*tears of joy* Guess who turned 1 today? ME! Well, not me, obviously I’m at least 3 years old – but Upside-Down Books is officially one year old. Naw.

I’d love to say that I’m celebrating in style by offering a giveaway but going on adventures such as leaving reality to work in Disney World leave you with only monopoly money to play with. So instead, I shall proffer you a hug. How nice.

I really wanted to spend this time saying thank you to all of you. You’ve been such wonderful friends and have made blogging a joy and a half! I’m actually really impressed with myself that I have blogged and blogged and blogged every week for the past year (clearly I’m insane) so a pat on the back for me! There’s nothing I love more (yeah that’s a lie, we all know dragons and chocolate take the top spots) than blogging because IT’S REALLY FUN YELLING INTO THE INTERWEBS – especially when people yell back.

You have all made this such a wonderful experience and deciding to start a blog has literally been on the best decisions of my life. Being able to share recommendations, make new friends, and express how the feels actually hurt with another human on this planet is a fantastic feeling. I don’t know what I would have done many a night without Twitter. Not to mention it has been great fun contacting authors – something I rarely did before blogging, but speaking to them and even making friends with them is so surreal and amazing.

I’ve done some great things this past year – particularly with starting up Past to Paper, my own monthly feature, which has been so fun to put together (although if don’t get one up for October I apologise, I’m actually silently dying in assignments – ONE MORE WEEK GUYS). I’ve learnt new ways to review and realised just how much of a book buying problem I have. I’ve discovered that Instagram is the meaning of life and that having more than 3 copies of one book is both normal and acceptable.

I’ve learnt new things from amazing bloggers who raise awareness of a variety of things I didn’t pay much attention to before. I’ve tried genres I wouldn’t even glance at before and I’ve hit some amazing milestones! Just the other day I hit 400 followers here and I couldn’t be more stoked. I remember this time last year thinking, oh boy, imagine the day when I, if I, get that many followers – YOU’RE ALL MAD, but thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I certainly never could have dreamed this time next year that I’d have so many new friends, so many new books, and be going to Disney World next year (which isn’t strictly related to blogging but I think we should give blogging all the credit). Nor the fact that I’m now an affiliate for The Book Depository, Angus & Robertson Bookworld AND Booktopia. I am a book dragon, I am a book hoarder, I will always have my own library and I will always spend most of my pay check on books or bookish stuff.

I hope there are many more years to come and I hope I can continue to give advice and impart my amazing knowledge onto you in the future (shush, just pretend it’s true). Some of my favourite posts to write have been How to Define Fantasy, How I Review, Memorable Spinsters, Best Mother Figures, Funny Sidekicks, and Bookstores to Visit in London, to name a few. If I had an advice for people thinking of starting blogging or newbies it’s to just DO IT! You will make friends and you’ll realise this was the missing thing in your life. Never give up and never stop buying books or eating chocolate. And always know that books with dragons are probably always going to be the best type of books. ENJOY IT.

~~ Kirstie ~~

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