The Reading Experience ~ Guest Post

The best part about blogging is the blogger community. 

Running this blog has given me the chance to meet so many incredible people, including fellow bloggers. 

One of these bloggers is Birdie.

Birdie runs the Birdie's Books blog which reviews YA fiction. She's a sweet blogger whose love of books is truly infectious. You can learn more about Birdie on Day 7 of my Beautiful Bloggers tag where she joins me for a fun interview.

I hope you all love her post - an insightful piece on the reading experience. And if you enjoy what you read here be sure and check out more of Birdie's musings and reviews over on her blog, as well as her previous guest post on my blog!

Hello everyone!

I want to start this post off by giving a big thank you to the amazing Booknut101 for allowing me to be a guest on her lovely blog! *internet hugs*  

This post took me a while to compose and come up with because I wanted to write something inspiring about reading and something that could really sum up the importance of picking up a book. 

But then I realized there's really no way I could do that because reading is a different experience for everyone. Everyone reads differently, and I guess that's what makes discussing books so fun. 

Everyone has a different experience and opinion to share when they read a book. Looking at books in different lights and from different angles can help you develop your own experiences as a reader; I know for sure that getting different opinions and takes on books has definitely changed the way I look at and read books.  

When reading, it's important to enjoy what you're reading. If you aren't liking a book, forcing yourself to read it is just going to ruin the experience for you. If you really aren't liking a book at the moment but you want to finish it eventually, put it down and pick up something you know you're going to love. Take a break from the book and give yourself a chance to let it shine. It could just be that you aren't in the mood for it right now and that's okay, reading isn't a race, you should just read as much as you're able to and be happy with what you can accomplish.  

The first book I ever read and fell in love with was The Hunger Games. I was quite young when I picked it up and had only ever read middle grade books so this was a big step in my reading journey. What made me pick this up was seeing everyone around me at school start reading the series because of the hype over the upcoming movie. 

After reading it and loving it, I decided to use it for my book report topic for class, I got to review it in front of my classmates and that was such a fun experience and was the first review I ever did. I had such a great time reading this book because after I read it, my mom picked it up and we were able to discuss it together. Getting to compare her opinions with my own was so eye opening and allowed me to realize so many things I normally would've missed.  

As mentioned, I loved the story of The Hunger Games. It's one that has stuck with me all these years, and I think will continue to stick with me for the rest of my life. But it's the experience that made this book legendary to me. I became obsessed with this book and for months I would just read the series over and over because I couldn't get enough of the characters. I will always be able to look back at this book with fond memories.  

I know most people experienced this with Twilight or Harry Potter, but I still have yet to read Twilight (I know!) and I have read Harry Potter, but I read it when I was a little bit older so I didn't have the same reactions as I might have if I read it before a lot of other books.  

But nonetheless, every book lover has that one book that made them love to read for one reason or another.  

I hope this was somewhat interesting or helpful, I just wanted to share my thoughts on this and I thought it would be a topic that could start a discussion.  

Thank you so much Booknut for giving me this opportunity - I had a blast!

Thanks for reading!  

Which book ignited your love of reading? Was there ever a book that stayed with you long after you'd read the final page? 

Let us know in the comments sections below!

About the blogger

Birdie loves books - in fact it's kinda becoming an obsession! 

A blogger & book reviewer, Birdie is a lover of dogs and likes to read & talk about books. You can chat with her about books over on her Twitter.

Or you can contact Birdie at birdiesbooks15@gmail.com for info on her review policy etc.