Blogger Recognition Award

Hi Munchworms!

You might’ve noticed but I’m behind on my tags / awards. Not to mention that most of them came through during my road trip so I honestly lost track of a lot of them. So, with this: Sorry if I haven’t done yours yet and maybe won’t because I just.. lost it? Ugh.

I suck. I know. I’m sorry.

Anyway! I do remember that someone tagged me for this award a while back, being Em over at Keystroke Blog. Even though we don’t really talk outside of the post-comments, thank youyouyou!
Also, not that long ago, lovely lovely Alex over at Coffeeloving Bookoholic tagged me as well. As you guys know, she helped me come up with the name for OWNtober – again, thanks a million times! – so it’s pretty obvious that I probably annoy her way too much with my bookish problems / frustrations / whining / blabbering.

I said it then, saying it again: I lovelovelove that I don’t have to answer eleven questions this time. It’s not that I dislike doing that; but if you have to do it every other day it just gets.. Well, you get my point.

Okay. I’m thinking that intro has gone long enough. On to the actual award!

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Rules

∞ Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog
∞ Write a post to show your award
∞ Give a brief story of how your blog started
∞ Give two pieces of advice to new bloggers
∞ Select a few other bloggers you want to give this award to

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How Books & Munches was born

Honestly, I’ve been wanting to word-vomit about this for a while now. I’ve always read a lot, loved reading. But when I started working, I simply didn’t have the time for it anymore. Yes, I loved browsing bookstores. I never stopped doing that, but I rarely bought any books. Why buy them if I didn’t have time to read them?

Then came the day that I discovered the Popsugar Reading Challenge. This was near the start of this year. I decided to hop right in, wanting to complete it and actually own every book I read to tick off the prompts. I was on a roll!
Being together with my boyfriend for a year in April, got me thinking. He has his hobbies, his friends and I would just sit at home, with Netflix, bake cupcakes – sometimes; not all the time – and literally get bored out of my mind. I didn’t feel like I had any hobbies like he did. So I decided to find something to invest my time in.

 

It started with my Instagram, where I posted more and more often about random stuff. Books too, yes, but mainly it was just a random collection of random moments in my life. And then I discovered Bookstagram. And then came the blogs. I. Was. Sold.
June 13th I got the idea of starting my own blog. I literally starting a “to do”-list immediately. Wrote down a whole bunch of possible blog-names. And, as such, Books & Munches was born. Because I love my munches.

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My advice

Firstly, you have to do what you want to do with your blog. Don’t let anyone tell you what you shouldn’t or shouldn’t do. Don’t compare yourself with others. You’re you. You’re your own person. You’re unique. Your blog should show that. Use that to stand out.
[Honestly, if you want the most brilliant example of that, head on over to Drew’s blog because he’s the person to prove you should do with your blog what you want and I love it.]

Secondly, don’t stress about your followers, or the number of posts you publish every week / month, or anything really. If you’re just starting your blog, but also if you’ve had it for a longer time, your blog is your passion. You should be enjoying it, not stressing about it because you want to reach goals, reach that many followers, get that number of posts out each month. If you think like that, you’ll enjoy it less and less and, honestly? Pretty sure your posts will show the stress too.
Like they say in Masterchef: I can see the stress on this plate.

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My victims nominees

Bridget @ Bridget & Books because her blog just turned 6 months!
Lu @ Lu Reads because reading her posts crack me up most of the time!
Destiny @ Howling Libraries because she has a bigger NetGalley-addiction than any of you!
Dani @ Mousai Books because she alwaysalways comments on my posts and I love it!
And, of course, I can’t mention him without throwing this award at him as well: Drew @ The Tattooed Book Geek because I love his style and look forward to every Music Monday! [Even though he probably only discovers that now, oops.]

If you’ve already been nominated a million times for this award, don’t feel pressured to do it again! Like at all! Or maybe do and let me know so I can secretly find it funny?

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OWNtober is almost here, guuuuuys! I’m so looking forward to it, haha.
Oh, and adding that I won’t be as present this weekend because I’m going to stalk my favorite band a bit. Two concerts, one Friday and one Sunday because PAPA ROACH.

We’re not nameless; we’re not faceless. We were born for greatness!

Kathy