The Book Blogger Oldie Tag

Hi friends! 👋🏻 A couple of months ago, Holly @ Nut Free Nerd put a blogging twist on Ariel Bissett’s BookTube Oldie Tag, to make it into the Book Blogger Oldie Tag and I loved the idea so much that I just had to do it for myself!

I definitely consider myself to be an oldie blogger or a book blog veteran so this is definitely the perfect tag for me. Blogging has been a part of my life for so long that at this point I can’t really imagine not doing it. I have my moments here and there where I just disappear and come back, but it always feels like coming home because everyone has always been so welcoming 🥰

You can find Holly’s post here and Ariel’s video here!

1. How long have you been part of the book blogging community?

I started blogging in September of 2011 when I was sixteen years old, so this September I will have been blogging for nine years. I did start all over this year because my old blog was getting extremely cluttered and I basically broke it, but I’ve been here for all that time so I am hardly a newbie at this point.

2. What was your biggest misconception before starting book blogging?

The biggest misconception that I had was that people would just magically find my blog and I didn’t have to do anything other than post and wait for comments. I could not have been more wrong. I didn’t start getting comments on my old blog until I actually made the effort to visit other people’s blogs and actually leave comments. People don’t know that you exist if you don’t make your presence known.

3. How do you think book blogging has changed since you first started?

Apart from a lot of bloggers I followed back then either not being as active as they used to be, or just quitting altogether, I think there has been a huge shift in the content that bloggers put out.

When I first started, everyone posted primarily book reviews, so I assumed that I should only post book reviews too and then a couple of memes here and there. Also, there was this kind of expectation to post every single day, which I now think is pretty ridiculous.

Now, people are a lot more chilled out with their schedules and there’s a bigger focus on discussions and recommendations. Obviously, reviews do still get posted, but they don’t get the views that they used to. Also, there is now a huge movement of bloggers who want to see more diverse books, which makes me so happy because nine years ago, YA was so white, straight, and cisgender to the point that any scraps of queer rep we were given was the biggest deal.

4. What is your favourite book blogging memory?

I have a shockingly terrible memory and I’ve always been a very small blogger so I don’t have a lot of big blogging moments, but the first (and only) time I saw my name in the acknowledgements of a book was definitely special for me. And now I don’t review books anymore so that will never happen ever again 🥺

5. What are some books that you were introduced to because of book blogging?

I pretty much rely on book blogging to introduce me to books because when I was still in school, I had access to an incredible school library full of books that I could try out without spending any money, but once I finished school, I had to search through Goodreads and rely on other bloggers to introduce me to new books indirectly.

And I still do that now because I am the absolute worst at keeping up with new releases 🙈

6. What is something that frustrates you about book blogging?

As much as I wish it wouldn’t, socialising with other bloggers really frustrates me. And it’s not other people, other people have done absolutely wrong, it’s my weird social anxiety that extends to interacting with other people on the internet.

Like I said above, if you want people to come to your blog and interact with you, you also have to put the work in and interact with them. It is extremely hard for me because of my autism, but it is something that I should have overcome by now. But I am determined to overcome it!

7. What is your hope for the future of book blogging?

My biggest hope for book blogging is that marginalised readers are taken more seriously by publishers and also by other bloggers because I am a little tired of seeing ARCs of #OwnVoices titles not get given to reviewers of colour, disabled reviewers, or queer reviewers simply because they don’t have the stats that publishers look at. Those reviewers are important and their voices deserve to be heard and elevated.

talk to me!

How long have you been blogging for? How has blogging changed for you since you first started? If you do this tag, be sure to let me know! 💖

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