Girl in the Pages Turns 3! | Anniversary Celebration and Giveaway!

Posted February 6, 2017 by Cristina (Girl in the Pages) in Features, Giveaways / 30 Comments

It always astounds me when my blogging anniversary rolls around, because in some ways I can’t believe it means I have another year under my belt, but I also can’t really remember how my life was BEFORE blogging, before I joined this amazing community where I was only a click away from being able to talk about books with like minded individuals any time of any day. This year Girl in the Pages is celebrating THREE years in the book blogging community, and I can’t thank all of my followers, readers, and friends enough for commenting, chatting, tweeting, liking, and making my little corner of the internet a wonderful place to be!

A Bit About My Blogging Journey: I started my WordPress account in the fall of 2012. I initially used it as a lifestyle blog to chronicle being an undergrad, my love for fashion, decorating my first apartment, and, of course, the life of my cats. I posted a little here and there, and the next summer I decided to start posting the occasional book review as well. It wasn’t until I started reading my favorite childhood series (Harry Potter) through a critical and academic lens for my study abroad course that I realized there was SO MUCH I had to say about all of my beloved YA books and that SO MANY of them had such strong themes for analysis. Two weeks after I returned home to the states I posted pictures of my trip and officially re-branded myself as a book blog on February 6, 2014. Girl in the Pages was born!

Throughout the past three years the site has gone through a LOT of changes, from redesigns, moving to self hosting, becoming active in the Twitter and Bookstagram communities, and just generally being prone to my whims and experiments with learning how to run a website. My blog has also chronicled a lot of major life events for me, from graduating college to working full time to vacations and traveling for book events. Though my blog focuses on books, in many ways it’s a living scrapbook for the many milestones in my life as well.

Number of posts published: 459

Number of Books Read: 195

Most Popular Post from the Past Year: It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover | Review

Favorite Features/Collaborations from the Past Year: Book Buddies, The Summer of Sailor Scouts, Bay Area Bloggers Brunch

Favorite Bookish/Blogging Events from the Past Year: WayWitch Tour, YallWest, ACOMAF Tour

Favorite Posts from the Past Year: Second Time’s the Charm?, The Science of Swooning, The Blog Balancing Act, Just Call Me a Potter Purist

The book blogging community is one of the main reasons I’ve stuck with this blog for so long. Aside from the amazing feeling of having so many fellow readers to discuss your favorite books with, I’ve also met some of the kindest and most genuine people through blogging. A few I’d like to highlight are:

Lauren @ Bookmark Lit for literally being my twin, book/blogging BFF and East Coast other half. It’s sometimes scary how on the same page we always are and how similar our tastes are. Plus, we started out blogs the same year so it’s incredible to see how our blogs have grown over the same course of time. THANK YOU Lauren for being such a wonderful friend!

Alexa @ Alexa Loves Books for being the kindest, friendliest blogger I’ve gotten to know over the course of the past year.  Her blog features and succinct and thoughtful reviews are inspiring. I’ve been so honored and flattered to get to know you and I hope we continue chatting and collaborating!

Ashley @ Nosegraze for running an incredible hosting service, being a wonderful contact for customer support, and being an overall awesome human being. My eternal thanks for helping my blog be the best version of itself!

Kristin @ Super Space Chick, Cee @ The Novel Hermit, and Sierra @Sdavreads (and Alexa again!) for teaming up with me to make my dream of hosting a Sailor Moon blog collaboration come true. You ladies are all awesome and I hope to work with you again someday soon! (Moon, Prism, Power!)

Christy @ The Ravenous Reader for including me in the amazing Bay Area Book Events that she coordinates. She’s truly magnificent for cultivating our local community of bloggers and I can’t wait to attend many more bookish events with her in 2017!

Becky @ Blogs of a Bookaholic for being my initial book blog inspiration and one of my first ever blogging pals. Her friendship truly means so much to me and her sincerity comes through in every post and comment.

All of the above bloggers have truly had such a huge and wonderful impact on my time spent in the community, and I can’t wait to develop even more relationships in the coming years!

I really loved the theme of my giveaway last year, so I’m going with it again! The winner will win a copy from the Book Depository (up to a $15 value) of any book that I’ve reviewed on my blog. You can see a list of all eligible titles in my review index. The giveaway is open internationally as long as The Book Depository ships to you free. I do check EVERY entry, so no cheating please!

 

 

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30 responses to “Girl in the Pages Turns 3! | Anniversary Celebration and Giveaway!

  1. Happy blogoversary Cristina! I can’t believe your blog is already 3 years old! I can’t wait to see more amazing post from your blog <3

  2. Huge congrats on your blogiversary! I think you’re amazing and I’m so happy that I followed you in the early years of both our blogs. You make the blogosphere better and I hope you continue to have a lot of success in life and with your blog.

    • Thank you, Alicia! I love that so many other WordPress bloggers who started around the same time as us are still blogging and active, it feels like such a special little start class 🙂 Hopefully there is many years of blogging ahead for both of us!

  3. Happy blogoversary, Cristina! It’s hard to believe that it’s been 3 years already 🙂 I hope you have a wonderful 4th year! I love reading your posts and you’re such a sweet person so keep gracing us with your presence in the blogosphere!

    Laura @BlueEyeBooks

  4. Happy blogoversary, Cristina! I’ve loved reading your blog for the last year or two, and I’m looking forward to see you continue to post more awesome discussions and reviews <3

  5. Happy blogging anniversary! 3 years is insanely amazing. I’m honestly so glad that we got to know each other through this fabulous community, and I certainly look forward to all of your posts <3 Definitely can't wait to collaborate on something again soon!!

    • Hi Alexa! Your comment is so thoughtful, and I am so truly glad that we “met” through this community too! Blogging has given me some of the most meaningful friendships even if I don’t see my fellow bloggers all that often. Thank you for being such a welcoming presence in this community! <3

  6. […] I started blogging over on WordPress.com on a whim one day in college, and was posting book reviews before I even knew that was a THING and there was an entire online community for book bloggers. I slowly started stumbling across other book blogs and eventually branded myself as a YA book blog. I’m actually celebrating three years of blogging this month. […]

  7. […] February lived up to its status of being the shortest year out of the month, because I basically blinked and it was GONE. February signals the beginning of spring busy season for me at work, which lasts until the beginning of April, so I’ve been working a TON while still trying to keep up with all of the reading and blogging I’ve planned to do! Though I was super busy in February, I did so much post planning at the beginning of the year that I felt I was able to keep up with the blog and with reading pretty well, and was even able to participate in the 2017 Love-A-Thon as well as celebrate my 3rd Blogoversary! […]

  8. Happy 3 years! I think we started roughly at the same time (ish) so it’s great to see that you’re still frolicking in the bookish shenanigans despite life doing life things!

    I’ve only recently discovered some of the events Christy holds in the Bay area and I’m legitimately jealous at all the fun the community has down there with so many authors! I cry.

    • Thank you, Joey! I do believe we started right around the same time over on wordpress.com (I feel like there’s a little group of us, actually, who all started around the same time, and it’s so cool to see that most of us are still around!)

      I’m really lucky to have stumbled upon the Bay Area blogging community within the last year or so. It’s so nice to have actual real life people to discuss reading/blogging/internet-ing with!

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