The Class of July 2014 Book Bloggers' Anniversary Bash with GIVEAWAY

 

 

Hi everyone! As you can tell (or not), I haven't been posting as much as I used to, which was everyday, for the past three weeks. That's because I was busy getting married and going on family vacation~ Anyways, now I'm back and want to share with you this amazing event hosted by Erin @ The Hardcover Lover. Basically this Anniversary Bash highlights all the book bloggers that started their blogs back in July of 2014 - hence we're The Class of July 2014 ;) I will be sharing a little bit about myself and my blogging experiences over the past year and make sure you stay till the very end because there's a GIVEAWAY!

 

 

BookCatPin

To start off, I want to explain my blog name BookCatPin. When I first decided to start a blog, I brainstormed for days for a unique but catchy name. I thought about using bookworm but then a lot of blogs already uses it and I wanted to be more original. One day I thought 'hey, I love my cat, why not be a bookcat?'. I mean bookcat's not a real term but I'll be the only one right?! Then to add a little bit of a personal touch, I added Pin which is my nickname. It basically means books, Ripple (my cat) and me! And that's us on the right saying hi to you~

So why did I start this blog. Well, in short, I started BookCatPin because I wanted a place to share my thoughts and opinions about books with other booklovers. Here's my longer explanation if you're interested ;) I wanted to remember the stories I've read because to me, every story has a magical world (even in dystopians) where I can go to and just relax~ It's pretty incredible to think that I've been book blogging for over a year now! Sometimes I can't even believe I'm blogging at all!

Eileen = Me

So I'm a very ordinary twenty something years old booklover. It's kind of weird to say this myself but I'm a very shy person. I have the weirdest fear that people will find me odd if I randomly started talking to them so I generally don't. Since starting book blogging though and through Twitter, I've managed to "speak up" more. Thank you to the lovely people who put up with me! You all have no idea how happy I am to know you <3

If you didn't read that top part in red or somehow missed it, I recently got married and that's why I sort of (ok I did) missed my own blogoversary. Oops... I didn't have time to properly prepare a post and celebrate so I'm very thankful Erin asked me to be a part of this Anniversary Bash! I will definitely still do something extra special when my birthday (another reason to celebrate!) rolls around in October ;)

 

Here are some more things about me if you're interested!

20 Facts About Me

Love-a-Thon Q&A

At the One Year Mark

What to share about my experience? The most important thing I've learned since starting my blog is it is very time-consuming! I think you really have to be passionate about reading to be able to maintain a blog. Many times I've struggled with balancing my personal life and keeping up with blogging. I'm also a huge procrastinator so that doesn't help :S I'm really glad I didn't give up though because it's just been such a rewarding experience! The book community has been so welcoming and I've met so many awesome people!! I've also learned that Twitter is a great social media platform to expand yourself and your blog. It's a wonderful place to get to know other readers, authors, publishers and just all sorts of people in general. Then there's also Instagram which is very easy to use. You can share your own bookish pictures or just creep  admire other people's photos.

My blog design has remained the quite unchanged since I started a year go. I don't have any fancy or eye-catching design and when people are talking about plugins, I literally have no clue what that is all about lol. That's totally fine with me though because I love BookCatPin the way it is. The banners and buttons were made by the talented Emma @ Star Crossed Reviews! It's simple and easy (or at least I hope it is) to navigate and I think that's important when it comes to designing your own blog. I'm also not a very creative person so I tend to stick to posting reviews, participating in memes and occasionally writing up a discussion post. Again, I love it that way and sorry if you're looking for something more creative but not finding it here :( Oh and I LOVE showing off my cat Ripple so I hope you all enjoy the amount of Ripple photos I have on the blog~ He pretty much makes a weekly appearance in my Stacking the Shelves posts XD Anyways, I guess what I'm trying to say is my blog may be plain but I love everything about it and wouldn't change a thing~ Ultimately that's the most important thing, right? :P

 

Lots of Love

I want to say thank you to some lovely people who have made my blogging experience such an amazing one~ First, to all the blogs on my sidebar, you are all so wonderful and such inspirations to me! To Amber @ Cosying Up With Books, my very first friend in the blogosphere, thank you for never getting tired of my questions and for helping me get started! To Kindlemom @ My Guilty Obsession (I do know your name but you will always be Kindlemom to me!), thank you for always visiting and commenting <3 Thank you to Michelle @ Michelle's Minions and Grace @ Books of Love for always loving my Stacking the Shelves posts :D

All the love and hugs to Pili @ In Love With Handmade, Alyssa @ The Eater of Books!, Ri @ Hiver et Café, Cassi @ My Thoughts...Literally! and Alice @ a nudge in the right direction for the comments, Twitter chats and just knowing who I am and talking to me! You make me like Twitter and want to go on every day :D To Britt @ Please Feed the Bookworm who hosts her giveaways to include Canada. It seriously warms my heart knowing that someone out there thinks of me from time to time :)

Thank you to Melissa @ The Reader and the Chef, Nova @ Out of Time, Aimee @ Deadly Darlings and Kaitlin @ Reading is My Treasure, some new friends I recently made. You are all so friendly! And more thank you to wonderful book friends La La @ LA LA in the LIBRARY and Beth @ Fuelled by Fiction!

A huge THANK YOU to J aka Celeste Pewter @ The Reading Nook Reviews who has helped me with so much. Thank you for all the advices, cheers and encouragements you've given me and not just with blogging but in every day Twitter convos! You make the blogging world a happy place to be and Twitter a fun place to hang out at :D

 

I want to thank all the authors I've been fortunate enough to come to know. I especially want to give a shoutout to Paula Stokes and Danielle L. Jensen~ I used to think talking to authors is just a faraway dream but you make it all real! It's truly a dream come true to have the chance to get to know you and chat with you so thank you <3

 

I'd also like to thank the publishers who have so graciously welcomed me especially HCC Frenzy and Raincoast Books! I'm always ecstatic to receive emails from them. It's such a privilege to be able to send requests to them and I definitely treasure it all. I absolutely love how enthusiastic they always are about book releases! A very special thank you to Suman @ HCCFrenzy who doesn't know this but she gave me the final push into starting my own blog when I was still hesitant about it. I had won a giveaway (my first win!) hosted by HCCFrenzy and she contacted me and sent me the books I wanted :D I just remember opening up the package and seeing a handwritten note. It was so sweet and gave me the confidence to start sharing my reviews publicly.

Last but not least of course I want to thank my followers!! Thank you for choosing to click that follow button, it really means a lot to me! BookCatPin would not be the same without all of you and your support!!!!! :D

 

Giveaway

This giveaway is sponsored by Erin and it is International as long as The Book Depository ships to your country! Please do not cheat! She will check every entry, and if you clicked "enter" but did not complete the entry requirement, you will be disqualified.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to check out my classmates!

Erin @ The Hardcover Lover

Lauren @ Bookmark Lit

Tika @ fANGIRL Confessions

Amber @ YA Indulgences

Eileen @ BookCatPin

Sheridan @ I Turn the Pages

Kaitlin @ Next Page Please

Talina @ Sassy and Dangerous

Nori @ ReadWriteLove28

To The Class of July 2014, may we all celebrate many many more of our blogoversaries together :D