Celebrating My 6 Month Blogiversary!

So, today, I’m here to celebrate my six-month blogiversary!

Some people might not think of that as a huge deal, but I’ve achieved so much that I really didn’t think I would in such a short amount of time! I’m so surprised that my blog has grown so much – I honestly thought I’d be lucky enough to get 100 followers in my first year, so you guys are all wonderful, obviously! I wanted to share some stats, mainly so when I finally hit that first year, I’ll be able to compare. I LIKE COMPARING MY STATS, OKAY.

• 555 Followers
• 13, 853 Overall Page Views
• 5,997 Overall Page Visitors

Jordz The Bibliophile asked:

“What’s the number one thing you’ve learned from blogging?”

How to organize myself better and plan earlier for sure! I’m a huge procrastinator in real life and in school, so it’s genuinely surprised me how much better I am regarding blogging! Obviously, I should start putting it to the test since I’m going to be a junior this year (I’M FINE; TOTALLY FINE).

Amalia C. Reads asked:

“How do you listen to music (like on shuffle, an album start to finish, through playlists, etc.)?”

Ooh, such an interesting question! When I listen to music on Spotify, I usually just skip around on albums and different songs. I’m one of those people that gets obsessed with certain albums and songs and only listens to those albums and songs before I get involved with new music and the cycle starts all over again. Usually, during long car rides or when my family drives somewhere for vacation, I tend to binge through entire albums.

Camillea Reads asked:

“What’s your blogging schedule like? How do you plan what to write in advance?”

My schedule is Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays! I post reviews on Mondays, and something else bookish related (or not bookish related) on the other days! I’ll be having a whole post about my blogging schedule next month! I usually plan in advance by writing down a bunch of ideas one day. When I decided to plan for a month, I pick and choose which posts I’m going to write for that month, and then I write them! If you want a full tutorial about how I plan ahead, you can check it out here!

“What would you like to see more of in books?”

I actually have a post coming up about this next month, so I’m not going to spoil the surprise! But it’s a lot.

“Do you write fiction?”

I used to, but I don’t anymore! I still have my old laptop and journals that I used to write in, and I am planning on writing a post where I take a look at some of my old writing, which is going to be both cringe-worthy and entertaining.

“What’s your favorite character trope?”

If unreliable narrators are a character trope, then that’s mine. I can never turn down a good psychological thriller with an unreliable narrator at the forefront. And I also am totally in love with snarky anti-heroes. GIVE ME ALL OF THEM.

Maddy’s Digital Diary asked:

“Top 5 favorite books?”

YOU KNOW I CAN’T CHOOSE. I wouldn’t even know where to start, to be honest.

“If you could meet one author (alive or dead) who would it be?”

J.K. Rowling for sure! I don’t know if anyone has even met her in real life (and if they have, I hate them), but it’d be so nice to get to talk with her and get my books signed by her!

“What do you love most about blogging?”

Definitely the sense of community! Nothing makes me happier than getting notifications and new followers and getting better stats every month, especially since I work SO HARD on all my posts! You guys are awesome!

Misty’s Book Space asked:

“What’s your favorite thing about blogging?”

Besides the sense of community, I also love improving on things! My graphics and pictures from when I first started blogging weren’t too good, but as time has gone by, I’ve improved more and more. I’m hoping this means that if my blog lasts for years, I would be the Graphics and Bookish Pictures Queen, but it’s only a dream!

“What’s your least favorite thing about blogging?”

HOW MUCH TIME IT TAKES. It kills me how long it will take to make certain posts – I spend hours on my Most Anticipated Releases posts. HOURS.

“How do you plan out your blog posts and how do you keep up with it?”

I talked about how I plan out my blog posts in another question, but I usually keep up with it using Planner Pro and the Notes app on my phone. Planner Pro is an awesome app that I’ve talked about in a post I reference above, and that’s where I schedule things for each day. The Notes app is where I dump all my ideas for blog posts and my outlines for posts. It’s organized for me, though if I showed you them, you’d probably be like, “What the heck is going on here???” I usually try to write two posts a day when I’m free so I can make it through a month’s worth of posts easier.

“What is your all time favorite book that you could never get tired of?”

Hm, I don’t know if I have an all-time favorite book, but that’s mainly because I suck at keeping favorites. I think my top choice would be The Order of the Phoenix since that’s my favorite book in the series.

“What is your biggest disappointment (book wise) so far this year?”

Easily The Love Interest! It wasn’t terrible, but after hyping it up so much and then reading it, it definitely didn’t reach its full potential. It really sucks that I didn’t like this one more, but looking at the Goodreads reviews, it seems I’m not the only one.

