Starting a book blog can help change your life as a reader.

Back in 2020, I bought this website. I was depressed, just gotten out of a terrible relationship, and to make things worse, the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down.

I was forced to go from my New York City dorm, in Hudson Yards, all the way back to my home in Baltimore. My childhood bedroom wasn’t where I wanted to be at the time, but buying this website started something magical.

I didn’t start the blog until many months later, and didn’t take it more seriously until 2021.

I was reading and watching a lot during this time, and I knew that I wanted to document my thoughts on this process. I was also writing a lot, which meant I was reflecting on my life as well.

The blog became an outlet, an online diary of sorts. As the years went on, I expanded into travel, theatre, and television reviews, but books and movies have always been my core.

It even allowed me to quit my job as a film critic and move on by having my own space where I didn’t have an editor or company telling me certain voices weren’t profitable and so we shouldn’t talk about it.

That said, having a blog truly changed my life. Not only do I make some money off of it, allowing me the chance to continue my work and life as a writer, but it also has been a safe space to slowly but surely build community. I’m grateful for all of you who continue to read my work.

Anyways, here are some of the biggest changes that I think are applicable for everyone! I never expected any of this from running a book blog.

Having a book blog allows you to reflect on what you’re reading.

As someone who has studied Buddhism academically and intentionality, I’ve noticed how this book blog forces me to sit down with a book and reflect on it. Writing a blog post, especially when you’re doing summaries of books, makes you think about how you engaged with the book and why it was (or wasn’t) meaningful at this moment of time.

I found that when I read books occasionally, I couldn’t remember what the book what the book was about. When talking to someone about the book, I find it nice to have this space to return to as well.

Sometimes I return to books too, and then I come back to my reviews or scribbles about this book. Opinions change, especially with life experience, and you can literally track how your thoughts are changing when you have this kind of work to return to. Which leads me to my next point!

It can be a bit of a digital diary—and you don’t have to make it public.

I mentioned in the last section tracking opinions, as well as hinting about having an online archive of what you thought about a book. This section is expanding on that thought of this being a form of a digital diary.

That said, you can have a website anonymously, not attached to your name, or you don’t even have to make it public at all. I prefer to type than handwrite what I think about books, especially as I’m always online anyways due to the nature of my job and work as a writer.

The fact this is digital too allows you to compile multimedia components much easier. For example, if you want to embed a video onto your blog post, you can go ahead and do so. I find that more helpful for my film reviews, but sometimes it also comes in handy for the book reviews.

This has been a great way to connect with people all over the world.

Because I made my blog more public facing, attaching it to my website as an author and writer, that means people have been able to see it from all over the world. I’ve included my social media accounts and contact for this blog on every post, which means that people haven’t been shy in emailing me to ask questions.

I really appreciate these efforts to build community, and I like talking to people a lot. I know my social media tends to be a mess, just like me, but I want to return to a time where we had more authentic forms of sharing who we are to the world. Contrived things maybe me feel a little icky.

I do occasionally get some hate mail, largely which comes from my time as a film critic at MovieWeb. People tend to be opinionated about the most mundane things, but there’s also a sexism and racial element too sometimes. I’ll make a blog post about that later maybe.

I’ve also been able to connect with publishers and get advance copies.

Ever since starting my blog, it’s been a wild ride of trying to diversify and grow as a reader. There is no way I do this as a full-time blogger, as I want to be able to continue blogging about the books I genuinely love and read. I don’t want to put pressure on myself to perform to the system and no longer be authentic for my viewers and me.

In the past two weeks, at the time of writing this in fall 2024, publicists at publishers have reached out to me four times offering physical and digital copies of books. I also maintain a NetGalley account, which means I get advance digital copies of books that I then review for the blog, releasing the review on the day that the book comes out.

There will be a point where I have to start rejecting publishers for the sake of not being overwhelmed, but right now I’ve been very happy with the books I have been receiving. They’re very curated to my taste overall.

I do make a little bit of money off of my blog, too, which helps finance it.

Some people don’t talk about the financial side of being a blogger, but there are expenses involved with it. The website alone is $300 a year right now, and there are other hidden costs when it comes to marketing, needing to get books, doing events for it, etc.

I make my money off of the display ads on a website.

Unfortunately, I don’t get to entirely decide what it shown on my website, which means some political ads I dislike (it’s based on your cookies though…) might pop up every so often. This is a passive income source, and it has been quite helpful in the past two years.

What I make in a single month off of these ads has been able to cover the costs of the website, as well as somewhat compensate me for my time.

It isn’t a lot, but as I mentioned before, it is helpful. I don’t tend to buy books due to space and environmental concern, but if I wanted to, I could with this money.

Start a book blog if you’re wanting to take a leap of faith. I think it’s more stable than other social media platforms, but don’t do it for the money. Do it for the love of books and the community.

Follow me below on Instagram and Goodreads for more.