Let's Talk Bookish; Bookish and Blogging Myths

It's Friday, which means it's probably time for another Let's Talk Bookish post courtesy of Book Nook Bits and Dinipanda Reads and as it was a freebie week in terms of themes, I decided writing a post about bookish and blogging myths.

1. Don't judge a book by its cover

Even though we technically "shouldn't" be, I think a lot of us readers do exactly that. After all, a beautiful and/or interesting cover is something that catches our eyes while browsing in a bookstore or library. I even got several editions of Bram Stoker's Dracula, so I know I'm very much guilty of having a weak spot for a beautiful book cover.

2. Certain genres, like horror and romance, aren't "real" literatue

While one may not expect Shakespearean quality while reading romance novels, they're still "real" literature in my opinion if one look at elements such as plot, storyline, character development, and all the rest. The same goes for horror.

While speaking of horror, I also think it's one of the few genres, aside from perhaps crime, thrillers, and some non-fiction, where you can go deep into the human psyche with the guts, gore, and all things shitty, and have a safe outlet to exactly that. Horror is after all one of those genres that gives a mirror to and thus highlight all things dark in the human world and explore that. In my opinion, one thing that makes literature GOOD is when it portrays, play with, and reflect human society in potentially new (and safe) ways.

3. Listenting to audio books aren't reading

While I can acknowledge audio books aren't reading in the "regular" sense, I do still appreciate that they exist for those who are unable to read physical books, whether it's due to a chronic illness, dyslexia, being blind, or whatever else. Also, novels started to become more common in the last few centuries, so novels are fairly "new" in that sense, and guess what people did before they buried their nose in a novel (apart from reading the Bible of course)? Yeah, reciting poetry, telling each other stories, and attending plays. So in a sense, audio books are a bit "back to basics" storytelling, or the very least gapping the bridge between old school storytelling and the modern reading novels.

4. You're a only real book lover if you've read and loved classics

Don't get me wrong, some classics I do like (I do belong to the Dracula fandom after all), and a lot of them are well-written, but in a lot of cases, I think those "classic" texts are a bit overhyped in general, and for that matter, handled the wrong way in the school system.

5. It's easy being a book blogger

Well, that's a myth that's both true and false in my opinion. It's easy in the sense that "anyone" could start a book blog (or Bookstagram/BookTok/BookTube) if they want to. The hard part is being consistent in making content that's well-made, engaging, and gets popular. You won't become an overnight sensation by being a book blogger. Heck even after all those years I've been writing this blog, I still haven't become even remotely close to being one of the "popular kids" ("everyone" is on TikTok and Instagram these days anyway).

Not only do I need time to actually read books to review, there's also keeping tabs on all things bookish, research stuff, find inspiration for posts that aren't reviews, write and schedule posts in general, and a bunch of other behind the scenes things to do.

Can blogging be a bit time consuming and pain the arse at times? Absolutely, but it's also really fun at times.