Let's Discuss: Blogoversary Reminiscing

 

Today is my blogoversary and as you can see in my banner, I've been blogging for a really long time! Lol. And my, how things have changed over these years and I can't help be a little sad about it too. As so many things have changed and I have lost touch with so many other bloggers who were all there throughout the years with me at some point. Blogging isn't for everyone, or it's only for them for a certain period of their life and that's all totally fine! Blogging can be time consuming in itself and that's not even mentioning the reading we do for the blogging part and all the other aspects that come with blogging, such as writing posts, commenting, reading other posts and whatnot. It is a lot.

Blogoversary Reminiscing

I've told my blogging origin story before, but if you're new here and didn't want to dive through all my backlog of posts--and I totally don't blame you at all, it's a LOT of posts--I'll tell you my little story. I was once on a discussion board for Rachel Vincent! This was before blogging got big and I chatted on there a lot with other readers about Rachel's books and our theories. Anyway, Rachel was hosting a contest to win an ARC of her next book in the series we were all loving on and it basically turned into a contest where the most places you posted a review of her books, the more entries you got. 

So when she mentioned writing a blog post, I thought, I can do that! So I found Blogger and created my blog that day. I didn't realize how quickly I needed a blog name, so I thought, well Rachel's book was "a GREAT read" and I mean GREAT, so I went with that! Lol.

Sadly I didn't win that contest, but it ended up being for the best as THAT book had a KILLER cliffhanger! Omg, if I had read an ARC of that I would have been crying hysterically AND having to wait however many months it was until the next book! So yes, sometimes losing is a good thing! Lol. And then I decided, well, I have this blog now, I guess I can keep with it and just post my random blabbing thoughts on books on it since no one in my real life circles liked to read, let alone liked to read the books I liked to read.

And thus the blog was born!

And now, here we are in 2025 and it seems the blogosphere has shrunk drastically. Times are always changing, we've evolved blogs into vlogs (though they were kind of around then too) and TikTok posts, Instagram posts...so many different mediums of expressing our love for books.

And yet, I guess I am an old fuddy duddy as I still like blogging. I still like going with the classic route as that's just how I function best. I HATE public speaking. Don't try to tell me speaking to a camera is different because my brain won't believe you. I will delete the video a thousand and one times and then not end up posting any takes as I will find something to hate about every one of them! Lol. So writing blog posts it is! Writing the reviews in this medium will be how I do it.

Plus, as a reader, I still prefer reading reviews. I don't like watching videos as one, I might not always be in a place where I can listen freely, with or without headphones. So that right there is a HUGE draw to avoid video/vlogs/TikToks. Second, I don't always have time to listen to a 15-20 or 5-10 minute or longer video post. That takes too long. I can read a review faster than that. 

And yes, I've said before I am a slower reader when it comes to books. Or maybe I am comparing myself to audiobook readers, because yes, that is reading! I don't know. But when I can see the length of what I am reading, I can speed myself up and since I'll read a review when there's time to be had, I can read it really quick. Another thing that can't be done with videos, I only ever speed up my podcast to 1.5 as 2 sounded wonky and you only get more chipmunk-y as you increase the speed! Lol.

So I guess what I am trying to say is that I am what you call a classic blogger or a retro blogger. Whichever terminology is your preference! Lol. It's the way I like to blog as a blogger and how I like to interact with other bloggers as well. It's the writing realm that I like and it makes me need to pull out my writing again, get the vacuum to suck up all its dust and get it into shape again to do something with it. I once thought I could maybe share my writing in this space once, but with the shrinking size I am not so sure. I know there are other platforms where I can try to do this but that always made me nervous too. It's a conundrum for sure!

So, I guess Happy Blogoversary to me! If you've been following me for awhile or even a day or a minute, I appreciate you! <3