Happy 1st Birthday, The Bibliotaph!

This month marks one year since The Bibliotaph began and what an exciting year it's been! I've learned so much about books, the blogging community, and my own tastes since starting (and I'm so excited that I've followed through on a project for this long). In honor of this one year anniversary, I'd like to share a few lessons I've learned this year:

• Be mindful about how many books you request on Netgalley - This has been one of the biggest and most painful lessons this year. I requested WAY too many books and got approved for far more of them than I thought a new blogger could be. It was intimidating and I still have a ton of books to catch up on. But I've learned my lesson - I currently have 5 books approved that are coming up in the next few months and I refuse to request any more until I finish most of those. 
• Taking a hiatus is a okay - Over the holidays in December, I simply forgot that I didn't have very many posts queued up. Once I came back at the end of the year, I was horrified to learn that I'd had two weeks without any posts - how had I let this happen? Had finals and holidays occupied my time so much that I couldn't even post something about taking a hiatus? But it was okay - I got back into the groove of posting and missing those two weeks didn't kill my blog. It turned out alright. Learning this means I'll be more mindful about taking breaks in the future - especially during times when I know I won't be able to give the blog my full attention.
• Don't worry about posting every day - When I originally started, I felt like I was bursting with post ideas and I was excited to post as often as possible. I had months of material queued up when I realized that I was starting to run out of ideas and that blogging might be more difficult than I'd thought. It also took me some time to realize that posting several times a week was fun, but so much work - way too much work for a student. I started this year with posting twice a week (and occasionally throwing in blogging meme posts) and it's been so much easier to keep up with.
• Blogging memes are lifesavers - I didn't fully understand this until a couple months ago. When I started (and when I was full of ideas), I felt like blogging memes were kind of lazy - it was just bloggers working off of each other's ideas. Now, I feel differently. Blogging memes help me to connect with other bloggers and get an extra post or two in when I haven't had time to work on a full post. Also, it's fun to have short posts about what I'm currently reading and the music I'm into lately - they're easier for casual blog readers to connect with and comment on. And they're so much fun to think about.

I'm so excited that I get to apply these lessons in my next year of blogging! As part of this next year, I'm going to be testing out redoing past blog posts by discussing how my opinions differ after a year and what new books I would add to various book lists. I'm looking forward to this new part of my blogging adventures and thank you for taking part in them!

What blogging lessons have you learned in your time as a blogger? What's been the biggest lesson you'd want to pass on to less-experienced bloggers? How long have you been blogging?