It was March 2014 when I was updating my Goodreads account and checking some of my favourite blogs that I made the decision to actually set up one of my own. I had thought about it in the past, but was intimated by the amount of them already out there. One of my favourite authors, Sean Black, added me on Goodreads one day to thank me for a review I had written for
The Devil's Bounty and I was blown away that an author would take time out of their day just to say thank you for a review. I had no idea when I started the blog that that feeling
never goes away and is one of the best things about being a blogger. I also had a discussion with Tracey Garvis-Graves on Goodreads about how much I loved her books, and she revealed a then
huge secret about
Covet that left me feeling quite privileged and again since then I have had many discussions with some of my favourite authors that before the days of the Internet would never have even been possible and I can't thank the authors who have expressed their thanks, enthusiasm and support enough as it is what spurs me on to keep blogging. I also could never imagine seeing one of my reviews quoted in an
actual book as I have done a few times now and each time I am so very thankful.
I can't believe that it was two years ago I set up the blog because it does seem like only yesterday. I remember the first problem I had was coming up with a name, and I'm not even going to mention the one that I almost went with because it is
awful. In real life I've been told that
Book Addict Shaun isn't a very good name but I think in the book world it's actually pretty good and I really like it. Plus, it does sound a little bit like 'book addiction' depending on how you say it. I also struggled with the layout of my blog in the beginning, and by struggled I mean
hated it. Instead of forking out hundreds of pounds for one I was happy with, I randomly stumbled across my current layout on Etsy and have used it ever since, and I love it. Something else I thought would be a problem but was actually the easiest thing about the whole new blogger experience was setting up a Twitter account. Would anyone even follow me? Would anyone care what I had to say? The first night I gained a fair few followers, and I spent the first of what would be many happy hours discussing books with some amazing, like-minded people. One person who stands out from that night is Karen Sullivan from Orenda Books. Her passion and excitement for all things books is just amazing and the fact she shared that enthusiasm towards me starting a book blog was astounding. I do suffer from anxiety and it's extremely comforting to know that there's always this place where you can just go and talk about books for hours, and where you can scream with excitement about a particular author or book without anyone judging you.
Sadly my anxiety and living in Liverpool and not London has meant that there's been so many invites to events that I sadly haven't been able to go to but I am definitely hoping that 2016 is the year that that will change and will see me attending some events and meeting some of the amazing publishers, authors and blogging friends that I have made over the years. There are far too many to mention but to the ones who always support my blog and share and comment on my reviews, I cannot thank you enough as this little space on the Internet us book bloggers have is very precious to me.
Some of them are Vicki, Kat, Raven, Becca, Christine, Linda, Gordon, Janet, Anne, Cleo, Sharon, Charlene, Tracey, Dawn, Erin, Celeste, and many, many more. I am terrible at thanking people for the shares but it can be hard to keep up and so I am very grateful for them all. I never thought my blog would reach 200k page views (give or take a few bots) and that is largely in part to the RTs from bloggers and publishers. I haven't had the best start to the year blogging wise but hopefully that is about to change in the near future as I have lots of reviews and posts planned and am extremely excited to see what the rest of 2016 is going to bring books wise.
