Top Ten Tuesday – I enjoy being a blogger

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created by The Broke and the Bookish. Every week they come up with a topic and invite whoever wants to add their own list to their own blog.

There are a lot of things to love about being a blogger and being a reader. For me, both are unique experiences that luckily get to go hand in hand. While I’ve been a reader since before I could read (I loved being read to as a child), enriching it with blogging has been one of the best things in the world.

Why I love being a blogger

Goddess powers – Ask yourself this: Who created The Grown-Up YA? Candice, goddess of the blog. I love the fact that just about everything that is The Grown-Up YA is because of me and what I created here. Maybe that makes me arrogant, but whatever. I’m proud of this blog and what I have done with it.

Instant scapegoat – Even though I’m not ashamed that I read YA or fantasy or romance novels… sometimes I get a little embarrassed when people give me funny looks for reading those books. While I don’t think I have to justify my reading, sometimes it’s nice to be able to say something like “Oh, this? I’m writing a review for it. Due on Wednesday. I’m so behind, so please excuse me.”

GIFs – These are pretty new to me and I only recently discovered how to put them into posts. I love how they convey exactly what you want to say without any words.

Community – Let’s face it: this is the best part of blogging. I don’t think anyone really knew when they got into blogging just how great this community is. It’s my favorite part of blogging and I have gained so many great wonderful friends because of blogging.

Confidence – This is something I’ve only gained recently but I love how much confidence  I’ve gained in not only my reading and writing but in sharing my love for both. I used to be shy, hesitant and a little terrified about telling people what I love to read and that I write. Now, because of blogging, I’m actually excited to talk to people about these things. Hooray confidence!

Why I love being a reader

Discovery – It’s no secret that books are a key to discovery. Whether it’s traveling to new worlds, visiting another country, having exciting adventures, learning about a different culture… books, no matter what the subject, have the capability to help us discover not only a new subject but something about ourselves.

Connection – Books aren’t read by one person; they’re read by millions. There’s nothing quite as invigorating as meeting someone who is reading or has read a book you’ve read. Regardless of who you are, you both share this instant, brief connection. It’s quite a cool feeling.

Book smells – Maybe it’s the book lover in me, but I love the way books smell. That first crack of the book and the new paper, glue, binding, cover smells so good. And then older books… that musty antique smell. I get a little nostalgic when I pull a book that’s been in storage for a while and smell it. This may make me weird.

Book stores/libraries – Do you walk into one of these and instantly feel like a kid in a candy store? One of the things I love about being a reader is seeing hundreds of things I love in one place, all of them mine for the choosing. I also like seeing books I’ve heard about or had my eye on for a while in the “flesh.” It’s like finding a treasure.

Book Crushes – We all have our book crushes, boys in books that make us swoon. Pretty sure this is something only readers can truly appreciate. What makes it so fun is that what I envision a book crush to look like is probably completely different from what you do. While characters are alive in their pages, they come alive to us in different ways and envisionings.