Follow Friday - Why I started blogging

Follow Friday is a feature created by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read.  It's a fun blog hop where you meet other book bloggers and find people to follow.

Question: What drove you to start book blogging in the first place?

Originally I start my blog back in 2007 when I was going to Switzerland.  I was volunteering at Our Chalet, a Girl Scout/Girl Guide World Center.  I thought I would tell the world about my adventures and share pictures.  I didn't.  Switzerland was one of the best experiences of my life.  However, because we all shared a computer and I was so busy having fun I never actually blogged.

A couple years later I began reading a lot of writing and book blogs.  I kept noticing LOTS of contests that asked to you to blog for additional entries.  I already had this little blog gathering dust, so I thought why not.  Initially I used it for entering contests.  Oddly enough I very rarely enter contests anymore because my reading schedule is so full due to blogging.

Once I started reviewing books I discovered that I really enjoyed it.  Before I was reading without effort, just plowing through books and moving onto the next.  While I still am forced to plow through books quickly, blogging makes me read more intelligently.  I pay attention to the details --characterization, plot, pacing, etc because it helps me write reviews.  That was something I was missing.  When you're a student you spend a lot of time analyzing and thinking about what you read.  Working fulltime, you normally don't.  Blogging and reviewing filled a void that I didn't even know existed until I started.