Sunday, August 02, 2009

This Blog Has Two Birthdays

Happy blogday to me, happy blogday to me . . .

As the title says, my blog is a little unusual in that it has two birthdays. I posted my first-ever blog post on August 24, 2002, about four months before leaving for England on a study-abroad semester. I wanted to keep friends and family up-to-date on my adventures in Europe, post pictures, make snarky remarks, and generally make a nuisance of myself online. At the time, it was called Diary of a Bloody Yank--hence the strange URL.

The reason you're reading this on August 2 (or thereabouts) is because after coming back to the States in spring 2003, I let it lapse. Who needed to read about my travails as a Kelly girl, after all? (Yes, I really was a temp for about a year. No, I do not recommend it.)

Right around the time I entered library school, I re-started blogging on August 2, 2004 under the new name Confessions of a Bibliovore, which it remains. So I guess this is my five-year blogiversary. Yay me!

The reason it became Confessions of a Bibliovore was because my favorite part of the Bloody Yank blog was my Book of the Day. Whether I was talking about rude Americans in Spain or my visit to the Tower of London, I always added a little something about a recent fabulous book. I was just starting to read children's and YA books, after about ten years of chock-a-block romance novels, and my book of the day was just as likely to be a Madeleine L'Engle classic as it was to be a vintage Laura Kinsale.

When I decided to start the blog again, it was with the idea that I would simply record what I was reading, watching, or otherwise consuming. My first post was about a Nora Roberts favorite and a Marx Brothers movie. Of course, children's and YA books were there from the beginning, and I found myself writing about those more and more often. To my surprise, other people were writing about it too. And they were cool. And they read my blog too.

I found myself in an online world of people very much like me. I've become known in my professional life as someone with a freakish level of knowledge about children's and YA books, and I attribute that directly to the Kidlitosphere--to the blogs I read, to the connections I've made.

This blog has always been about what I love. I love books, I love people who love books, I love libraries and reading and kids and of course, snarky remarks. Here's to five more years, at least.

4 comments:

Susan said...

It was fun to read about the history of your blog. ReadSpace started out as a school assignment for Bonnie, where she was posting all kinds of things, but when I spoke up about wanting a book blog, she was interested and we morphed it into what it is today. My personal blog doesn't have much of a focus, and I periodically think to change it, but then I don't :)

Patti said...

I second Susan's comments! Really fun to read about the history of your blog. And Congrats! Keep up the good work, I love reading your blog.

Anonymous said...

5 years - that's huge! Congratulations!!!

Donna Kwavolski said...

I think it was really interesting to read about your blog and all the history you have had in blogging so i guess i third susan and patties comments.


Do you think you will every have another blog after this one, and what are the names of your other blogs i would llove to read them?


Donna Kwavolski