I started blogging almost two years ago, and it has definitely changed a lot about the way I live my life.
I’ve always been a reader, but honestly? I didn’t know there were people on this earth who read 100+ a year until I joined this corner of the internet. I thought that was impossible! I would have laughed in your face if you told me that was a thing! But now I am simply in awe. 😌 There are so many things about this community that surprised me when I started, but that was probably one of the first.
In many ways, book blogging has changed me as a person, even if these changes will only last until I stop blogging.
The Best Community
One of the best parts of book blogging is the community!
I know I’ve talked about this before, but the community is one of the biggest part of being in this, well… this community. (I guess I should have thought out that sentence more, huh?)
I love this community for many reasons. In a world where I don’t have any real-life friends who like to read, this book community has been such a refreshing group of people to talk with! Everyone in this community feels different about books, and they all read and/or blog in different ways, but we all share a love for words, and that’s a truly beautiful thing sometimes.

My book friends here are so cool. You all are amazing. 😊 I love chatting with people in this community, because it’s so comforting to know that there are so many other people like me! Honestly, it’s a bit scary how many of you are so much like me, but I’ll take it over feeling like that One Booksh Person on campus any day. 😌
Also, this community is not shy when it comes to discussing important book or blog-related topics, and they will not hesitate to promote diverse books and authors in any way they can!
The book community is what you want it to be. If you want to interact with others for hours a day, do it! If you want to have a blog just to keep track of your books and keep to yourself, do it! Be a part of this community however you want, but no matter how much you contribute, I hope you have fun!
Remember, blogging here is a hobby, and you should put however much work you desire to put into it. Everything is up to you, and you alone!

Great Books
Obviously the book community knows how to recommend a good book or 200. But you’ll never understand the sheer joy of finding out just how many books exist in your preferred genre or age category until you join the community!
Through this community, I have learned so much about books. Before I got here, I could walk down the YA section of the bookstore and recognize just a handful of books, but now? I not only recognize 3/4 of the books in the YA section, but I also know about their authors and publishers, and the general reviews based on ARCs and hype. I don’t believe any other book platform can make such promotions so accessible!

Also, I’m reading more than ever before. I used to read like maybe seven books a year, but now I read 50! That’s such a huge improvement for me, you have no idea. It’s amazing! I’m so proud of me. 🥺

Wonderful Connections
There are so many different kinds of connections you can make with your book blog!
Obviously, you can meet other bloggers. But another connections include connections with publishers, agents, authors, and other book-world people.
For example, I got an internship with a literary agency a few months ago, and my boss was so happy to see that I had a book blog when she reviewed my resume! (I’m pretty sure it’s why I was hired, tbh.) She was so impressed that I had my own book blog, and she was happy to hire me because she trusted that I knew a lot about the YA book community and book trends. Which is true! If I did not make this blog, and I did not join the community at all, I would not have gotten this internship experience.

Depending on how you choose to connect (via blogging, Twitter, or Instagram), there are so many opportunities for connecting to others because of the quality of the posts you can make on your own blog. While yes, I don’t necessarily need a blog to make connections and network, I believe my blog is what has brought me closer to so many aspects of this blogging world. I am closer to my audience/book friends because they can know me more in-depth though my posts, and to the outside world, I can talk so much more about books than just saying, “Yeah, I heard that one was on the NYT bestseller list” like I used to.
(plus, if i were to get published someday soon, i would have all of you to cheer me on and possibly buy my book! 🥺 wouldn’t that be great? i couldn’t do anything like this without you!)

Why Make A Blog?
“So,” you ask. “Why should I make a book blog?”
Well, I’m glad you asked.
Make a book blog for yourself, for your dreams and your bookish desires. But only make a blog if you really want to. If you’re on the fence about it, give blogging a try! Entering the blogging world has opened up so many possibilities for me, personally.
Because of blogging, I know how to: post consistently, manage my time, manage my social medias, start relevant discussions, design and edit graphics using a palette and consistent designs, reach out to publishers, reach out to others like me, promote books and authors, and learn about coding and website managing from trial and error, in addition to other personal things I’ve picked up along the way.
Blogging can also take up a lot of time, and I understand that. But if you really want to blog, I feel like the best time to start is now, in the present. You’ll never know what it’s like until you try, and it might just be one of the most interesting experiences of your bookish life!

quick PSA: I will be updating my How to Edit Instagram Photos With A Digital Book Cover // …and other bookstagram secrets post next week! I found an easier way to edit covers for photos, and I want to make sure that if you liked that post, you see the next one as well!


