#BookBlogWriMo 11/1: HISTORY OF THE BLOG

#TheHistoryofUs

#BookBlogWriMoDayOne

History: 

Well, we look back on the start of our blog quite fondly, don't we Shel! Yes, yes we do.We just happened upon each other in about January of 2013, while reading/obsessing/fanatically tweeting one author by the name of A.J. Sand. Shel sent a direct message to Court, and the rest is as they say history. I know..crazy that I did that. I can count on one hand how many people I've contacted that way--I'm so glad I did.

Must Read Books Or Die was officially born on March 24, 2013! 

We DM'd for a few week about what we were reading, and decided to read a few of the same titles so we could "ooh"ahh"gasp"squee"rage" about them together. Then, Court said..."Hey, why don't we start a book review, and talk about them there too." And that is the basic premise for how and why we started MustReadBooksOrDie. We just love reading, especially romance, and want to share our love of the books we read with everyone. We have found a community who truly embraces our non-stop obsessive tendencies for reading, and people who only encourage us to do it more...and we find those to be OUR KIND OF PEOPLE! I recall all of this as sort of a whirlwind. When Court has an idea she runs with it and while I was still marveling at the idea of how to do this book blog thing, Court was finding us a blog home, designing it, and dreaming up all the ways in which we could do that. I blinked and here we were. I'm not going to lie--I was so nervous about how all of this would work but turns out, it worked out just fine.

Challenges: 

Probably the biggest challenge in our repertoire so far, is figuring out the web design and formatting aspect. We can't tell you how many ways to Sunday we tried to figure out how to "schedule" a post, and got up at the crack of dawn to have things posted on time when we started signing up for blog tours. Oh...how things change. I happened upon that particular gem of knowledge by accident one day...and trust me, accidentally almost publishing a cover reveal that isn't supposed to be shared yet...akin to cardiac arrest (ok, not really, but I swear my heart skipped at the very least, one beat). 

An ongoing challenge, I think, is time. We have so many ideas, books to read, things we want to do and say and write about and since we both have full time jobs and families to tend to, our ideas sometimes have to be pushed back or cut down to a more manageable thing so that we can maintain our sanity. I think in the coming months and years you'll see this blog continue to morph into more of the dream we have for it--and we think you'll like it. But for now, we'll continue plugging away, taking it day by day, idea by idea.

Triumphs: 

Our friends. We found each other. We found friends in authors, and other bloggers, and "readers" just like we are, who are serious champions to helping new authors get their start. There is seriously no feeling like being able to walk into Barnes + Noble, and tell a friend "Wow, I've read almost all of these on this shelf when they were self published." People are being successful as new authors by taking the leap of sharing their heart and soul in word form. The least we can do is help out a little bit on the way with kind, honest, and encouraging words...and LOTS OF SHOUTS OF GLEE when we find a book that absolutely changes our outlook on something. 

Absolutely, 100%--finding each other and developing this wonderful friendship has been one of the most rewarding things I've ever experienced. To have a friend to share book moments with and to share my life with (and we've still yet to meet!) is so special. To have her share my love of reading, getting to know and share authors we love, and meet and promote the amazing bloggers we respect and admire...well, there aren't adequate words to express how life changing this has been. Five years ago it would've never crossed my mind that I'd do this...five years from now I hope I can see how far we've grown.

Do you blog? Do you READ! Do you read blogs, and find they help with your quest for the next great book hangover? Tell us. We like comments! Yes. We'd love to hear from you.