Happy 12th Anniversary to everyone! The site started on 31 January 2005 with a review for Angel-Seeker by Sharon Shinn and for The Unsung Hero by Suzanne Brockmann, and what a long strange hot pink journey it has been over the past twelve years.
WOW. I’m sort of stunned by that, and I’ve been working on this post for a few weeks now. Twelve years! That’s a long, long time. Thank you for hanging out with us for so many years!
As has become tradition, I went and had a look at the traditional gifts for a 12th anniversary, and behold! Linen! So I played online and shopped for several hours (SUCH A HARDSHIP MY GOSH), and came up with some fun prizes to celebrate our anniversary with a giveaway.
This year, my goal is to accessorize your favorite reading location with adorable pillows that include linen or a blend thereof, and that celebrate reading the books we love.
Ready? We’ve got six to give away!
Have a look!
A typewriter pillow! How cute is that?
But wait, more pillows!
This one has embroidery to make it look like looseleaf paper – I love it.
When my house was staged and it looked like stylish chevron-obsessed aliens lived there with us, this pillow was added to a small grey sofa, and I loved this pillow like mad. I am so excited I found it online and can give one away! The alphabet is embroidered on the front, and it’s just adorable.
Do you read past your bedtime? Of course you probably do. We’re all members of The Bad Decisions Book Club.
It’s always Book O’Clock, right? No question.
And of course, one more pillow:
Can’t leave out The Ladies, right? The front of this pillow has The Ladies – Original Recipe, and on the back it says, “You should be reading.” Because obviously.
To enter to win, leave a comment and tell us your favorite thing about hanging out here at SBTB. HaBOs? Cover Snark? Reviews? What’s your favoritest thing?
Standard disclaimers apply: We are not being compensated for this giveaway. Void where prohibited. Open to international residents where permitted by applicable law. Must be over 18 and ready to lounge and read. Pants are always optional. To keep with the theme of twelve, we recommend reading in two twelve-hour blocks to most efficiently fill your time. All blankets and all readers welcome. Keep books and read on. Comments will close Monday February 6, 2017 around noon ET, and winners will be announced shortly thereafter.
Whatever it is that keeps you coming back to Smart Bitches, thank you. It’s an honor to hang out with all of you from each part of the globe each day, and I’m so glad you’re here. Happy anniversary to us!
Update: Here are our winners in order!
Thank you all so much for being a reader of Smart Bitches! You’re what makes this community great!
Happy anniversary. I love everything about the site but I think I love the podcasts the most. I really love the interviews and your opinions. I also love the feeling of community that this site generates.
I love the reviews and Hide Your Wallet. A new podcast always makes me happy!
Happy anniversary!!
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I love this site so much but my favorite thing would have to be the whatcha reading post each month. It’s how I get so many great book recommendations.
I like your reviews but, really, Cover Snark always makes my day!
I love the reviews and the sense of community.
I used to visit the site occasionally over the years. The podcast is what got me to stay! You do an amazing job with the podcast! Thank you!!
I love the fact that there is almost always something to make me laugh. I love your disclaimers. I love the supportive community.
Happy anniversary!
The brief but very welcome glimpses of Wilbur and Orville hahahahaha!
Hilarious cat antics with flying turds and loud voices of complaint
But there’s so much to love, how can I pick just one favorite thing?! But if I have to, I think prolly the comments and community are what I love most, Smart Bitches FTW! Then there’s the Daily Sales posts which keeps me in reading material without breaking the bank, and the Rants, ohmigod, the Rants. Also, I get sooo many good recs from the Whatcha Reading post. I could go on, but I have to get ready for work… Happy 12th and here’s to many more!
Happy Anniversary!
I love HABO and all the discount alerts. Thanks for everything that you do!
I always turn up to read the HaBO:s, so that is one favourite. I also like the What are you reading? posts. Both are bad for my wallet but they also give alot of inspiration.
What’s not to love about SBTB’s?!!! Reviews are my favorite, but love all the specials like HaBo and book sale posts. Also love that, after listening to the podcast, I can check the site for book titles. Happy 12th!!
I must have discovered SBTB somewhere pretty close to 12 years ago (which would make it pretty much as I got online recreationally). First I came for the reviews, but the reasons I’m still coming back all these years later are manifold. I mostly come here for the community, smart women who proudly enjoy and celebrated a much derided genre. I come back for the humour, because women’s spaces and a genre that celebrates love and deep emotions doesn’t have to be without laughter. I come here for the intelligent analysis and the conversations as readers (and authors) discuss what’s good about the genre, what isn’t and how we can best reflect on our changing world. Thanks Sarah and the rest of the bitchery for collaborating on one of my favourite spaces in the world!
