The Slightly Boring History of My Blog

This blog came into existence on a snowy day back in December when I was bored out of my mind. After resorting to perusing some back issues of Oprah magazine, I came across an article written by Oprah herself entitled "What I Know For Sure." After reading it, I asked myself that same question. What in the world did I know for sure? I was only sixteen, after all. I didn't know that much. The one thing that came to mind was that I, without a doubt, loved books.

That article talked about achieving success through service. It said that once you find your calling you should utilize it in a way that benefited not only yourself but others as well. Well, I consider reading to be something constant in my life that I excel at. It has been a source of relaxation, distraction, and even a self-confidence booster. While reading itself may not fall under that category of my "calling," I wanted to do something that would make my hobby useful to other people, to make it count.

"How the heck am I supposed to go about this?" was my next thought. I was inspired to do something, but I didn't know what that something was. My creative juices dried up and I pretty much ran into a brick wall as far as ideas went. So, like any tech savvy person, I hit up Google.

I'm sure you're all familiar with Random Buzzers, Random House's teen site. I had already been a member for a few months but I wasn't very active in it. That day, with some coaxing from Google, I logged in and looked around. I clicked randomly on other user's names and found that there was a place on the side for links. Seeing that more than a few of these people had links titled "My Blog," the wheels in my brain started turning. (The Book Reader, for example.)

What is a blog? How can I make one? Would I even be good at it? I had so many questions and apprehensions. Then, the answer to that last one answered everything. Did it matter? I didn't expect anyone to read it or actually care about its' content. Plus, it was the INTERNET. Chances are, I didn't personally know any of the people that would accidentally stumble upon it anyway. So, really, I could just create a blog and do whatever the heck I wanted with it! There were so many options and possibilities, so much freedom. I could post about books all day long if I wanted and no one would get annoyed or bored with me. I was just excited to have an outlet.

Let's skip ahead through all the technical account making stuff and directly to my first post. It seems like a lifetime ago that I clicked the "Publish Post" button for the first time ever. Now it's been over six months and I've had over one hundred posts. I've done interviews, reviews, contests, and lots more bookish posts.

I want to thank Oprah for the inspirational article, all the bloggers on Random Buzzers that opened my eyes to the YA blogging community, the readers of my blog, and the authors that write the awesome books that keep my tbr pile forever taller than me. You've made this blog a success.

I want to apologize for not updating as often as I have in the past as of late. I attended a Summer Honors Institute all last week and didn't have much time leftover for blogging! I promise I'll make it up, though! Hmm...maybe a contest in the near future?

I also want to say to any new/potential bloggers reading this- don't hesitate to write about your passions. Blogging is great fun and beneficial to something bigger than yourself in my opinion.

Now would also be a good time to announce that once I hit 100 followers (only 8 more!) there will be an awesome contest for followers only. Commenting on this before the contest post goes up might earn you some extra entries...

Thanks for reading,
Katie