Let's Talk Bookish; Joys & Pet Peeves of the (Book) Blogging Community

It's Friday and perhaps time for a new Let's Talk Bookish post, courtesy of Book Nook Bits. The theme of the week was joys and pet peeves of the (book) blogging community.

Here's the further prompts on this topic.

What are some things you love about the blogging community? What are some things you dislike? When do you feel the most/least connected to the community? What are some things you’d like to see changed when it comes to blogging? Have there been any major changes in the community since you started to blog that you love?

I may be a bit on the outskirts of the book blogging community and a bit of an underdog at times, so my opinions may be a bit influenced by that. That said, one of the things that I like about the book blogging community is that there's a lot of nice people who blog and I do get a bit of bookish inspiration reading their blogs.

Some of the things I dislike though, includes consumerism (I may be a bit guilty of that one at times) and the slight focus on new releases. While there's nothing wrong with buying (new) books, there's also the possibility of borrowing backlog books at the library. And I suspect not all book bloggers can afford buying 10+ new books a month, just saying.

What also bugs me a bit, is the tendency that some people, not everyone furtunately, have some toxic, elitist, and/or ableist attitudes, such as looking down on horror, graphic novels and/or audio books. Yes, audio books may not be the same as physical printed books, but for those who are blind or have dyslexia, audio books are really valuable as they get to experience the books, only in a different format. Why rob the joy of books from someone, just because they experience them in a different manner? Also, if someone, let's say a Black person, states a book is problematic towards Black people, take that person seriously, for crying out loud, instead of trying to brush things under the carpet.

While a lot of the book bloggers are still white, straight, ablebodied, etc, I'm in a sense happy that there's a small shift towards more diversity within the book blogging community, with people such as Bre and Jesse. As a lesbian, I wouldn't mind even more diversity within the book blogging community though. I might be a bit biased of course, but I think (at least some) people would agree that representation matter, even within this book blogging community. But at least things are slowly heading in the right direction.