1. A chance to talk with other bookish people - This is my favorite reason for book blogging and an unexpected one. Let's face it, reading can be a solitary hobby. So I love that I've had the chance to meet (in the digital sense) lots of other bookish people and we can talk about books and lit and other topics that other friends of mine and I never talk about. We tried at one point to do a book club which ended up just being a hang around and drink wine club. I had a lot of fun, don't get me wrong, but it didn't satisfy my desire to discuss books.
2. A chance to write - As an English major in college, I wrote a lot. Paper after paper after paper it seemed. While I can't say I miss the deadlines and the long nights, I was starting to miss the act of writing. Boyfriend convinced me that a blog was a good way to get back into the habit. Also I think he thought this outlet for my random thoughts would spare him some of my ramblings, but little did he know I have lots of babble to go around.
3. Tracking my reading - I never kept track of the books I read. I'd read a book and never really looking at a big picture of what I'm reading. Tracking the books here, especially with my monthly reading wrap-ups, gives me an idea of how my reading is shaping up and where I could improve a bit. Plus, I'm fairly forgetful so having all the books I've read written down will help me remember what I read and what I thought.
4. Book recommendations - Following up the topic of tracking my reading. book blogging has also provided me with lots of new book recommendations. Prior to this I had a few friends I would get book recommendations from but I was reading a lot of the same stuff. Don't get me wrong, I love the stuff I was picking up (a lot of Christopher Moore) but I wanted to expand my horizons and didn't know where to start. Not only was I reading a lot of similar things, but I was also re-reading a lot because I'd never know what new books were worth the time. I'm doing less re-reading now because there are so many new books I want to read. Plus I don't want to be writing about the same book multiple times here.
5. Bookish recommendations - It's not just book recommendations but book-related ones that I love. When they first came out I was never crazy about e-readers. But book bloggers helped convince me to get one. I read a bunch of posts about them, both for and against, people linked to stories about Kindles and Nooks and ebooks, and I learned what I needed to know to make an informed decision.
OK so even here I didn't come up with 10 but these are 5 very strong reasons why I love this! What about you? Why do you love book blogging or even just being bookish in general?
