Happy Blog-giversary, That Worn Book Smell!
As of yesterday, you are one year old! One year of blogging. One year of reading. One year of reviewing and talking and writing about my favorite thing in the world: books.
And unlike Molly Ringwald’s family in Sixteen Candles, I did not forget this very special and important day. In fact, I planned an entire post to recap and celebrate your first year as a full-fledged book blog. From my favorite posts to my favorite search terms, this post is all about you, That Worn Book Smell!
Where in the World Are That Worn Book Smell Readers?
From everywhere! Over the past 12 months, readers from over 38 countries have visited the site. Which countries have visited the most often?
Favorite Posts (in no order):
Goodbye 2014: It’s funny that I enjoyed this post so much because it was hardly read (which is not particularly important – just a fun fact). It was just a really cathartic to write and by far the most personal post I’ve ever put on the blog.
“So goodbye Sister Life, hello New Year. May you be filled with books and reading and love and acceptance of all the things that are ours. Salute your ghost ship and let the year be beautifully and impossibly yours.”
Behind the Shelves: A Year in Numbers: Another post that just did okay readership-wise, but one I greatly enjoying writing. It took a lot of time, but it was fun to look at reading in terms of numbers. There was a certain satisfaction in seeing how many pages I’d read, how many books I added to my to-read list, how many new authors I’d discovered, and how many physical and print books I had accumulated.
“Over the last twelve months, I’ve read some really wonderful books and unfortunately not-so-wonderful ones. I read over 13,000 pages, listened to countless hours of audiobooks, read more new authors than old, and added nearly 30 books (physical and digital) to my already bursting bookshelves.”
Happy National Handwriting Day!: This was a quick, but fun post to write. In honor of National Handwriting Day, I chose to highlight my favorite quotes from novels and short stories and even one twitter-vella (twitter novella? – I just made that up and its awful, but the story is not). The writers included in the post are David Foster Wallace, Jennifer Egan, Jonathan Safran Foer, Junot Diaz, David Mitchell, and Nicole Krauss. (FYI — Check out that twitter-vella here: it’s Jennifer Egan’s “Black Box.”)
“In a world full of text messaging, emojis, and emails, January 23rd is when word lovers celebrate the lost art of calligraphy. Whether it’s clean block print, loopy, undulating cursive, or a combination of the two, today is the day to put the pen to paper and soak in the beauty.”
Most Popular Posts:
Most Popular Post: “How Haven’t You Read That Yet?”: College Edition
Runner Up: Rest In Peace, Maya Angelou
Honorable Mention: Behind the Shelves: Commuting and Reading
Favorite Search Terms That Brought Readers to That Worn Book Smell:
My absolute favorites?
“Should good readers cracked the spine of the book” because I, too, struggle with cracking the spines of my books. Do not fear, That Worn Book Smell viewer, good readers and bad readers alike crack the spine of their books.
Also, “im about to read a storm of swords” because I’m sorry and I’ll be here when you need someone to talk and cry to.
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Anyway, Happy Blog-giversary/Birthday, That Worn Book Smell! Here’s to another year and another year and many more years after that. It’s been a great year of reading and writing and discussing books, and that’s really all I could have asked for. Thank you so much for reading this past year and I can’t wait to see how That Worn Book Smell grows in its second year!
That Worn Book Smell 