Book bloggers blog because we love reading. Has book blogging changed the way you read? Have you discovered books you never would have apart from book blogging? How has book blogging affected your book acquisition habits? Have you made new connections with other readers because of book blogging? Choose any one of these topics and share your thoughts today!
Let’s face it – most of us would have never started blogging about books if we didn’t love to read. Blogging is definitely a twenty-first century phenomenon that finally allows like-minded individuals to come together and share in their love of books. At no other point in history would this have been possible to such a degree as has been allowed due to the advent of the Internet age. Book blogging opens up a world of possibilities to those who are interested, from exposure to entirely new canons, genres, authors, and the like, to gushing about the latest YA love triangle with a fellow blogger halfway across the world from you. We have the power to change lives and careers, and it can be a heady experience.
Before I started blogging, I never knew which of the new books were worth reading, so I stuck with classics, Nora Roberts, and Anne Rice. My entire literary exposure revolved around those two present-day authors and authors long since dead. This always meant that I was struggling to find my next read and had a relatively small library of carefully selected books, only a handful of which remained unread. I never discussed books with other people because of a lasting trauma at being ridiculed for being a bookworm as a child. Reading was never considered cool, and it was a lesson from school that stuck with me for decades. It didn’t prevent me from reading, but I learned to keep it my “shameful” secret.
I have been blogging for over two years now, and things have definitely changed! My library has grown 400 percent, with a majority of them unread. I now know which books are going to be big, which ones are sleeper hits, and which ones I need to avoid at all costs, well in advance of them ever hitting the shelves. I no longer read just classics, Nora Roberts or Anne Rice. In fact, while I continue to read a classic a month, I haven’t picked up a Nora Roberts or Anne Rice novel in almost three years. I am no longer ashamed to say that I read voraciously and relish handing out my blog business cards to as many people as possible. I am proud to be a book blogger, proud of the confidence I have built as a result of blogging and the voice I now have. I love each and every blogging friend gained over the past two-plus years because they have all made me a better person in some way. Book blogging literally changed my life.
I definitely never let them keep me down! Reading was/is too important to me to pay attention to what people were saying. But I love coming "out of the closet" as a reader these days!
Yes, I can't complain, but my bank account definitely is the worse for the wear these days!
Handing out business cards never gets old, does it?
Oh, I had the glasses, braces, and acne to compound the issues. I am SO thankful to put that all behind me!
Thanks, Vishy! I will never complain about the Internet because it has certainly opened up new vistas for me that were unheard of when I was a child. I adore what how it has made this large world so much smaller, even if it does present a whole new level of challenges for my work life.
I still sneak in a few classics, Anne Rice or Nora Roberts. They will forever remain among my favorites, no matter how many books I read.
Thanks!
I use Vistaprint and love them. You can design your own business cards or use one of their templates. Very user-friendly and relatively cheap too. Good luck!
I feel like I am such a better reader these days because my eyes were opened by the brilliance of bloggers!
I love not having to worry but having too many choices can be overwhelming!
Exactly. I feel so smug walking into bookstores, knowing that I probably have a better knowledge of the new releases than half the employees on the floor on any given day. It is such an amazing feeling.
I LOVE going into a bookstore for just that reason (and hate it because everyone's recommendations make me want to add to my collection). I feel so smug because of the fact I have either read many of the new releases or know someone who has. It's an awesome feeling!
Aw, that's terrible that kids made fun of you for liking to read. 🙁 Thank goodness you didn't let it keep you from doing what you love!
My recent post 2011 BBAW Daily Topic #4: Readers
Yes, my TBR pile is growing regularly… It is a lot larger than it was when I started blogging, that's for sure!
My recent post BBAW – Day 4: Reading and Blogging
I love it! Like you my reading pile has grown like crazy, and I love handing out my business cards!
My recent post BBAW: Readers
That sucks – being subjected to ridicule as a kid because you liked to read. I guess I lucked out there; my family were all readers, and the other kids had other reasons to ridicule me (thick glasses and lack of height, mostly). I'm glad you've been able to move past that and come out of your shell as a reader and blogger!
My recent post BBAW: What Blogging Has Done to My Reading
Wonderful post, Michelle! I liked very much your observation that for the first time in history, people can share their thoughts on what they are reading, because of the internet phenomenon. It is amazing, how much the world has changed in the past ten years or so! It was also interesting to know that you started out reading classics, Nora Roberts and Anne Rice – they are all wonderful writers!
My recent post What is the matter, my lord?
Wonderful post. enjoyed reading.
My recent post Day 4 of BBAW
Wonderful post — I love reading about readers gushing about reading, nerdy as that may be! You're so smart to have a blog business card — I'm jealous! I need to figure that out somehow!
My recent post Interview with Lynn Cullen
My reading habits have changed drastically too. I have branched out a lot since I started my blog. Like you, I had a very small niche in my reading habits and what authors and genres I would read.
I was a classics-only kind of reader pre-blogging (until I got into library school and had some horizons broadened…). I love not having to worry about whether I'll have a book to read when I finish one.
My recent post BBAW Day 4: Readers and the Seven Realms
You sound like me before book blogging. I had my 'go-to' authors and that was it. I never knew what to buy at the bookstore. Now I look through the shelves thinking, "So-and-so liked that, read that, have that, so-and-so hated that…" What a difference!
My recent post BBAW: Community, the Sequel