Our first 10 years together!

I don’t usually celebrate blog anniversaries, mostly because I don’t really pay that much attention to dates, and the (somewhat) organized chaos that reigns on this blog means I never quite manage to remember in time to plan content for them. This year, though, I’m going to make an exception, because Book for Thought turns 10! This feels like a milestone I really want to celebrate, taking some time to look back on this first decade together.

When I started Book for Thought, I had just finished writing the final dissertation for my Master’s, missed my uni friends, and desperately needed a new community and a space to share my thoughts on the books I was reading while connecting with like-minded people. This blog quickly became my safe space, something I knew I could return to time and again while I was navigating the many changes in my life, to keep me grounded and connected to people across the world with my same passion for books.

Today, a whole ten years later, a lot has changed and, at the same time, not much at all. Book for Thought itself had a little glow-up over the years (not much though… my graphic design skills haven’t really improved as much as I hoped) and found a new home in 2021 when I moved from Blogger to WordPress. Some of the people who had been here from the start are no longer quite as active online, but plenty of new friends came along in the meantime. And I’m still here, reading books and in the middle of writing a dissertation for my new degree… everything changes and nothing ever truly does. (That being said, I hope I won’t be writing yet another dissertation by the time the 20th blogiversary comes around!).

So today I want to take a moment to say how deeply grateful I am to have this space and to be fortunate enough to be spoilt for choice in the wonderful books I get to read every single day and to share with you all.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for being around: whether you’re a regular around here or it’s your first time visiting my little corner of the internet, I see you and am honoured and humbled that you find my ramblings about books interesting to read.

Thank you to all the authors and publishers for the work that you do, and for sharing it with me: I will never stop being excited when you ask me to review your books, but also when I discover them browsing my local bookstore or library.

And finally, thank you to the me of ten years ago, for diving in and taking a chance on opening this blog even when she knew absolutely nothing about having a website, and to myself today, for not having given up on it even when it was hard to manage and for still cultivating this passion a little bit every day.

Today my heart is fuller than I can express – thank you, thank you, thank you. Here’s to the next 10 bookish years together!

Did you know…

…I published my first review on Book for Thought on 11th October 2014. It was a review of The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. His series The Cemetery of Forgotten Books is still one of my favourites, although I never reviewed it.

…my all-time most read review is for The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer, closely followed by How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie. Both were 2-star reviews… guess you lot really like hearing about books I didn’t like more than the ones I loved!