It's Top Ten Tuesday! Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly book meme hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is... Ways in Which My Blogging/Review Style Has Changed Over Time. I think, though, that I'm going to go with more of a general how my blog has (and hasn't) changed over the years.
This one is my first Top Ten Tuesday in a long time and it feels like this one's kind of tough! There's a lot I could say here, but we'll see if I can come up with ten things. Okay, let's go!
- 13 year hiatus: Just what it sounds like, my blog took a very long hiatus and I decided earlier this year that I would come back to it and start blogging again. But, things have changed in that time. Lots of the blogs I used to follow don't exist anymore. May of the old blog memes I enjoyed, they don't exist anymore and while I've considered starting one of them back up, I don't really get enough blog traffic to actually pull it off.
- More organized: One thing that's different now than before is that I'm a little bit more organized. I'm still a little bit of a mood blogger, but I try to keep it a bit organized now.
- Less rambling: My reviews used to be a big longer and more rambly than they are now. I've streamlined it down and got a format I like.
- Same format: Something that hasn't changed is that my general blog review format is still the same. Maybe a little more streamlined, but still generally the same.
- The old memes: There were so many old memes I really enjoyed, but I'm enjoying taking part in the new blog memes too! This one included.
- Still focused on romance: Since this blog was created in 2011, most of my reading has been romance. There's the occasional fantasy or other type of book, but almost everything I read is romance and this blog reflects that.
- Cleaner blog theme: I had a really cute blogger theme with buttons and everything that I put together myself and while I enjoyed it, it was really busy! I'm definitely more of a minimalist as I get older, at least on my blog (real life... well, not so much). I love the clean style I'm rocking with now. Also something I created. For reference, check out the old theme...
- Personal posts: I only post personal stuff in my Sunday posts now. Where I used to post personal stuff more frequently, I've definitely focused the blog down to more specifically book related stuff now. Sunday Post is the exception, I share a little bit about my week on Sundays.
- More aesthetically pleasing: My posts are, in general, more aesthetically pleasing now than they used to be. They were a bit more messy back when I started this blog. I have more tools and more know-how, so the posts come out a bit better than they used to.
- Reflects a different place in life: I'm generally in a different place in my life than when I started this blog. Back when I started book blogging, I was a grad student. So, my life was hectic and my blog kind of looks a little hectic to match. Now, I'm in a much more settled place, I'm older, and I'm more able to devote time and resources to my blog.
- Bonus: I have a Bookstagram account. So, if you're on Bookstagram (Instagram) I'd love to be friends.
Looks like I was able to come up with ten things. If you made it this far, thanks for sticking with me through my reminiscing. I can't wait to visit around and see what everyone else did with this week's theme.
If you've stopped in, please leave me a comment so I can drop by and visit you, too!
Wow, that’s a long hiatus. I’m glad you decided to come back.
ReplyDeleteI’m child free, too.
Welcome back! That’s interesting to compare over a gap of many years! ~Carol @ReadingLadies
ReplyDeleteThat's a long hiatus, glad you decided to come back! Your old blog theme also looked pretty, though I agree I'm more of a fan of the minimalistic, clean style the more I get older too.
ReplyDeleteI can see similarities in a lot of your points to my own blogging journey. My break wasn't as long, but I took one when I had a kid, and similarly when I got back to doing it regularly a lot of the people I knew weren't blogging anymore. I also simplified and put more resources into it - I went to wordpress and self-hosted so I could control more elements and not deal with ads. Though this may not last as financial priorities shift too! It's interesting having been around for a while, I started in 2009 and it's a similar journey!
ReplyDelete