Bridget and Books asked:

“I was wondering how you manage to come up with your blogging discussion topics? How do you find the inspiration that makes you go ‘ya know, that’d be a great discussion topic!’?”

I actually covered this recently in my tutorial in how to write a discussion post, which you can check out here! Hopefully, this will help you!

“What is your routine prior to sitting down and writing a post? Do you have to light your favorite candle or open your window or listen to music?”

Nope, none of those things! I write my posts on my laptop, so I usually just sit on my bed and type, type, type! I’m one of those people that has to write a blog post all in one go, or I don’t do it all, so there’s that!

My Booky Life asked:

“What’s one bookish superpower you want?”

The power to read all the books on my TBR, obviously.

“If you could change anything about the blogosphere, what would it be?”

Hm, I don’t know. I honestly can’t think of anything on the top of my head. I’m pretty satisfied with the blogosphere!

“Shoutout your favourite blogs!”

Molly’s Book Nook, It Starts At Midnight, She Latitude, Read At Midnight, Inside My Library Mind, and Sparkling Letters are most of my biggest blogging inspirations! I’ve linked to most of them in my post about what makes me follow a book blog, which you can check out here!

Beaucoup Books asked:

What are your hobbies outside of blogging?

Uh, not many? I’m not a very hobby-oriented person. I do run track, but I don’t like it and the only reason I do it is because my parents think it’ll look good on my college resume. So, yeah.

What are your career aspirations?

I want to work in publishing! Not sure where yet, but it’s something that’s been interesting me lately. I really want to work somewhere related to books, and publishing seems to fit best for me.

Favorite blogs or blogs you look up to?

I already listed them above, so I won’t do it again! So many of you guys asked this question, so I’ll just refer back to the first time I was asked!

Forever and Everly asked:

“What are some blogs you want to check out? (Like if you’ve heard any blogs but haven’t been able to look at them yet.)”

Hm, I don’t really have any that I’m itching to check it out, but I guess I could count some of the blogs that have been commenting on my posts that I have yet to check out!

“How has blogging changed you?”

I’ve become more involved in social media, I’m totally failing at reading, and I spend probably way too much time writing posts. Honestly can’t tell if any of these are good or bad things.

“What genre do you want to read more of? What genre are you getting tired of?”

Horror! I feel like I haven’t been reading too much of it lately! And I don’t really think I have a genre I’m tired of, but I do feel like I’m in a fantasy slump, and really haven’t been able to finish any fantasy books yet this year, so there’s that!

“What do you want to be known as in the blogosphere?”

The Queen of Blogging, obviously. Have I achieved it yet???

“How would you change the world, if you could?”

Get Donald Trump out of office??? Dismantle systematic racism and sexism??? Fix the justice system??? Get rid of all sorts of terrorism??? Get rid of evil in general??? Stop global warming??? THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS I CAN’T EVEN.

What Cathy Read Next asked:

“What’s the thing you most wished you’d known when you started blogging?”

Probably that it would take all my time. And that I have to be patient before success will come to me. I almost gave up on blogging in the first month because I felt like I was going nowhere, but I just really had to be patient (which I suck at, for the record).

“When you look back at your first blog post, what do you think of it now?”

My first blog post was the Book Blog Newbie Tag – you can find it right here! It’s not the best post in the world, but it’s actually not as bad as I thought it’d be! It is very boring and plain, though, and has a totally different feel than the posts I have now.

“What plans/objectives have you got for your blog for the next 6 months?”

I think my main objectives are usually just to grow my blog and social media accounts! Getting new followers and readers and commenters and growing via Twitter and Bloglovin’ are usually my goals every month. I honestly don’t really have super specific goals for my blog – I’m just happy with the achievements I manage to make along the way.

Lost In A Story asked:

“Which character would you steal from their fictional world? (He/she wouldn’t be able to go back and he/she would have to live in this world)”

I want to be super selfish and steal Rhysand or Rowan because those are my go-to, BUT I don’t want to be that one person who separates my favorites from two of my favorite ships. I’m not that cruel. I’m choosing Katniss because, obviously, she needs to get out of that cruel world she lives in.

“If you could make two characters (from two different fictional worlds) meet each other, who would it be and why?”

Rowan and Rhysand because I’m curious of how it would go down. And because I think if they struck up a friendship, it’d be sort of cute? And they’re both hot.

“What’s your guilty pleasure read?”

I don’t really HAVE guilty pleasures, but I’ll occasionally read M/M romance novels! I don’t review them on my blog or anything, and I typically read them quickly and because they can get me out of reading slumps if I’m in one.

Allonsythornraxxbooks asked:

“Least favorite book?”

