR List
- Top 10 Super Long, Super Funny, or Just Plain Super Awesome Book Titles
- A Monster Calls: Review and Reflection
Of the posts I’ve written, my own personal favorites are some of the more personal ones, including:
- A Bookish Sort of Romance. Or, how I met my husband. Yay, books!
- The Final Read-Aloud
- Reading and blogging, chickens and eggs
- My Thanksgiving post from 2012: Giving thanks — a bookish perspective
And on that thankful note, I’ll say it one more time: THANK YOU to all of you who’ve cheered me on, stopped by to visit, offered book recommendations and blogging tips, and most of all, just brightened my day with your own smart, funny, insightful words. I’m so happy to have met you all!
Onward I go! Another blogging year awaits! Year one of Bookshelf Fantasies has been a blast. I can’t wait to see how the next year turns out!
Giveaway time!
To celebrate the 1st anniversary of Bookshelf Fantasies, here’s a giveaway to say thank you to all you nice folks! Enter below to win one of two $10 Amazon gift cards! (You’ll need to click the link – the giveaway widget opens in a new tab or window.)
Bookshelf Fantasies 
Congratulations on your blogoversary! It sounds as if you’ve been posted about a great variety of things! I must have started following you after you posted some of these, so I’ll have to check some of them out now.
The most important lesson I learned from my first year of blogging was that it’s important to network. We didn’t start out using social media, but doing so has helped me meet a lot of new bloggers!
Thanks, Briana! I had no idea that networking and connecting were so important in blogging, but it’s really been fun!
Congrats on a great year!
Thanks, Charleen! I’m so happy to have met you and all the other great bloggers I’ve encountered this year. 🙂
Yay, congratulations on a fabulous year and your 10,000th view!
Many thanks! I appreciate the support and good cheer!
Happy blogoversary!!! I hope you have another fantastic year ahead! 🙂
“What was your biggest lesson from your first year as a blogger?”
I think it was really reaching out and connecting with other bloggers, I can still be shy, but it’s been really great meeting other bloggers and comparing books/TV shows with them! 🙂
Alice @ Alice in Readerland
Thanks for the good wishes, Alice! Speaking as a shy person myself, I agree that meeting other bloggers has really been an unexpected treat for me!
Happy blogoversary and your 10,000th view! Wow, that is a lot of posts in a year. I’ll go check out your Top 10 favorite epic fantasy characters, I guess I didn’t follow you yet when that came out.
My blog was technically a year old on July 1st, but I had a sort of a “false start” there where I began blogging but then went silent for a while, so I’m not sure where to start counting. I’m still not quite sure what I’m doing when I blog, but I’m sure it’ll sort itself out as I go on.
Have a great second year!
Oh, and my biggest lesson learned was that I don’t have to review every book I read, I’ll just psych myself out and won’t blog. That’s why I rarely do reviews these days outside the small ones in my monthly wrap-ups or weekly reading posts. I’m thinking about maybe slowly getting back into it, but with no quota and no pressure.
I think getting away from quotas and numbers is a challenge we all share! There have definitely been times when I’ve felt so pressured to keep up — and then I have to stop and think about why I’m doing this in the first place.
Happy blogoversary Lisa! 🙂 I’ve enjoyed reading your posts and discussing books (and some tv shows!) with you; may you have many many more bloversaries to come 🙂
My biggest lesson from my first year as a blogger…lol, you know, this is a difficult question because I’ve been blogging for quite a long time now so I can’t say if there was a particular lesson that I’ve learned. But in the past four years that I’ve been steadily book blogging, I realised how important networking is. I enjoy blogging and putting my thoughts down on paper/a blank screen but it’s much more fun when you can talk to others about the books you’ve read 😉
I agree! Now that I think back, I realize that I was so clueless… but I really had no idea that the back and forth and sharing of ideas is where a lot of the satisfaction comes from. Thanks for your comments — It’s so much fun to hear from you and discuss all our common interests!
Happy blogoversary! My biggest lesson learned was it’s OK to say no.
Ha! I’m still working on that one. 🙂 Thank you!
Congrats on the anniversary! You have great blog statistics, especially with the reviews! So many more than I have 😀 Good job!
And thanks for the giveaway 🙂
Thanks, Ula! Isn’t it funny how much weight we end up giving to statistics? I’ve had periods where I’ve felt so down — “hey, I poured my heart into this piece and no one read it!!” — that I’ve sworn to stop looking at numbers… but my resolution never lasts!
Happy blogoversary!
I don’t have a blog 🙂 Love the work you guys are doing though..
Thank you! I’m always glad to meet a new book lover!
Happy blogoversary! I think it’s important while always accepting new books for review, that you also don’t overload, and are able to keep reading the books you want to read 🙂
Oh my gosh, yes! I have definitely gone overboard in requesting review copies, and then ended up completely overwhelmed –and resentful that I “had” to read certain books at a certain time. I’m trying to be much more realistic about what I can and can’t fit into my schedule, and trying to leave time to read whatever strikes my mood! Thanks for commenting!