I did a post a fair while back in celebration of reaching 50 followers. I’m late in this celebration but I now have over 100 followers. It still amazes me that there are people out there willing to read my book reviews and general book rambles.

This year, I have accomplished more than I ever thought possible and it has allowed me to take a step back from being a harsh critic and actually accept that there are things in my life to be proud of. I wanted to create a place where I could keep track of what I was reading, a safe space where I could ramble about my thoughts and feelings over books and not be confronted with the glazed expression of my peers, friends or colleagues.

This year has been a roller coaster of different emotional points but I have remained positive though all my posts. This blog has become one of the important parts of my life. It has given me confidence. It has helped me to better manage both my anxiety and my OCD. It has encouraged me to broaden my book horizons and read more books that aren’t necessarily in my preferred genres.

I took the plunge to start my book instagram at the same time as this blog, and I did worry about how I would manage it and whether it would negatively or positively affect my anxiety. I think that because I’m posting for myself on both platforms, I don’t get the anxiety associated with posting, likes or reviews. Some days I have nothing to post and I’m not worried about that, I just see it as a ‘day off’.

The way I review a book has changed and expanded though this experience. I wanted to offer more inside into my thoughts while reading and worked hard to discover just the right ways to be able to bring that across to an audience.

Both this blog and my instagram has opened me up to a world of like minded book people that I was missing beforehand. It was starting to eat away at me that nobody I socialized with on a regular basis was open to reading. It was always this question in my head that I couldn’t quite understand because to me, not reading seems impossibly boring.

What I really wanted to say – and without too much of a ramble – was, THANK YOU! Honestly, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for coming on this journey with me and sticking through all my reviews and rambles.