Ooh, probably a tie between The Winner’s Crime and The Retribution of Mara Dyer. I hated both books for different reasons, but they both annoyed me.

“Do you ever regret reading a book?”

No, not really! I like ranting about books I don’t like! Is that a bad thing?

“Currently watching?”

I’ve been watching a lot of movies lately, and I’m not going to bother listing them all because that’d be too many pictures, but it’s been a lot of action movies and thrillers. Regarding TV, I’ve been getting back into Supernatural (I MISSED IT SO MUCH) and I’m planning on finishing Hannibal and probably re-watching Queer as Folk for the fourth time. I also finished season 2 of How to Get Away With Murder recently, AND CONNOR AND OLIVER GIVE ME LIFE. I’m so ready for season 3.

“Do you multitask when you write your blog posts?”

I do! I actually write my blog posts while listening to Youtube videos or movies in the background. Usually, I watch things I’ve already watched before so I can just listen and focus on typing. It’s become a huge part of my blogging routine.

“Do you like candles?”

No, not really! I don’t have any money to spend, and when I do, it’s on books and that’s it. I’m not really one for candles.

Molly’s Book Nook asked:

“Which book character would you want as your best friend?”

I’m going to cheat and say a four-way tie between Hermione, Annabeth, Feyre, and Aelin. We’ll form a badass girl gang together, obviously.

“What is a one-week blogging schedule for you?”

I already talked about my blogging schedule in an earlier question, but regarding writing posts, now that it’s summer, I aim to write two posts every day! I don’t keep TOO strict to that nowadays since I have SO MUCH time to write all my August posts, but I’m doing it any way because I’m bored.

“What time of day is your favorite time to read (morning, afternoon, night, before bed, etc etc)?”

I don’t think I have a particular time to read, I just do it if I’m in the mood. I have the tendency to just read in the afternoons, though!

“Coffee or tea?”

Neither! I’m not interested in drinking them (I KNOW, THE SCANDAL).

Reading Every Night asked:

“Aside from reaching six months on WordPress what has been your best blogging achievement?”

I’d think 500 followers in 6 months was a pretty great achievement! I was really not expecting to get 500 followers in this short amount of time, to be honest. I was shocked to get 100, and as the number grows, it blows my mind.

What has been your favorite post so far?

I really liked my post about the evolution of my blog, my first ever discussion post, twenty-five facts about me, my list of favorite TV shows, and recommendations based off of TV shows!

Is there anything you discovered through WordPress, a book/genre/other, that you don’t think you would have discovered had you not started blogging?

No, not really. Is that a bad thing? I feel like that’s mainly because I haven’t been reading too much this year. I do think I know way more about release dates than I think I should.

What to-be-released book would you give anything to have in your hands right now?

I pretty much got all the books I was begging for at Bookcon, so none right now, to be honest! But if I had to choose one book from my haul that I’m excited for, it’s They Both Die At the End. Adam Silvera is a national treasure.

If you could recommend one book to the world what would it be and why? 

I’m going to recommend two books because I’M A CHEATER, and they’re going to be Finding Jake and I’m Thinking Of Ending Things. Finding Jake is a literary thriller from the POV of a stay-at-home dad where a school shooting takes place at his son’s school and his son is one of the few kids who doesn’t walk out, making him wonder if he raised his son wrong to the point where he was the shooter. IT WAS SO HEART-BREAKING. And I’m Thinking Of Ending Things is a psychological thriller that’s very strange and unsettling, and once you finish it, you’ll sit there in shock. You will not predict what happens in this book. It’s so good and doesn’t get enough love.

If you could travel to any place, real or fictional, where would you choose?

Since Hogwarts is too obvious, it would be the Night Court, obviously.

What three wishes would you make if you came across a genies lamp?

To have all the guaranteed time to read all the books on my TBR, to be able to concentrate better when I read, and to be able to have some sort of ability where if every single person in the book world is raving about a book that I could care less about, I can stop hearing about it. That sounds cynical.

Blots of Ink And Words asked:

“How has your outlook on blogging changed since you started?”

I didn’t really have any outlook on blogging before I started – I didn’t even really read other blogs until a week or so before I started. But I certainly thought it’d be much easier, that I’d be writing posts in ten minutes and publishing them and everyone would come to me easily. HAHAHAHA NO.

“What makes you instantly like a book?”

I don’t think I really have anything that really makes me instantly like a book. As long as I’m deeply into it, I’m involved with a book. I don’t really even think about if I like or dislike a book unless I’ve had super strong emotions while reading it (whether they’re good or bad).

Thanks so much for those who asked me questions! I very much appreciated it and all of you guys’ support!

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