Here we go again

Reading is an essential part of what I do and, most importantly, who I am. As far as I can remember I had a book in my hand, wanting to read a new story, meet new characters and experience new worlds; whether they were assignment for school or just for fun, I remember books being part of my life.

I am old enough to have experienced the advent of social media; and in the last seven years, I have been trying to share my thoughts on books for a while with people who share the same passion; in various forms and without consistency. In fact, the main concern that I had in the past about this process was the grind: I dreaded finishing books because I was supposed to write a book review. Reading became a chore for me and it turned reading into a hobby with positives and negatives.

Therefore, I took a break from blogging. I needed my energy to be up, I needed to focus on a new job and I wanted to channel what I had there. With that in mind, I have continued reading, I kept being passively interested in the book community (through Goodreads and watching BookTube). I got book recommendations and I kept going with my own path and pace moving in the direction I wanted to go: reading more.

Until I realized that there was an idea simmering in the back of my head. I have never gotten over the idea of sharing my ideas and thoughts about books; and more than anything, I want to make sure that books that are interesting can get more exposure. Hence, two realizations dawned on me: the first is that the review format is not written in stone. Who said that one needs to review every single book and make a comprehensive book review about it? I guess that there is merit in this approach but it feels stiff and school-like to me.

The second idea was that I love collections; when a content creator puts into one post / video different authors that tackled the same content and / or trope and / or idea. For example, videos focusing on dragons. It has been done sparingly - and the fact that there aren’t more of these videos makes me think they do not necessarily perform well - but I love the format. I have also started (albeit inconsistently) keeping notes in collections: magic system, friendships, pets, etc.

There were two consequences out of this: the first is that podcast is the way to go. I understand this is not a logical consequence out of what I draft before; I never mentioned podcasts. Yet, I mentioned content creation. I have been toying with the idea of having my own YouTube channel, joining the BookTube community but I felt that recording and editing videos would be too much to handle currently (and there would be too big of a skill gap to fill, not that the challenge would not be fun but it would be time consuming); but a podcast? The principles are similar: I still need to develop the idea, the script, record and edit but it genuinely feels more accessible than video editing.

With this format in mind, I have been brainstorming about the content of it. Ultimately, one of the most important aspect of my reading experience is to get to know new worlds, new magic systems, etc. It almost came naturally to think about it as fantasy explorations, and that’s how the name came about. I want to explore the genre, tropes, ideas, themes, some writing tools (such as footnotes as narration tools) and be able to work on these one at the time; not to mention that the more I read, the more content there will be for each topic and it will be a fun challenge to repeat the same content over time and see what adds to a topic (think about magic systems; I am sure that there are million different takes on it and this item could come up regularly on the podcast!). And I have to say that this has opened a whole new world for me and I hope you will be able to join me in this project!

The other content creation idea that resonated with me was reaction videos: in fact, reading vlogs are some of my favorite content to watch. The reason for it? Well, I might be nosy in the first place but what I love about this format is the spontaneous reaction to books, from the first page until the end. It does not mean that all vloggers cover the experience in such detail but I loved the idea of sharing the content as I read it. I tried to work on this format on Instagram - mostly as written content to my day to day read - but let’s be realistic, I have not been very consistent nor I have taken interesting enough pictures to be appealing. And so, why not a reading journey approach to posts, where what I want to record is my experience while reading: did I join (in my head) the characters in their quests and adventures? Did I not sympathize for them at all? What about the world building? Would I want to be in this place?

There was one last point that I needed to figure out: there is still merit in making book reviews (as it is the best format to give books exposure) and / or sharing excitement about series I read or plan to read; and I might be feeling lie writing a more complex essay about books or series. Hence two different formats came to my mind. For clarity, while I read mostly fantasy, this approach works incredibly well also for all other genres I like reading.

So why not provide executive summaries of what I enjoyed in the books? After all, this is usually what I read, if I read a book review. Drafting a few bullet points about the strengths of the books I read (it could be world building, magic and/or political systems, characters, plot, /etc/.) and what is the overall rating.

As for fantasy book essays, I am less drawn to the single book in the installment and sharing my thoughts on it. I am usually attracted to fantasy (or other genre) series. This does not mean that I do not read standalone books (in fact, it is incredibly satisfying to read a book and finish the story with one book). My point being that I would like to continue having a type of posts dedicated to either the series that I like and why; or to list the series that I am adding to my never ending TBR (like all readers).

So I hope this provides you (and me!) with an overview of what the next weeks and months will bring in this little corner of the internet and I hope this will start a conversation on books and content that is fascinating for all the people who decide to come visit this little happy place!