3-Year Blogoversary, Giveaway, and Announcement

Hey everyone,

Hard to believe I've been running this blog since 2010! I joined my first Book Blogger Hop almost exactly 3 years ago, and quickly got all wrapped up in everything the book blogosphere has to offer. Blogging has been an awesome experience in so many ways — connecting with other people who love books as much as I do, learning some HTML, improving my critical thinking and review-writing skills, and most importantly, giving me something to look forward to and participate in when real life wasn't necessarily going exactly as planned. I also had the pleasure of co-hosting one blog event (A Cornucopia of Dystopia) in 2011 and hosting another (Psychtember) in 2011 and 2012. I never imagined when I first set up my blog that I'd be involved in coordinating anything like that!

But as happens with so many bloggers, real life is going to get a lot busier for me come September, as I'm starting grad school in a new city. My program's going to be pretty intense so I really don't know how much time I will have to dedicate to reading and blogging. So this is a head's-up that I will inevitably be posting much less frequently than usual after August, and this blog may go on hiatus altogether... we'll see. But just a reminder that the 2013 New Adult challenge will keep going :)

A huge thank-you goes out to all my followers, both the ones who have been there since the beginning and the ones who've started following more recently!

And in celebration of my third-year blogoversary, I'm hosting a giveaway — your choice of a book for up to $15 (CDN) from The Book Depository!

Rules:

- Open internationally, as long as The Book Depository ships to your country
- Must be 13 years or older to enter
- Giveaway ends Aug. 11

Enter using the Rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blogoversary giveaway winners!

The randomly selected winner of the blogoversary giveaway for Canada is...

Laura from All of Everything!

The randomly selected winner of the international blogoversary giveaway is...

Lu from A Muggle's Magical Book Blog!

I've sent both winners an e-mail, and they have 72 hours to get back to me before I select another winner. Congrats, and thanks to everyone else who entered!

Edited: I've heard back from both winners now!

Blogoversary & Giveaways!

I'm celebrating my 1-year blogoversary today! Technically my very first post was back in May 2010, but it was one year ago today that I joined the Book Blogger Hop for the first time, people actually became aware of the existence of my blog, and I got my first followers and comments. :D

If you'd like to take a look, here's the very first post I ever wrote. Kind of embarrassing (were these intended to be reviews? Really?) but I'm very pleased with how far I've come. It's been so much fun to have become part of the book blogging community and be able to talk about all my bookish thoughts with other readers who understand my passion! Really when I started this blog I never dreamed that one year later I'd still be going strong and would have gained over 400 followers. O_O Thanks very much to everybody who's stuck with me!

To celebrate, I'm having 2 giveaways!

Rules:

- Entrants must be 13 years of age or older.

- No following or tweeting is required to enter (though both, of course, are always appreciated).

- However, if you are an old follower (by either GFC or e-mail subscription) you get 1 extra entry. This means you were following me BEFORE this giveaway announcement. Make sure to give me your exact GFC username (or the e-mail you use to subscribe) on the form. Please be honest here so you don't get disqualified! Normally I don't give any extra points for following, but since it's my blogoversary I'd like to reward the people who have been with me up until now :)

- If you have a Canadian address, you can enter each giveaway once. If you live outside of Canada, you are only eligible to enter the international giveaway once.

- Both giveaways end Aug. 6 at 11:59 pm EST.

- Comments are nice but do NOT count as entries.

- The winner of each giveaway will be selected randomly and contacted by e-mail.

Now for the actual giveaway prizes...

Giveaway #1 — Open to Canadian addresses only. Winner's choice of either Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting (hardcover) or Thirst No. 1 by Christopher Pike (paperback, includes The Last Vampire, Black Blood, and Red Dice), as pictured below.

Giveaway #2 — Open internationally, anywhere the Book Depository ships (you can see here for a list of countries they ship to). Winner's choice of 1 book from my review list, provided that it is currently available from the Book Depository and under $15 CAD.


Both contests are now closed.

Good luck!