Short Stories, Irish literature, Classics, Modern Fiction, Contemporary Literary Fiction, The Japanese Novel, Post Colonial Asian Fiction, The Legacy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and quality Historical Novels are Among my Interests








Tuesday, July 20, 2010

My Blog is Now One Year Old


It is a little hard for me to believe but my blog is now over a year old.    I will always remember when I was writing my first blog post and my wife asked me "who will read these posts on the books you read?".     My only answer was "I do not know".     Since then The Reading Life has become a very important part of my life.  

I checked back on my first few posts and looked at the comments there.    I was very happy to see that of the first ten people who commented on my blog nine of them are still regular visitors.    To those who take the time to comment on my posts all I can say is "Thank you".     I have learned a great deal from the comments that have been left.   Many of readers to my blog (based on blogger stats ) seem probably  in search of information  for a school project.    Once I saw a huge spike up in readership all drawn to one post on a book about WWII in the Philippines.   I was happy of course to get the readers but I did laugh when I found out the book was assigned reading at the University of Philippines  and I had the only post on the web on this book.    I laughed to myself as I imagined a lot of students all turning in my post as their report on the book!.      I am inclined to say a lot about my blog, what it means to me, how grateful I am for my very international readership, how blogging has affected my own reading habits but really I just want to say thanks to those who read my blog.    

I also want to give a special thanks to my quite brilliant cousin in Texas who has helped me with editing chores.     

I will do a second short post on my future blogging  and reading plans.      



Mel u




34 comments:

agirlreads said...

Happy 1st birthday :) What a wonderful accomplishment to make it this far. I'm only new to your blog but I can't wait to check out more!

(Diane) Bibliophile By the Sea said...

Congrats Mel, and many more years of blogging fun.

Melissa said...

Congratulations on your first blogging anniversary! I had to LOL about the searches for a particular book - I get a lot of hits for "Make Lemonade," a young adult book by Virginia Euwer Wolff. It's the most popular searched for item ... so much so that I added a disclaimer ("make sure to give your teacher my blog url, as I need all the followers I can get") to the post.

Zimlicious said...

Congratulations!

Unknown said...

Happy 1st B-day!!

Rebecca Chapman said...

Congrats on one year. I had mine a few weeks ago, so I know the feeling. It's weird isn't it, to think that its been around for a year. For me, it felt like it went really fast.

Your blog is a wonderful place to visit - with so much information rather than just a book review. That's what I love about it and why I will keep coming back :-)

Frances said...

Happy, happy birthday! I am such a terrible lurker on your lovely blog that I feel odd coming out of the woodwork for well wishes. Think that I will commit myself to regular commenting for your second year. :) Happy reading!

me. said...

Many thanks for the great posts over the past year,my blog has just passed one year old too.Looking forward to reading your future posts.

Unknown said...

Mel u -
Congrats I am so glad you have such a lovely blog so I get the pleasure of reading it!
Shellie

ds said...

Happy bloggy birthday, Mel, and many many more! You have had an awesome year. Congratulations!

Helen's Book Blog said...

Congratulations on the first year; that's awesome!

Mrs. B said...

Mel- Happy First Birthday! I think I found your blog soon after I started mine last October. Like you, I'm happy I started blogging. It's been a wonderful experience so far.

Fred said...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!



Congratulations and Best Wishes for

many more.

Mel said...

Congratulations on your blog anniversary. The Reading Life is a magnificent book blog. I learn something or receive good ideas on what to read next whenever I visit. Many thanks for the wonderful posts and words of encouragement.

Michelle Stockard Miller said...

First of all, happy blog birthday to you! Second, I must tell you that I had no idea you were a guy! I have a lot of friends named Melissa who go by Mel. Well, you know...duh! Boy, do I feel like a dummy!

I also wanted to comment on your blog header...spectacular! I love all the author pics with a little whimsy thrown in. That cat pic in the lower right corner is one of my faves. I've used that one before as an avatar, etc. Speaking of cats, yours are ADORABLE! I love the name Yoda for a cat. My aunt has a calico with the same moniker. Since you seem to be a cat lover, like me, you should consider participating in my weekly meme, Cat Thursday. We celebrate cats with pics of our own cats, LOL cat pics, cat art, cat books, etc. This week I'm featuring the book The International Kittens of Mystery by Chris Dolley.

Anyway, I'm going to make it a point to stop by more often. Maybe if I had been, I would know you were a guy...LOL! Again, happy one year to you. I look forward to getting to know you more in the future. =O)

~M~

Suko said...

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear Reading Life
Happy birthday to you!

Many congrats on your 1-year blogiversary!

Anonymous said...

Congrats on your one year anniversary! Keep up the greatness.

StephTheBookworm said...

That's awesome - congrats on one year!

What a fun little story about the students from the Philippines!

Unknown said...

Congrats on your blog's first birthday!

Emidy @ Une Parole said...

Aw, Happy Birthday, blog! One year is a huge milestone, so congrats. I hope your blog will be around for many more to come!

Josette said...

Hi Mel,

Congratulations on your blog turning one! Here's to many more years to come. :D

fantaghiro23 said...

Congratulations on your first blogiversary, Mel! I've always been so impressed with your posts and your prolificness. Here's to more years of The Reading Life!:)

Hannah Stoneham said...

Happy first birthday to your blog and congratulations to you for producing such an excellent beast. It is a pleasure to read.

Hannah

Anonymous said...

Happy Blogiversary! I'm not a student in the Phillipines but I enjoy your blog nevertheless :)

@parridhlantern said...

Happy first birthday & may it be the start of many more to come.

JoAnn said...

Happy First Birthday and best wishes for many more! So glad I 'discovered' your blog last summer.

Molly said...

Happy Bloggiversary!

JoV said...

Happy first blogoaversary!!! May there be many more blogging years to come.

Can't wait to see what's your plan next!

Emily H. said...

Yay! Congrats!

Cat said...

Happy 1ST Blogiversary!

I may not say much but I always enjoy reading your posts.
And I love your fantastic header.

Novroz said...

I know I have said it through twitter...but no harm done for saying it again :)

Happy blog anniversary. I always forgot about my blog-birthday, it's somewhere in May. Good luck with your blog and I'm sure more people will come and read your blog

Journey said...

Happy blog-birthday! :D
I hope you'll stay around for much more than another year - I love your blog (even if I comment not enough, but I'm reading along!)

claire said...

Happy blogiversary, Mel!!!

Anna said...

Happy (belated) blog anniversary!