I’m not quite sure how it happened, but today marks exactly ten years since I began blogging. What a decade it’s been and my goodness hasn’t the world changed for the worst since 2015?
But throughout that decade books have been a constant presence and joy.
Thank You
I cannot begin to thank all the authors, publicists and publishers who have trusted me with their books over the years. It really is an honour to receive books for review. I’m so grateful for every single one.
I’m not sure my postie is quite so grateful… the first full week of 2025 he brought me 22 books and has delivered 63 in January in total. Unfortunately, I’m unable to read ebooks as I have weird bendy sight that needs to flex pages – conflicting astigmatisms, -12.5 in my left eye with a tilted retinal disk, a tiny hole in the retina and macular pucker from an epiretinal membrane caused by PVD. Screens tend to be inflexible! Reading screens for more than a few pages gives me vertigo and nausea. It’s a great pity as I’d have room on my Kindle for more books than the house can accommodate.
Sorry
I owe apologies to those who’ve sent books and are still waiting for me to get to them. I sometimes think blogging must be a road to Hell as it seems to be paved with good intentions. Sadly it transpires that my best intentions simply aren’t good enough in getting to review all the books I’ve promised to read. I think the longest anyone has waited so far is six years. Oops.
Regular Linda’s Book Bag visitors may have noticed fewer posts in recent months. On occasion, real life gets in the way. I used to read four or five books a week, but life has become somewhat challenging in the last 18 months and this has reduced considerably. If I say that in January alone this year we have already lost four friends and family, you’ll understand. I’ve also had to take on far fewer blog tours and guest slots as setting up posts still takes time. I know my fellow bloggers understand exactly what I mean!
Of course, there are times when blogging feels overwhelming. During Covid when I was receiving well over 200 emails a day with requests to feature on the blog I simply had to give up trying to respond. Even now I spend a lot of time not reading, but replying to emails – usually around 40-50 a day. I always try to share any books I’m sent on social media to say thank you and to bring them to the attention of other potential readers. As both my photography and typing skills are execrable, this takes quite a lot of time – about 20 minutes per book to take photographs, check publication dates, find publisher, publicist and author handles and then add the books to X, Threads, Instagram and Bluesky. The greatest number of unsolicited books I’ve received in one day is 31.
Opportunities
That aside, over the last ten years blogging has brought me so many opportunities. Not only have I received literally thousands of books, but I’ve made real life friends with authors, other bloggers and publicists. I’ve been involved in festivals like our local Deepings Literary Festival where I’ve interviewed and hosted many wonderful authors. I’ve been invited to more events than I can count, have been featured in magazines like Women’s Own and have even won awards for my blogging.
One of the biggest joys has been being invited to review online for My Weekly (see here) and in print (and once or twice online here) for The People’s Friend. I’ve also been a judge in book awards for the Sunday Times – something that I’m doing again this year for the Bookbrunch Selfies and I have been lucky to take part in events like Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour where I was interviewed and Radio 4’s Book Club where I got the chance to ask questions of Rachel Joyce and Eimear McBride.
I’m approached a lot about accepting books for my magazine reviews. I thought I might clarify that process here. I can make suggestions for books to My Weekly, but the final say isn’t mine. I review 3 or 4 books on average a month for them. I have autonomy over The People’s Friend, but these books must be paperback releases and nothing too sweary, violent or upsetting. My deadline for The People’s Friend is two months before magazine publication, so I need to have received the book, read it and sent in my review very early. April’s choices are on their way to the magazine right now. I can only choose five books a month for The People’s Friend so I can’t accommodate all those I’m asked to consider. It feels such a privilege to be able to contribute to these two magazines.
Stats
I rarely look at my blog stats but I think it’s interesting that my first (truly, truly dreadful) blog post back on 7th February 2015 has had six views in ten years and my review of my book of the year for 2024, Christ Whitaker’s All the Colours of the Dark, has had 18,849 views in 7 months as I write this post.
So, it’s been an interesting and exciting decade of books and blogging. I might not have loved EVERY moment (after all, there are only so many fake Keanu Reeves, American generals and Elon Musks a person can block on social media), but I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
Giveaway
As a thank you to all those who’ve supported me over the last decade, I have a small giveaway, so please do enter.
For your chance to win a £25 National Book Token or Bookshop.org voucher please click HERE.
Please note that I’ll need an email address to send the prize, but I promise not to share it with anyone else or to retain it after the end of the giveaway.
Giveaway closes at UK 11.59PM on Thursday 13th February 2025.
PLEASE NOTE – should anyone ask you for personal details or money in relation to this, they are NOT me and should be ignored.
