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Top Ten Reasons I Love Being A Blogger

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Top Ten Reasons I Love Being A Blogger

1. Keeping up to date with bookish news – before I was a blogger, I only knew that my favourite authors had new books out when I saw them in a bookshop or at the library, which is far too late! As a blogger, I get to know about books, events, conferences, and all sorts of other wonderful things that I might otherwise have missed out on.

2. Finding out what other people thought of books and issues surrounding books – I love the community. I am passionate about books, reading, writing, libraries and diversity, and love talking and reading about a wide variety of book-related issues. Being this obsessed can sometimes get a bit awkward, but most of the time it’s worked out well!

3. Instant gratification – Not only do I love it when I update my blog and people comment straight away, but I also love being able to go online whenever I want and explore other people’s blogs.

4. Connecting with people on other forms of social media – Blogging has lead me to find and follow so many interesting people. I am a complete Twitter addict, but I also love Instagram and Facebook.

5. Memes – a great excuse to indulge my love of lists. Oh look, I’m writing one now.

6. Communications with publishers, invites to events, and review copies – I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t love all this stuff and that it didn’t make me feel good!

7. It looks good on my CV – I have had a couple of conversations at job interviews about blogging and social media, even when the job wasn’t directly related to those things.

8. Pretty pictures – books make great eye candy, don’t they? I love finding and making pictures of books.

9. Discovering books I might otherwise not have heard of – my wishlist is always increasing and although I enjoy knowing what is popular, I love finding out about a book I might otherwise never have read.

10. Sharing my opinions – I started to blog in the first place for the same reason as almost everybody else – I thought some other people might be interested in my opinions about books. I haven’t always been someone with confidence in my own opinions, and blogging has really helped me practice expressing my thoughts in written form.

Which of these reasons made your Top Ten list? Let me know in the comments!
Top Ten Tuesday was created and is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Twelve Posts of Christmas (and New Year): Twelve – My Favourite Posts of 2013

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Happy New Year! Today is the tenth day of Christmas, and the third day of 2014! I’m sad that the festive season is nearly over but looking forward to all that I’m going to achieve in this new year.

Today I’ve decided to take one last look back at 2013 and share my favourite blog posts that I’ve written (and videos that I’ve made) this year. I posted 77 times on this fleeting dream this year, which beats all previous records! I’ve kept up with my Monday Amusements and took part in Top Ten Tuesday as often as I felt able.

My favourite Top Ten Tuesday topic of 2013 was from January, Most Frustrating Characters Ever. It was so much fun to write, and I loved reading other people’s lists too.

I wouldn’t be the person I am today without libraries, so in February I celebrated National Libraries Day by writing a list of Ten Things I Love About Libraries – a topic I will be revisiting soon for Bookish Brits.

May was one of my most productive months, at least on this blog. I wrote another of my favourite Top Ten Tuesday posts – Books Dealing with Tough Subjects, and then launched Diary of a Crush Week, to celebrate the new paperback release of this series I’ve loved since my teens. It began with my first Celebrating Series post, and although I didn’t get to write any more of them in 2013 I have lots of ideas for series to feature this year.

In June, before packing up all my books for The Great Redecoration, I filmed a bookshelf tour. This was my first YouTube video ever! It’s quite dark and shaky, but I’ve learned a lot about making videos since, thanks to the Bookish Brits project, and when I eventually get around to filming my ‘after’ bookshelf tour, I’m sure it will be much better!

As the days got shorter, I started to think about getting the most out of the limited daylight, and in September I wrote Reading in the Afternoon, Blogging in the Evening. I have started writing in the morning and afternoon too, so that I can get the most out of my energy first thing, but I still prefer to blog in the evening.

Finally, in December, I started this Twelve Posts of Christmas (and New Year) series. I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out and will definitely be revisiting it next year. I enjoyed writing them all, but I think my favourite post was number four – Presents I Would Buy for Characters.

If you write your own round-up of your favourite posts, please do share the link in the comments.