My Blog Turns 2!

Happy 2 Year Anniversary to my little blog!

Right now I’m just doing a celebratory dork dance in my head. And physically.

It’s not merely about the fact that my blog is 2 years old but more about how successful this journey has been and how much I’ve gained from it and enjoyed the whole process. I just want to say a big thank you to every person who has ever supported me in any little way whatsoever. Not Just Fiction is a huge part of my life and sometimes it’s the best part of my life, my safe haven 🙂

I wish I wasn’t a broke student so that I could organise a giveaway for you all to show my gratitude but we’ll get there someday. In the meantime, you all had lots of questions for me on twitter and today I’m answering them.

 

ANSWERING YOUR QUESTIONS

 

1. What were your favourite books as a kid?

~ Iris @hoard_of_books

I had a major obsession with all Enid Blyton books during my childhood. The Famous Five series, Malory Towers series, The Faraway Tree series, The Wishing Chair series – you name it!

 

2. Is there a genre you won’t read?

~ Iris @hoard_of_books

In the past, I would have said horror and non-fiction but lately, I’ve been exploring genres. While I’m still not a huge fan of those genres I do delve in them occasionally.

 

3. What books do you absolutely need to read in 2020?

~ Iris @hoard_of_books

Oh my god, I swear the actual list would be long enough that you would never finish reading it! But off the top of my head, I really want to read the Six of Crows duology and the other books in the Grishaverse series before the Netflix series comes out.

 

4. How are you so awesome?

~ Iris @hoard_of_books

Aww, you’re an absolute flatterer! I have no idea how I survive on a day to day basis and how you call doing that being awesome.

 

5. If there were moments where you felt uninspired with your blog, how did you overcome them?

~ Samia @samiabossee

Oh yes, there were tons of moments, most of them being when I initially started blogging. I wasn’t very sure of what to do, all the big bloggers were extremely intimidating and well my posts weren’t getting much attention because I was new to it and I had barely interacted with anyone in the community.

I just focused on how much I had accomplished and the progress I was making. It also helped that I had made some fast friends in the bookish community and they kept my spirits up at all times 🙂

 

6. How did college change your reading tastes?

~ Nandini @novelsnebulas & Krisha @BookathonBlog

My reading tastes haven’t changed much but I did read a lot of dark and serious books for my courses. You know, the ones discussing deep issues. As a result, I’m more inclined towards lighter books these days, I don’t really feel like reading books discussing deep and heavy issues because that’s exactly what I’ll be doing in my courses.

Related Post: Authors I’m Taking Away From My First Semester

 

7. Debut 2020 books you’re looking forward to?

~ Nandini @novelsnebulas

Again, there’s a super long list but I’ll name a few.

The Henna Wars

You Should See Me In A Crown

Ink in the Blood

Tweet Cute

Layoverland

Nameless Queen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. Will we see more bookish makeup looks from you?

~ Nandini @novelsnebulas

Yes, you will!

For those of you who haven’t noticed, recently I’ve been doing cover inspired makeup for the books A House of Rage and Sorrow and Loveboat, Taipei. I’m an artist who loves painting on everything and have been lately becoming more and more of a makeup enthusiast. Hence, my looks aren’t fully makeup based, they’re a mix of makeup and me trying to paint the cover on my face if that makes sense. I’ll be doing more and more cover inspired looks in 2020 and who knows, if I get enough time I might start featuring them on my Instagram too 🙂

 

9. Who are your new bookish friends from 2019?

~ Nandini @novelsnebulas

Sooo many! I have a horrible memory so I’m not even sure if I became friends with someone in 2018 or 2019 but I’ll try my best, sorry if I’m wrong. I’ll mention a few friends that I either made in 2019 or people I grew closer with, in 2019.

Kate from Reading Through Infinity is a person I’ve gotten pretty close with because she’s so friendly and sweet and we seem to have the same tastes in books. I’ve definitely grown closer with Clo at Cuppa Clo over infinite collaborations and the Bookending events and now we’re an unstoppable force. I feel like 2019 brought me closer to Shealea and Kate at Your Tita Kate and I’m super grateful for that. OH, and I met Sam at Fictionally Sam through and we’ve now become friends! I would also like to include everyone in the Book Dragons India discord group whom I met this year, you guys have been a lovely support system.

