I started this book blog back in 2013 on a whim, but updating it and becoming involved with online bookish activities has become a daily part of my life. Not only has it given me the opportunity to articulate my thoughts on what I'm reading but I've had so many meaningful interactions with other readers and received many great book recommendations. To my surprise, it's also opened opportunities to interact with the publishing world from reviewing newly released titles to being closely involved with book prizes to interviewing favourite authors such as Joyce Carol Oates, Zadie Smith, Richard Powers and Martin MacInnes. Though it's time consuming to write posts and make videos about books all this activity has spurred me on to read even more than I did before blogging.
As a fun way of celebrating my blog's birthday I set myself the goal of picking a favourite book from each year of the past decade. Here you can watch me reminisce about some of my top readers from the past ten years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1edH0pNkZ14 It's a pleasurable (and slightly tense) process!
I still like to write about individual books in blog posts but recently my time has been largely taken up with the online book club I started a few months ago. It's been wonderful that so many readers have joined leading to lots of casual chat and close reading of our monthly book club picks. The murky world of online life and social media certainly has its pitfalls, but mostly it's been a positive experience full of energetic discussion and meaningful exchanges about literature. Reading is a necessarily solitary activity but all the activity and relationships which have grown out of this blog has shown me that being part of a community of readers means that I won't ever be lonely.
