Hey everyone. welcome back to my blog! I recently did a deep dive into my reading via my goodreads to see how my reading has changed since I started using the platform and I really loved analysing my reading that way. So, today I’m doing something similar that I also recently saw Marie @ drizzleandhurricanebooks (one of my favourite bloggers btw!) and I’m analysing how my reading has changed since I started blogging. I’m really trying to see whether 1. blogging has actually affected my reading at all and 2. has it been for the better or not?
Find my analysis of my past goodreads challenges here ⬇️
Where do I find out about new books?
Before I started blogging I very much found out about new books mainly from booktube (when I discovered it around 2017/2018) and the library. Oh, yes, the days when I would go to the library, read the blurbs and just pick up whatever looked good from whatever they had stocked on the shelves.
Now, I absolutely get the majority of my recommendations from booktube (Booksandlala and Jack Edwards are mainly to blame for my giant tbr) but, social media like BookTok (which I see second hand on Instagram 😂) and Bookstagram are starting to make a bigger impact on the books I read too, particularly the romances. Interestingly, blogging hasn’t had too much of an impact on what I read, though, I think that has to do more with the fact that I rarely blog hop these days.
What genres do I typically read?
I started blogging in 2016 but in 2017 I graduated high school which I think had a big impact on my reading so I separated the graphs that way. I also think it’s worth mentioning that I only started blogging when I was 16 and I’m now 22 so, obviously the way I read has changed pretty significantly, as has how I view different genres. When I first started blogging I never would have been caught dead reading something that looked stereotypically like a romance on the cover, but now, romance is almost 20% of what I read.
I definitely think I still re-read a lot of the same books like Alex Rider and The Doors trilogy just because I love them so much and I do re-read the Wayward Children series annually. So, a lot of my preferences have stayed the same since 2016, but, clearly a lot has changed too. I very rarely read dystopian or paranormal, or any kind of YA fiction now, whereas that was a lot of what I read when I first started blogging. Now, I’m loving romance books and mysteries and spy/action novels.
How much do I read?
I’m going to touch on this again later in this post but, I think it’s pretty clear that I’ve definitely started reading a lot more since I started blogging way back in 2016!
How do I rate the books I read?
2016 ⬆️
I’ve split this into before and after I started blogging in 2016 and yeah, I definitely think reading other blog posts combined with probably discovering booktube at a similar time absolutely affected how many 5 star and 4 star reads I was reading!
In 2017 and 2018 I know I was blog hopping a lot and reading new to me genres more frequently, so if we want to see how blogging has affected how I rate books, this is the best graph to look at. And, I think it’s fair to say that while I read a lot of 3 star bookcs, I also read more than half 4s and 5s which is absolutely a win for blogging!
2019 to now is definitely when I stopped blog hopping as frequently because of Uni and work, so these are less relevant but, I love graphics so I figured I’d add them anyway. Also, clearly I’ve been reading a lot less 4 and 5 star books over the last couple of years. I also incorporated more quarter stars which I think became important to me and how I differentiate different kinds of reads.
Does what I watch affect what I read?
Screen media definitely impacted my reading, especially in 2020!!
Has blogging affected what I read?
- YA Paranormal
- YA Dystopian
- YA Fantasy
- YA *insert genre here*
what i read now ⬆️
- Adult Romance
- “Weird” Books
- Manga
- Cozy Mysteries
As we can see I’ve definitely changed quite a bit from middlegrade books to adult historical fiction and romance books!
Has blogging affected how I read?
I think it’s safe to say that yes, blogging has absolutely affect how I read. I’ve noticed a new trend over the last year or two with my blog post titles. I have become quite focused on numbers and how many books I read per month, which I think, can have an impact on how many 3 star books I read too, because generally I get through them faster and often, they’re romance books.
Reading is still one of my favourite things to do but, somewhere along the ay after I started blogging, it has also become a bit of a race with myself. If I only read 5-10 books a month I really beat myself up about it, which is particularly ironic since I don’t think of myself as a particularly speedy reader. I’ve really put an emphasis on time, numbers and reading slumps over the last few years and I really dislike that, but, it’s one way to get views, though I wish it wasn’t and I’m slowly trying to change that on my blog.
I do also think I can attribute these big numbers to things like running the Graphicsathon, reading a lot of romance and listening to the majority of what I read on audiobook.
Has it all been for the best?
Has it all been for the best? I have touched on this a few times but, I think yes and no. Reading so much and blogging about it has lead me to reading some of my all time favourite books and discovering new favourite authors but, it’s also lead to a lot of slumps and over-stimulation with too much content. I couldn’t tell you the names of the characters from most of the books I read even last month. This isn’t too crazy for me as I have a very poor memory, which anyone who knows me can definitely attest to. But, if I rated a book really highly with a 4 or 5 or even a high 3, I think it’s a fair expectation, that I would remember the main plot/themes and the MCs. Usually I can’t though.
Book blogging has affected my reading – it’s a little difficult to talk about because I think covid had a lot to do with me reading more and more. Less travel time and with both school and work fluctuating so much + the general stress of everything had me doing a lot of reading and not much else for obvious reasons. That, and it very much coincided with me discovering my love of romance books which are known for being a faster type of book to read/get through.
So, there are both positives and negatives and lots of different aspects of my reading and blogging that we got to go through today. But, final concrete answer – yes, of course blogging has affected my reading and I am so glad 2016 me decided to try out this whole blogging thing!
Has blogging affected what you read?
Where do you find out about new books for your tbr?
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allonsythornraxx 
I love this post!! I don’t think blogging has changed much of my reading (in terms of genres), but now I try to write reviews for every book I read. I still get most recs from booktube and bookstagram ,a few on here as well.
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Also, I’m very impressed with the statistics. Your dedication is top tier💯
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I’m still relatively new to blogging but I also find that I’m racing a bit with myself to read as much as I can. At the same time, I think I do put more effort in trying to analyze books – to me though, 10 books per month is a very good month 😂 I usually add books on my tbr list from Goodreads, ig/twitter or reddit!
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Appreciate your reflections on this topic! I always find it interesting to compare how folks’ reading habits changed after they started blogging. For example I also recall distant days when browsing at the library was my main way of finding books to read… now it’s got to be at least 90% via other book bloggers and book Twitter. Overall, I think blogging has had a net positive impact on my reading habits (I read more, I read more diversely, I’ve discovered so many books I would have missed otherwise) but I have also experienced some of those negatives like overstimulation and feeling a reading slump more seriously than I would if I wasn’t a book blogger.
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