Rediscovering Reading Through Book Reviews

As a young kid, I picked up a natural love of reading, as I let my imagination run wild with each page turn. I loved to spend extra time in the library picking up new books, and that love stayed with me through middle and high school. By then, I found myself spending less and less time reading and more time taking notes for various classes. 

I was unhappy that I couldn’t get away from homework, but I wanted to find a way to squeeze in some time to read. Thankfully in my senior year, one of my close friends proposed that we should create a book review account. I had read some classics for my AP Literature class, so I accepted her proposal, and we created our account.

At first, it was a rocky start, because I wasn’t sure if I was going to stick with my goal to read one book a month. But as time went on, I found myself venturing into new genres thanks to suggestions from my friends, which boosted my confidence and motivated me to do more reviews. I slowly went from reading one book in three months to branching out to read as many as three books in one month. 

Reviewing books helped me meet other bookworms who did reviews and we would chat about books we’ve read. In one case, I read a book because I knew the author, and I got to talk to her while I was reading her book, which was a new and exciting experience. One of my favorite books series I’ve reviewed was the Legend Series by Marie Lu, and I remember binge reading the last two books in two days. In my review for the last book, I remember referring to it as ‘cinematic’, and my love for reading has really picked up during quarantine. 

In doing book reviews, I also picked up a few skills on photography for my posts and seeing my progress has been really cool. This year, I even did my own “Book Oscars” post, and although it took a while to set up, I was super proud of how it turned out. I designed it so I had presenter cards with categories that mimic the real Oscars, such as “Best Read,” “Slowest Read,” and even “Comedic Relief,” and I set up my own stage to take pictures of each category. The whole process took almost 2 hours, but I loved the outcome, and I can’t wait to do it again next year.

It’s been a little over two years since my friend and I started our book review account, and it has been such a blast keeping a digital record of my reading journey. I would say that starting a book review account helped me get more involved in the bookworm community, but there are other ways you too could start a reading hobby, such as joining a book club in your community.

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