A Book A Week

Happy New Year! 2022 is a special milestone for me because it marks 10 years of blogging. It is hard to believe that a decade has passed since I published my very first post. Back then I was in the midst of my undergraduate studies, struggling to balance my scholarly reading with reading for pleasure. So much has changed in the years that have followed, but A Book A Week has been a constant. As I've grown and evolved in my personal and professional life, so has this blog. As I embark on this new year of maintaining my book a week challenge, I thought it would be fun to recall how this crazy adventure all began. 

I grew up as a fairly avid reader, but balancing being a full-time student and teaching band and private lessons were really stretching my time thin. I vividly remember taking a full 3 months to read Chris Bohjalian's The Night Strangers. It was one of only 5 or 6 books that I read that year. Near the latter half of 2011, I was bound and determined to do better. I began researching ways to track my reading and hold myself accountable. I stumbled across Goodreads and was instantly hooked! On the site, I was able to connect with other readers, discover new books, and most importantly set a reading goal. In Goodreads, I had found a group of like-minded bibliophiles, a community that would become a much larger part of my life in the years to come. 

As I grew more and more serious about reading and tracking my progress, I began to toy with the idea of beginning a blog. I was still struggling to hold myself accountable for reading more books. Try as I might, I kept getting distracted from reading. As the new year approached, I decided to make a bold resolution. I planned to read one book each week. In sticking with this goal I would end the year having read a staggering 52 books. A Book A Week was born on January 1, 2012, as a personal means of marking my progress with that reading goal. I posited that in writing a review of each book and posting it I would not only keep myself accountable for my reading but maybe inspire one or two people to pick up a book too. I couldn't have imagined just how many people would read and interact with my silly goal over the next decade. 

Today, A Book A Week continues to prosper. I've read hundreds of books over the years and shared my thoughts on each of them. More importantly, I've gotten to interact with so many other readers, authors, and publishers. The relationships that blogging about books has afforded me are something I truly value. The blog looks a bit different from those early days, especially as I've grown more confident in managing and designing it, but the original concept remains the same. In this celebratory 10th year of A Book A Week, I have once again resolved to maintain my original goal of reading 52 books. I also plan to post more retrospective content, share many more giveaways, and continue to feature author interviews and new works. I can't thank you enough for continuing to support me, this site, and the reading community at large. Let's make 2022 the best reading year yet!