My 100th Post

Wow.

So, I've been book blogging for almost six months.

I never expected that.  I really didn't.  I think that is because, back when I first created this, I didn't quite grasp what it was book bloggers did.  I think some silly, illogical part of my brain told me that book bloggers just posted reviews and commented and . . . stuff.  I didn't get it.  I didn't get people's utter devotion to it.  I didn't get the people who said just how many hours they'd spent each week on the blogaverse, while I posted a review or two a week and stared dumbly at their professed dedication.  I simply did not understand.

But then I started to pay attention.

I saw that it was so much more than just reviews.  It was interviews, and memes, and giveaways!  It was bloggers talking with authors, building on one of the most brilliant symbiotic relationships in existence, that of writer and reader.  It was the book bloggers themselves, building their own little community, their own friendships and traditions and ideas.

It was so, so fantastic.  And I wanted to be a part of it.

So I started to really try.  I participated in memes. I found more and more book blogs to love and follow.  I talked on Twitter, followed the authors and the bloggers and all the fabulous bookish people.  And eventually, it finally struck me that, yeah, just reading everyone's posts wasn't quite enough.  Reading was all well and good, but people didn't actually know that I read every single one of their posts.

I had to comment.

So I started doing that, too.  I started commenting; not only on the memes, where it's a common thing to include a link to your own post, but on the reviews, and the interviews, and the giveaways, and everything in between.  It took me hours. Still does.  I like to leave longer comments, simply because I know how much I love to read them.  Every comment makes me ridiculously happy, regardless of the length, but the thorough ones that show the commenter really read the post and has something to say put an enormous smile on my face.  I want to do that to other people.  So I commented, and lo and behold, I started getting comments back!  Because, surprise surprise, Lexie, the blogaverse, like many things, is based upon a system of reciprocation.  You can't expect people to comment on your posts if you never comment on theirs.

And you know what's come of all this?

I've made friends.
I've gotten readers.
I've seen more about the world of publishing than I could've ever imagined.
I've fallen in love with book blogging.

I don't intend to stop it anytime soon.  I love this, every part of it, even the many hours spent cramped over comments or scratching my head and wondering what exactly to say in this post or that.  I love books, I love blogging, and I love every one of you, my awesome readers.

And there goes my 100th post on this blog.