Thoughts on 10 Years of Blogging

Last week I hit my 10th anniversary here at Beth Fish Reads. I didn't want to let the day slip by without notice. To celebrate, I'm sharing some random thoughts about my decade of blogging life.

My original idea for Beth Fish Reads was to write about audiobooks and the activities I engaged in while listening, such as cooking, gardening, walking, and doing various forms of needlework.

I didn't realize that blogging could take on a life of its own, leading me along new paths.

The very best part about blogging: I've made some amazing friends in the last 10 years, and I've been fortunate enough to meet many of them in real life. Some no longer blog, but I still keep up with their lives through mutual friends or social media. I had no idea that the community of book bloggers would be filled with so many wonderful people. Thank you all for friendship and support--and a special shout-out to the class of 2008 (a book blogging boom year).

Here are some short takes on the past 10 years:

• My first post on September 13, 2008, was about wine! My second post was a short book review, in which I never actually name the book I'm reviewing: I guess I thought readers would get that information from the cover photo and the post title! By September 30, I had written two posts about audiobooks, though I have almost never written about gardening or my other hobbies.
• Of the 3222 posts I've published here, 573 have the label "audiobook." Some of my earliest book reviews were written as if I read the book in print, even though I actually listened to it. There wasn't much support of audiobooks in the book blogging community in 2008.
• I've written 458 Weekend Cooking posts and have enjoyed getting to know an international community through that meme. As much as I like to write about food and cooking, I've never once been sorry I became book blogger instead of food blogger. Truly.
• Other stats: You'll find 511 Wordless Wednesday photos and way more book reviews than I can count. I'm sad to report that my review index stops in early 2017. My blog has had 3,380,510 page views since its birth (I suspect that's a pretty small number for 10 years), and current traffic is a little less than 1600 hits a day (if Blogger can be believed).
• When I look back on some of earlier reviews, I can't believe I had the time and energy to write such detailed analyses. This review of Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson, written in 2009, is an example.
• My most controversial post was my review of Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. Rereading my thoughts just now, I still stand by everything I said in the review and the comments.
• Among my most popular posts were the two I devoted to culling my library. My first post was general; my second post included a flow sheet! I really need to go through a major culling again. Sigh.
• The major highlight: I was the APA's Book Blogger of the Year! Wooo hoo! Such an incredible honor and thrill--I still can't believe the magic of it all. I loved every second of being at the Audies and having an evening of red-carpet excitement. 

And, of course, thoughts on the future:

• Blogging is really hard work, but I love having a record of the books I've read (even if I'm bad on indexing). I'm happy with my current system of publishing all my short reviews on a single day (Monday). I'm pretty sure I'll never go back to the long form.
• I like doing a roundup of some sort every week. It's a great way to share titles I'm looking forward to reading, to recommend books, and to feature a genre or imprint I hope will catch your interest.
• Wednesday photos will continue to appear when I have something to post.
• I plan to host Weekend Cooking into the next year.  I still love hosting and reading all the linked-up posts.

As long as people continue visit Beth Fish Reads, I'll be writing about books (especially audiobooks) and food. The only real change is this: I no longer pressure myself to produce daily content; I'm glad to put that behind me.