Happy Birthday to BOOKS AND LADDERS!

Guys, guys! My blog is ONE today! It can basically walk and babble on it's own. But I'm not going to let it do that because it will be nonsense. Unlike the REAL, QUALITY STUFF I BRING YOU. Before anything else, I want to say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart to all my readers, followers, and friends for supporting me for this past year!

I have some fun things for your viewing pleasure today: I am going to tell you why blogging is so important to me, give you a look at my stats, say thank you to people, make you read my most popular posts, and then give you one of EIGHT prizes (in five giveaways) all sponsored by the ah-mazing publishers I work with. Make sure you are checking my twitter out so you can also enter a sneaky ninth giveaway! I'm also going to a couple events over the next two weeks so keep checking my blog for giveaways there too!

What Blogging Means To Me

As someone who is an introvert and not very social, I have always loved to read. As I kid I spent half my time curled up reading and the other half stretched out reading. But I never really had an outlet for talking about books to people because I never really had a friend who was into reading as much as I was. Sure, in passing they enjoyed to read, but they didn't analyze the story or the characters, but rather took it at face value. So I slowly started keeping my passion to myself but devouring books left and right.

Then Goodreads was created. I signed up for an account right away and really enjoyed writing little reviews for what I thought about books and keeping track of what I had read. Because of Goodreads, I saw other people had book blogs, so I started following and reading some of them. I always said "I could do this" and then (after copious amounts of research), I decided to actually do it.

Blogging about books has expanded my world. I have learned so much about myself as a reader and a person because of interacting with others who have the same passion as me. I have met incredible people who are so talented, creative, and wonderful. It is so nice to be a part of a community that LOVES books just as much as I do. Being able to talk about books that I love every single day with people who get it is an immeasurable experience for me because I never thought I would be able to do so -- especially not with people that I consider really good friends.

So if you have ever tweeted me about a book you and I both have read, whether or not you have liked or disliked it, you have made this last year of my life one of the best I've ever had. I have loved being able to squeal over books I've loved, tell you why I have NOT enjoyed some others, and have felt meh about even more. I can't wait to continue to share my opinion with you guys about the books that I read and I hope you continue to enjoy reading my posts. 

Books and Ladders Has...

• 39 blog followers
• 29 email subscribers
• 139 Bloglovin' subscribers
• 687 Goodreads friends and followers
• 2251 Twitter followers
• 767 Instagram followers
• 28 Google+ followers
• ~5200 views per month
• ~15 comments per week

Thank Yous

Thank you to YOU, yes YOU READING THIS. Without you, and all my other readers, none of this would be possible (well, like 99% of this wouldn't be possible. I'm my own 1%). I appreciate all your comments, tweets, emails, EVERYTHING because no one likes to feel like they are shouting out into the void. I love each and every one of you. I hope you continue to read my blog in the future and that I continue bringing you the content you want to read. I love recommending books and telling you which ones to stay away from. I love being a part of this community and talking to all you guys.

Thank you to all the publishers who have taken a chance on me and my reading and sent me books or approved me for eGalleys over the last year. And an extra special thank you to Month9Books, St. Martin's Griffin, Simon & Schuster Canada, Abrams, and Quercus for sponsoring part of my giveaway for you guys!

Thank you to all the authors who have interacted with me and allowed me to fangirl over your novel without getting weirded out. I have met SOME of you but not nearly enough and hopefully that can be remedied soon! Without you and your hard work, I would twiddle my thumbs during my free time instead of reading your books. An extra special thank you to Mia Siegert for sending me JERKBAIT items to send to you guys and to Elise Kova for putting together the Air Awakens themed Prize Pack! Also, generally, both Mia and Elise are fantastic people so if you aren't following them, you should do so.

My best posts of the year have been...

• Blog Tour: HOW TO BE BRAVE by E. Katherine Kottaras
• Why I DNF Books + When You Should Give Up And Call It A Day 
• ARC Review: AIR AWAKENS by Elise Kova
• Cover Reveal: #CONTRIBUTE by Kristy Acevedo
• Blog Tour: IN REAL LIFE by Jessica Love

There are a lot of fun giveaways here sponsored by the publishers I work with. I wanted to do something special to celebrate my one year here so I hope you guys enjoy! Please note that some of the giveaways are Canada Only, US Only, and International. As well, watch Twitter because I'm doing a giveaway for some swag on there. 

Air Awakens Prize Pack from Silver Wing Press

a Rafflecopter giveaway

1 of 3 ebooks from Month9Books

a Rafflecopter giveaway

ARC of MAP OF BONES from Simon & Schuster Canada

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Galleys from Abrams

a Rafflecopter giveaway

THE CITY'S SON or ALICE AND THE FLY from Quercus

a Rafflecopter giveaway