BBAW Day 4: Reading & Blogging

Today's topic is especially dear to my heart: reading.  I love everything about books: the feel of their covers and pages; the way they smell; the way they look all lined up on a shelf; and the way I can immerse myself in a number of new worlds.  There is no doubt that books make up a huge part of my life.  That's why I have been looking forward to answering today's writing prompt all week:

Book bloggers blog because we love reading. Has book blogging changed the way you read? Have you discovered books you never would have apart from book blogging? How has book blogging affected your book acquisition habits? Have you made new connections with other readers because of book blogging? Choose any one of these topics and share your thoughts today! 

Until I started blogging, I had a few tried and true favorite authors that I always looked out for.  I was also heavily immersed in the classics and variations on the classics.  I had forgotten how much fun it was to read YA literature until I started seeing all of these fabulous books being reviewed.  I took the word of several bloggers and started trying them.  I absolutely loved these books I had been hearing so much about.  Slowly but surely, the focus of my blog began to shift until I had a YA book blog on my hands. 

I also noticed that I am even less patient than I was before about acquiring books.  Previously, I would usually wait until I could find certain titles in the used book store, which could sometimes take months.  Once I started reading YA books, I simply could no longer wait for so long.  I began procuring books in a number of ways: my local Books A Million; Amazon; B&N; Nook; Walmart; and the tried-and-true used book stores.  Everything goes now.  I also have found myself saving up Amazon gift cards through Swagbucks so I can defray the cost of all of these books.  I expect that I will eventually calm down, but for now I'm finding that hard to do.

Connections have improved somewhat since I began blogging.  I now talk about books more with my good friend, Nikki, than I had previously.  I have also connected to some amazing bloggers over books.  I even went to my first book signings this year, which were absolutely amazing in that they were full of people who loved to read the same books I do.  I still don't manage to connect with many of the people in my major or my family over reading, but all of the other opportunities are amazing things that I am so very glad to have had the chance to experience.