Today marks the anniversary of our first post on ‘Heart Full of Books’. It was a review of ‘Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac’ by Gabrielle Zevin for Bee, and a review of ‘Fearsome Dreamer’ by Laure Eve, for me.

I can’t believe that it’s been a year since we started this book blog! Before May 2014, we’d just thought of blogs as a place to document travelling adventures or lifestyle posts about candles and hairspray. Our YouTube channel had been created a year earlier, but had only become active in October 2013. Now, it’s great to have two completely different platforms on which we can share our thoughts and opinions, gaining feedback from lovely viewers like yourselves!

Writing this blog is definitely one of the best things we could have done. I love that we’ve created a portfolio of over 100 reviews, as coherently writing what I think of a book I’ve read is probably my favourite part of the reading process. People can read what I thought of a book, and perhaps I’ll have read it differently to anyone else.

That’s what’s so lovely about writing a blog. It’s so personal, but can be part of a great community! I have found so many likeminded people through blogging and making videos and that’s truly something I treasure. If you’re thinking of creating a blog, but are maybe feeling a bit hesitant about the whole thing, I couldn’t recommend it more. Even if you’re blogging about jigsaw puzzles and dog walking, there is an audience out there who want to read what you have to say.

Since December 2014, we’ve definitely been taking our blog more seriously. When we first started, we were posting a few times a month and hadn’t really found the best reviewing style that we have today. As soon as we started Blogmas, we realised we wanted to try and post something every day, and would panic at five o’clock in the afternoon if nothing had been posted!

So, our goals for our blog from now on are:

1. Continue to post as much as possible – we do review every book we read, after all, but don’t feel as much pressure to write something every day; exams are coming up!
2. Write more recommendations – share our favourite books, and books that aren’t being championed enough!
3. Post more non-reviews – perhaps more anecdotes and smaller features, like ‘Cover Comparisons’ because they’re truly fun to write!

We hope ‘Heart Full Of Books’ will continue to grow and can’t wait for another! blogging year!