Discussion Post~Book Bloggers inspire people to read!

If you follow my blog, you must know I don't usually do discussion posts. But a few days back someone said something to me which totally changed my out look on book blogging.

I started book blogging because I love reading. And I wanted to voice my opinions somewhere. I didn't know if someone read anything I wrote or if they liked it or not and I thought a lot about giving it up. Finishing book blogging, because it took up a lot of my time and I wasn't even sure if I was doing anything right.

But then I realized that I couldn't give it up, not now. Because if I would then I wouldn't be able to voice my opinions about a book. And more importantly, discover new books. I'm so glad I started book blogging because I found such amazing books that I wouldn't have been able to discover if I hadn't. I met so many great people, bloggers, authors and publishers including and it has been such a great journey.

Also, I realized that there's no right way to book blog. You just write what you feel. It's not about someone reading it, it's about you writing it. My former English teacher told me this. I would quote her right now, but I can't find the status she commented on =/ Well anyway, it was pretty inspirational.

Still, I was pretty bummed that I didn't get any comments. I mean, really, you should see my face when I find I've gotten a comment. It's like someone gave me a present. I love to hear what other people have to say about a particular book or their opinion on a character or even what they think of my review and if they are going to read the book or not. Long comments are my favorite ones! I may not be much of a talker, but I love listening.

So back to the topic, a few days ago a friend on Facebook messaged me. She was like one of those people you know you go to school with and you know who they are but haven't really hung out with them or talked to them. EVERYONE knows I'm a bookworm and I love giving book recommendations. She asked me for some and I gave her a list. Then she talked to me about how she used to pick out random books but she never liked them so she just stopped reading. Then she read a review on my blog (I had shared my blog with all of my friends on Facebook) of Dear John by Nicholas Sparks and she went out and bought the book. She loved it and that brought back her love of reading! I was so happy to hear that! That I actually inspired someone to read again! And then I realized that I do make a difference by writing!

Then I thought further about how bloggers are important and I realized that bloggers are very important to authors/publishers for the promotion of their books. (I know it sounds dumb that I never really noticed it before but I did. I just didn't give much thought to it.) There are so many people who read book blogs for book recommendations and book blogs promote books and encourage others to buy those books. That must be very important for indie authors and honestly I love supporting indie authors because sometimes their work is so brilliant but it's not recognized at all by the readers and it really frustrates me.

And so the conclusion is that I love book blogging. Even though it sometimes takes up a lot of my time and I get disappointed when no one comments (BTW a HUGE thank you to all the people who do!), I'm glad I inspired at least one person to read again and I'm happy that I'm supporting authors who are amazing but don't get much exposure.