It's the last day of BBAW! It's been a great (if busy) week. Before it's all over, I want to say congratulations to the fabulous Devourer of Books for winning Best Eclectic Book Blog. Her blog is great and definitely worth subscribing to if you haven't already. I was honestly surprised and honored to be shortlisted in this category with such fabulous company, so thank you to everyone who voted for this blog!
When BBAW drew to a close last year, this was a new book blog with a different name (Heidenkind's Hideaway). I wrote a post stating, "In the future, I'd like to have more author interviews, review weirder books, and improve my writing skillz. Also host another challenge, possibly, and change the design of my blog so that it's more better."
I believe I accomplished all of those things in the past year. My reading habits have definitely changed; in 2008, probably eighty percent of the books I read were romances. Now it's more between ten and twenty. Does book blogging have anything to do with that? Definitely. Although I've always been very eclectic in my reading habits, reading book blogs has amplified that and inspired me to try books I never would have even heard of, let alone picked up in the bookstore.
I have to confess, I'm still conflicted over this change in my reading habits. I often ask myself if I would be happier switching back to romances. Even though the tropes of romances aren't really working for me right now, people falling in love is still the major thing in stories that I respond to. Without it, I tend to just not care. I only read two five-star books in the past year... but then, both were recommended by book bloggers and were novels I never would have picked up without their recommendation, so sticking to romances might not have improved my year in reading at all. In any case, the past twelve months have been an adventure in reading--interesting, fun, occasionally frustrating, but certainly an adventure!
What does the future of Truth, Beauty, Freedom, and Books hold? I want to keep reviewing a wide variety of books. I plan on reading what I want, when I want to, and writing whatever I think about it, whether snarky or fangrl-ish. One of the things I figured out during BBAW this week is that what I love to see most in reviews--or in anything, really--is creative thinking. I've been striving to bring more creativity to all my posts, and will continue to do so in the coming year.
Above all, I want this blog to be fun and to remain my happy space for the coming year. Thank you to all of my readers for helping to make it that way!
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