Things that have changed since I started blogging

 This is one of those random "Its my blogoversary so I'll post something slightly sentimental" posts. Actually I've been meaning to write this post for awhile now and I've just been lazy and haven't done it till now. I know, the truth comes out. :P Anyway here you go! A short (but awesome!) list of things that have changed since I started my lovely little blog a year ago!

1. My book collection has grown exponentially. Before I started blogging I just wouldn't buy books that often. Every once in awhile I would get something really cheap from Half Price Books but honestly I just didn't buy much. Now I buy several books a month. Its a blessing and a curse. And yes, my book shelf did look something like that photo about 2 months ago. I reorganized at its much better now. But not that much better..... >.<

(this was one of the first signed books I got. IT MADE MY LIFE!!!!!)

2. Signed books have turned into gold. I never had a signed book before blogging, but once I really started interacting with authors and realizing how awesome they were gosh darn it I WANTED THEIR SIGNATURE IN MY BOOKS!!!! Haha. :P

3. Swag is also now gold.

Bookmarks before: Kind of lame and unneccessary.

Bookmarks now: WHY DID I EVER THINK THESE WERE DUMB?!?!?!

4. I finally understand the purpose of ARCs. They are just cool free books anymore. Now I realize their true purpose is to be a marketing tool. Receiving an ARC is a privilege and when you get one you should market the hell out of it!

5. I now have twice as many books in my TBR pile. Before I would just pick up random stuff that looked good on the new books shelf at the Library and every once in awhile I would scan through Borders with a notebook and I would take down titles that I thought looked cool. Now I find cool new books DAILY. The sad thing is that there is no way I'll get around to reading all of them. :P

6. I never forget what I read anymore! Before I might read a book and then a few months later someone would mention it and I would have totally (or at least partially) forgotten that I had ever read the book. I didn't have any documentation for what I read and the stuff I read between 5-11th grade is still somewhat a mystery to me.... I think that keeping track of what I've read over the past year is one of the biggest perks to having my blog!

7. When I first started blogging I thought Twitter was the most retarded thing known to man. I swore I would never use it. I resisted for several months and then I read one blogger say that Twitter had become the thing she used the most to promote her blog and reach out to authors and other bloggers. Reading that made me cave.... And now I use Twitter daily. >.<

8. Over this past year I have realized how much I truly love books and sharing them with others. In fact it was my blog that made me decide to no longer pursue a career in animal studies and instead pursue a career as a Librarian!

So those are the 8 things that have changed since I started blogging! I'm sure there are more but those are the ones I could come up with off the top of my head.

I have two questions to leave you with: If you are a blogger I'm curious to know whats changed since you started blogging! If you aren't a blogger has anything changed since you started reading blogs?

Julia :)