It’s My 6 Month Blogiversary!!!

Today The Leaning Tower of Tomes turns six months old! Wow, I can’t believe half a year has gone by. That’s a little scary. But in these months I’ve been book blogging, I’ve learned so much and made some awesome friends and had such a fun time. To all of you who read my blog, thank you so much. You guys are amazing and I’ve had so much fun talking about books with you all! Here’s to many more months of bookishness to come! Cheers!

In the last six months I have read 83 books and reviewed 77 of them, my very first review, as well as blog post, being for Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. My most popular review ever (currently) is for The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin. My least popular review, which I find absolutely shocking, is for Let the Sky Fall by Shannon Messenger. I loved that book, so I highly suggest checking out my review to see if it’s something you’d enjoy. I also read and reviewed its sequel, Let the Storm Break, which you should definitely check out, too.

Some of my favorite reviews that I’ve written have been for: Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas (loved it), Hourglass by Myra McEntire (loved it), Let the Sky Fall by Shannon Messenger (loved it), The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin (loved it), and The Young Elites by Marie Lu (had very mixed feelings about it). My review of The Young Elites is probably my favorite review so far. Also, probably my longest. I had so much to say about it, and I think (I hope) I relayed it concisely.

Besides reviews, my most popular post is Top Ten Tuesday — Books I Want to Read from the Historical Fiction Genre. (I still haven’t read any of those books on it… But I did post that list only on February 3rd, so that’s not so terrible, now that I think about it.) My Top 5 Wednesday — Favorite Antiheroes got a lot of love, too, as did my 2014 Annual End of Year Book Survey. Least popular? My Eve Trilogy by Anna Carey Series Wrap-Up. Which I also find shocking because that trilogy was really great and I had so much to say about it in the wrap-up as well as the individual reviews.

This blog has been through three WordPress themes: Comet, Penscratch, and, currently, Sela. On February 10th, I finally created my blog’s logo/button, whatever you want to call it. I’m very proud with how it turned out. Doesn’t it look pretty? 🙂

EDIT, 8/26/2015: I have a new logo! Let’s do a side-by-side comparison shall we? The one on the left is my very first blog button attempt. The one on the right is my new logo. A fresh start for a new year of blogging!

 

In terms of blogging itself, I thought I’d use this chance to talk about what I am planning for the future. I, of course, will be posting reviews, first and foremost. Full reviews for every book I read, with my usual series wrap-ups and monthly wrap-ups. (Maybe some weekly wrap-ups if I’m feeling up for it. We shall see.) I want to try participating in more Top Ten Tuesdays and Top 5 Wednesdays, and some more tag posts, regardless of if I’m tagged by people or not. I also want to write up more of my own lists and do a few more 10 Under 10k posts. (Click here and here if you don’t know what 10 Under 10k is.) Maybe even some more book cover color recommendations. (Click for green and red-covered book recs.) I also want to finally join the bandwagon for some crazy popular series I haven’t yet read… (*Cough, cough,* Mortal Instruments.) As well as do some movie/tv adaptation reviews and comparisons, because you know how films and shows can change things that are in the books.

In terms of a posting schedule, I don’t have a set one. I’ll post reviews as I finish reading books and write about them, so that’ll be whenever. Top Ten Tuesdays and Top 5 Wednesdays will go up on their respective days, hopefully (I’ve been late with a few of them, but better late than never, right?). And monthly wrap-ups I aim to get up no more than a week after the end of the month they’re wrapping up. I also don’t know if I’ll be posting daily. I’m aiming now for every other day, so three or four times a week. Posting daily is impressive, but it’s a bit stressful when I don’t have a bunch of scheduled posts ready to go. I’ve got a lot going on in my life these days so I haven’t been reading as much or been nearly as involved in the book blogging community as I’d like. I aim to comment on a couple interesting blog posts I find every day. I want to post to my Instagram every day, and I want to use Twitter effectively. It’s been weeks, if not months, since I did much on Twitter besides having WordPress automatically tweet post links.

Oh, yeah, and last, the community. YOU GUYS! I’ve found so many amazing book lovers that I never knew existed! I have literally zero in-person friends who love reading as much as I do, so you guys are the best. You rock. I read so many of your own blogs and am inspired and motivated every day by your blogging. If you haven’t already, go check out my award posts, the One Lovely Blog Award and the Very Inspiring Blogger Award, where I’ve tagged some excellent fellow book nerds. Seriously, though, every single one of you guys, whether or not you’re a blogger or just a person who loves books, means so much to me. I love this community and can’t wait to keep on talking and fangirling about books with you all! (((HUGS!!!)))

So thanks for help shaping The Leaning Tower of Tomes into the blog it is today. And I really can’t believe it’s been SIX MONTHS since I started blogging. Times sure flies…

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