Blogiversary?

Well, so do people still mark the passage of time by "celebrating" their blogiversaries around here? I realized the other day that I've passed through yet another year, making it 12 years since I started this book (and life's other adventures) blog. GO ME!

At any rate, it's made me think about the state of the blog and the state of blogging yet again. And the state of it is sad. Have I fallen out of it enough to not know where the action is anymore? Are people still blogging? Where do I go to reconnect if I'm ready to fully commit again? Are all my old faves still out there? Am I just being a bad blog connector myself these days?

Yeah, I'm pretty baffled with the demise of all things blogging. And I blamed it on my own changing interests, but I'm thinking that it's not all me and that many people are also finding other interests and connecting other places these days, yes? But I feel like I'm missing something. Let me know what you think is the THING these days and where I should be talking books if not here! Should I move my book thoughts to instagram for instance?

Anyway, I do miss the good old days. I'm sad that it's peaked and falling down the other side now. I will always look back fondly on so many fun things that happened through blogging! What a fun ride it's been. I plan to keep writing stuff here, but it tends to now truly be more of a journaling place and a spot for me to keep track of books/dramas and such just for myself, as I think not many people are out there keeping up on blogs anymore. But it will be interesting to see how long I last! Twelve years and counting. Let's see what happens!

The Kpop Konverters One Year Channel Anniversary!

One year ago we created our kpop youtube channel. We went into it a bit nervous and embarrassed and shy and wary and feeling pretty weird about it. But one year later we are so so SO glad we jumped in and just did what we wanted to do. It's been a blast. And just like with book blogging, we ended up meeting and connecting with some really awesome people we would have never found otherwise.

To celebrate our one year birthday, we created another favorite moments and sort of a channel trailer to include stuff from all this past year. This will give you an idea of how crazy much fun we're having doing this silly channel and just embracing the passion. Watch and let me know what you think!






We are also trying to push to a goal of 10,000 subscribers, which totally blows me away! We are so close! So...if you have any sort of inkling to subscribe and see what we come up with next, do it now! :)

Happy Ten Years!!

Well, I almost missed it but TEN YEARS AGO this past week I started this book blog. I went strong for nine years straight! And then faltered during this past year. That makes me so sad! BUT, I'm still here. I'm not done. I'm too attached. And I know there's got to be a way that I can keep going and mesh all my passions together without feeling too guilty about it.

(Yes, I've been trying, but I feel like my K passion is trying to shanghai my book blog, but if I change up the blog, maybe I'll not feel guilty about it anymore, right? These are my thoughts.)

Anyway... here's to ten wonderful years that have been AMAZING. So many things have happened and so many friends have been  made and so many books reviewed and read alongs hosted and author events reported on and bloggiestas hosted and....so so many fun things!

The next 10 years might look a bit different here, but I fully intend to still be around at the end of them! And I hope you all are too!

Nine Years Old!

Nine years ago today I published my first post on this blog. It's been a fun nine years! And after all this time, I'm suffering through my first real and true slump. Keep your fingers crossed that I can dig myself out! (Well, unless you don't really care! LOL!)

I, for one, am hoping I can dig out. But in the meantime, I'll post when the mood strikes, and when I ever read something, and about other things I might be doing.

Anyway, that being said, I thought I'd celebrate by getting a new profile picture. It's time to come out from behind the book stack, don't you think?

I had my daughter and son-in-law take some pictures of me awhile back. They are amazing photographers and I have a bunch to pick from. Here are some of my favorites.

I like this one the most actually. It just looks... normal.

I like the red.

This one is... okay, but others that have seen these choose this one as the best.

A little different take on the red.

Showing my feelings at the awkwardness of getting my picture taken.
It's probably one of my least favorite things ever!