10. Do you think you’re outgrowing YA?

~ Nandini @novelsnebulas

So far, I’m not. It has been a concern of mine since I rarely read middle-grade books except when it comes to Rick Riordan or the Riordan Reads imprints. I really hope that I never outgrow YA because it has tons of amazing books that I wouldn’t want to miss out on.

 

11. What are some books that changed the way you looked at a genre?

~ Krisha @BookathonBlog

I was a person who never really read horror books. The one horror novel I had read was The Shining by Stephen King. But I recently read The Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and it was nothing like I expected it to be! It made me realise that there’s more to horror than I thought there was, so I might be picking up more books from that genre in the future 🙂

 

12. If you could trade blogs with anyone for a day, who would it be?

~ Tiffany @readbytiffany

Ooh, definitely Kat at Novels & Wafflesbecause her blog is absolutely gorgeous and it’s very close to the aesthetic I’m aiming for in the far future. Fingers crossed!

 

13. What would you blog about if you couldn’t blog about books?

~ Tiffany @readbytiffany

That’s a tough question. I suppose it would be art? Can you blog about art? I mean you probably can. Books are my one true love in life and art comes second so I guess I would blog about art.

 

14. Who was your book OTP of the year?

~ Tiffany @readbytiffany

Noooo, Tiffany why do you do this to me? There are so many OTPs that I made in 2019 so off the top of my head I’m going to name Alex and Henry from Red White & Royal blue, Zafira and Nasir from We Hunt The Flame and Sweetie and Ashish from There’s Something About Sweetie.

 

15. Is 3 stars a good or bad rating?

~ Caitlin @caitlinalthea

For me, 3 stars would lean a little towards the bad. Average books usually get a 3.5-star rating from me but sometimes 3 too. So a 3-star rating would be average but tilting towards the bad. Hopefully, that makes sense.

 

16. What’s your favourite Indian sweet?

~ Caitlin @caitlinalthea

If you’re from India, you know that this question is impossible to answer. Okay I’ll try. Some of my favourites are rasmalai, nariyal barfi and gulab jamun. All you non-desi people better look them up and drool!

 

17. If you could go back to the start, what (if anything) would you change about your blog? What would you tell your baby blogger self?

~ Isabelle @ninetalevixen

I’ve said this a lot of times that initially, I was a very shy blogger. I rarely talked to anyone in the community, just replied to comments on my posts and didn’t blog hop that much. For about half a year. That was the reason why I had very little growth in the beginning so I would tell my baby blogger self to please be an extrovert and talk to other book lovers.

 

18. Besides the community, what is your favourite thing about blogging?

~ Isabelle @ninetalevixen

Not gonna lie, the free books. I love getting ARC or review copies whether they are digital or physical. I’m a student and that means I’m broke. Not to mention that being an international blogger, not all books are readily available for me and getting them from publishers or review sites makes my reading experience much easier. Also, it makes me so happy that I’m getting advanced copies of books I want? Like, I want a book and people give it to me in exchange for a review? Wow. I’ll never get over this feeling.

 

19. Which are your personal favourite posts that you’ve written?

~ Isabelle @ninetalevixen

I love all the posts I write, but most of all, I love all the posts  I wrote for Off Tangent Thoughts 🙂

 

20. If you could teleport into one fictional universe for the rest of your life, would you do it? If yes, which would you pick?

~ Isabelle @ninetalevixen

 

Take me to any other universe except this one. Preferably to Camp Half-Blood where I can fangirl over every single thing and person and learn stuff like archery and flying on pegasi and get sorted into a cabin. Take me, please!!!

 

21. If you suddenly couldn’t read books (or audiobooks or have books read to you, etc) how would you fill your time?

~ Isabelle @ninetalevixen

I would straightaway die. I don’t exist without books and that’s that.

 

How long have you been blogging and when is your blogoversary?

What sort of blogoversary posts have you done or plan to do in the future?

Do you celebrate this milestone in real life too? I was feeling extra happy so I did end up celebrating with a little waffle cake that had two candles 🙂