Day 3 topic is:

What does book blogging mean to you?

GIVING

1) First, I’m still a novice, just ready to celebrate my 2nd blogiversary only, so I don’t have that much experience yet. See my very first review on Words And Peace!

I did write a bit about my readings on a previous blogs, but even more shortly, and with several books per page.

2) It definitely means that I’m remembering so much better what I read. Before that, I kept track of the titles of books I read, and I admit for some books I read 5 years ago, just seeing the title doesn’t ring any bell at all.

3) I love reading, surprise huh?, and I love talking about the books I read. So this is the perfect venue, though I have many others, such as a reading husband, I know it’s  a treat  not shared by all book bloggers; reading neighbors, and the book club I created for my block; reading colleagues, yes I work in a library; and advanced online French students, who are often eager to share about books. See for instance the books we shared at one of our last Book Club (trading titles format.)

4) It makes me try to be more articulate about the books I read, why I liked them or not. It’s a bit like way back when I had to write pages and pages on a topic or a book.
My goal would be actually to write longer reviews, but often the problem is the time constriction, as I have lots of other things going on apart from blogging: part-time job, French tutoring, English-French translations, and rockpainting. Have you seen my rocks yet??

RECEIVING

5) Blogging works both ways: I post, but then I receive comments. This means community building, plus sometimes really fascinating conversation on a book or a topic. See for instance some comments received recently for The Second Empress.

6) And I get to know other book bloggers. In case you missed some I discovered recently, you can see my post here.

7) Which means I get to hear about books I would never discover or read by myself. The only problem here is that my Goodreads TBR increases dangerously every week. I’m at over 200 titles.

8) And I get challenged to read outside my regular comfort zone through Reading Challenges. I love those!

9) I also get to be connected with some authors. I had  for instance a few exchanges with Helen Grant, whom I follow on Facebook.
And an email interview is in the making with Debra Dean, author of The Mirrored World!

10) Finally, and this is high on my list actually, I receive free books, some I win at giveaways organized by other book bloggers, sometimes directly from authors, but mostly from publishers through Netgalley and Edelweiss.

PLEASE GO HERE
TO DISCOVER WHAT BOOK BLOGGING FOR TO OTHERS