I’ve
been hearing (second hand as I’ve not experienced it myself yet) about book
bloggers that are being less then amicable about book bloggers that also
write. I’ve been told some book bloggers
are downright rude about it. The most common thing vented off to me is the
saying, “’We’re not writers we’re book bloggers.” Which is quite fine. I have
no issues with that but it bothers me that some of my book blogger friends are
thinking about closing their book blog because the book bloggers are being
hostile about their writing talent.
The
book bloggers shouldn’t demean those that do write. My first question is what
did you learn to do first read or write? We don’t actually have
one without knowing the other. Generally
they both occur hand in hand do they not? I’m still trying to figure out why
it’s so terrible someone that reads is being chided for writing too.
I am
both a reader and a writer. I have no qualms about announcing it. I am a video
game art and design student at the art institute of Pittsburgh. As part of my
major I’m often required to create complete characters and stories for them.
Why shouldn’t I write them out? What does my creativity have to do with me
being a reader? I can still be creative and enjoy someone else’s creativity. It
gives me a break from my own.
There’s
another thing that I want to point out. Advice. Advice from whom? From other
writers. I won’t list them off as that’s not the point, but I’ve been a part of
several video chats, twitter chats, blog chats of several different authors
that practically all give the same advice. I even have it written in one of my
autographed books as I asked what she would say to an aspiring author. Would
you like the answer?
I’ve
been told directly and indirectly: “Read Everything you can get your hands on.”
Thus since I am now reading the way a fat man eats cake why should I NOT share
what I’ve learned about reading the book? Why should I not give my thoughts on
the characters and stories and what I liked and what felt off to me? Why
shouldn’t I share that with others? And I would like to point out that by
reviewing a book you are writing. It’s called critical writing in case you
didn’t know. So now we’re down to a catch 22.
I have
no issues with book bloggers or bloggers that are writers or bloggers that do
both. More power to you. I know life was
hectic during Nanowri and I can proudly say I finished my first book during
that and still read and posted reviews. If you’ve got the time there’s no
reason not to do everything you love to do.
As I
said before this hasn’t even been said directly to me so I’m not really taking
the offensive for me. However, if it were I’d just blow off the person as a
spoilsport that probably can’t write creatively and that’s why they’re downing
on those that can. Honestly, are we so petty that we have to bring others down
to make ourselves feel better?
Here is
my bottom line then I’ll hop off my box. I don’t think it matters whether we
read or we write or do both. What matters is we have fun. What matters is if
we’re reviewing it’s fair and critical and if we’re writing that it’s true to
ourselves. Whether we’re the ones writing them or the ones reading them or
doing both; we all love books. That’s what it comes down to at the end of the
day. We’re here for love and I for one am not going anywhere.
I think you are totally right, Touya! I really don't understand why people feel the need to tear others down to make themselves feel better. It's just not right!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you wholeheartedly on this. Thank you so much. A person can have multiple hobbies and things they like to do. If it just so happens to be reviewing books and writing them, there's nothing wrong with that. It also make sense because they're closely related. There's also people like Lev Grossman, he was a reviewer for the NY times and an author. He did both, and reviewer/author seems to be a more difficult position than reviewer/writer.
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