What about you? How has blogging changed your life, if at all? Are you thinking about starting a blog right now?
Chat with me about it!
You can also be my friend on Goodreads!
Happy reading, everyone! Have a lovely day! Please stay safe and healthy!

I started blogging at around the same time you did, and it completely changed my life as well! It’s such an incredible community, and the connections you can make in it are amazing! ❤ Great post!
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I’m so glad you agree! Blogging has been such a change in my life, and I can’t imagine my life without blogging anymore! And I’m glad you’ve been able to find a good community here. 😊
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I so agree with you on the community. I love it so, and miss it when I’m away and not connecting. No one loves to read books around me in real life, so having this outlet definitely fills the void.
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I’m glad you agree! I also miss the community whenever I have to be away for a few days. I can’t talk about books as much in real life, so it’s always nice to be able to find someone to discuss books with here!
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Fab post! 😀
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Thanks!
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Great post ❤️ I started blogging about a month ago and it has been so great. I agree with you, I also love connecting with the community, plus I feel like I’m learning so much. I’m thinking more deeply about the books I’m reading and managing my time so much better.
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Thank you, April! Welcome to the blogging community! I’m glad you agree. I also love the book community because being here does make me think more about a lot of things in my life, especially about books and the industry.
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I agree with all of these – I’m so glad I started blogging!
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Thank you! I’m also glad I started blogging!
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I agree with this . Above. Everything . Yess
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Thanks, I’m glad you agree!
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Ah blogging has truly changed my life for the better. Not counting all the books I now know and can recognise in shops, thank to the community, I’ve also learned so much about what’s happening in the world. Blogging has given me a space to be creative, to write posts and engage with other people who love books as much as I do, which is truly wonderful and I am always grateful for that. It’s allowed me to make so many friends who I hope to meet someday irl (honestly like imagine the power of bloggers meeting up xD)
The community has also opened my eyes to so much more, whilst I started blogging for books and to find other book lovers, I also found people who share the same values as I do. I found people who inspire me each day, who allow me to grow as a person even if it’s just with tweets on twitter. I know without blogging I wouldn’t be as aware of diverse books, or even have read as many of the diverse books simply because they’re not actively promoted in the bookstores over here >.> and diverse books are hard to find in shops over here I’ve noticed which I am salty about still
Love this post so much Xandra! Blogging is truly a wonderful thing ❤
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Yes! Book blogging is all of that and more. I’ve learned so much about the world, that I never would have known or thought too hard about if I hadn’t been here. I love engaging with everyone here so much (even though I do tend to take a long time to reply sometimes, haha)! I would love to meet everyone some day! If we were able to have some kind of large-scale blogger meet up with everyone there, that would be amazing. 💕 We can dream.
I’m so glad I’ve also found so many more diverse books! I definitely knew about a lot of the non-diverse books being promoted around me, but I’m grateful that blogging has shown me so many diverse books that I’m more likely to love. Thank you, Clo!
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I’m JUST starting out and still trying to find my voice and style. I’m excited to learn and grow and meet more book buddies!
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Welcome to the blogging world, and I hope you are able to find your voice and style soon! Sometimes it takes time (months or even a year) to do that, but it’s all part of the process!
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Thank you!
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ohhh congrats for getting the internship!! I’m so proud of you 🥺 and yes! the community is so very sweet! pretty much one of the best decisions of our lives, I think ❤
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Thank you so much, Miri! 💕 Yes, I love the community! People who I can talk with about books are the best. 💕
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I think I follow you on Twitter but wasn’t following you on her for some reason, hi!
I love this weird and wonderful community, I’ve made some great friends here. If you’re an introvert like me, it’s really nice to have online friendships!
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Hi! I’m glad you’ve made some friends here so far! Haha, I’m definitely an introvert, and it is great to be friends with so many great people here!