And so, which one (if any) do you like? Or do you think I should stick safely behind the book stack? :)

Oh, and if you like numbers, here are a few from the past nine years:

2918 published posts
20,662 comments
912,580 page views according to Google Stats which started in June 2010
14 Bloggiestas hosted, 6 or so participated in before that
4 Utah Book Months hosted
700+ books reviewed
40+ authors interviewed
10  Dewey Readathons
30+ blog tours
30 posts tagged with Markus Zusak
105 monthly recaps
12 yearly top ten posts
220 top ten lists posted

And... so on and so on and so on!

It's been fun! Here's hoping I'll be here to celebrate number ten next year! And, here's to blogging!

Six Years and Counting

Wow, I had a great time last year with a week long blogiversary celebration to mark my five years of book blogging. This year though, I guess it's a bit of a more subdued thing and I'm just here to say, YAY! Another year down!

It makes me wonder how long I can keep this going! Do you really think I can talk about books forever? Actually, I probably can. Seeing the changes over the years, and the changes recently happening make me a little crazy and nervous though. Hopefully I can keep up with it all. I can't even imagine what things will be like in six more years. But, it's going to be fun to find out, right!? Will you all be here with me? I do hope there is such a thing as blogging in the future, you know?

It's fun to think back on that person six years ago, timidly, yet excitedly, typing out a bunch of book lists (I had a notebook from the past years for reference) and creating some sidebar links, and adding book club information (I was part of two IRL ones and two online ones at the time) and figuring out what it even meant to create a blog.

Then I wrote an About Me page (well, post at the time, no such thing as "pages") and hit the publish button on March 16, 2007. From there I started participating in memes and tags (remember being tagged?) and award things and such until I started getting a few comments here and there. And a few friends here and there. It's so awesome that so many of those first bloggers that I was getting to know are still around!

When I created this blog I truly thought it would be ALL about books. At the time I had anther blog that was more the personal thing. But of course, soon that one died and I started adding more and more personal posts here. To me, it made much more sense to just have one place to write whatever I wanted, with a heavy leaning toward the books. So, my blog which was supposed to be all about books, is now not. But still mostly. So I think it's okay. But now I have a deceiving name! Even though I did add an all encompassing subtitle!

It took a long time for me to really feel like things were happening. I think now when people start a blog, they expect followers and comments and ARCs and I don't know what all, to happen instantly...probably because the whole blogging thing is so much more BIG than it was then. For me, I remember suddenly realizing after more than a year, that there was even such a THING as subscribers. And I found out how I could tell how many and I had... and I saw that 26 people subscribed! I was DYING at that number. And it was well past a year into this! I'll never forget that!

Anyway, I could go on and on with the reminiscing. But instead I guess I shall just say, it's been great. I love it, I still love it. Sometimes I wonder why I love it, and I wonder why I keep doing it, and sometimes I feel that after six years I should be, like, bigger or something, you know, with thousands of followers and all, but then I think, no, really, I'm happy right where I'm at, and that anything more would probably make me crazy.

So, here's to keeping it real, and fun and happy and let's go for many more years!

Announcing the Winners of the Double Blogiversary Giveaway!

I've just plugged numbers into random.org and found the winners of the two books I'm giving away to celebrate my blogiversary. They are:


Nise' from Under the Boardwalk.... winner of The Savage Grace by Bree Despain


and


Hannah from Word Lily... winner of A World Without Heroes by Brandon Mull


Congratulations to you both! I've sent emails asking for your mailing addresses. Please respond soon so I can mail them off to you!

Blogging.... Four Years Later! And a Give Away!

Wow, have things ever changed in the past four years! When I started blogging (book blogging I should say, since I had been doing a personal one at Yahoo 360 for a year by then) I had no idea what a meme was, or an ARC, or anything about numbers/stats/followers, or that there was such a thing as a blog tour, or that there were even very many other book bloggers. I went into it very very clueless. The only thing I knew was that there were challenges, which is one reason I finally started the blog. But that was about it.

