Sunday, January 4, 2015

Sunday Spotlight: Collecting Book Boyfriends


I read a book recently (Keystrokes by Lisa Marie), and it prompted me to write my first Sunday Spotlight about it.

As I got to the end of the book, there was a passage in the final blog post the character Farrow posts that bothered me. Here's the passage:

I am done with book blogging. I don't have much desire anymore. I already won the best book boyfriend ever. No one will ever top Tate, except Kasen. And since they are one and the same to many, MANY women, I am the luckiest woman in the world.

Here's why it bothered me...I don't blog for that reason. Throughout the whole book, I felt like the character, and by extension the author, understood reading and blogging. And that passage made me feel like she totally missed the mark.

I'm not trying to make a blanket statement and speak for everyone, but having talked to a few people, I felt the need to take pen to paper fingers to keyboard and voice my thoughts on the subject.

I blog because I love books. I love to read. I love the stories, the characters and the romance. I do collect book boyfriends. Nikki and I bicker about them all the time. But that's a byproduct of reading romance. These guys are in some way ideals of what we want, what we don't have and what we'd like to find. They're also what guys will never be. They allow us to step out of reality and wish that they were real. I don't read to collect book boyfriends. They're just a bonus.

So to see that passage in a book, about a blogger, it was discouraging. I love my book boyfriends, they're like a favorite book, they're comfort reads. They're always there to go back to when you need a sure fire hit. When you can't figure out what new book to read, or had a string of bad books. But I don't read with the sole intention of collecting them. So it distressed me that Farrow, or even the author, thinks that bloggers read to collect book boyfriends.


So, I'm asking you, why do you read? Do you read to collect book boyfriends? Do you think bloggers read to collect boyfriends? Or do you read for the love of the stories?




2 comments:

  1. Great post Lindsay, and you hit the nail on the head. I read, because...I. LOVE. IT!!! And we at SABR blog, because we like to spread the word about books we enjoyed and sometimes ones that we didn't enjoy so much. Reading allows you to imagine, it takes you away from the routine everyday life and book boyfriends are fun to collect, but they certainly don't illustrate the reality of what's available in the real world as far as men go. I found the perfect book boyfriend years ago, he's a certain Scottish Highlander that still holds my heart, but that didn't stop me from picking up the next book, or keep me from blogging about them, or for that matter finding more heroes to love! Every book, good or bad, and every hero, likeable or not, is something I want to continue to experience and will let others know how their story affected me! Blogging isn't about finding the "one", it's about telling readers about "all of them" and the journey their story took you on!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Karla! I completely agree with everything you said. I think I have a book boyfriend for every occasion, even a few Scottish Highlanders, a certain redhead among them ;)

      I love the fact that I can pick up the next book and find a brand new guy to love, one that might put all guys to shame. And you never know where he's going to come from. I honestly never thought I would love that redheaded highlander as much as I do. I'm totally addicted to him! I keep trying to talk Nikki into reading that book because I know she'll love it.

      Every bad/horrible/unlikable hero out there that I may experience make the good ones that much better.

      For me, the best part about blogging, or even just reviewing on GR are the friendships I've made. You guys have the same love of reading and allow me to talk about it endlessly without boring you. ;)

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