Celebrating 7 Years of GReads with Amy

All month long I'm celebrating my 7th year of book blogging with the help of my bookish friends. To learn more about the event, please visit my introduction post I've linked just below. There, you can also enter to win a book by one of the fabulous authors who will be joining me this month to celebrate, as well.

*~* Click Here for Intro Post & GIVEAWAY *~*

Today's guest post comes from Amy at Tripping Over Books, who I've gotten to know in the last few years thanks to the bookish community through twitter. It was there I first discovered her blog and learned we share a love for romance reads. Amy has always been a positive light in this community, especially when she started the On the Same Page Secret Sister project with her fellow besties. Her kindness shines bright and I loved learning more about the inspiration behind her own book blog. Please welcome Amy to the blog...

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Hello Friends! I’m so excited and glad that Ginger asked me to be a part of her SEVEN YEAR BLOGIVERSARY feature. First of all, CONGRATS, GINGER! That’s amazing. You’ve been doing you and creating excellent content for seven years. WOOO! Second of all, thank you for prompting so many people, including me, to look back on what made us blog in the first place. I think that getting back to your foundations is so important for perspective, direction, and keeping things fresh.

So, with that in mind, I’m feeling excited and nostalgic to share some of my early inspirations for my blog, Tripping Over Books!

I went to library school in the spring of 2009 because I’d recently lost my science/medical publishing job, like so many other people lost jobs in every field, and wanted to pursue a career in something I loved: Books. Library school had been on my radar for a long time, but knowing myself incapable (read: too lazy) to work and go to school at the same time, I’d always put it off. I viewed this as one of those “one door closes, another one opens” kind of moments.

When I started my classes, I was focusing on school librarianship, which meant a focus on YA and MG books. Taking my first Young Adult Literature class was like coming home. I’d already dipped my toe into YA: I’d read all of Twilight, and of course, Harry Potter. But to my awesome surprise, one of the books we were assigned to read that first semester was GRACELING by Kristin Cashore, a book I’d actually already read because I saw a review of it in People Magazine. It all felt like things were falling into place.

But what made me start to notice blogs? Once we’d read a few books--THE HUNGER GAMES was one; it had just come out--I wanted more. So I Googled. And I found some great blogs that helped feed my addiction, and I thought, “I could do this. Maybe. Probably.” The Story Siren had the best posts for putting books on my radar, The Book Smugglers had all-around great content and thoughtful reviews. Good Books and Good Wine had a unique and very conversational voice that I loved. Makeshift Bookmark was the same.

I stewed for a long time because I’d tried starting personal blogs before and lost interest, but I thought that if there was one thing I could always be interested in talking about, it would be books.

I wrote up and posted by first post while I was living in a hotel with my family after Hurricane Sandy, when we had no power for three weeks. I was basically terrified and exhilarated that I did something on the internet.

It makes sense, of course, that I would be inspired to blog by the books I was now devouring. In addition to GRACELING and THE HUNGER GAMES, I started venturing out on my own and grabbed books from the library that I’d seen on my blogs: THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE, AMY & ROGER’S EPIC DETOUR, and my very first Maggie, SHIVER. I read all of these books before I started blogging, so I don’t think I’ve ever reviewed them properly, but I’ve loved them all for ages, and SHIVER led me to my heart book, THE SCORPIO RACES. Hashtag grateful.

Aside from the other adults in my library classes, I knew NO ONE even close to my age who was reading YA. I made some friends in library school, and that was magic. But then I discovered the community on Twitter, and I was agog at all the people who shared my love. It was hard to put my thoughts out there, even though no one was following me at first. As I continued to post things on my blog, though, including two awesome features for newbs, In My Mailbox and Top Ten Tuesday, the following began to grow, and connections were slowly made.

It was like--CHEESE ALERT--a whole new world opening up to me. It kept, and continues to keep, me going, albeit at a much less frequent rate these days (jobs ruin everything).

All in all, my blog has been so wonderful for me, even if my posting has dwindled lately. It’s brought me some of my best friends, my fondest memories, and legit helped me really come into my own, even when I was well into my 30s.

Congrats again, Ginger!