Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books & Dani @ Literary Lion, where we discuss certain topics, share our opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts. It’s supposed to be posted on Friday, but being on time is hard and it’s better late than never.
I’m going to be especially late this time, because I actually liked last week’s prompt and missed it. So this week is as good a time as any, I suppose.
This week’s topic is: why do you blog?
This is such a timely prompt, seeing as how the beginning of this month was actually my third blogiversary! Has it really been three years since this blog (then called The Writerly Way) was a gleam in my eye and some half-baked idea? Well, okay, it’s still a half-baked idea, but any day now, I’m sure it’ll be fully cooked. Probably.
Last year, around this time, I talked about the things I’d learned after two years of blogging. So this year, three years in, seems like a good time to talk about the reasons I blog, even though I know I’ve touched on it before.
Why I started blogging.
The short answer: I had a miscarriage.
Yup, we’re just gonna go ahead and rip the Band-Aid off real quick-like and get it over with. If this is a trigger for you please skip to the next section. I talk about it openly, but not everyone can or wants to, and that’s fine. I want you to be comfortable here on this blog. Well, relatively so. As comfortable as you can be sitting on bone furniture with giant fire lizards hovering around you.
Long story short: I had a miscarriage, wallowed in depression for a couple months, and decided I need something to pull myself out of it. I had just discovered book blogs around that time and thought, huh, I like to read. I can ramble about books with the best of them. Why not?!
And voila, The Writerly Way began (because that’s what it was called back then).
How The Bookwyrm’s Den came to be.
As I’ve mentioned, this blog used to be The Writerly Way. For two years, actually. It was only last year that I switched the name, and there were several reasons for that.
One, I almost never talk about actual writing on this blog. Writing is a very solo experience for me, except for the few buddy writers I talk to on a regular basis. So the name of the blog felt weird when it was solely a book blog.
Two, I love dragons. Love. I would sell your soul to be a dragon, that’s how much I love them. Yes, you read that right. I struggled to make The Writerly Way something that was really me. I tried several different designs, but they all ended up kind of flowery and just didn’t feel quite right. The blog felt off. What could be more me than dragons, though?!
Three, COVID-19 happened and suddenly I had the time I needed to do a revamp! If you’ve never done a blog revamp, it takes tiiiime. Oodles of it. My library only closed down for, like, a week and a half, I think? I still had to work job #2 during that time, though. So I really squished everything in the best I could.
Why I still blog after three years at it.
The simple answer: I love it! But allow me to elaborate a teensy bit more, if you will.
The people are absolutely the best.
Not all the people all the time, obviously, but most of them, most of the time, and I feel like that’s more than sufficient. I have met absolutely the best people through blogging. If I’m honest (which I try to be), that’s really what I wanted when I started the blog, was just other people to talk to, since I was a work-from-home parent at that point in my life. Welp, mission accomplished! I wouldn’t be here if not for you all.
I don’t want to do shout-outs here, because I’ve done them before, but if you’re looking for people to follow, check out my post on bloggers you should totally follow and also my post on deciding which blogs to follow (with links to blogs I love to follow!).
I am 1,000% in love with talking about books.
Reading them, yes, but talking about them? Oh my gosh, as an introvert, I didn’t know it was possible to love this so much! I get even more excited when I find people who enjoy the same books I do and we get to just gush about them! Oh, and the best part? When people read something I wrote and take a recommendation and then read the book and love it. It’s such a small thing that’s 100% to do with the author and next to nothing to do with me, but I just love sharing things I love!
It’s not only saved my life, but changed it … even inspiring a new career path!
In case you missed it … I work at a library! It’s a career path I was vaguely aware existed but never thought would be something I could actually pursue. Until, you know, I started really getting into books and blogging and ended up spending all my time at the library and getting to know the people who worked there, which led to me getting a job there. Now, starting Monday, I’ll officially be in graduate school, and in 2022, I’ll have my master’s in library and science information. Is that not crazy? None of it would’ve happened, probably, had I not started blogging.
I want to shout about all these fabulous authors out there.
They deserve it. They deserve more, if I’m honest, I’m just a teensy little person living in the middle of nowhere with absolutely no power whatsoever. Being a writer myself, I can imagine how much time and effort went into these authors writing this thing that held me so enraptured for a day, two days, a week, however long it takes me to read it. It’s a thing of beauty, carefully crafted. The only thing I can do, other than buy the book and read it, is to spread the word about it, and that’s what I love to do. It may not make a huge impact at all, but I want to support all the authors out there, regardless, in any way I can.
I can’t imagine a world where I’m not part of this community.
I’m sure a day will come where blogging either becomes unsustainable or something that I end up needing to give up. That’s just cold, hard reality. For now, though? I can’t imagine not doing this. Even when I get burnout and take a short break, I’m itching to get back to it. I love the conversations and the exchanges and the people and everything about the community (well … maybe not so much the drama, but hey, you take the good with the bad).
Where I see this blog heading.
I mean, after 2020 … who really knows? I’m pretty sure last year proved we have the predictive ability of a goldfish. Or a toddler, who’s surprised every time you magically reappear after covering your face with your hands. Outlook isn’t very good. Still, there are a few things I do see as being true.
I plan to blog for a considerable time in the future. Honestly, my hosting needs to be renewed this year, and I really debated whether it was worth renewing or not, and the answer has always been a resounding yes. I love the freedom of being self-hosted, and I love this blog too much to do away with it. I don’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon. Sorry to say it, but y’all are stuck with me.
I hope to review a wider range of books! Reviews are harder for me to do, because they take so much longer to write. I’ve debated on finding ways to take less time, but I like my reviews. Whether y’all do, I don’t know, but I try to provide everything I want to see in a review and go off that. I’ve sort of slipped on the reviewing thing, I feel like, but I’d really like to do more of it this year.
