The Book Blogger Oldie Tag

Nobody tagged me for this, but I saw it on The Nut Free Nerd and thought it looked fun! Holly adapted it from the The Booktuber Oldie Tag, which was created by Monica Kim.

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

Krysta and I started blogging in May 2011, so nine years! …That really does make me feel old.

2. What was your biggest misconception before starting a book blog?

I didn’t actually read any book blogs before I started blogging, so I’m not sure I had any ideas about them at all.

I supposed I was surprised in general by things I just didn’t think about when I first started: how to interact with others, how to get followers, how much time blogging can take, etc.

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

Krysta wrote an entire post in 2019 about how she believes book blogging has changed since we started, which you can read here.

I agree with all of her points. I do think there has been a sort of “professionalization” of book blogging. Even as book bloggers continued to be paid literally nothing, it seems the bar has been raised for how much work bloggers do and how put-together their online presence has to look. Blogs are a lot cleaner and more organized, and bloggers are expected to do more graphic design and photography and to be present on multiple platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads in addition to their actual blogs.

I also think the community is more dispersed, and there aren’t core “big bloggers” everyone knows like there were in 2012, Once in a while I ask on Twitter who people believe the “big bloggers” are now, and no one seems to know.

4. What is your favorite book blogging memory?

I thought about this for a while while drafting this post, and…I don’t really know. I imagine other people answer this question by talking about the cool ARCs they got or the relationship they built with an author or the time they met other bloggers at an event or something– but I’ve basically never done any of that stuff. I sometimes win ARCs in giveaways, but the only publisher mailing list I’ve been on is for Quirk Books; the big publishers don’t send me stuff! I’m pretty sure no authors know who I am, and the two bookish events I went to (once ALA and once BookCon), I didn’t meet up with anyone. People actually seemed to assume I was some sort of academic librarian rather than a blogger the one time I went to ALA, which was kind of funny and also confusing because I definitely am not.

This is all to say that I somewhat feel as if my nine years of blogging have looked largely the same (even though things in the community have changed). I mean, I write reviews and discussions posts and people comment on them and we talk, and that’s pretty much it? I can’t think of any major blogging event that stands out.

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

Pretty much every YA book I read at this point? Six of Crows definitely comes to mind.

I tend to find middle grade and nonfiction books to read just by browsing what my library has because the book community doesn’t talk about those as much.

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

I don’t know if it’s “frustrating,” but I continue to be baffled by the unpredictability of what posts are popular or prompt discussion. I can write something I think is interesting and will engage people and get nothing, then throw together a post I think is less interesting and get a billion views.

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

More bloggers! More blog lovers! Continued fun and community!

People keep heralding the end of blogging, and many bloggers do feel we are overlooked compared to booktubers, bookstagrammers, and maybe even booktokkers at this point. However, I think blogging will last, and I hope to see new bloggers start and new people start reading blogs.

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