BBH: Why write a book blog?

This question comes to us from Julie @ JadeSky who asks:

Why did you start a book blog?

So, there are four people that I blame for this endeavor.

The first one is my mom, who still thinks that I have a book in me somewhere. She is my champion, and my number one fan, and she loves when I write things. However, her wishing alone would not have gotten us over the finish line.

Number two is my brother, who told me once that I should “write something about all those books you read…” I tried to do this then, when he told me to, but I had no idea what I was doing, and it petered out pretty quickly. That first book blog got under my skin a little, though, because I knew if I could just figure out how to do this, it would be fun.

Which brings us to the third person, fellow blogger, cat-gentleman and my friend of 37 years, Steve (he of Frankenberry’s Attic). I talk to Steve a fair bit, and he believes that everyone’s life is better if they are writing. Not for fame and fortune, but just to get some words out into the universe, to say, ‘Hey, Universe? Yeah, I’m still here.’ And so, every time we talked, he would say ‘You writing anything? You know you should…’

And that brings us to the final piece of the puzzle, and that’s Steve’s and my friend Tom, the slightly unhinged caretaker over at Castle Blogferatu. Tom and I were talking about Steve, and his feeling that I should be writing more and Tom said, you know…he’s right. Pick something you love, snag a WordPress domain and go. Just do it.

Not one to think too hard about any important decision, I hung up the phone on that fateful day, and had a blog up and functioning by bedtime.

Now, as to why it’s a book blog and not, say, a blog dedicated to talking about herb gardens, expensive pencils or seventies soap operas is simple. I love talking about books. In my real life, I talk about them practically non-stop. And the people who have to listen to me do this have grown quite weary of being polite about it.

I decided I needed to find my people. And here you all are! And you’re gorgeous.

So that’s the tale of a girl way too influenced by what others told her to do, and, in this case, glad of it.

What about you? Why did you start a blog? I’d love to hear all about it in the comments.