Two Year Blogoversary Celebration + Giveaway!

The Library Canary just turned two! *throws confetti* My blogoversary was actually on Sunday, but I was participating in the Love-a-Thon so decided to to do my celebration post this week instead. I wanted to share some fun stats with you guys and some things that I've learned in my two years of blogging.

The Stats:

Total posts written: 522 - holy crap, that's a lot of posts!

Reviews written: 267 - This means I'm about half reviews, half other posts. I think that's a pretty good ratio! 

Top Ten Tuesday: 71 - I thought I had done more of these, but still 71 lists is a lot! 

Book Bangin': 14 - I haven't participated in this for a few months, but I definitely need to start up again!

Discussion Posts: 44 - I started doing discussion posts this year and they are definitely some of my favorite posts to write.

Most Popular Post: Top Ten Things That Make My Life as a Reader/Blogger Easier with 1700 pageviews. This was one of my early TTT and should probably be updated. I used a lot of different things now to help with my blogging life.

Eight Things I've Learned In My Two Years of Blogging:

1. It's not about the numbers. Stop religiously checking your stats. It's okay if you want to look at them every once in a while. But if you are constantly checking you're going to drive yourself crazy and this is going to stop being fun.

2. ARC envy is a real thing. Yes, you will be jealous when people get ARCs that you want and you don't. But try to think of it this way. Because you didn't get that ARC for review you now have more time to read some of the old books that have been collecting dust on your shelf. And you're still going to read that book. You may just have to wait for release day. It's okay to feel that twinge of jealousy. Just try not to focus on it.

3. Avoid drama. There's been so much drama and negativity in the blogging community lately and it can really get to you. Try to ignore it. It's not worth it to get involved. Remember that this is about the books. Don't turn a negative review into an all-out blogger/author war. If you write a negative review, don't tag the author on Twitter. Don't go out of your way to show that negative review to them. That's just cruel in my opinion. And if an author does reach out to you and says something not so nice, just ignore it. No response is the best response in that scenario. That's just my opinion.

4. Talk to other bloggers. Leave comments on their blogs, reach out to them on Twitter. Make friends! This is so much more fun if you have friends. And then once you make friends attend events like BEA where you can meet them in real life! I know that going to an event by yourself can be scary. But it is so worth it. You will have a blast and those memories will be forever.

5. You don't have to finish the book. Okay, I'm still trying to learn this one. I've gotten slightly better at DNFing books I'm not enjoying, but I still finish a lot of books that I know I should have just DNFed. If I'm not enjoying a book why should I keep reading it? There are billions of books in the world and my own TBR pile is getting precariously high. With so little time to read, why read something I don't enjoy?

6. How to do it myself - with regard to blog design and graphics. I didn't know ANYTHING about web design or graphic design when I first started blogging. I still don't know much, but I have learned a lot since I started. And you know how I did it? Google. Youtube. Other bloggers. I just started looking at tutorials and then was able to figure out how to make it work for my own blog.

7. Authors are real people. I know right? I always thought they were these mythical, inaccessible creatures too. But they aren't! They are real and you can talk to them! I remember the first time I interacted with an author on Twitter. It was one of the greatest things ever! And now I talk to a bunch of authors all the time and I love it. I love telling them how much I loved their books, talking about what books they've liked, etc. So don't be afraid to tweet at your favorite authors or shoot them an email. I think you'll be surprised by how many will respond to you.

8. The secret to a successful blog? Nothing special. Nothing easy. Just good, original content. Be yourself, the rest will take care of itself.

And now for the fun. Giveaway time! I really wanted to be able to include my international followers this time (I love all of you guys!). So this giveaway is a book of your choice from The Book Depository. If Book Depository ships to you, then you are eligible to enter! And there will be two winners!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you so much for following my blog and fangirling over books with me! These past two years have been amazing and I can't wait to spend many more years with you guys!