Welcome to the Feature & Follow Hop, hosted by Parajunkee’s View and Alison Can Read!
If you’re here for the first time, I’d love if you could follow via email, RSS, LinkyFollowers or Networked Blogs. Just let me know your follow method of choice in the comments, and I’ll be happy to return the favor.
And if you’re not new, welcome back! Repeat visitors rock my world.
Today’s question is simple:
What started you Blogging?
As you’re probably aware, I haven’t been book blogging all that long. I started this blog at the end of March, a scant 3.5 months ago. I have, however, run a personal blog for years, the content of which was ravenously consumed by members of my immediate family. They wanted to read about my kids, and I provided oodles of info on that subject, and they were appeased.
Yes, I still write that blog. No, I’m not going to tell you where to find it. Sorry.
But I’m assuming this question is referring to book blogging. So as far as that goes, I started this blog for several reasons:
1) I was consuming too much television and felt my brain turning to mush (even though I watch awesome television). And I was all like, “Hey, self, remember when you used to read all the time and be semi-intelligent? How’s about you start that up again?”
“In my day, television was called books.“
Name that movie.
2) I feared that if I simply made the resolution “I’m going to read more” without any accountability, I wouldn’t read more. So I set up a blog. Voilà, accountability!
It’s the same reason I got a running partner. But the problem there is that she is about as motivated to run as I am, so on our most recently scheduled running day, we went to go see Spider-Man and I ate almost an entire bucket of popcorn. But it’s okay, because Spider-Man rocked my world almost as much as repeat visitors.
3) Most books I read are not the same books my husband or friends read. And I always wanted to talk about books when I finished reading, and was always disappointed that I didn’t have anyone to discuss them with. I thought writing reviews would be a good way to get all my thoughts out into the world, and then maybe people would even read them and we could talk about them. But even if no one read them, just the act of writing helped me process my thoughts about a book.
4) I would be lying if I didn’t admit there was a bit of a draw in the idea that if I actually could dredge up some readers, publicists might want to send me advance copies of books I really wanted to read. For free. Before they were released.
No, I didn’t start the blog “for the ARCs,” but if you don’t see the appeal in the idea of being able to read a highly-anticipated book before release, then you must have that crazy thing called “patience” that I’ve heard about but never really possessed. And I envy you.
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So there you go. That’s why I got started.
Of course, if you wanted to ask why I’m still blogging — yes, a whopping 3.5 months later — the answer would be slightly different. It would involve the awesome bookish community, the great bloggers and authors I’ve met (either in person or online), the way it’s gotten my creative juices flowing, the way it’s inspired me to come out of my shell and share more of my passions than just reading (like So You Think You Can Dance. And comic book superheroes. And other things that may or may not be just as nerdy).
But you didn’t ask that. So I won’t tell you.