My Favorite Part Of The Book Community

This is a post I've wanted to write for several weeks, but I really wanted to take my time and put my heart into it, because you all deserve that. I've not had as much time for my blog as I'd like, so this (kind of) discussion got brushed under the rug.

However.

Every time I log on to Twitter, I see people talking about the drama in the community. I don't actually know what the drama is because I don't spend too much time on Twitter these days, and I don't have the energy to figure it out or worry about it. But I figured now was a good time to finally write this post, to give the community some positivity, and to remind all my bookish friends out there that we can--and should--celebrate our differences. 

MY FAVORITE PART OF THE BOOK COMMUNITY

I started blogging when I was 15. I didn't really know how it worked. I didn't know if I'd like it or if I'd be any good at it. I didn't know if I'd keep it up very long, and I didn't know if it would become important to me. All I knew is that I loved books, and I wanted to talk about books with other people who loved them as much as I did.

Now, here I am, five years (and countless books) later. Blogging has become so incredibly important to me. My blog(s) and I have grown together. We've been through a lot, but here I am, five years later. Blogging and I, we've had our ups and downs, but here I am, five years later. There have been times when I was an inconsistent and unreliable blogger. There were times when I thought I'd given up blogging for good, because as much as I love blogging, it's hard work and real life gets in the way of hobbies sometimes.

BUT HERE I AM, FIVE YEARS LATER.

I keep coming back, no matter what. And yes, part of it is because I like the creative aspect of it, part of it is because I like to stay tuned into the book industry. But the number one reason I can't stay away from book blogging is the community.

For the most part, the people in the book community are endlessly kind and funny and understanding. And it's a truly beautiful thing to know I can tweet about something a friend said to me that hurt my feelings and have my mentions flooded with uplifting words. The book community makes me feel important and it makes me feel like I have a place in this world, which is fantastic.

But, in my opinion, a big part of what makes that so fantastic is that there are hundreds of us (thousands of us?) who come from different backgrounds, different walks of life, who have faced different challenges, overcome different obstacles, have cried different tears and smiled different smiles, who are broken in different ways and whole in different ways, who have learned different things, who have seen different landscapes and held different hands.

We are all so different.

Yet here we are, connected, united. We are a community all because we love books.

Thanks to all of you lovely humans, I am privy to a plethora of different perspectives. I get to learn and grow and become more open-minded. I get to have conversations that I probably won't ever have with the people I know in real life. I get to strengthen and reevaluate my own ideals and learn more about the world I live in.

I will most likely never meet any of you face-to-face, and yet, you have all helped shape me and you have all helped me define myself.

And if thinking about that doesn't take your breath away a little, I'm not sure what will.

My Biggest Distractions From Reading & Blogging

I tend to have a pretty decent attention span, but I think everyone, at some point, succumbs to distractions when reading or blogging. While reading, this mostly happens for me when I've first started a book and I'm not totally hooked yet, or at the slow parts. When I'm blogging I get distracted pretty much constantly.

Here are my primary sources of distraction when I am reading of blogging:

FOOD

Because who doesn't love food? And when I remember there is apiece of Oreo pie sitting in my fridge, waiting eagerly to make the foray into my belly, how can I not oblige? Just in the time it has taken me o think up this post and start it, I've re-heated my coffee and turned the stove on to make fajitas. So yeah, food definitely distracts me.

SOCIAL MEDIA

I'm pretty sure all y'all out there can relate to this one. I especially get pulled in by Twitter and Instagram (shameless self-promotion: You can follow me on both! Here's my insta, and my twitter), but I also occasionally get lost on Goodreads and Facebook. It's hard not to get sucked in when all it takes is one little tap on my phone to pull up the apps where people are saying SUCH INTERESTING THINGS.

TEXTS/GROUP MESSAGES

In my completely unbiased opinion, my friends and I are the funniest people to walk the face of the Earth, so when the group message is getting lit, talking about Harry Styles's new haircut and sharing Supernatural gifs (usually at night, when I'm trying to read) I'm not just gonna tell them to shut up. Plus, I don't get a lot of texts throughout the day, so I'm always grateful to remember I have friends.

MY THOUGHTS

This happens to the best of us. It's not my fault if I see the word "grace" which reminds me of my best friend Gracie which reminds me that we're supposed to go swimming soon which reminds me of when I used to live in Florida and go swimming all the time...so on, and so forth.

TV

I'm home alone a lot, so I usually keep the TV on to make the house feel less empty. Sometimes I'll make the mistake of glancing over at the TV and seeing cool stuff happen, and then I end up watching the TV (on mute, reading the subtitles) for a solid three hours.

What distracts you most when you're reading or blogging?