in celebration of my blog’s 1 year anniversary!
Tracy, please email me your mailing address ASAP. Include your Instagram account (if you have one) and I’ll give you a shout out!
Thanks everyone for following and entering!
July 27, 2018
What a great year of reading, reviewing, and meeting book buddies….THANK YOU for your support and encouragement! I appreciate each of you who have “followed” along on the journey and “welcome!” if you’re visiting today!
Welcome to my first anniversary post in which I explain the connection between my blog and “The Happiness Project” and offer a GIVE AWAY.
In June, I received a book to read from my Postal Book Club titled “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin. Honestly, I wasn’t thrilled with the selection because I had already read the book and when I thumbed through the index my reaction was “I already know and practice a lot of this.” Because I’m an avid reader, an observer, heavily reflective, and mature (on the youthfulness scale), I’ve made peace with “happiness.” I’ve tried to buy it, search for it, pray for it, wish it into existence, and campaign for it. I have enjoyed a reasonable amount of happiness along the way and I’m fairly confident about achieving happiness. Grudgingly, I started flipping through the book (because I’m a responsible book club member and needed to give this some effort) and the heading “Launch a Blog” (page 74) caught my eye. Wait a minute! I want to read that!
“…challenge and novelty are key elements to happiness.”
“If you do new things–visit a museum for the first time, learn a new game, travel to a new place, meet new people–you’re more apt to feel happy than people who stick to more familiar activities.”
“…we seek to control our lives, but the unfamiliar and unexpected are important sources of happiness.”
~Gretchen Rubin
I hadn’t specifically connected launching a blog to happiness! However, as I reread through this and other sections of Rubin’s book with new eyes, I realized that the creation of my blog met many of her suggestions for “the happiness project.”
What I didn’t realize was that launching a blog would be a significant boost to my personal “happiness project”!
“Seeing that first post hit the screen gave me an enormous rush of triumph. I couldn’t believe I’d managed to do it. The experts had certainly been correct about the happiness effect of novelty, challenge, and atmosphere of growth.”
“My blog gave me a new identity, new skills, a new set of colleagues, and a way to connect with people who shared my interest.”
~Gretchen Rubin
I could have written the above quote!
The technical aspect of launching a blog led me into more “opportunities for happiness”! Suddenly, I realized I needed to create an Instagram (Bookstagram) community(@readingladies_book_club), to build my Goodreads community, and venture into the world of Pinterest. All of these endeavors brought novelty, many challenges, and substantial opportunities for growth; in other words, more potential for “happiness.”
I’m thrilled with my Bookstagram community of book buddies! Thank you for the “follows” (I follow you back if it’s apparent that you have a bookish account)…. all your fabulous book recs and bookish talk is a highlight of my day.
To celebrate and thank my followers I’d like to give away my favorite read so far this year! A Place For Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza (U.S. only…sorry)
***I would appreciate a follow on Instagram, too, if you have a Bookish account: @readingladies_book_club
*I will announce the winner in two weeks (Aug 10, 2018)
**This is my first time using Rafflecopter….I hope it works ok….if there are glitches, I’ll draw the winner directly from comments.
“Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading.”
~Rainer Maria Rilke
“I love the world of words, where life and literature connect.”
~Denise J Hughes
“Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad ones.”
~Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
“I read because books are a form of transportation, of teaching, and of connection!
Books take us to places we’ve never been, they teach us about our world, and they help us to understand human experience.”
~Madeleine Riley, Top Shelf Text
I’ll be updating my Summer TBR list as I complete each read, so check this link often!
(So far I’ve read about half of the list, some I’ve been more thrilled with than others, and I’ve only abandoned one)
Do you have a blog? Is it part of what brings you happiness? How long have you been blogging? Do you have any tips for “newbies”?
In the next few days, I look forward to providing a July wrap up and choosing the most compelling character from July reading (Link Up). My next read will be An American Marriage (I’ve noticed mixed reviews of this Oprah Book Club selection so we’ll see how it goes).
Thank you for reading today! I’d be honored and thrilled if you choose to enjoy and follow along, promote, and/or share my blog. Every share helps us grow.
***Blogs posts may contain affiliate links. This means that at no extra cost to you, I can earn a small percentage of your purchase price. This money will be used to offset the costs of running a blog and to sponsor giveaways, etc.
Unless explicitly stated that they are free, all books that I review have been purchased by me or borrowed from the library.
Book Cover and author photo are credited to Amazon or an author’s website.
