One Year Blogoversary + Giveaway

Yup. Today marks one year. Really, it feels like I've been doing this a lot longer. A year ago I thought, I've read all these books and I barely remember them. I read so fast and furiously, moving quickly from one book to the next, devouring whenever and whatever I can, so some books easily get lost in that frenzy. And then I thought of all the amazing book blogs I'd been following for months and thought I could do that, if only to keep a record of my thoughts and a catalog of the books I'd read.

When I started I'd just moved back to the States after living in Spain for a year. I'd just finished my first year of grad school and had the summer stretched in front of me before I started classes again and started teaching for the first time. I had every intention of following the Ph.D. track I was on. But the more I blogged, the more I read what I LOVED to read, the more I was interacting with authors and other readers, the more I remembered a dream I had when I was in high school.

And that was to work in publishing. In my senior year book I said that my future plans were to become an editor. I'd gone to school with that intention. But somewhere that track shifted. I went from wanting to know everything about contemporary authors, publishing trends, and publishing imprints, to disecting older works of literature and studying dead authors. All that was really great and I loved it for a long time. But I never loved it as much as I love what I do now - working with current texts and discovering the past, present, and future of a vibrant field.

I had no idea when I started this a year ago it would change me so much. I expected it to make a difference, but I didn't know that it would lead me back to a dream I held onto years ago. It's something I didn't know I still wanted. The teaching thing didn't work out (yeah, won't ever do that again. I was NOT meant to be a teacher) and I lost faith in my graduate program and where I was going with it. I wasn't enjoying my work, my studies, or even reading anymore. And then I met the professor who taught my Young Adult Lit class, and she encouraged me to pursue working with YA books. Between that professor and my blog, I feel like I've been led back to what I really want to do and where I want to go.

It's amazing what a year can do. It's amazing how something, so seemingly simple, as this blog led me somewhere unexpected. I'm amazed and blessed.

And you, my dear readers, I appreciate you more than you know. Thanks for caring what I have to say and letting me share my passions with you.

Here's to one year, and hopefully many more.

Because I appreciate you so much, I'm going to have a quick and simple giveaway. There are three books that released this week that I've highly anticipated. Just fill out the Rafflecopter form below - you must be 13 or older to enter, giveaway is international as long as Book Depository ships to you. There will be one winner who will get his/her choice of one of these three books. I'll contact the winner by email. Contest will end July 1, 2012 at 12:01 AM.

AND! I've written down a number between 1-25. I have some fun swag - so for US only, if you guess the number I wrote down, I'll send you some swag!

a Rafflecopter giveaway