Behind the Blog (#1) - Why I Became a Book Blogger

This past year has been a complete whirlwind.  I barely remember it starting.  Then there were the points of time where I thought I would never get to sleep again or to find time to eat (both problems are solved, but I do wish I could get even more sleep).

This is the year I became a mom.  This is the year I became a stay at home parent.  This is the year where I learned that being a stay at home parent is extremely lonely.  This is the year I learned who my true friends really are.

This is also the year I rediscovered my love of reading and became a book blogger.

Tomorrow my blog turns 6 months old, a magic number so I have been told.  I can only wonder what people mean by that.  So many great things have already to my little blog, I find the thought of much more awesomeness happening to it mind blowing.

So I thought to commemorate this huge milestone I would introduce you to my new little feature Behind the Blog.  I plan to use Behind the Blog to help you all get to know me better and for conversational posts.  My thoughts and opinions.  Things like that.  I thought the best way to start this off was to tell you why I started a blog in the first place.

As I already mentioned, this year I became a stay at home mom.  The stay at home mom life can be incredibly boring.  There is a lot more down time than one would thing.  Yeah, I could probably do more cleaning or something, but I hate cleaning...

This is life is also extremely lonely.  There are a lot of things that have factored into the loneliness that I was experiencing.  My husband works super long hours.  We were down to one car for awhile so I couldn't go any where.  My "friends" kept cancelling plans on me, etc etc etc.

So I started filling my time up with putting together puzzles.  Then I ran out of those.  I started coloring and crafting, but you can only do that so much before you go nuts (I still do that).  Video games and tv filled up the silence with noise.

I also started reading again.  I had always been a reader.  I had been a bookseller for about 6 years before I started my new career as a stay at home mom.  I always used my Goodreads account too.  However, you will see a dramatic difference between my reviews before and after my blog.

I realized at some point that I wasn't putting much thought in my reviews.  I was just writing "I liked it" or "it was good."  Short things like that.  Nothing else.  No real substance.  I realized that was not a good way to keep my brain functioning and sharp, so I thought about what I could do that would fix that.

My answer was to create a book blog.  And like I normally do with things, I went all in.  I made the blog, did research on how to get ARCs (having been a bookseller before I knew they existed) and how to connect to others (now I am addicted to Twitter...).

I have had a blast.  I am so happy that I found book blogging and that it fit me perfectly.  I have met a lot of wonderful people.  I get to help the authors and publishers out.  It is just a wonderful fit.  I wouldn't have it any other way.