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!
ReplyDeleteWelcome back to the book blogosphere and welcome to TTT! It's a fun way to get back into the swing of things and "meet" bloggers old and new. I've been blogging since 2006, so I feel you on missing the old blogs I used to read. It's sad that so many of them have disappeared over the years. There are some great new ones to enjoy, though :)
ReplyDeleteHappy TTT!
Welcome back to blogging. I've been at it for over 10 years and I am pretty much of a chicken about changing too many things, for fear of having the blog crash down on top of me.
ReplyDeleteI love the look of your blog. Mine has always been chaotic. :)
ReplyDeleteWelcome back! Out of curiosity, what meme would you like to start back up?
ReplyDeletePersonally, I find Blogger blogs a nightmare to follow and remember about. It's not because of the blogs themselves, but because of the platform and blogs being hosted on there gaining less traffic in general as they are hard to find. I use the WordPress reader to read other blogs and that one doesn't cooperate with Blogger really well.
My TTT: https://laurieisreading.com/2025/05/17/top-ten-tuesday-ways-in-which-my-bloggin-reviewing-style-has-changed-over-time/
Glad to see you returned to blogging, Kristyn. Love the look of your blog. I miss some of the older memes as well. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete