My attention was clearly on other things on February 14 this year because I forgot it was the day I should have celebrated my 11th blogging birthday.
I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for so long! If you’d asked me on the day I clicked the “publish” button for the first time, whether I’d still be blogging 11 years later I’d have likely said no.
Starting a book blog was just a spur of the moment decision.
I didn’t have a clear plan for content beyond reading the Booker Prize winning books and writing about my reactions. I didn’t have a plan for how I was going to fit this into a job that at times took every ounce of energy. I didn’t even know how to blog.
But 1545 posts and more than one million words later, I’m somehow still here.
Will I still be here eleven years from now? Or even one year from now? Maybe blogs will no longer be a thing in a world that is moving ever more towards bite-sized chunks of information. Or maybe there will still be people left unsatisfied by beautifully staged photos of book jackets or 20 second video clips and longing for places that allow for more substantive content.
I really hope so. Not just because blogging gives me motivation to write about the books I’m reading but because book bloggers are my primary source of information about the world of fiction.
I used to rely on the mainstream media for news about upcoming books. But the national newspapers in the UK (with the notable exception of The Guardian) have pretty much given up on book reviews. They’ve disappeared from The Daily Telegraph and and The Times apart from a few paltry pages in their weekend review sections — mostly reviews of heavyweight non fiction. Open Book and A Good Read on BBC Radio 4 are good but I forget when they are broadcast. My experiment with the Times Literary Review wasn’t a success — the articles were so dry and quasi academic.
If it were not for book bloggers, I’d be adrift. So this is a thank you to all of you who devote hours of unpaid effort to generating top notch content. Long may you continue.
While we’re the subject of appreciation, thanks also for sticking with me over the years, I know you’re all busy with your own lives so it’s doubly appreciated whenever you like my post, leave a comment or share the content via social media.
I hope all of us will still be around this time next year.