Thank You

Dear reader,

Thank you for staying with me during a year in which I haven't blogged regularly. You could even say it was a period where I didn't blog at all. And although it saddened me, I realise now that I think this was necessary for me to continue to enjoy blogging. When I left for London last year, I scheduled a bunch of things. Those posts never went up, first due to a blogger glitch and then due to the fact that I re-read them and thought I could do better. But I didn't do anything. The blog was empty.

I felt guilty for not putting stuff up, but I also felt empty. I think I may have asked too much of myself during that time, which caused me to become overwhelmed and just give up altogether. So I never edited those posts and I never wrote those reviews -- at least not at that time.

In November, my life started to change: I started looking for a place of my own. And found an apartment that I fell in love with. After that everything went very quickly; reviewing and signing the papers, last checks, and then in January I was suddenly able to call myself a home-owner. Wow. This then resulted in me spending a lot of time getting the house ready to move in, which seriously took away my reading time.

Fast forward to August 2013. I try to get back into blogging. It has taken me a couple of weeks (read: months) to settle into a routine of working full-time, chores, reading and blogging, but it feels like I found my way a bit now. Thankfully, I took notes of the books I read so I now have a massive backlog (the upside is that I have more than enough to post about).

Then I met some amazing Dutch book bloggers online, and we even went out to Boekenfestijn together in September to go bookshopping. I wouldn't have believed I would ever go out with so many amazing people who also love books. Because to be honest, while the book blogging community is like a warm nest, I somehow still felt alone at some times. I'm a big introvert, mainly offline, but I also feel like I'm bothering someone online. Which is the reason I rarely comment on other blogs -- I'm more of a lurker. I guess that's just some sort of chronic brainfarting.. What I'm trying to say is that I find it hard to approach people, both offline and online, so when Amber mentioned a ton of Dutch bloggers one day, I was very excited. And still am! Because we're setting up a book club! YAY!

What I'm trying to say is that I feel less alone in the crowd. I feel like I somehow found a spot that works for me, even though I'm still a bit tentative about stuff, I feel like I'm more comfortable. And that results in me wanting to blog, to comment, to tweet, to interact with people. I realise I've missed that. A lot.

So thank you. Thank you to each and every one of you who talked to me while I wasn't here, everyone who interacted with me on Goodreads, everyone who looked at my blog in the past year. I know there wasn't much to look at, but you still came by. And I cannot put into words how much I appreciate that. I'm thankful, and I want you to know that I like you. A lot.

So thanks.