Book Blogger Confessions {1}

Karen over at For What It's Worth, along with Tiger from All Consuming Books, started this new meme called Book Blogger Confessions. Basically, it's where they ask a question on alternating Mondays, and bloggers can respond/confess the behind-the-scenes work on blogging and such.

This week's question is: How has the "job" of book blogging changed your reading habits? Both pro and con.


Blogging has definitely affected the books I buy, first of all. I'm far more picky now, and you'll see that most of my reviews are positive--the majority of the books I choose nowadays are ones I'm almost 100% certain I'll enjoy. But this, in itself, isn't necessarily an asset. I surmise that because of the quality of books I'm reading, it's becoming harder to spot one that completely blows me away. This makes me more subjective, and ultimately, slamming into reading slumps far more often.

It also, of course, introduces me to absolutely wonderful books that I might not have otherwise noticed.

Book blogging definitely is time-consuming, no doubt. It's silly of me, I suppose, but I write all of my reviews in the New Post section of Blogger, rather than on a Word Document and whatnot. (It's okay--I save constantly.) I guess part of the reason is that it makes me more aware of the fact that I am, indeed, writing a review and, therefore, must be very concise and not go off into rambling nonsense. While I know many blogging friends who take notes while reading, I don't do so. I'm more of an overall person, and I over-analyze a lot of things, so this way, if it's just a really miniscule problem, I won't be attacking it endlessly in my review (and save both yours and mine ears/eyes).


Despite the fact that it's quite time-consuming and makes reading seem almost like a chore at times, book blogging also offers a place where I can fangirl all I want and no one--well, almost no one--will laugh at me. This makes me more bold in my reading choices, and helps me, like I stated before, discover more books along the way as well.


I think the biggest way book blogging has affected my reading habits, though, is that it narrows down my tastes in a way. I've discovered the type of books I'm naturally attracted to (Maggie Stiefvater, any one?), and this makes me more wary and hesitant in reading as I was before. That can be both a good and bad thing--good in that it offers me a chance to make reading less like a chore and more of something I enjoy, and bad that I might miss out on something I would've loved because of my bias.


Overall, I have to say that while book blogging certainly changed my reading habits and offered both pros and cons of its own, I think it ultimately helped me make better choices. As my schedule shrinks even more, reading what I love is important, and this helps enhance that.


What are YOUR opinions and thoughts? Let me know in the comments!