How Bookstagram Helped Me Fall Back In Love With Reading | Discussion

Hi Book lovers!

Today I wanted to come at you with a discussion type post on How Bookstagram Helped Me Fall Back In Love With Reading. 
Skeptical and thinking how could Instagram help someone like reading more?! Well your like I was then and I didn’t expect it to work. 
Me and reading have a tense relationship, I love it but it doesn’t always love me and I have SO many reading slumps and finding a way to come out of them is difficult. Sometimes it’s just a case of literally forcing my butt down on a chair and reading.

When I first started my blogging journey, I started an Instagram page as well and would post every so often just basic pictures of my books but I never took it too seriously. Then following Christmas for which I got money towards a new camera I decided to delete my old Instagram and start a new one and try to ‘bookstagram properly.’ Since then I have noticed a change in my reading habits and feelings towards reading for the positive. 

Why?

Well I think it’s because I’ve fallen in love with the whole process of taking photos, editing them and uploading them. My photos are at no level the same standards as some bookstagrammers out there, but for me I just have this feeling of pride for myself when I see my consistent theme. Or I feel happy when I upload a photo and I think ‘I TOOK THAT.’ It’s a hard one to explain if I’m honest.
Whilst bookstagraming comes with its own downsides, draw backs and pressures which I will discuss in this post as well, it has also made me so much happier and excited about reading. Before starting my bookstagram I would look at my bookshelf, see the intense list of ‘To Be Read’ books I owned and I shyed away from them under pressure. Bookstagramming has helped me get over this with the excitement I have to post all kinds of shots, I’ve taken photos of books I’ve owned for ages and it’s made me feel excited to pick them up again. Almost like reliving the moments I first bought them.

Remarkably for me, I have yet to have a reading slump so far.  Yes were only in February but I would usually have had two weeks by now where I didn’t want to blog, read or anything especially with juggling university, work and assignments as well. The only slump I have had, was a week in January but that was actually mental health related but I bookstagrammed and read throughout as it helped me relax.

I also find that taking photos has been so peaceful for me, it’s another creative outlet which makes me feel less anxious and just helps me to relax from arranging the background to editing them. When I go onto my bookstagram now I feel proud because it matches and I feel nice to have something else to be proud off alongside my blog.

Now as mentioned, bookstagramming can have its downsides. Since I haven’t officially been doing it for so long on my new page then I can’t comment too much but for me the starting issues have been the algorithm. The algorithm for Instagram is frustrating, it makes it so posts don’t appear in order on feeds so therefore you could potentially not get as much traffic. I only have a few followers so I don’t expect to receive many but I have to admit that when I’m really proud of a photo it does make me think its rubbish if it doesn’t reach say over 30 likes…. But I’m not doing this for popularity, I’m doing it because I love it. But it’s very easy to get caught up in statistics.

Finally bookstagramming can also be very overwhelming because there are so many pictures everywhere. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed but for me it’s all about enjoying it for me and not focusing on what everyone else is posting or how I compare to them. As long as you keep reminding yourself that, then you can handle the sheer size of the amount being posted everyday.

My New Instagram name is mortalreaderx  and I am honestly really enjoying this journey so far and how it has helped me become more excited with books again. I hope that the enjoyment continues and I can’t wait to see how my bookstagram shapes up in a few months time.

I have included some shots I have taken in this post, please let me know what you think of them!

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Let me know in the comments below your thoughts on bookstagram!