I was tempted to take this week off from the blog completely just to catch up on commenting and visiting my friends in the blogosphere, but I decided I couldn’t bear to disappear completely for the week. Instead, I decided to write a quick post to tide you all over. 🙂
Great Reasons to Get To Know Your Bookish (AKA Book Blogger and Other Booklover) Friends Better:
- Books aren’t everything. I know, it’s practically sacrilegious to say this, but we are more than the books we read. (I mean, we’re at least 1% something else, right?) Getting to know your bookish friends’ other interests lets you know them more as a person.
- You can give them better book recommendations. Recently, AJ @ Read All the Things commented on one of my reviews and mentioned that she might be interested in giving the book a try. I know she’s not a fan of books that heavily feature romance, so I warned her that this one might not be for her. It occurred to me how cool it was that I knew enough about my blogger friends’ specific preferences that I could make this judgment.
- You can learn about the world. My blogging friends come from all over the world, and I love getting little snapshots of their lives to see how our lives are the same and how they differ. Last year, Cee @ Dora Reads wrote a post on The Raven Cycle that enlightened me on the history of relations between Wales and Great Britain, a topic I never would have known anything about otherwise.
- You can get a new perspective on life. In addition to living in many different places, most of my blogger friends have differing life experiences from me. Getting to know these bloggers expands my horizons and broadens my perspective. For instance, Kristen @ Metaphors and Moonlight suffers from chronic illness, and she’s opened my eyes quite a bit on that subject.
- Why not? What’s to lose, right? Getting to know your bookish friends better means making them into real friends, and that can only be good.
So, go for it. Take the extra time to read that random personal post or the news about so-and-so’s job. You’ll be glad you did!
How well do you feel like you know your fellow bloggers and booklovers? I want to know!
I completely agree! I love that I get to learn about other parts of the world through my blogging friends. And being able to let someone know whether a book would or wouldn’t work for them?! Priceless! I have a few books on my TBR that I’ve been warned about from blogging friends….usually something I wouldn’t be a big fan of. So I’m grateful for the notes section on Goodreads. I add their thoughts there, so when I go to start to read that book I know what will disappoint or not work for me. Love it! Fabulous post, Nicole!
That’s a great idea to keep notes in Goodreads. That never occurred to me.
I agree, who knew before blogging that we could get to know so many blogger friends and have real friendships? It really is an amazing community. I especially like your second point, about how we can know someone’s prefernces so well we can actually make good recommendations! Or just be able to discuss books. And I’ve always thought that it’s so cool how we can make friends all over the world, people we would never otherwise meet. Pretty amazing really.
That’s one thing about blogging that I never considered before blogging—how many friends you can make all around the world!
I totally agree! I love that book bloggers are such a diverse bunch, with different life experiences, and I think we can all learn so much from each other. That’s why I love when people write personal posts or regular update posts, as it’s nice to just get a little snapshot of someone else’s life like that. Great post! 🙂
Yes, I love hearing about people’s lives in addition to their books!
YES! This is why people need to write personal posts sometimes. I want to feel like I’m talking to a human and not a book-obsessed internet robot. Nobody in my real life reads, so the internet is the only place I can go to talk about books.
Though, you know, “book-obsessed internet robot” actually sounds kind of interesting too. LOL!
I feel like I know my blogger friends pretty well at this point. As long they’ve been somewhat person in their posts, then I pay attention. I see what they like or dislike about books. I see what they like to do in their spare time. And in time, I get an overall picture of the person they are. I even wrote to Kristen from Metaphors and Midnight about Amazon bringing back a feature I remembered that she loved and missed when it was gone. 🙂
I love that! Sometimes people say the internet is impersonal, but it doesn’t have to be!
I love getting to know bloggers. It’s one of the best things about blogging. So much fun to interact with people from other parts of the world. I don’t have people outside of blogs to talk to about the kinds of books I like to read. So it’s such a relief to get to gush over a book and have people understand that. Though I never know quite how much to say about my life outside of books…how much people want to read about stuff other than books.
I’m always interested to hear little tidbits about people’s lives in addition to posts about books. I don’t need ALL your posts to be about your personal life, but I think those little additions can really help us get to know you.
you did me gasp Nicole! Books are not everything? but of course your post put a HUGE smile on my face loved it! So true! I have learned tons with Cee too. Her blog is awesome!
I know, it’s hard to believe I would say such a thing. 🙂
I enjoyed this post very much. I’m on the same deserted island as A.J.–My friends don’t read–they all watch TV–so discussing books and learning about the lives of readers around the world is so amazing and this is the place to go for that.
Exactly!! And I love how I feel like I’ve gotten to know you a lot just through comments and such. 🙂
What a great post!! I love getting to know more about my bloggy friends which is why I like some more of the more personal posts mixed in. And yes to more personal recs for those friends.
Yeah, it’s fun to do life together in other ways besides just talking about books. (Like, I don’t know, maybe celebrating babies being born or something. HOW in the heck are you hanging out commenting right now? You are Superwoman!)
This is such a wonderful post, Nicole <3 I agree that we can learn so much from fellow bloggers. We can obviously get tons of bookish recommendations, but there is also so much more to know. I know that, personally, I don't share a lot of myself on my blog because it's not part of my personality, but I like getting little glimpse of other bloggers' lives in their blogs, so I'm trying my best to do the same. I've made genuine, real friends I talk to every single day about life and other things than books and… it all started with book blogging. That's pretty incredible 🙂
I know that sharing can be challenging for some people, and you’re certainly not required to share anything about yourself you’re not comfortable with. As long as your personality is coming through on your blog (and yours does!), you’re making connections.
