Six Years of The Moonlight Library!

I’ve been doing this gig for six years!

That’s longer than high school.

That’s longer than it took me to get my degree in Literature.

That’s longer than I’ve ever held a job.

That’s longer than I’ve been married.

Previous blogiversary posts

One Year Anniversary!

2 Year Blogiversary Giveaway and a Brief Hiatus

Today is my three year blogiversary!

 

No year 4 and 5 posts, sorry! Year 4 was when this blog was officially called Young Adult at Heart. Year 5, last year, 2017, I didn’t feel like there was very much to celebrate since I wasn’t reading very much.

Why I started

It was Rabid Reads  (now retired) that inspired me to start book reviewing. Rabid Reads was the first actual book blog I followed, and Carmel, as it was only her at the time, read and reviewed exclusively werewolf fiction. Through Carmel I discovered Goodreads, and started sharing reviews, which seemed so freaking normal to me since I was already running a blog on a completely unrelated topic.

After a couple of years of just reviewing, I decided I wanted to run my own book blog so I could take part in memes and book tours and all that wonderful stuff, and have more than just my Goodreads stats for Netgalley (I didn’t brave Edelweiss until much later). So after much consideration, I wiped the slate clean, started a brand new Goodreads profile under the name of Nemo, got a new email address and social media, and started The Moonlight Library reviewing library books, some of my own books, and ARCs from Netgalley.

• My first book review was the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, which seemed appropriate, since after I finished a literature degree at University, I had completely burned out on reading and hadn’t read anything in nearly a year. It was Twilight that got me back into reading.
• My first ARC reiew was Shift by Kim Curran.
• My first audiobook review was Northern Lights by Philip Pullman.

---

Here are some things I’ve done while blogging for the Moonlight Library.

People Stuff

Met Jay Kristoff, YA author and literary giant, at the launch for Stormdancer (best hugger ever!).

Met John Marsden, author of the Tomorrow When The War Began series, at a book signing, told him about my Project Tomorrow, and he told me he liked my non de plume.

Joined forces with Tanieka to co-blog Young Adult at Heart, which was later rescinded back to the Moonlight Library after Tanieka decided to concentrate more on BookTube and Instagram. Go say hi and tell her I sent you!

Blogging

Started this blog in 2012 on WordPress.com, and moved to self-hosting in 2014.

Took part in over 70 blog tours, book blasts, author guests spots and cover reveals. Funnily enough, it was this large number of promotions that got me temporarily banned in 2014, when I decided to move to self-hosted.

Hosted over 30 giveaways.

Had my reviews showcased in 2 author’s media.

Published over 1300 blog posts.

Books

Received over 70 books from Netgalley

Received over 30 books from Edelweiss

Received over 70 books directly from publishers, about half of which were unsolicited.

Received books directly from authors including Mary Weber (Storm Siren and Siren’s Song,  and Andrea Berthot (The Heartless City and The Hypnotic City, and the upcoming The Hysterical City).

Received books for review from almost every major Australian publisher, and some less major publishers.

Purchased at least 500 books for my personal library. Look, I don’t even know how many I’ve purchased. I’m actually kinda scared to count them all.

STATS

Read over 370 books.

Reviewed just over 320 books.

DNF’d about 24 books.

Most reviewed genres: Technically, thanks to the Animorphs series and dystopian genre combined, it’s Sci-Fi, though I’ve also reviewed a lot of Fantasy including High Fantasy, Urban Fantasy and Paranormal, followed by Contemporary, and then a few Historical. All YA, of course.

Longest novel I’ve read: Dawn Study by Maria V Snyder: 582 pages.

The Future

So what’s in store for the Moonlight Library in the future?

I certainly don’t plan on stopping blogging. It’s a huge part of my life, it keeps me accountable, and I just freaking love both blogging and books.

Early in 2018 I said I was no longer making blogging resolutions or ‘goals’, and I’ve kept to that.

 

Basically I said that I wanted to read more, specifically I wanted to re-read Harry Potter, that I wanted to read less review books and more from my home library, that I wanted to purchase bookshelves for my poor books in storage, that I wanted to make the blog more social, and that I wanted to read more from other blogs.

I’ve had a think about everything I’ve achieved in blogging in the past 6 years, and what I want from the future from this blog.

• I want to review one book a week, but I’ll try not to get stressed out when I don’t make this goal. Not if. When.
• I want to write discussion posts every couple of weeks.
• I want to finish more series that I’m part-way through. This year alone, I’ve already read the final books in the Ruined series, Snow Like Ashes series, Tiny Pretty Things duology, and the Old Kingdom series.
• I want to keep culling my to-read pile.
• Now that I’m much pickier with what I read for review, I want to receive for review the books I request, which is kind of arbitrary since it’s not up to me which books are approved. I have a pretty much 50% hit rate, though I ask for very few books these days. But to help achieve this, I can keep my blog up to date and keep producing interesting and engaging content.
• Or I could just write whatever the hell I want.
• I’ve toyed with becoming more of a specialist/niche ie only reviewing YA fantasy or specifically OzYA, but the truth is, I want to read what want to read and I only review YA and MG.
• I do not want to become more active on social media. I actually want to become LESS active.
• But also, I want to read more blogs.

If you have a blog, why don’t you comment the address down below so I can make sure I follow it on Bloglovin?

Subscribe to Blog via Email