Beauty and the Bookshelf Turns Three + Giveaway

My first blog post went up on September 17, 2010. It was titled "Welcome!" and was a small introduction for this blog original's title and purpose: For the Love of Reading. As a senior in high school, I was required to complete a senior project, and for my project I chose to put together my very own author signing, which I dubbed For the Love of Reading.

Leading up to the event with Holly Cupala, Kimberly Derting, Mandy Hubbard, and Lisa Schroeder, I posted a couple author interviews and random posts, and then posted about the event itself. For the next few months I posted sporadically, and eventually decided I wanted to turn For the Love of Reading into something I'd seen existing through Twitter: a book blog. I think I wanted to redesign the whole thing a bit--I really had no idea what I was doing, what went into reviewing a book, and so on--and I think I really only changed the name because it couldn't be my URL. I ended up combining my love of Beauty and the Beast with my love for books, and thus Beauty and the Bookshelf was born.

You might notice that this is my third blogoversary, yet my first post was in 2010 and almost five years ago (holy crap). At some point I decided to make June 19 my official blogoversary (I think that's around the time I really started posting more consistently?), and every year I forget or didn't really have the funds to put together a giveaway, or didn't know what I'd do for a post or was too busy and all that, so I've never done a blogoversary post before. And though I'm a little late this year, it's lucky number three, and this year, you get a post!

The thing about blogging is that sometimes it's hard and you fall into slumps or fall behind on posting or there's drama and this and that, but in the end, it is FUN. I don't know how I do as a blogger or as a blog, but I think there's only one qualification a blogger really needs: the love of books. And there are some utterly fantastic things that have come from blogging. Like the BOOKS. I would not have five-and-a-half shelves overflowing with books if I wasn't blogging, and I wouldn't have read or known the existence of so many wonderful books either. And let's not forget the PEOPLE, all the friends I have made in this little nook in the bookish world. I won't name names, because I know I'll forget someone and I hate to have someone feel left out, but I'm pretty sure some of you wonderful people know who you are.

Part of the reason I'm late posting this is because I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do for a giveaway. I thought I might repeat my birthday giveaway, or go for a Beauty and the Beast theme, but in the end, I've opted for something curated. Because while a blogoversary may seem to be about ME and the blog and three years of blogging, it's really about YOU, because without YOU, this blog wouldn't exist and it would be nothing more than a speck lost in the neverending inter-webs.

So this giveaway is specifically for YOU. One winner (please follow the rules very, very closely that are listed below) will win a box full of goodies specifically curated for them. In other words, I will be stalking the hell out of the winner to see what books they like, fandoms they're a fan of, and so on, and I'll take all of that and buy some things I think they'll like--and maybe a few surprises--and send them off! So I'm kind of like your personal shopper I guess? It's a surprise in a box! But this is about YOU, so the prize will be about YOU, and I hope you'll like it!

Before I get to all the dirty details of the giveaway, I just want to say a few more things. Okay, just one thing. And that's THANK YOU. Thank you for putting up with all my bookish craziness and occasional profanity. Thank you for following my blog these past three years, and I hope you'll follow for three more. Thank you for freaking out about books and all the mean things they do to us with me. Thank you for being our guest. THANK YOU.

And now, the dirty details of the giveaway, aka, I'm going to sound harsh, but if you don't follow all the rules your entries will be disqualified.

-Shipping will be cray cray, so this giveaway is US only, sorry!
-No cheating whatsoever; cheating entries will be disqualified.
-No shady/suspicous entries; if something about your entries doesn't add up and/or seems shady, you will be disqualified (I check them all).
-No private or giveaway accounts; if I can't find your entry I can't confirm it. (And this is especially important for this giveaway. I won't be able to research what to send to you if you win!)
-One entry per person, must be 13 years or older or have your parents' permission, and the winner has 48 hours to respond to an email/tweet or else a new winner will be chosen.
-Giveaway begins on July 2 and ends on August 2, but it may take a few weeks for the prizes to arrive because it will take some time to collect everything for the curated box and send them off.

Okay, I think that's it! Enter away, lovelies! And once again: thank you.

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