AnnaBookBel is 8!

My blog is eight years old today!

pool-eight-ball-backgroundsy-com-qux5gt-clipartIt started off at Blogspot as Gaskella on September 15th 2008, eventually moving to WordPress. It was still called Gaskella at that stage, but later I changed the title to Annabel’s House of Books. Then, last summer I took the plunge and bought my own domain – annabookbel.net. I paid WordPress to redirect my old blog to the new one.

In June I hosted the second Beryl Bainbridge Reading Week – a real highlight for me.

All was going swimmingly until I decided to change webhosts as I was unsatisfied with the page loading times etc of the company I initially signed up with. I did everything I was meant to but when I rebuilt the blog with the new webhosting company, the export file had lost large chunks of the posts including all the recent Beryl ones. All the links back to my old blog were lost too.

I also had to rename the blog again – this time changing to AnnaBookBel, because the template I wanted to use didn’t allow punctuation marks in the title – and I couldn’t bear to have ‘Annabels House of Books’ sans apostrophe! Since the beginning of the summer, I’ve republished some of the lost blog posts; primarily all those from this year, and then any others I needed to link to plus a couple of series I’m particularly fond of.  Now the WordPress.com redirection subscription has ended, which means my old blog is available again separately and I can recover/republish/relink back easily all the other lost content up to last summer that I couldn’t access with the redirect in place. I’m hoping that with my recent webhost move, I’ll be staying put for a long while!

* * * THANK YOU * * *

to everyone who has visited, (and especially those of you whose inboxes have been filled up with all those republished posts recently.)

I’m going to celebrate with a giveaway!

Below are eight of the best books I’ve read this year.  Leave a comment saying which you’d most like to read and why. I’ll randomly pick some winners who’ll get the book they chose.

This giveaway is open to any country that the Book Depository sends to (check here), and will close at teatime Sept 22nd (4pm GMT).

Here are the books. Links to my reviews:

Here’s to another year. Cheers!

18 thoughts on “AnnaBookBel is 8!

  1. Jennifer Dee says:

    Congratulations on turning 8. The book I would love is the Eowyn Ivey. I’m always fascinated by anything in the Antartic.

  2. Claire says:

    Happy birthday! 😉 I’m having some trouble with loading times on one of my self hosted sites, and I’ve been too scared of losing it all or something to do anything about it – but you’ve inspired me, thanks!

    • AnnaBookBel says:

      Be careful. Back everything up first, because you do have to completely rebuild your site when you move webhost. Despite my problems, it’s been a godsend as my blog was always grinding to a halt with the slow host. Good luck.

  3. Adele says:

    Happy Blogiversary. I’ve got one of your books on my tbr so another one I’d love to read is Jonathan Unleashed. Enjoy your celebrations and keep reading and sharing 🙂

  4. Dee-Cee says:

    Wow happy Blogiversary, sounds like you been having a time of it lately. Hopefully everything runs smoothly for your blog now. The Night Manager is one I would most like to read, seen some great reviews for it x

  5. Sakura says:

    Congratulations Annabel! It’s such an achievement to keep a blog going and posting regularly for such a long time as well as dealing with all the technical stuff! I’m so glad it’s sorted and look forward to reading lots more posts from you. I love your blog g!

  6. Sandra says:

    Eight years! Congratulations – no wonder your posts read so well after all those years! And now I understand what the reposting refers to 🙂 My blog is only a few months old and I’ve only recently discovered yours; I’m looking forward to many more years of enjoying your posts. Meanwhile the book I would most like to read is To The Bright Edge of the World. Eowyn Ivey is wonderful!

  7. Sharkell says:

    8 years, now that’s commitment. Thank you, I have read many books that I wouldn’t have even heard about if you didn’t blog. I’d love to enter your giveaway for Eowyn Ivey’s book.

  8. Katherine says:

    I’m so impressed with this anniversary! Well done and huge congratulations!! I’d love to read the Eowyn Ivey as I read her first novel and found it mesmerising. I’ve also just read Thin Air by michelle Paver and would love to read something else set in Alaska. Thank you for running a great competition!

  9. Debbie Rodgers @Exurbanis says:

    Well done, Annabel! Your blog has always been one of my favourites to read, and your opinion one that I greatly respect.

    There are three or four of these that I’d be thrilled to win but if pressed to choose, I’ll pick Golden Hill because I love visiting NYC, and I love its history. (Have you ever read Time and Again and From Time to Time by Jack Finney? I love them as much for the NYC history as I do for the time-travel.) And NYC while it’s still British/Dutch would be fascinating!

    Thanks for the generous giveaway and the chance to win. 🙂

  10. AnnaBookBel says:

    Thanks to everyone for your lovely comments. I love how supportive the book blogging community is – long may it continue.

  11. Jenna O says:

    I would love to read The Golden Hill. The book sounds like a book I would fall in love with adn the cover is amazing!

  12. Alice says:

    Happy Blogiversary!! Here’s to many more blogging years 😀

    I like the sound of To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey, I’ve not read the review, so I base this entirely on it being set in Alaska, which immediately made my mind leap to Burial Rites and Iceland. There is something so appealing about a bleak cold climate in a book.

  13. sue says:

    Congratulations on 8 years. I have always enjoyed the range of books you cover on your blog – non fiction, YA, memoirs, detective fiction, literary fiction etc.

    I like the sound of all the books. I’m presently reading a biography of Kathleen (Kick) Kennedy so would nominate Fever City.

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