5th Blogging Anniversary

Published on by Celeste

This year marks five years since I started this book review blog. This past Saturday, March 21, marked five years to the day since I published my first post, which was also my first book review. It’s been a fun and rewarding past five years. I’m so glad I decided to create this space to publish my little reviews into the void. I’ve met some awesome bloggers along the way and found so many amazing books. It took time and effort to build/join this community and find the bloggers I jive with, but it’s been totally worth it!

Chris @ Biblio Nerd Reflections also celebrated his 5th blogiversary a couple of weeks ago. He decided to take a look back at his past five years. So I unabashedly took the same approach and used his template. Definitely go check out Chris’s own five-year reflection!

First & Last Post

My very first post is a book review about Crisis in the Red Zone by Richard Preston. I guess the whole pandemic thing in March 2021 didn’t snuff out my interest in pandemic-related reading. That’s not exactly a surprise since I now know I tend to turn to reading as a coping mechanism, whether it’s pandemics or politics or social issues.

My last post is about Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins. In typical fashion, I don’t tend to pick up new releases right away, mainly because my TBR is huge. But I wanted to read this so I can go see the movie when it comes out later this year.

Most Underrated Reads

The Navigating Fox by Christopher RoweThe Tusks of Extinction by Ray NaylerA Season of Monstrous Conceptions by Lina RatherThe White Octopus Hotel by Alexandra Bellbook cover of four treasures of the sky by jenny tinghui zhang

Some of my most underrated reads that quickly come to mind are: The Navigating Fox by Christopher Rowe, The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler, A Season of Monstrous Conceptions by Lina Rather, The White Octopus Hotel by Alexandra Bell, Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang. As I put this together, it’s interesting that all these books have animals on their covers!

Blog Post Picks

Most Viewed Posts

Posts I Wish Had Gotten More Love

Disappointing Reads of My Blogging Tenure

Immortal Pleasures by V. Castro

Since I read so much, I’m bound to encounter more subjective duds than perhaps the average reader. These are a few of my disappointing reads over time: Immortal Pleasures by V. Castro, A Light in the Sky by Shina Reynolds, Granted by Kendra Thomas, Prophecy of Love by T. Satterfield, and Immortal Souls by Phoenix Vieira. Most of these are ARCs I read early in my blogging hobby. I definitely read a few duds in an effort to get my review ratio up on NetGalley. Now I feel I’m more discerning in my preferences.

New Favorite Authors Found Through Blogging

Thorn Hedge by T. Kingfisher

Blogging introduced me to a ton of authors that I might not have found as quickly otherwise. Some of those are Shauna Lawless, T. Kingfisher, Olivie Blake, and Hannah Whitten. I’ve fallen behind on most of these authors, but overall I enjoy what they’ve written. If anyone has read all of Kingfisher’s books, I applaud you.

Favorite Blogs

As Chris mentioned in his own blogiversary reflection, the best part of blogging is the community. There are a lot of awesome book bloggers out there. The ones listed below are blogs I’ve been following for a while. And most of these folks have been part of my community for a long time, too. Chris was actually the very first book blogger to consistently interact with me, and I’ll be forever thankful for that since it’s so hard to gain traction as a newbie book blogger. But with hard work and consistency (both blogging and blog hopping) I feel like I’m in a comfortable spot now. 🙂

And that’s a wrap for my 5th blogging anniversary! Thanks for celebrating with me and joining me on my blogging endeavors, whether you’re an older or newer follower. All are welcome here!

32 thoughts on “5th Blogging Anniversary”

  1. Congratulations on your fifth anniversary of blogging. My blog celebrates the same anniversary next Saturday. We obviously started blogging at pretty much the same time 😃Thank you for the shout out and hopefully we’ll both be blogging for a few years yet.

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    1. Thank you! It’s kind of funny how many of us started our blogs in March, specifically in 2021. I guess being stuck at home during the pandemic a year after it started will do that to you!

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  2. Congrats on 5 years! Blogging seems to be losing momentum in general these days, so I appreciate every blogger who is still out there plugging along. I love your blog because you read so widely, and you always introduce me to books I might not have found on my own😁 Thanks for the shout out, and here’s to many more years!

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    1. Thanks, Tammy! That’s kind of you to say I read widely, haha. I feel I read a bunch of fantasy, but I do like to sneak in nonfiction or some other genres here and there. Cheers to many more years of blogging!

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  4. Happy 5-year anniversary! I’ve had such a great time going on this journey alongside you almost from the very beginning. The Navigating Fox is such a good choice for an underrated read! I also would love to meet the person who has read all of Kingfisher’s books. I swear there is a new book almost every month. lol. Thank you for the shout out, and I hope we both continue to enjoy blogging well into the future. 😊

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  10. Congratulations on five years! I love your blog so much! By the way, your Arthurian List is directly responsible for a three purchased books and a rewatch of the old Disney Merlin show with Sam Neil (which is delightfully bad).
    I’m so happy we’ve connected online!

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    1. Thank you Jodie, that’s so kind of you to say! I’m glad to hear my Arthurian list has influenced your book purchases. 😉 I’d love to rewatch the Sam Neill Merlin…I remember loving that when I was younger. I’m glad we’ve connected online, too! You’re such a star about shouting out other bloggers.

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  14. Congratulations on your five year blogging anniversary. Ive literally just commented on another post celebrating the same milestone where I’m trying to catch up on some of what I’ve missed this past fortnight.

    I’ll have to check out some of your underrated reads sometime, a few are on my TBR. And I actually own a special edition of another title by Alexandra Bell that I majorly need to get on and read 🙈

    I love seeing some of the favourite authors you’ve found through blogging and hope the future brings many more your way.

    Thanks for mentioning me in your post 🥰 im so happy we found each others pages. I love your content and look forward to seeing more of it in the future too 🥰

    Reply

    1. Thanks, Charlotte! Yes, it seems like there’s a good handful of us that started our blogs in March of 2021. Maybe not so surprising that that’s how it is since that marked a year into the pandemic and I’m sure we were bored and wanted some community, lol.

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      1. That definitely makes sense, I didnt realise that was during the pandemic 🙈 oddly thats the same time that a lot of the bloggers I knew from when I first started my blog disappeared too. I guess it was such a life change that people’s hobbies had a major shake up.

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