Peoples Opinions on My Book Blog

Bookish Musings is a feature here at Beautiful Bookish Butterflies that allows one of us to share our thoughts and opinions, talk and discuss things happening in the book and blogging community or share a personal book related issue we have. Today, Amanda is talking about Book Blogs and the judgement we get running them.

How many times have I had the 'You have a Book Blog? That's a bit sad.' conversation with people I know? I've honestly lost count, and that's not just to say that I've heard it so many times, but I've also just lost the time or effort to care about it any more.

When I first debated blogging properly about my books, instead of just reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, I didn't really discuss it with anyone, other than my Mum, and that's mainly because I live with her, so you can't really hide something like that from your one source of company at home. I didn't even talk to my best friends about it, and while the main reason was that they wouldn't really understand, and in fact, still don't understand, why I would want to, but also, because they find it a little silly, almost immature actually. They all know now, but they don't take an interest, or ask how things are, neither do they support me in the whole process; they actually don't really care about reading, and find it a little weird that I'm so passionate about books to a point where I, and I shall quote: 'would want to boast about my reading experience when most people just read a book and forget about it afterwards.'

You're probably thinking 'why are you friends with these people?' and while their lack of interest does sometimes disappoint me, I understand they all have different interests, and I love them no matter our differences, but the matter is, why are so many people blogging, and why do so many others still find it a strange concept? Is it strange to recommend a good TV show to a friend? Or to highlight the amazing offer you got on a gorgeous dress just the other week from River Island? No, not really. We recommend things to others almost every day of our lives. We are walking advertisements. So why are books any different? For those who like books, we're always looking for the next book to read, the next big hit, the next mesmorising book that will stay with us for damn right ages; that's why we blog. We want to be the recommender, we want to tell people how great this book was, what amazing character development it had, that it had us on the edge our seats, that we balled our eyes out (no names; *cough* John Green *cough*) and it's just one big strange concept to people who don't know much about reading or blogging, because they don't enjoy it.

However, in my short time blogging, when I've mentioned that I run this blog, I've been welcomed with smiles, with understanding, and an appreciation ;of what it is I'm doing. I'll get asked questions such as; 'Isn't it demanding?' 'What type of books do you read and review?' Is it hard to review books?' 'How do you get books off publishers?' and it's these questions that make those shrugs and disinterest off others bearable, because there are people who do care, and are interested, and it's those people that keep me blogging. If I didn't have people interested in what I read and review, if I didn't have authors who offer me their books, if I didn't have other bloggers who I'm forming friendships with, what would there be to keep me going?

This community of book bloggers is one of the best I've seen, and it's a honour to be a part of that community. I appreciate every single person that comes and looks at my blog, and is interested, and who follows, and yes, while the looks I get given when I'm asked 'You have a Book Blog?' are a little harsh, I have a network of fellow book lovers ready to ask; 'Was that book good? Would you recommend it?' Big thank you to Lucy over at Queen of Contemporary for giving me the final push to do this blog posts; you can go and see her similar post about the discussion here.

What's your opinion on other peoples opinion of book blogging? Do you find disinterested comments difficult to take? Or are you happy and settled in this wonderful community? Leave your comments below and have a wonderful rest of your day.