Before Book Blogging: I only read between 12 and 30 books per year.
Now: I shoot for 100 books a year but seem to only average about 6 books per month. Still, I’m quite impressed with myself.
Before Book Blogging: I never ever ever re-read anything.
Now: I sign up for challenges like Flashback where I re-read favorite books from years past – some not so distant! (I read The Book Thief in 2009 and again this year.)
Before Book Blogging: I rarely went out of my way to read more works by a particular author.
Now: I want to get my hands on anything and everything written by Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwen, Jennie Nash, Khaled Hosseini, Jhumpa Lahiri, Neil Gaiman, manymanymanymore.
Before Book Blogging: I had never heard of Neil Gaiman, Nadine Gordimer, Diana Wynn Jones, Beth Kephart, Kazuo Ishiguro, …
Now: I’m glad there are more authors out there than Nicholas Sparks, James Patterson, Dan Brown, Grisham, Picoult.
Before Book Blogging: I would not have recommended Neil Gaiman.
Now: I am amazed when someone doesn’t know who Neil Gaiman is!!
Before Book Blogging: I never knew what a graphic novel was, now I can say I have even read a few.
Before Book Blogging: I would ask people if they’ve read anything good lately and I had rarely heard of it.
Now: I usually have heard of everything or at least the author and often have already read it myself!
Before Book Blogging: I would enter a bookstore and be overwhelmed by so many book choices.
Now: Still am… But now I’ve heard of a few of them. [Or a lot of them: I get a thrill when I walk around the Borders Buy-One-Get-Half-Off-A-Second table and I can count off, “read it, read it, want-to-read it, read it, read it, bought it, got it, read it, just read it, will read it soon, etcetcblahblahblah.]
Before Book Blogging: I was sad because I didn’t know who to talk to about books…
Now: I have TOO MANY wonderful bloggers to visit and chat with!! 😉
HIdeinWhitetoSkipLine
Care's Books and Pie 
I do *exactly* the same thing every time I’m in Borders. Good to know I’m not alone! I’m especially bad when they’ve got books on the front tables that I’d received an ARC of. I don’t do it out loud, of course, but in my head I can be all “Oh, that new release? I liked that *before* it was cool.” 🙂
Oh, I have that exact same experience when talking to people about what they’re reading! It’s another side effect of book blogging that I really never expected, but it makes me feel so informed and with-it. :p
Having people to share our passion about books is the best part of blogging to me!
This post is 100% awesome!
Two years ago, I didn’t know who Neil Gaiman was either.
Well said!
LOVE this post. My guess is, many of us could say the exact same things. I want to write one just like it! 🙂
Love your post! Because I identify with all of them. I started blogging only during the beginning of this year, so I’m still shocked at however I “lived” before. Also,
Before Book Blogging: I had never heard of Neil Gaiman, Nadine Gordimer, Diana Wynn Jones, Beth Kephart, Kazuo Ishiguro, …
Now: I’m glad there are more authors out there than Nicholas Sparks, James Patterson, Dan Brown, Grisham, Picoult.
I esp loved this observation. I am amazed at how my book tastes have widened. Once someone (non-blogger) asked me why I read books no one has ever heard of, and then I knew that I was in the right place, just where I wanted to be!
All of these things are so true!!! This is a great post 😀
I love this post. I do exactly the same thing when I’m in a bookstore – telling the people I’m with that I’ve read reviews of just about all the books on a given table. It must get annoying 🙂
I love this before and after list! A lot of these could apply to me as well. Isn’t it neat to have had your reading life transformed by book blogging and all the wonderful people you have met?
I truly love the way you have this post set up–it really highlights how blogging and bloggers can be an influence.
And can there really be toooooo many people to talk to books about? Now if only there were that many people face to face! 🙂 And I don’t mean the person on the bus next to you who takes a pretend interest in the book you’re totally absorbed in. 😉
This is a great post. I feel the same way on almost every point.
What a fantastic post! I, too, love to have literally hundreds & thousands of people to talk to about books. I honestly don’t know how I survived without my blogger community!
All of this is so true! Before book blogging, I searched high and low for new reading recommendations. Now, thanks to other book bloggers, I have a to-read list a mile long!
Oh Care, this post was awesome!!! Oh, and that damn table in the bookstore–I’m afraid I usually say, “Have it, but haven’t read it. Have it, but haven’t read it. Have it, but haven’t read it. Ooooh, don’t have that one, should buy it. Have it, but haven’t read it…” Yeah, so all these awesome book bloggers have me picking up all these awesome books, but my problem is that I spend so much time reading blogs finding out what I should be reading that there’s not time left for actually reading the books themselves. 😛
What a fun post Care!!!
Yup to everything you said!
Also, hello to Oscar…he’s been awfully quiet lately.
Well, you know. Oscar has an exhausting lifestyle: hanging out on the boat, working on his tan, barking at delivery trucks… What’s a dog to do?
I agree with a lot of the points you made! I don’t know that I read anymore now but the types of books I read are a lot different. Blogging has made me see books and reading in a whole different light!
Ah, the wonderful world of book blogging!
I love how you did this! Blogging really affected the way I read and what I read as well.
I love this! Wonderful post – I love the comparisons 🙂 And yes, I did only learn who Neil Gaiman was early this year. Shocking right?!
I Love This Post!!!!! Seriously Care, I think it’s my favorite post of the day 😀
I love this post. Everything about it is SO true! You have highlighted all of the reasons why I love to blog and why I wouldn’t give it up for the world. Thank you!
This is the best post ever, I can agree wit you on everything. It’s amazing how our minds and reading has opened up because of blogging.
Such a lovely post and most of these are very familiar to me, except for the not-reading-more-than-one-book-by-an-author thing, because to me blogging helped step outside my comfort zone of reading lots of books by just a few authors.
Iris, I think I was a bit weird about that. I was always a scattered reader before where I know a lot of people would find an author they liked and then read everything written. I wasn’t like that and rarely read series. I was a sampler, I think. Now however, I do want to ‘collect’ an author’s works to see how they compare. I still don’t read many series but am very tempted by the Hunger Games trilogy.
Hi Care,
Completely agree with EVERYTHING above… it’s so funny. And so true. How much fun it is to have too many bookish friends now, rather than not enough. Best of luck with your blogging goals and see you at the Read-a-thon.
Wow, sounds like the book blogging has opened up your reading world like it has mine!
So true! I’m glad we’ve all had so many positive experiences due to blogging.
This is so well said! I think that you’re own discoveries mirror so many other bloggers. Thanks to sharing with one another, I think we’ve lit a fire that keeps burning. Thanks for sharing!
Love the before and after this. At the risk of sounding like I am “sucking up,” I will say that before blogging I did not know Care. After book blogging, I got to know her through her blog AND meet her in person! I am one lucky blogger!
Yes. YOU. are. 🙂
I am dropping in really, really late, but I wanted to say that I loved the way you did this post!
Marg! Thank you! I’ve been seeing your tweets and was thinking I REALLY need to go visit Marg’s blog and then you pop in over here! LOVE it when this happens ya know? like some kind of psychic connection (kick in the rear)