Welcome to The Reading Review

Back in 2017, I wanted to start a YouTube channel called The Reading Review, where I’d sit and chat and review the books on my bookshelf. I made a logo and an Instagram account, but the channel itself never happened.

Why?

I’d like to say that I’m too much of a perfectionist to ever be happy enough with videos of myself on the internet, that I’d never get past the editing and self-scrutiny stage, and that I’m more of a writer than a talker (that last point’s not totally true, it’s probably 50/50). The real reason is that I wasn’t reading. For a self-professed bookworm, that realisation was pretty embarrassing.

So I shelved the idea and carried on with life: university, internships, church, work, Netflix…

Until November 2019, when after moving into a new apartment, I bought myself a beautiful new bookshelf — obviously from IKEA — to showcase my books in all their uncreased glory.

My book collection has always been the one thing I could never get rid of. Yet for too long, I took great pride in organising it alphabetically by author’s surname and staring longingly at the titles as I lounged on my sofa, doing anything but reading. Last year I decided enough was enough, and I am proud to say that I have read twelve (and a bit) books cover to cover in the last twelve months. Sure, others may be more voracious, but after years of not reading I’m pretty chuffed to be back with a book in hand most days: the same way I spent much of my childhood.

The Reading Review is to be home to my musings on the bound words on my shelf. “Books are a uniquely portable magic,” wrote Stephen King someplace sometime, and they are able to be so because they safely house the spark of the words within. This hub is also to allow me space to practice my writing; as I spend so much of my time working with words, I need all the refining I can get. I chose Medium for my platform as it’s pretty novel to me and, as a seasoned blogger and designer (and aforementioned perfectionist), I can get way too caught up in how things look and what themes work best rather than the quality of my writing. Hence, The Reading Review is a distraction-free zone where words are our focus.

Thanks so much for joining me here. Follow The Reading Review on Instagram @thereadingreview, and feel free to catch up on whatever I’m chatting about over on Twitter or my personal Instagram. And go ahead and give me reading recommendations! You can reach me at any of those places.