Day 9: Why do you blog about books?
Quite honestly, I blog about books, because most people get tired of me talking about my latest read long before I'm finished with the topic. My English Literature degree taught me how to analyse books, take them apart and study the bits, and believe it or not, this actually enhanced my enjoyment of reading, rather than destroying it. But if I try talking about symbolism, symmetry, foreshadowing, themes, tropes and archetypes as an answer to "what are you reading?" my average acquaintance's eyes start to glaze over. I think fondly of the summer after Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was published, talking for hours with my friend Hannah (another English major) analysing Snape's every action and searching the text with a fine-tooth comb to try to puzzle out the mystery of his motives. But such friends, such conversations, are quite few and far-between, here on the Isle of Wight.
I used to haunt the Lord of the Rings forums, which were great for discussing the works of J R R Tolkien, but less so for Anne of Green Gables or Enid Blyton. I'd find forums, but the posts might be one sentence long, updated maybe once a month. I wanted to talk in depth about Rilla of Ingleside but also Twilight, and also about Neil Gaiman; I had my feet in many fanbases that did not overlap. So I set up the blog, in the hope that other people would find my posts and contribute to the discussion. And when writing blog posts, I can edit my thoughts as I write and so, I hope, my reviews make a bit more sense than my incoherent and rambling fangirling.
Day 10: How do you choose what to read next?
Quite simply, I read whatever I'm in the mood for at the time. My to-read pile has quite a variety of genres: non-fiction, romance, thriller, horror, science fiction and fantasy, as well as the hundreds of books on my shelves. If I have a library book due back, or if I've had a book borrowed from a friend for too long, I'll read that. I don't very often accept free books from authors or publishers, because I don't want reading to become a chore. I'd rather have the freedom to read what I want, when I want, and decide whether or not I have enough to say about it to make it worthwhile reviewing.
That's the nice thing about the blogosphere, especially finding other eclectic book bloggers. We can fangirl about ALL THE BOOKS and somewhere out there will be other people (metaphorically) running over and shouting YES! LET ME FANGIRL TOO! It's a bonding experience. And even if a certain reader hasn't read that book or author before, perhaps they now will because of YOUR fangirling and then you will have CREATED A NEW FANGIRL. If you followed that, then CONGRATULATIONS. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm a total mood reader too. That's why I like having a decent-sized and really mixed-up to-read pile, I can peruse it for as long as I want and there's always something that jumps out at me and says "READ ME! YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO! NOW IS THE TIME!" Much nicer than forcing yourself to read something you're not bothered about at that moment...