Blogger Recognition Award!

I was nominated by Sinead from Less Reality, More Books and Things Lucy Reads for this award! Thank you so much, guys!

Rules:
1. Select 15 other blogs you want to give this award to. Do some digging if you must! Find those blogs. You cannot nominate yourself of the person who has nominated you. 

2. Write a post to show off your award! Give a brief story of how your blog got started, and give a piece or two of advice to new bloggers. List who you nominated in your post. Make sure to attach the award yourself! 

3. Comment on each blog and let them know you've nominated them. Provide a link to your award post.

4. Provide a link to the original post on Edge of Night. That way, anyone can find the original post if needed, and we can keep it from mutating and becoming confusing!

My story:

I'm going to backtrack a bit. 

Upon the dramatic milestone event known "the pursuit of higher education and a degree," I found myself in a small town where I didn't have any super-close friends who read books. I was beginning to drive one of my good friends An and my brother crazy with my rants (if you two are reading this, I'm sorry), so I knew I needed to rein in all my outspoken feelings. That worked for about a year and a half, and then last November, I couldn't take it anymore. Everything I wanted to say was building up inside of me, bottled and demanding to be expressed. So I figured, what the heck? Might as well give it a shot. At the beginning, I didn't really try connecting with other bloggers, in case I decided to quit. But as time went on, I found myself blogging more and more often, even though I knew no one was reading it. It wasn't until recently, as in this past April recent, that I decided to reach out to other bloggers and join the social blogging world.

I have never looked back since then. I've made a whole bunch of friends, and I've realized that blogging has become something very important to me. I finally have an outlet of emotions for the books I read, and not once have I ever been made to feel ashamed about my love of books here. I have finally met people who feel the same way I do about YA books, and these people are more than willing to discuss them with me. I love every single one of you guys.

Advice for New Bloggers:

1. Don't be afraid to reach out to other bloggers! Seriously. Book bloggers happen to be the nicest people around! We all love the same thing, and we all love talking about it, and we all love fangirling together.

2. Experiment with your blog. Do whatever you want with it! You'll never know what does or doesn't work until you try it out. Who knows, you might find that one perfect blog format, and everything will be fantastic afterwards!

3. Design your blog for YOU, not for your readers. Love neon yellow? Go for it. Change the font into something awesome, fiddle with the widgets, anything. It's your own blog, and you have complete control over what you want to do with it. No one's telling you that you have to have everything in one specific font, or that you should use tags/labels, or that it has to "fit in". There's no set guidelines. The blog is yours, and you can dress it up as you please!

My nominees:

1. Cloe, at Mornings and Epilogues
2. Cindy, at The Chronicles of A Book Maniac
3. Caroline, at Just Another Bookish Blog
4. Chioma, at Blue Books and Butterflies
5. MissAssyrianLove, at Book Addict
6. Kayleigh, at A Book Lovers Playlist 
7. Mimi, at Book Fanatics
8. Amethyst Bookwyrm Reviews
9. Tasha, at Book Kitty
10. Megan and Catherine, at Books of Fascination
11. Diaries of a Book Lover
12. Mikayla, at Mikayla's Bookshelf
13. Cari and Haley, at My Addiction: Books
14. Aeriko, at The Reading Armchair
15. Izzy, at The Reading Izzy

And anyone else who wants to do it :) I also apologize if you've already been nominated!