I am so excited that the lovely ladies of 5171 Miles Book Blog nominated me for the Blogger Recognition Award! Thanks, ladies!! I don’t normally do these types of posts, but this one really piqued my interest.

The Rules

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
2. Write a post to show your award.
3. Give a brief story of how your blog started.
4. Give two pieces of advice for new bloggers.
5. Select 15 other bloggers you want to give this award to.
6. Comment on each blog and let them know you have nominated them and provide the link to the post you created.

How I Started My Blog

For my 30th birthday, one of my sisters gifted me a session with a Bibliotherapist from The School of Life. I had a lovely conversation with a woman via Skype, and she made some book recommendations as well as some reading approaches to help me take my reading to the next level. During this conversation, she suggested that I begin keeping a log of the books I read. I immediately went out and bought a notebook and started my log. Once I started writing down my thoughts in a notebook, anytime one of my sisters, mom, or friends asked for a book recommendation, I started referring back to my book journal. Eventually it dawned on me that it might be nice to have a version of my book journal available for my friends and family (who live all over the country) to reference themselves. Thus, I began Read It, Recommend it. I originally only wrote about books I recommended, but have since expanded it to include book reviews. I have been on this blog for nearly a year and love being part of the book blogging community!

Advice for New Bloggers

Gosh, I’m not sure that I’m in a position to give advice as I still think I am a new blogger, but here are a few thoughts. Make sure you write a blog with content you love and are proud of producing. I didn’t start this blog to gain followers, I started this blog to archive my book journey and share with those I love. If you write with this philosophy, I think you will think of blogging as less of a chore and more of a hobby that makes you happy. The second piece of advice, which I think most bloggers would give, is to become a blog fan yourself. Engage with other bloggers and see the interesting work so many are doing. They will inspire you and teach you new things. Which leads me to nominating 15 blogs that I love and think deserve this Blogger Nomination Award….

Blogger Nominations

This is a list of 15 blogs that I think are doing great work. If you have been nominated for this already or awards/tags aren’t your thing–no problem–just know that I give you two thumbs up and would encourage others to check out your blogs.

1. Thrice Read
2. Lost In A Story
3. Falling Down the Book Hole
4. The Cosy Reader
5. Mug and Nook
6. The Book Satchel
7. Weaving Life
8. Rimpy Reads
9. Page Brekker
10. A Book. A Thought.
11. The Book Lagoon
12. Layla Between the Lines
13. In Love & Words
14. To Live a Thousand Lives
15. The Books Are Everywhere