I want to do some more creative list/recommendation posts. This is what I love about library life, and it’s something I want to bring more to my blog. Recommending books is what I do! Sharing my passion for books I love is why I started blogging. Of course, y’all get tired of me shouting about the same books, I’m sure, so I want to have some more fun and creative book lists this year, and I’ve got a few ideas already that I think will change things up a little.
If you’re a blogger, what are some reasons you blog? Have you ever considered quitting? What do you think the future of your blog will look like?
I’ve been book blogging since August 2014. I started primarily to talk more about books and other things I enjoy than Goodreads allows. Like you said, it’s great to meet all the others in this part of the internet. They’re usually pretty great people. Plus, I just like talking about books. 🙂
Wow, so it’s been a while for you! Talking about books is definitely a big plus about blogging. Very few people I know in real life will let me rant about books. xD
Congrats on 3 years! I started my blog the same day I retired from teaching. I knew I would need something to throw myself into to fill the void. I love blogging and I love meeting other bookish people from around the world! I’ve thought about rebranding but I know it will require a lot of time (which takes away from reading!)
Carol (Reading Ladies) recently posted…The Answer is … Reflections On My Life [Book Review]
Happy blogging anniversary!
Thank you so much!
Happy blogiversary!
My condolences on your miscarriage.
It’s so cool that spending time at the library lead you to getting a job there! Library jobs are few and far between here in Toronto. If it’s okay to ask, do you think you’ll stay at your current workplace after you graduate next year? I think it’s so cool you’re getting a degree in library science. That’s what I’d do if I had the funds for it and if the job market for that was better in Ontario.
Reviews are harder posts for me to write, too. I look up to people who write more than one review a week. How do they do it?! 🙂
And, yes, blogging is a true labour of love.
Thank you so much!
It did! I think it also helped that I started volunteering for things when asked, too, and really trying to engage people there. xD Accidentally stumbled into my career, which is a good way to find a career, I suppose haha.
I do plan on staying at my current library. I’m hoping to become the next director when my current director retires in the next few years. 🙂 I definitely wouldn’t have decided to go back to school for my MLIS if I didn’t already have a career path opportunity, because I never used my bachelor’s degree, so I’m wary about wasting more money on school. xD
I dunno … black magic?! That’s sure what it feels like lol. There are a couple times I post multiple reviews in a week, but that’s disingenuous because I usually have written them ahead of time in that case. xD
Happy Blogging Anniversary! I used to think about quitting, but I haven’t for a long time because I don’t put pressure on myself to blog when I’m not into it. I think not turning into what feels like a ‘job’ for you is so important. Everyone has a different balance.
Thank you for sharing your story with us!
Thank you so much! I think not putting pressure on yourself is a great way to blog. It’s so easy to get burned out if you’re not mindful about it.
Great post! I love your blog. Your inspirational post and being open to sharing your personal experiences feels like sharing a cup of coffee with a close friend.
I look forward to more reviews and recommendations. Plus the dragons are so cute.
Keep up the great work – I’ll be reading as long as you’re blogging.
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Thank you so much! I’m so glad. xD I really wanted this blog to be casual and chatty, because those are the blogs I love visiting the most! Plus, when I set out to start a blog, the one thing I really wanted was to be able to actually chat WITH people, not at them!
I love this post, Sammie and Happy Blogiversary! 🥳 I also talked about how much the community has motivated me to keep blogging! But also having this space to just be my weird, fangirling, geeky self with others who feel and think the same in all our book-loving glory, is something that I wouldn’t change for anything! 😂 Ever since I started blogging and engaging more in the book community and experiencing how much joy it brings me has also made me reconsider whether what I’m doing in my life is what I want to be doing forever lol I hope you do keep blogging because you’re one of my community favourites! 😊
Thank you, my dear! This is a wonderful place to be weird and geeky, which for some reason other people in the non-bookish world frown at … because they’re strange and boring, obviously.
Awww thank you. <3 I think we book bloggers need to band together and buy a giant island somewhere and just ... go there to live and be bookish and establish the most impressive library ever. xD This seems like a perfectly reasonable life goal.
I had no idea about your miscarriage. I can only imagine how difficult that must be to have gone through. <3
I do really love the way you revamped your blog last year. It was great before as well but the new design is so cute!
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It was, but I had a wonderful support system, and I’ve had time to heal! I’m okay with it now, and I’m very content not to have more kids. In a way, I’m glad I didn’t, because everything I’m doing right now in my life wouldn’t be possible if I had a young child. 🙂 So sometimes even bad things work out for the best.
Happy 3rd Blogiversary! 🥳 I originally started blogging as an outlet for my urge to write and talk about books, as no one I know is quite as passionate about books as me! Now I couldn’t imagine not having it because of the community feeling, recommendations and I have found I remember my reading better through blogging too. 🙂
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Thank you! That’s been a big reason I keep going, too! You’d think working at a library would afford me all these chances to gush about books, but nope. Not like blogging does. Even in a library, people think you’re weird when you get passionate about books haha.
Happy blogoversary! First, I am so very sorry about your miscarriage, but so glad that you found something to help you work through it. I found that blogging helped me work through my (very) failed marriage- and in essence, helped me have the courage TO end it. It’s funny how powerful a thing it can be, looking back on some of the things its helped us get through.
Second, I think it is amazing that you have found a career out of it! I was actually considering going back to school (perhaps even a library route, but definitely something bookish), so I am excited to hear your thoughts about the process, especially as a mom!
I have had those moments of “wait should I still be doing this, I am tired!?”. So many. But like you, I just feel like I’d be lost without the bookish community. I am so, so glad you will be sticking around for the foreseeable future though! ♥♥
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