Two Years Blogging : Two Books You Can Win

Update: The winner of The Three Musketeers is Lyndsey! And the winner of Tess of the d'Urbervilles is Christina! Congrats, ladies! I'll get your books to you as soon as possible. 

It's almost impossible to believe, but here at Read the Best Books First we're still going strong after two whole years. As it turns out, blogging is pretty fun, and I think I'll keep it. And since we've hit another significant milestone, I think it's high time for another giveaway. Stay tuned through the end of this post for how to enter. 

But first, some facts about ye ol' blog from the past couple of years:

- This is my 266th post.

- As of 8:00 last night, we are up to 22,474 pageviews since the blog began. On my first blogiversary, I had accumulated 9,692 pageviews. So if you do the math, that means in this second year of blogging, my blog was viewed 12,782 times. Yay for growth!

- My top referring sites were facebook (by a large margin), google, carrotsformichaelmas.com, and faithbaptistwh.org. 

- This blog is still being seen all over the world (which is awesome), and the five top countries viewing my blog are the United States, Japan, Russia, Germany, and the United Kingdom, in that order.

- I currently have 18 subscribers. If you would like to subscribe to my blog meaning you'll receive any posts I write in your e-mail, all you have to do is enter your e-mail address in that little box over to your right. (If you're viewing on your phone, you'll need to scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "View Web Version".)

- 1,638 comments have been published since the beginning of the blog. Keep in mind that that number includes my own responses to your comments, but that's still pretty great. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to comment on my posts!

My five most popular posts in my second year of blogging were:

- Keep Moving with 531 views. This post also became the most viewed post of all time passing up my first giveaway post.

- The Teachable Moment with 251 views.

- Casual Fridays (June 17) with 213 views.

- Casual Fridays (September 16) with 107 views.

- It Being Election Year and All... with 95 views.

Y'all, that is awesome. Thanks so much for reading, commenting, and sending me more book recommendations than I know what to do with. You're the best! Feel free to shoot me an e-mail or leave me a comment at any time letting me know what you'd like to see more of...or less of. I'd love to hear your suggestions, and I'll do my best to get back to you as soon as I can. I've been working on Cody for some guest posts so maybe Year 3 will be the year. If any of you would be interested in writing a guest post about something you've read, I'd love to hear from you and see if we can make that happen. I've also decided to dispense with the birthday posts from now on. Please don't hold it against me. But anyway, let's get on to what you're most interested in: the giveaway, right?

In honor of two years of blogging, I'm giving away two books from my 2017 book list! So I guess this is actually two giveaways. The books I've chosen to give away are The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. I have not read either of these books yet, but they're both classics and I have it on pretty good authority that they're both excellent. They're both used paperback copies--nothing special as far as aesthetics go--but they're complete and unabridged editions so no worries about getting some edited, hacked up mess.

Prize Description

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas : The Three Musketeers tells the story of the early adventures of the young Gascon gentleman, D'Artagnan, and his three friends from the regiment of the King's Musketeers--Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. Under the watchful eye of their patron M. de Treville, the four defend the honor of the regiment against the guards of Cardinal Richelieu and the honor of the queen against the machinations of the Cardinal himself as the power struggles of 17th-century France are vividly played in the background. But their most dangerous encounter is with the Cardinal's spy, Milady, one of literature's most memorable female villains, and Dumas employs all his fast-paced narrative skills to bring this enthralling novel to a breathtakingly gripping and dramatic conclusion.

Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy : When Tess Durbeyville is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D'Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her "cousin" Alec proves to be her downfall. A very different man, Angel Clare, seems to offer her love and salvation, but Tess must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future. With its sensitive depiction of the wronged Tess and powerful criticism of social convention, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, subtitled "A Pure Woman", is one of the most moving and poetic of Hardy's novels.

Giveaway Guidelines

1. This giveaway is only open to residents of the United States who are 18 years old or older.

2. To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment with the name of the book you'd like to win. You are welcome to enter both giveaways by leaving a comment with both titles or that simply says "Both." If you're having difficulty leaving a comment, please reference this post, and if you're still having trouble, feel free to send me a message using the "Contact Me" form to your right (once again, if you're viewing this on your phone, you'll need to scroll down to the bottom and click "View web version") or by e-mailing me at hannah.hancock87@gmail.com, and I'll be happy to enter you.

3. For additional entries in the giveaway, you may share this post on any social media site including facebook, twitter, google+, instagram, your personal blog, etc., but for the share to count as an entry into the giveaway, you will need to leave an additional comment on this post stating where you shared it. 

4. The chance to enter this giveaway will be open for one week. Comments left after midnight February 13, 2017 will not be eligible for the giveaway.

5. Two winners will be selected through two random drawings and announced as an update at the top of this post Tuesday, February 14, 2017. The winners will have one week to contact me to claim their respective prizes or a different winner(s) will be chosen.

Once again, thank you for reading my blog. 

I hope you stick around for Year 3 and good luck with the giveaways!