One Year of Blogging!

I really can't believe it has been a year since I began this blog. It has been a wonderful first year of blogging for me and I can't wait for the years to come.

How my blogging journey started was actually pretty complicated compared to some stories I have heard. At some point, probably in April of 2011 I ran across some sort of book giveaway, and I joined a site that I could read books and win books on (Randombuzzers.com and Puleit.com). I had always been a little more bookish than other people, not as much as I am now though. The idea of winning a book, or even an ARC, just because it was an available giveaway sounded pretty cool so I tried it out. Through that process I learned a little more about books (like what an ARC was) and occasionally I would end up on a book blog. Really the only blogs I remember stumbling upon were The Story Siren and a blog that no longer exists, and I would look at those sites and go "What are these people doing and how do they know how to put a web page like that together?"

Near the end of May I actually won my first book, an ARC of Passion by Lauren Kate. After my extreme freak out (I was a fan of the series) I sat down and thought about what people do after reading and ARC, and of course they review them. So I decided that I was going to create a blog just to give the reviewing thing a try.

At first Rescue Reads was not Rescue Reads. It has gone through two name changes and countless design changes over the year along with several not-so-successful first posts.

The next real big chapter in my blogging experience was around the end of 2011 when I first joined twitter. Before twitter I had really no blogger connections outside of comments and joining was my first real big leap in the world of blogging. On twitter I have gained so many blogger friends and it has helped out an awful lot.

Withing a month or so of joining twitter Katie at Katie's Book Blog became my Big Blogger Sibling and she helps me out a sometimes, which can really help because Blogging can become very tough and you need a little support and a mentor can really help.

After that things just seemed to come together really well. I've been able to do so much in the past year and I am so grateful for all of the friends I have met through twitter or otherwise. I would like to point out a few people who have been both great friends and great helpers in the past year:

Katie
Jasmine
Willa
Jessie
Meridith 
Monica
Aneeqah 

Thank you guys! I can't wait to continue blogging this year and for years to come!