Goodbye, Fellow Bookworms

As much as I love this blog, I’m putting SLB to bed. I always saw this space as a diversion from real life, a way for me to indulge in a particular passion of mine. Now my passion is my real life. Exactly nine months after I began, and 99 posts later, I’m doing exactly what I want to be doing.  (Yes, I planned the nine-month anniversary, but the nice number of 99 posts was a pleasant surprise.)

It’s a little bittersweet shutting down SLB, as we’ve had a great run together. So many memories! It all started over Thai food. During my first “business lunch,” my inbound-marketing officemates asked me where I was planning to go in my life. I, still slightly demoralized from my summer-long job hunt, truly wasn’t hoping for much. I didn’t have plans beyond staying in Boston with my friends (thank goodness for these lovely people!) and continuing to receive a paycheck. I mean, publishing sounded great, but I wasn’t qualified. I hadn’t read enough books. I didn’t know anyone in the industry. Sure, I may have been a little sad, but wasn’t that what being an adult was about?

Thank you, thank you, Sam and Justin, for suggesting I write a blog. When I said I didn’t have anything to write about, they asked me what I loved. I said I love to read, and I love stories about and for young people. I thought other people gave these books, near and dear to my heart, short shrift because they weren’t “literature.” Eventually, I decided to apply my mind to these books, to consider them seriously. The rest is history.

I fell into the online YA/children’s lit community, and I learned so, so much. I tweeted with some authors who I crazy-admire, and some of them thanked me for my reviews. I reviewed one book that I adored and used a modified version of it as my entrance essay to the Columbia Publishing Course. (I have since met this author in a bar, blushing as he introduced me to people as the girl who wrote that great review.) I blogged the Course from June to August and maybe even blogged my way into a job. (My editor said she checked out SLB before hiring me!) I moved from Boston to New York, and though I miss my Boston friends, I’m constantly surprised at how much I LOVE my job. (Being an adult does not mean being unhappy.)

I’ll always be grateful for this space. My sixteen-year-old self had no idea I’d be here someday, with a blog that’s the highest search ranking on Google for “Simple Little Bookworm.” (It’s higher than results showing the song I named it for!) I've hosted two different giveaways, listened to music, posted a guest-blog, celebrated a birthday, uncovered some concept art, read a ton of excellent poetry, showed off my bedroom, received a blogger award, colored a princess picture, and won a Twitter contest. I've had an opportunity to be serious, to be sweet, and to be silly. Mostly though, SLB got me to realize what I should be doing with my life.

Thank you to any readers I’ve had, and thank you especially to the blog friends who made recommendations and made posting my thoughts a two-way conversation. Hopefully, I’ll be able give back by supplying other book bloggers with great titles to review. (Check out my Twitter @simplebookworm for real-time recs. Keep up the conversation! I'd love to hear from you.)

I’ve read a lot of good books, and I’m going to keep on reading. As I sign off, I hope to remain, now and forever, a

Simple Little Bookworm <3

Goodnight, blog.