Why be a book-blogger?

This blog has become such a regular outlet for me that I’ve stopped thinking about why I started. Sure, I wrote a post on why I started blogging about a year ago. It was an interesting thought process as I examined everything that had got me to this point.

But why books? While I always knew that I wanted to review things, I never set out to become a book-blogger. I never intended for 90% of my other posts to focus on books or book related material.

Somehow, though, that is what happened. I thought it was time I did a little more soul-searching and figured out precisely what it is about books that made me dedicate so much of my spare time to them.

I was an avid reader as a child. As these things go, I drifted in my teens. I love my local library, there’s no denying that. But when I was in my mid-teens, their YA section was awful. By the time you took out the Buffy books, there was very little left. Nothing inspired me and I lost interest.

Becoming a bibliophile

It’s hard to pin down what sparked that passion back up again. I think it was deciding to do a writing degree. We were encouraged to always be reading, advice that I took to heart. By the time I was doing my dissertation, my research was literally reading all the fantasy books I could get my hands on. I didn’t fall back in love with reading; I jumped head-first and just hoped for a soft landing.

By that time, I had started blogging and reviewing. It was only natural that books became the subject that I blogged about. I suppose, in a way, it all spiralled from that. The more I read, the more I loved it, the more posts I had and it was great to see the blog growing.

But why reading? What is it about it that I love? Simple: the escapism.

Fantasy books

Despite my reviews meandering across a lot of genres, I’m a fantasy reader at heart. For me, nothing gives me greater pleasure than being immersed in a world that is so different from our own and where nothing is impossible because of the rules of this world. There’s something about worlds like that, something that speaks to my heart and I guess I long for them to be real places to escape to. Still, letting my mind and imagination make the journey is enough for me.

Even if I am reading a lot, if I haven’t read a high fantasy book for a while, it’s like I get withdrawal symptoms!

All genres

It’s not just fantasy though; I’d be lying if I said that was all I read. The art of storytelling just appeals to me (I’m a writer as well as a reader, so I guess it should). By just putting pen to paper (aka fingers to keyboard) an author can make you forget where you are, make you laugh, make you cry and make you care more about a fictional character than you do about the people surrounding you in real life.

For me, a book that can capture your heart is one of the most powerful things. The best bit? Books aren’t seasonal. They don’t have a championship or a league that everyone gets hyped up about for a short period of time. The only time it hurts is when you have to wait for the next in a series to come out.

No wonder I’m a fantasy lover: it’s the magic of books that keeps me reading.

How about you? What made you fall in love with reading?

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