How do I live thee, let me count the ways. Oh wait, a poet, I am not! Love everything about the site but mostly you all make me laugh so hard. Cant even begin to count the number of times I’ve had to wipe my monitor down because of you guys! Congratulations!
Happy Anniversary! My favorite thing — and what I’ll always be grateful to SBTB for — are the reviews that have piqued my interest and prompted me to try so many books I might otherwise never have picked up!
I think my favorite thing is the way y’all prove over and over again that it is possible to love something wholeheartedly and still laugh at its absurdities.
12 years??!!! What?? Time really is flying past me! 🙁 Book reviews are what had me coming to read Smart Bitches way back when & continue to be my favorite thing. I have found so many new and varied authors thru SB and know I will continue to do so. Happy Anniversary!!
I like the reviews, podcast, etc. Discussing books (and movies and life) is the best thing about the site.
I love the books on sale and Cover Snark. I love hearing about cheaper options, since I can’t break my habit of buying faster than I could possibly read.
My favorite thing that keeps me coming back are the people – the Smart Bitches and all the readers. I have found my people! 😀
How do I love thee, Smart Bitches, let me count the ways… I think the cover snark was what hooked me all those years back, but I’ve recently discovered the podcasts and with them a whole new level of love for you all. Happy Anniversary and here’s to many, many more!
I love the daily sales posts. My wallet does not. But I’m okay with that.
You’re all giving me the warmest of warm fuzzies. Thank you for all the good wishes, and most of all for being part of the community here! Y’all are the best.
The welcoming community is what brings me back daily. It isn’t one thing but the great combination of many elements that creates the unique whole.
I started hanging out here reading reviews (the bad ones are my FAVORITE THING EVER), and then I got hooked on cover snark posts. I get a ton of recommendations from this site, so thank you gals so much!
You gals just brighten my day no matter what especially these last couple of months… crazy times we live in. However Cover Snark is my jam!
My favorite things are the F+ reviews and book rants.
I have been a closet romance novel reader my whole life! I have an English degree and so I have always felt a lot of pressure to read ‘literary’ novels. But finding this blog with all of these smart and hilarious writers has made me realize that was kind of silly and that romance novels ARE literary and also that I can read whatever the hell I want! And in this nightmarescape of a political climate, escaping into a good romance novel is just exactly what I need. Keep being you SBTB!
I love the podcast, reviews of books and movies and TV, elyse’s knitting articles, and the notices of books on sale. Pretty much love everything you do especially in the current political climate.
Reviews and rec list since lately all iv read are duds. I’m in a book slump!
SBTB is now old enough to be bat mitzvah! Mazel tov!
Picking one thing I like best about this site is like choosing which one of my fingers I like typing with most >.< but I'd have to say I love the community – staff and vistors – the best. Without everyone, HABOs wouldn't be found, covers wouldn't be so amazingly snarked, there would be no rants or squees, and Rec Leagues would be much shorter (as would my TBR). Thanks to everyone!
I love HaBOs (I even got one solved 🙂 ). I buy so many books I never would otherwise know about because of wacky half descriptions of them. I also love the podcast.
Hilariously, Amazon knows to expect me after a “books on sale” post. I have learned new authors and become a HUGE Courtney Milan fan, thanks to you so much. Happy 12th!
HaBOs might be my favorite, but I also love reading reviews for really, really high-rated books and really, really low-rated books. I wouldn’t have known about Oppressed In The Butt By My Inclusive Holiday Coffee Cup without SBTB.
Thanks for another great year!
My favorites the HaBos (I love to see if I know them, and I have been the one to get it right a few times now) and the reviews. It is great to find new books from the reviews. I also like the Rec League.
All of it. Book reviews, book discounts, reading w smart ladies.
Happy 12th!!!!! My favorite part is reading the Rec league. I find such great recommendations and have expanded my bookshelves accordingly. Love you guys!!!
Easy question to answer: The love of all things hot-pink bitchery!
*makes grabby-hands at prizes* Must have!
HaBO is definitely one of my favorite things about this site. The descriptions people give of books they don’t remember…I almost always want to read them, just to get my own taste of the 80s/90s fuckupedness, haha.