I feel like I know some blogger friends well enough to know their general preferences, but then I doubt myself at times. The internet is the place where I find book lovers and we can talk more in depth about different books. Other bloggers have shown me different perspectives, like access to books, chronic illness, and culture. Thanks for sharing this post!
I do doubt myself too. First of all, since I have SO many blogger friends, I’m always stressed that I’m going to mix people up or something and say the wrong thing to the wrong person! 🙂
It is really wonderful to get to know your blogging friends. I think that is why I spend so much time hopping from Sunday Post to Sunday Post. I like reading about how their week was, what they did, as well as what they read.
Yes, I love Sunday Posts for that reason too!
Awww I love this post… I feel like I know those bloggers who I interact with often. They comment on my posts and I comment on theirs. Many times it’s in the comments where the real knowing happens. It is wonderful when there’s a personal post that pops up! Last week I learned a blogging friend is deaf! I had no clue… it was so great to read about her experiences and know her that much better. ♥️
Isn’t it interesting when you learn something like that about a blogging friend that you had no idea about?
At least 1%. Maybe even like… 2%. If we round up. 😉
Yes, one of the reasons I like reading reviews, even if they’re not always books to my taste, is that I get to know THAT person’s taste! And then I can rec them books better, tell them if I think a book is not for them, etc. And it’s just interesting to learn.
Learning about other experiences and places is definitely another great thing that has come from book blogging! I remember that Raven Cycle post, I read that one too. And it honestly makes me happy to know that I’ve managed to help someone understand chronic illness a bit better!
There are definitely benefits to getting to know our bookish friends, and it’s great when they go from being kind of blogging acquaintances to actual friends 🙂
You’ve definitely helped me get a better perspective on chronic illness—I’ve learned a lot from you, and I’m thankful for that!!
I love getting to know bloggers. I think that is half the fun of blogging. Thanks for sharing this. I think it is important for us to support and get to know each other.
I agree that it’s what makes blogging much more interesting!
Oh, I love this post! I think it’s great when you really get to know other bloggers and can make recommendations, or learn new things from them. I think it’s wonderful that we all come from different places/backgrounds, etc. I’m a fan of personal posts or anecdotes within bookish posts. That’s one thing I want to work on even more this year…share more about myself that isn’t just related to books or other interests.
-Lauren
I’ve loved getting to know you through your blog (and in real life!). It makes blogging so much more personal!
This is such a lovely post, Nicole, and so true! It’s amazing to be able to meet so many people from so many different backgrounds, with different experiences. It definitely makes us all more well-rounded and aware. And I totally know what you mean about book recommendations! I love being able to tell a commenter if they’d like a book, and know why or why not!
Book blogging has expanded my life in so many amazing ways. I don’t think I’d be the person I am today if it were for my blogging friends!
Ooooh I love this, and I completely agree! Great post! <3
Thanks!!
I think I have a 50/50 chance of knowing fellow book bloggers, especially those that I follow. I also love reading the About page because it does shed some light to who the book blogger is.
I am one of those bloggers that don’t write personal posts but I do include personal sentences here and there in all my posts, just not a dedicated post about me. LOL
I don’t often write full posts dedicated to my personal life either, but I think I’ve written plenty of posts that deal with issues that are near and dear to my heart. And, of course, posts like my Sunday Post give people insight into who I am.
I don’t get out too much although I’ve met and friend-ed a few on Goodreads. I’ve found some good books there. The “blogging book buddy” I’ve interacted most with is Avalinah: http://avalinahsbooks.space/
Evelina’s awesome! I love her, and she’s very welcoming to other bloggers.
Aww this post warms my heart and makes me remember how AWESOME the book community is and how many epic friends I’ve made here! Like pfft to anyone who says internet friendships aren’t real. They totally are and it’s amazing. <3 I know a lot of people online *fairly* well but I feel like also a ton of the people I originally started blogging with have stopped! So that's sad. But it makes me really happy when. I read a book and go "oh I know the person who'd LOVE this" and can give a good rec! Or just being able to chat about lifey things because we all know each other so well. It's lovely eep!
I agree that it’s sad when so many of the people who were around when I started blogging are gone. I guess we can equate it to people IRL moving or something. It’s sad to see them go!
OMG that’s me! XD (except I’m Cee, not Dora – easy mistake!) Thanks so much – I’m so glad you liked my post!!!! XD
Oh, shoot! I knew that too—When I wrote the post, I must have been snoozing. So sorry! I’ll fix it!
This is a great post–and I totally agree!
Thanks, Jazmen!
[…] Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction shares some great reasons to get to know bookish friends […]
I love this post! The friends I have made through book blogging have honestly been some of the people I connect with the best! And as I’ve made my way to conventions over the years I’m starting to meet some of them in person which is such an amazing and rewarding feeling, especially since it’s so rare for me to know people in real life who read YA!
I agree that my blogging friends just “get me” in ways people in real life don’t!
I really liked the last one you mentioned. Whyever not? If there is someone you love to talk books with, and fangirl with, it always means more to get to know them. It does lead to better book recommendations but people have such interesting lives and it makes discussions all the more strong. Lovely post 🙂
Exactly. Why not? 🙂
Isn’t it great when you realise you know some bloggers so well you can make recommendations and you know what’s going on with them which helps you learn more about them and their own life issues. It’s great how it sheds light on other people and their own struggles. I feel like blogging has made me more openminded.
That is DEFINITELY true for me.