Celebrating 7 Years of GReads with Morgan

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 *~*

I'm excited to be featuring Morgan from the Bookish Beagle on on my blog today because I feel Morgan's blogging story is unique. I first met Morgan on twitter through bookish talks. It wasn't until she joined Jess at Gone with the Words, that I got to know her better. She's become a fun, fresh, and joyous voice to follow in the community. I adore her picture of her dog Andy, and always admire her pics from California with heart eyes. As someone who has been doing this for seven years, it's interesting to see the community grow and change. I'm excited for people like Morgan, to bring a fresh voice about the books we read. Please welcome Morgan to the blog...

My Blogging Journey

I'm so honored to help Ginger celebrate 7 years of blogging! Such an amazing accomplishment that I hope I'll be able to reach someday. I love her blog and how creative she is! My path to blogging is a little different than most, I think. For starters, I joined Twitter in 2009 to talk sports. I had a Lakers blog that I would update with my thoughts about each game because that was my outlet- at the time I had no one in real life to talk with about my passion so I turned to blogging. I didn't even know that the book blogging community existed! I'd always been a reader but I found most new books by browsing at Borders or the library (including Twilight). Ironically, the only YA I read was courtesy of my sister: she gave me The Hunger Games, The Golden Compass, and Graceling!

I honestly can't recall how I found Christina's blog Reader of Fictions but hers is the first I remember following and reading. I was starting to dip my feet back in the reading pool after years of casual reading (lots of Harry Potter and thick historical fiction) and here I found an amazing resource for books I'd never heard of but that sounded right up my alley.

I met one of my best friends (Lindsey @ Bring My Books) through Christina's blog and soon began following others- Gillian @ Writer of Wrongs, Jamie @ The Perpetual Page Turner, Ginger @ G Reads Books, etc- until it snowballed into the community I'm now part of. I met so many wonderful people just by getting into book conversations online- It felt amazing to have a place to really truly discuss books with other bookworms, to get recommendations and find new favorites, and to find other things in common as well. It kept me glued to twitter as I made friendships and discovered my love of Young Adult fiction. I also loved seeing everyone's creativity! So many original posts and memes and writing styles.

I started book blogging when I joined Gone with the Words in August 2014 after seeing a tweet that Jess was looking for contributors; I didn't know Jess but we had many mutuals and I felt so lucky that she picked me! It was so funny because lots of people assumed I was a book blogger already! Nope, just a girl enmeshed in bookish twitter and blog comments. Jess made it easy to dip my toe in the water and find that I really enjoyed blogging. She's one of the best people and so thanks again to blogging, I had another wonderful friendship! My first review: All Lined Up, perfect for football season. I still remember many of my firsts- my first physical arc: Lion Heart by A.C. Gaughen, o happy mail day! My first conference: ALA Annual in June 2016 where I got to meet blogging friends in person for the first time. Blogging has brought such joy to my life for so many reasons.

At the beginning of this year- February 13, 2017 to be exact- I started my own solo blogging journey for the first time. Starting The Bookish Beagle was scary because I wasn't sure if I could handle the pressures and expectations of doing everything by myself- reading enough, reading fast enough, posting on time, building an audience... even creating a website. But I've slowly relaxed and learned that content is more important than quantity, even though I try to post as often as I can. I'm still surprised when people comment or tell me how much they love my baby blog. And I love having an outlet for my bookish thoughts, which was my whole reason for blogging in the first place. I really enjoy being a book pusher ;)

There have been a lot of changes and shifts in the blogging community, even since I first started participating- some blogs are gone while many more have popped up. I'm not one for booktube but I enjoy posting pictures on Instagram even if mine aren't elaborate enough to be part of Bookstagram. I hope I'll be able to weather the changes as well as Ginger has! We'll see where the blogging world takes me next :)