It’s My Blogiversary!

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My little blog turns five today! This past year has been a tricky one, what with adjusting to new health limitations, but at this point I’m very happy with my new blogging style. I’ve also figured out a structure that will, with any luck, allow me to ‘cover’ my health flare-ups with pre-scheduled posts, so that this year won’t see as many blogging breaks as in the past. *knock on wood* Here are five of my favourite posts from my fifth year:

• A Hymn to Unread Books
• Assembling My Atheneum: Agatha Christie
• The Long Ships by Frans Bengtsson (thoughts)
• We Read
• Of Lists and Definitions and Bookish Abstractions

Back in 2010, I posted a book blogging manifesto, and I’m re-posting it today (with a few changes) in celebration of yet another year completed.

• I seek out books…making lists on random topics, checking titles out from the library, and reviewing them in the good and the bad. I prioritise my main interests in fiction: older books, authors from diverse backgrounds, and a good dose of literature in translation and other international books (since England colonised a good percentage of the world, I don’t have to read translated fiction in order to hear the voices of authors from all different continents). And I enjoy a wide variety of nonfiction!
• I gush about the books and authors I adore, in the hopes that I can convince other readers to give them a try. And I analyse the less gushworthy books, so that I have a reading record for my future self.
• I post about whatever I feel like, even if it’s not entirely book-ish. And I skip posting whenever I’m not in the mood for it.
• I express my opinion as I see fit, even at the risk of ruffling some hypothetical feathers. I find that debate, as long as it’s kept on an intellectual level, is invigorating and healthy. Every time I’ve blogged about a controversial topic here, I’ve been more than impressed with the caliber of discussion that takes place in the comments section. I don’t apologise for having a point of view, even if it is different from others.
• I am close with other book bloggers from all walks of life, and chat with them via Twitter, e-mails, blog comments, and any other medium. I value these relationships, and I am grateful to the evolution of social media for making them even easier to create and maintain.
• I shape my personal blogosphere, reaching out to bloggers old and new who can brighten my day with a new post in my reader, and who I connect with at some level, intellectually, personally, or otherwise. And I delight in new (or simply new-to-me) blogs that I stumble across and feel a reading connection with, as well as watching the evolution of bloggers I’ve known for years.
• I offer advice and mentoring to anyone new to book blogging who asks for it.
• I join in a wide range of challenges, read-a-longs, and community-sponsored events to help me celebrate the joy of reading or explore new-to-me genres or just have a reason to create yet another book list.
• I believe in both reading and blogging relativism…there is no one right way to do anything, especially in two such individualistic hobbies.
• I receive joy and enrichment every single day from being a member of the book blogging community.

Without my readers, my bloggy friends, and the book blogosphere as a whole, I’m not sure I would have made the effort to work through my new health problems and figure out a way to keep A Striped Armchair going. If I had stopped, I’m sure my life would be less rich today, so thank you (again) for the inspiration and support! Here’s to another five years! ;D