Welcome to the last Friday of February! Welcome to the last session this month of the weekly meme, Let’s Talk Bookish, hosted by Rukky and Dani on their respective blogs:
Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books & Dani @ Literary Lion, where they discuss certain topics, share their opinions, and spread the love by visiting each others’ posts.
Feb 26: Has blogging affected your reading in a positive or negative way? If so, how? Do you think the pressures to produce content can result in a bad relationship with books? How do you balance blogging and reading? Do you think you would have started blogging if it weren’t for books or vice versa?
For me personally, blogging has affected my reading in a positive way. Andge is the one who actually started this blog, and she only brought me on as a partner in 2018. While I have always loved books, I tended to binge books whenever I missed them, rather than having any sort of constant flow. However, now with running this blog, I am forced motivated to always have a running (albeit short) TBR. Without this blog, I honestly wouldn’t be reading nearly this much, nor nearly as quickly (24 books this year already!) – so I really appreciate being brought onboard.
That being said though, there is definitely a paradigm shift when it comes to reading books now. When I read now, I consciously think more about the specific plots, characters, literary devices – things I can mention for the review. I feel like I’m even more conscious about specifically how much I like a book and what points I have to back it up. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing, as being an aware reader is a good thing, but it is definitely different from when I didn’t have to think about it.
The balance between blogging and reading for me is: what books do I potentially need to review and which can I just enjoy at face value? The books I usually don’t save to review are the ones either already reviewed here, or old classics everyone has already read (just me being behind the ball, as usual). I definitely wouldn’t have started (or agreed to) blogging if it weren’t for my love of books though. Not sure I really have any other interest that would make me want to share my public opinion about online!
If you’re a blogger, how do you feel about blogging and reading? Or if you’re only a reader of blogs, any reason you don’t blog yourself?
Join us again next week for the beginning of the March prompts for Let’s Talk Bookish! As usual, please follow the original two content creators on their blog (linked above), as usual. Stick around this weekend for our monthly wrap-up and anticipations for next month. Happy weekend everyone!
Down the Rabbit Hole 
“Not sure I really have any other interest that would make me want to share my public opinion about online!” I feel this way about reading as well. It’s the one thing I’m so passionate about I feel like I need to share it!
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“When I read now, I consciously think more about the specific plots, characters, literary devices – things I can mention for the review.”
SAME! I have found that I read books with a more critical eye now. I like reading ebooks because I can make notes or highlight stuff to refer back to for when I write my reviews.
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For all intents and purposes, it’s a never a bad thing to have a critical eye, I think!
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