Feeding a love of reading one book at a time
What does it mean to reinvent your literary life?
Like it or not, we each have a literary identity. Book lovers come in different shapes and sizes.
Some stick to fiction, others prefer nonfiction. Readers can stick to one or two genres, while others read a variety. Reading challenges, book clubs, recommendations from others can shape a reader’s choices. Or book lovers can just follow their moods, flitting through shelves like a bee pollinating flowers.
Readers can also have idiosyncrasies. A friend of mine prefers books under 300 pages, and that made book club choices challenging. My sister prefers hardbacks because they look prettier on her shelves.
Me? I’m a little bit of everything. I’ve got a bunch of books on my shelves and piled up in various places around the house. I’ve read a bunch but have plenty that I glance at and remind myself to read them one day. I’m looking through my Read and To Be Read (TBR) to see the common bonds. That way, I’ll have a better response when I’m asked, “So, what kind of books do you enjoy reading?” Saying I like a little bit of everything is kind of lame.
I also like to talk and write about books. But I have fallen out of the habit reading regularly, and my stack of TBR is getting bigger as a result. One of the ways to pare down the TBR is to commit to reviewing books regularly. Reviewing Advance Review Copies (ARC) keeps me on schedule too, since I want to read those books by the publishing date whenever possible.
I’ve reviewed books before, but now I’ll work on providing more comprehensive reviews here. I’ll post some of those older reviews here too, especially for the books I’ve loved and revisited over the years.
So I’m reinventing my literary life so that I’m reading and writing about books more often. Enjoy the ride as I define my literary identify. I’d appreciate any help you could give me by giving me book suggestions and steering me toward your blogs to inspire me.
Welcome to my reading couch! I promise I’ll move some of the books so that there’s a place for you.
