Tag Archives: blogiversary

Two Years of Blogging Celebration + Giveaway

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twoyears

That’s right! My blog is officially two years old! I can’t believe it. I never thought that I’d become a blogger – a passionate blogger – let alone a book blogger. But I am so happy to be here sharing my thoughts, feelings, and passions with all of you.

When I started blogging two years ago, I was nervous. Excited, but nervous. Would people even look at my blog? Comment on my stuff? Interact with me? I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t doing it for the “fame” in the beginning, because who doesn’t want their five minutes, you know? But pretty soon after I started I fell in love with it. Interacting with all of you – my peeps – is one of the joys that brings me back to my blog every day. I love seeing comments and commenting on other’s blogs (which I still need to work on, I know!), and then interacting on Twitter and Instagram… it’s so worth it!

I fell in love with books all over again because of blogging and book community. Not only is the book community the most welcoming community I’ve ever seen on the Internet, but there’s also so many passionate and diverse voices here that it sparked my love for reading all over again. Once people were excited over a book, so was I! It was fun to talk about and gush or gripe over books – and it still is!

When my first blogiversary came around, my numbers and content (and amount of books on my shelves) were much smaller than they are now, but I was still so grateful to have faithfully stuck with book blogging and having those connections with people and books and more.

Now, two years after I started blogging, I’m so excited to see how far I’ve come and where I can see myself going. I’ve had such a great time this past year and I have some of those milestones to share with you.

What Happened This Last Year

  • Between July last year and July this year I’ve read and reviewed 57 books, novellas, short stories, and audiobooks. That’s a lot for me and I am so amazed at how far I’ve come in that time!
  • I’ve had 43 discussions. Wow. I had a lot to say, apparently!
  • I went to my first author book signings in YEARS and got to meet my favorite author. Actually I went to three: Jodi Meadows and Erin Bowman, Sarah J. Maas, and Maggie Steifvater! All of the authors were so lovely and nice.
  • I participated in a lot more events and readathons, like Love-a-thon, Make Me Read, and more.
  • I even started the ToGReadalong with some bookish friends!
  • I’ve met more awesome bookish people through Twitter chats, which I am very thankful for. Such Twitter chats have been #BBTC and #RQWN.

What I’m Looking Forward To

  • Reading more books! I feel like I never have enough time in my day to read as much as I want anymore, but I hope to just continue reading and having fun doing it.
  • I’m obviously going to keep posting more on my blog, but I want to do some new and different things in the next year. I’m going to look into different things so they’ll be a surprise when/if they happen!
  • I’ve been neglecting my YouTube channel, and I don’t know if I’ll continue to make videos or not, so I’m going to be debating on an upload schedule and trying to stick to it.
  • Go to more book signings and events! I’m going to make it my mission to go to some sort of book convention whether it be this year or next year, but I really want to go and meet so many people!

The Giveaway

I’m giving away a $25USD gift card to Society6! You’ll be able to choose whatever design and item you want up to $25 (any additional fees are up to you to pay). I’ll be sending the gift to you via email, so be sure to keep a lookout! I’ll obviously email the winner beforehand so that they’re aware of it and all of that. Yes, the giveaway is international because they do have worldwide shipping! Just make sure they ship to your country, obviously.

Click here for the giveaway!

A Big Thank You

I feel like this year is going to get better, just like how I thought last year that it would get better – and it has! I’m so excited to be part of such an awesome community and I just want to thank you all for being part of this journey with me. You’re all lovely and beautiful and my peeps (yes, the fluffy marshmallow chicks). Thank you all for sticking around and I hope to have many more conversations with you all and continue to grow and be passionate and have more fun than before.

Let’s Chat! ≧◡≦

What has been YOUR favorite post that YOU’VE done on your blog and why? Share with me your links so I can check them out and visit your blogs! It’s all about connection here and I want to connect more with you all, so show me your favorite/best/most creative post/video/Instagram photo that you’ve got!

One Year Blogiversary!

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Wow, a whole year has come and gone since I started blogging and vlogging. In fact, my first post here wasn’t even an introductory post, but a review on the Divergent series and movie. It’s been a great ride and I am so happy to have been able to share it with all of you. Truly, it makes me happy to know that so many people have joined in conversation with me, have read my reviews and discussions, and have just overall been a great support.

I’m still in awe over the great things that have happened since I became a Booktuber, and subsequently, became a blogger. Here are some fun statistics from the past year:

  • I’ve read and reviewed a total of 47 books over the past year! Wow! That’s a lot, in my opinion.
  • I’ve held 19 discussions about various topics floating around the book world, or just from my own thoughts.
  • I’ve participated in five or six readathons this summer alone. They’re a little stressful but still fun.
  • I’ve held eight different talks varying from a blog tour to talking about the cast of the Shadowhunters TV show.
  • I’ve done 9 book tags that have different themes to them.
  • I’ve participated in both Top Ten Tuesday and Top 5 Wednesday, as hosted by their respective party.
  • I started Rayna Recommends, a bi-monthly recommendation list on a certain topic or genre.
  • I’ve done 9 book hauls and 2 unhauls. Sometimes you win some, sometimes you lose some.
  • I do talk about writing occasionally, but as this is primarily a book review blog, it doesn’t happen often. Though I have progressed a lot since I first started NaNoWriMo last November.
  • I’ve done four movie reviews; if there’s a book-to-movie adaptation that I’ve seen/will see, I might do a review on it!
  • As of this moment, I have a total of 156 followers for this blog. WOW! You guys are the best and are definitely part of what makes this such a fun experience. I’m glad I’ve been able to talk to some of you and had some conversations with you. Thank you for that!

Suffice it to say, I’d call that a productive year. I have never read so many books before in such a short span of time, despite loving to read so much. I feel like this past year has been amazing for me, and it’ll only continue to get better.

Now I don’t have any big celebration planned or anything, but I am considering doing a Q&A for anyone interested in knowing more about me, my reading habits, vlogging, and more! Let me know in the comments below if you’d be interested.

You can also post your question here or tweet me your question with #AskReaderRayna

Thank you to all of you who have followed, liked, commented, shared, chatted, and read anything on my blog! It’s been a great year and I hope to see much more in store in the years to come!