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Saturday, March 03, 2012

Six Year Blog-iversary

I've been blogging about books for over six years.  I can still picture the day I started.  I had stayed late at school to grade papers, enter scores and work on lesson plans.  My youngest daughter was in high school and often stayed after to socialize.  When she was ready to go she would come to my room and get me, most of the time having to busy herself while I finished up my projects.  On this day I asked her to show me some of the new things she was learning in her computer class.  That's when she talked me into starting a blog.

Two daughters had blogs as well as several nieces and I thought it would be fun to read what they were writing  but I had no idea what I could possibly blog about. Katie was the one to suggest a book blog.  I felt pretty safe with that idea because I didn't think anyone would ever read my blog.  Plus it would be a great way to record all those wonderful passages that cramped my hand when I recorded them in longhand.

So that evening, in my classroom, Katie walked me through the steps to setting up a blog on Blogger.  It was hard thinking up an address and even harder to come up with a, what did she call it back then, a tag?  In hindsight, I wish I would have made my address the same as my blog title, but I didn't really understand what I was doing.  I have been pleased with my tag - booklogged.  It seemed to fit and grew more comfortable with the passage of time.

My earliest entries were about my favorite books in sci/fi, Nobel Prize winners, and 3 books I would like to reread.  I wrote a post about several books I didn't like and two posts about favorite authors.  Reading over these posts reminds me that I had not yet been introduced to the works of Louise Penny, Andrea Barrett, David Baldacci, Jacqueline Winspear, Lisa Scottoline, Laurie King and so many other authors that I now love.  And the glorious books suggested by fellow bloggers - Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society, The Book Thief, Anne Perry's WWI series, The History of Love, and all those reading challenges and fun memes. I've had so much fun over the years writing TBR lists and making spreadsheets to keep track of the reading challenges.

 I like that Blogger provides an archive so I can look back and reread my impressions about books.  As I look at some of the book titles I draw a blank as to what they were about but my little short snippet about it usually brings it back to mind.  Last year I only made 14 entries even though I know I read more books than that, though probably not many.  My mother died of cancer in Oct 2010 and I lost interest in reading for several months, almost a year.  I feel like some of that old yearning is coming back so I hope I will read more and record each book I read.  I have never been good at keeping a daily journal but I find that my book journal provides some record of my life.  As I read the entries I can sometimes remember other pertinent things that were happening in addition to the book I was reading.

One thing I would like to do is to print my blog.  I'm just not sure if I should print it all or edit it first.  Have any of you saved your blog in a more concrete way than on the internet?  What have learned from doing so?  Do you have any suggestions or advice?

The best part of this blogging experience has been making friends with other readers and sharing our love for the printed word.  I have loved discussing books with you.

10 comments:

Kay said...

Happy blogiversary! To many more years to come :)

I too am thinking about printing my blog. I'd leave it just the way it is, no edits. My first reviews make me cringe, they are very badly written as back then I had no idea what I was doing + English is not my first language, and that did not particularly help either. Yet looking at them makes me realize how much I've grown since then, and while I am not proud of them I don't want to edit them either.

I have explored various blog printing services (the latest is everything2print.com) but so far I've yet to take the plunge. Hope you'll find a service you like & you'll share with us when you do :)

Kailana said...

Happy Blogiversary!

I wish my blog name matched my URL, too. I came up with things too hastily and didn't think it through enough. I keep planning to switch to a personalized URL, but I haven't done so yet. It is only 10 dollars a year to do so. One day I will take the plunge!

Here's to many more years of blogging!

raidergirl3 said...

Congratulations on six years. Well done! It's okay not to post a lot, and you might get back in a reading groove.

I always get a bit excited when I see A Reader's Journal in my google reader. Here's to many more great books and friendships.

Booklogged said...

Kay, I wouldn't edit what I wrote just leave out some of the memes and giveaway posts. I did a price estimate awhile back and it was pretty steep, so I thought I could save a little money by deleting some things. Thanks for suggesting everything2print.com - I will check them out.

Kailana, if we only knew what we were doing back then... Heck, I probably would have stewed over names, titles, address, etc. and would never have started!

Raidergirl, I feel the same way about you. Here's to good times, good books, and good friends for many years to come.

Susan said...

Happy blogversary, booklogged. I'm with raidergirl, I'm always happy to see a new post from you, too. I am sorry to hear about your mother.

I have not been able to post as much either as I would have liked, but I am beginning to recognize that posting every day just to post, takes away from the enthusiasm of posting, for me, at least. I love the people I've met, and I'm proud of my blog - you are right, it does show our reading history and thoughts, and that's what we wanted to do, or at least I did.

If you print yours out, let us know about the experience. I've wondered how that works.

Glad you're back!

books said...

Nice post,I've been blogging about books for over six years.Thanks sharing..

Marg said...

Happy blogiversary! Six years is quite an achievement! I hope your reading enthusiasm is on the way back so that we do see more posts from you!

Les said...

Congrats! We've been blogging just about the same amount of time. I have also considered printing out my blog. A few years ago I printed out all my posts for my favorite reads and put them in a notebook. It'd be nice to have all of them in some bound book, though. Blurb does this, but it's not cheap! I may just go back and start printing more from my archives. Paper, ink and sheet protectors aren't that expensive!e

Kristen M. said...

Happy blogging anniversary! That's a great story of how you started your blog. I'm glad you've kept it going for six years. :)

Thoughts of Joy said...

Happy Blogiversay!!! It was fun to read about the beginnings of your blog. I often remember a book (particular scenes) as I'm walking or driving where I heard it first -- kinda fun when that happens. I'm sorry to read about your mom. I understand how other areas of our life can dramatically affect our reading. I'm so happy that you are back, though. :)