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Knowing about the sheer volume of books out there is definitely a huge benefit of book blogging! Before I could only guess at books I might like & now I can definitely make a much more informed decision leading me to finding new favourites I would have never gone near before! 😄
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Yes, I’m so glad I’ve been able to find so many more books through blogging! I definitely know so much more about the kinds of books I want to read, and I’ve learned about so many new authors along the way!
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i love this post so much, Xandra!! and i agree with everything you said in it—book blogging has truly changed my life for the better! even though it does eat up a lot of my time, and i really need to get better at time management, the fact that i found a friendly community that loves books as much as i do makes it so worth it. seriously, i think every blogger’s favorite thing about book blogging is the community—everyone is so nice and a joy to interact with! even though we all share a love for reading, we express our love in different ways! i truly love to see it 😌💖
also, i think i congratulated you about this already, but congrats again on your internship!!! it’s amazing that having a book blog helped you get it 🥺🥺💗
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Thank you so much, Caitlin!! 🥺💕 Book blogging has truly changed my life so much! That’s true, blogging does take up a lot of my time (which I could be using for reading instead!) but it’s still fun! And I’m so glad that this community is generally friendly and supportive. I love to talk about books with everyone, it’s so much fun, and something that I couldn’t really do in real life!
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This is such an amazing post!! I agree with so many of the things you are saying here. I think one of my favorite things about blogging is sharing my love for books and also learning about other books I want to read.
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Thanks, I’m glad you agree! I love sharing the books I’ve read and talking about books with so many other people on here!
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This is such a lovely post! It’s really nice to hear someone talk about all the things they’ve learned from blogging and what a positive impact it’s had. 😁
I think for me blogging has made me more confident about reaching out to people, commenting on posts and making a connection. I wish it had taught me better time management, but that’s definitely something I’m still working on 😅
And in response to your discovery of people who read 100 books a year, I actually found someone on Goodreads who reads 365!!! And they weren’t just reading a bunch of short stories – it was a full-length book for every day of the year! I’m still in awe 😂
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Thank you so much, Abi! 💕 I’m happy to hear that blogging has given you more confidence! I think I agree, I am so much better at reaching out to people now because of it! I still need to work on time management, though 😅
365 books in a year?? That’s so many! I can’t imagine ever doing that! 😅
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Ah Xandra I LOVE THIS POST! And everything you mentioned is the same for me. Book blogging is so amazing and really does make us more aware of the books in the bookshelves lmao. Literally, I’m like SHOCKED when I walked into a bookstore and see a book I haven’t heard of haha. Also, SO COOL that your blog helped with your internship!! Blogging for me opened up meeting and making really close friends that I talk to on the daily and also just having online chats all the time, there’s always someone to talk to even if you feel like there isn’t <3<3
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Thank you, Ruby!! 💕 I’m glad you agree! Book blogging is so much fun and it’s so nice to connect with people who love to read! I love knowing about so many more great books, too. And I’m so happy that blogging has brought you closer to so many friends! That’s awesome 💕
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Congrats on your internship, Xandra!! I really enjoyed this post, because you’re so right on so many of these positives (it’s amazing how much this teaches you). I also think it’s such an important thing to remember to have your blog on your resume, because it is such an amazing accomplishment that can open doors for you!
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Thank you, Nicole! I’m glad you enjoyed the post! Blogging does take a lot of time, but it really can help you to build important skills you might need in the future, or skills for your resume! I’m so glad I’ve learned a lot here!
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Blogging has definitely changed my life! 😀 I have had the pleasure of meeting some amazing people in the community. It does take a lot of time and sometimes finding motivation is hard, but I really can’t imagine my life without blogging. 🙂
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I’m glad you agree! This community is really nice, and sometimes I struggle with motivation, too, but the benefits of blogging are what keep me here!
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