But I was excited! I knew this was going to be a blast and that it was something I would love. Four years later, I still love it and hope that it truly will be a life long thing for me. I love the creative outlet that it is. I love that there's a place to let loose my book passion full on and not feel too weird about it. I love the connections I've made and will hopefully continue to make. All those things keep me going.

Things haven't really changed too much around here. I started out with a pretty boring basic blogger look (wow they have some fun ones now!) and then I finally added a picture after about a year and this is what that
header used to look like. That lasted about a year before changing to the look I have now. I wonder when I'll change the next? I don't see it happening for awhile. And if you're interested in some of my favorite posts over the years, I have it's own page here.

So, to look back, I've come up with...surprise surprise... a list.

Top Ten Blogging Moments... So Far

1. When I got my  first comment  by Lisa of Books. Lists. Life. It came three days after I posted my welcome post. She said, on my All Time Favorite List post "What a great idea for a blog post! I might have to steal it."

2. The day I realized I had subscribers. I think when I discovered this, it was over a year after starting my blog, and I had 26 subscribers. I thought that was the coolest thing ever! (Now days when some of you start a blog you have 26 subscribers within minutes!)

3. My first author comment! I'm pretty sure this was by local author J. Scott Savage when I did a post about book fair, and mentioned Fablehaven, and he said his new book, Farworld, was similar. I was so excited! An author commented!

4. That comment actually led to my first blog tour, featuring Farworld and J. Scott Savage. I was thrilled to participate. While I'm not a huge blog tour person, I really enjoy doing them now and then.

5. The first day an unsolicited ARC came in my mailbox, I was freaking out! Right there on the padded envelope it said "Suey- It's All About Books" as if I was a real live important thing. And how did they get my name? And did they REALLY think I had any influence in the reading world? Wow! I was amazed and over the moon excited!

6. The first time I had, like, tens of comments on one post! (I remember this being on my "Lurkers! Delurk! post... 38 comments.) This does not happen very often, even still, but now and then it does and the first time it happened, I was again freaking out. Fun fun stuff, comments.

7. Then came the day we had our first Utah blogger party and I meet bloggers in person for the first time. That was nearly two years after I had started blogging. Oh, that was a scary thing to do. But wow, I'm so glad I went. I'm so glad Natasha was brave enough to do it. I'm so glad for the friendships it has created.

8. Before blogging, I don't remember going to author signings. Now that I've started, I can't seem to quit! The first one I really remember was Brandon Mull, after he had been to our elementary school that morning. Wow, that was a crazy line. And isn't it fitting that I went to his big launch party just last night?

9. My first big blogger event. Wow, there were LOTS of other book bloggers! And participating in these awesome events was a turning point. I think my first one was the first BBAW in September of 2008. I couldn't believe the amount of bloggers... and what's happened since then? There's like a gazillion more.

10. About two years into blogging, I started my first feature... The Bookword Game. It was a joint effort with Raidergirl3 of An Adventure in Reading. We've stopped for now, but it was fun while it lasted.

Wow, what fun it's been! And will continue to be I'm sure.


Now, to celebrate further, I'm having a give away. A SIGNED COPY OF THE BOOK THIEF!!! I hope this gets you all excited as much as it does me, and that lots of you will be interested! Below please find the entry form. I will choose a random winner in just over a week, on Thursday March 25. I will announce the winner here on Friday March 25... then get it signed on Saturday March 26... and hopefully mail it out that day. I'm going to be brave and say that international entries are welcome! I don't care if you follow or spread the word or whatever... that's all up to you.

But... I would LOVE a comment! Just for fun (not required for the giveaway entry.) That can be your "present" to me! Here's some questions for you if that makes commenting easier:

1. If you're a blogger, what's your favorite blogging memory so far?
2. Do you and I have some sort of blogging connection or common memory? If so, describe.
3. Have you read The Book Thief? If so, what did you think?
4. Who's YOUR favorite author?