Personal Book Shame Discussion // + September announcements!

Hey popcorns! 🍿

I’ve been wanting to write this post for a grand total of 40 minutes, it is something that is very personal to me. It’s about a topic that I hope many readers will relate to but if you can’t that is totally okay! 🙂

I just wanted to say to you all that it’s okay not to be okay. I’ve had a pretty awful morning today and it was really, really tough guys. But that’s okay, and you don’t have to be ashamed when your sad or upset or angry or just losing the will to live ❤

We can’t be happy all the time. Sometimes we can go weeks without feeling happy, whoever tells you that you have to be happy all the time wouldn’t know what mental health was if it slapped them in the face. We all have our demons that we have to fight, but we don’t always have to smile while fighting them or put on a brave face when we know we’re losing the battle.

I’m always trying to be strong, be there for other people but I hurt and am sometimes hurting too.

That was a seriously heavy intro but I just felt like I needed to type that out. Anyways thank you for reading that everyone, it feels nice to get it out there 😅

Before we begin this two parted post I’d like to ask everyone to please go read this recent post by Blondey On A Mission called What’s Under The Filter. Everything that she wrote really resonated with me and I just think it’s something that we all need to read and be enlightened about.

Psst! It’s me in the photo… I’m actually taking my own blogging pfp over the weekend and I’m so excited 😁

– SEPTEMBER ANNOUNCEMENTS –

In September things are going to get crazyyy busy for me due to the fact that MY BUS LEAVES AT 7AM AND DOESN’T BRING ME HOME TILL AT LEAST 4:30. And then if I have subject help sessions *cough: maths, biology & chemistry* I’m not going to be home till like 7pm (12 hour days… ay oh, let’s go! 😂 You know who you are!) It’s going to be a massive change for me and my priorities are obviously going to be schoolwork, my workouts, staying on top of the violin and keeping up with regular Wattpad writing updates.

Here are a few changes you will be seeing come September:

• Posting will reduce to once a week. I’ll only be bringing out a post once a week so it will alternate between KIP chapters and normal posting. I’m not sure what day yet but definitely a Saturday or Sunday.
• Less active on other blogs. I might not be able to keep up with everyone’s blog (or maybe I will) so I will try my best but if I miss a few posts don’t kill me! 😂
• Taking a September break from blogging. I have decided to go on hiatus in September so I can settle into school and work out a schedule where I can fit everything in, you might see me lurking sometimes but I probably will be MIA until October. Don’t miss me too much hehe! 😘

Book shaming: what is it? In my opinion it’s shaming someone for their love of reading and shaming them for what they’re reading. According to the Urban Dictionary it is to make one feel guilty about the book they are reading are enjoying.

It is a horrible thing. I think at least 50% of readers have experienced it before, whether it’s people shaming them for their love of reading or shaming them and saying that the book their reading is weird when maybe it’s one of their favourite books.

Believe it or not, readers can do it to each other. I’ve even seen it on the blogosphere. Forr example, just because you like diverse books it doesn’t mean that all readers too. I was reading a comment chain the other day about a blogger saying that they have nothing against diverse books they just never actively search for them and my gosh you should have seen the reply.

Us readers have to stick together everyone, it may not seem like we are a rare species (I love how I say that like we’re actually a species) but outside of the blogosphere we kind of are.

I think the reason people like to shame readers for their love for reading is actually because they’re jealous. They’re jealous that we have found a way to escape from the world and all the awful things in it that doesn’t involve an Xbox controller or/and a flat screen TV.

When people comment about my reading I immediately feel awkward, embarrassed really. Which is not okay. I shouldn’t feel embarrassed that I love books, books have made me who I am. I’ve lost myself and found myself more times than I can count in them.

And let’s be honest, books are there for you when people aren’t. They’re like a reliable best friend that you can just take wherever you go. I do have to say they are great listeners.

I can’t imagine a world without books, I just know it would be a boring and depressing one and we’d all be phone slaves.

I will never forget the first day of my transition a month ago we had to put our hand up at least once and finish the sentence starters. One of them was for reading, and as soon I saw it my mind was at its own civil war.

There was that one part of me that wanted to put my hand up and talk about how much I love reading and why. However, there was that other part of my brain that kept saying ‘what if they judge you’ or ‘what if they think you’re weird’.

I don’t think I’ve ever regretted the choice I made there so much. It felt like I’d already lost my first battle of being honest and being myself but I also learnt a massive lesson about what I would do next time.

What you should take from this: book. shaming. is. wrong. even among readers as ourselves, we all like different books. don’t make the same mistake I did, be honest with people. and don’t be embarrassed about your love for all things books!!

Sorry if this was a short one but just something that has been bouncing about my brain. I’m bringing out a fitness post this weekend, then next week is a tag week and a massive surprise post. Then it’s September here we come 😅

I hope you’re all keeping well, just a reminder to take it easy today and don’t go too hard on yourself! And look our for my new profile picture on the weekend… 😉

Do you have anything to add to this discussion? Do you have a stressful school year ahead? Feeling like a sweet or sour popcorn today?

That’s a wrap! 😍

ps. I have not proofread this post. I have done enough proofreading and editing of my novel to last me a life time this week 😂