2010 vs 2020 Reading Habits
This post is inspired by Paper Fury’s Reading Habits in 2010 vs 2020 post.
It’s my eight year blogiversary!
To celebrate, let’s take a look at the first year I discovered what a book blog actually was and now, when I’ve been running one for eight years omg that is such a long time.
In 2010
I was a 23 year old new immigrant to England, having worked my butt off to save money to move overseas during a recession because of a boy (that’s right! Blame my husband!). I was armed with an Honours degree and the belief that people actually cared about this, plus my head was full of everyone telling me how much Brits LOVE Australians and I’d have no trouble finding a job and what an adventure this would be! I had also discovered book blogging actually existed in 2010 and had joined Goodreads, albeit under a different name, and had just started reviewing.
In 2020
I live in Australia and have a career, I’m back at University for my second post-grad qualification, I’m married to the above mentioned Brit, and have 3 furbabies.
HOW MUCH DID YOU READ?
2010
There are two things that need to be noted here.
The first one was that I didn’t have a job. I’d quit my job in Australia to move to England right when the Global Financial Crisis was at its worst, and I found it really hard to get hired even though I got lots of interviews. This means I could not afford to buy books, and I did not have a device to read ebooks on. I’d brought some cherished books with me, and Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead was still being released so I had those to look forward to (which remains to this day one of my favourite series). I read some of my husband’s books. But what I was doing a lot was reviewing books from Netgalley on my computer because I didn’t have a Kindle. I don’t have those stats anymore because Netgalley reset in 2012, so I don’t even remember what I read off the top of my head, but that was probably where I got the majority of my reading from.
The other thing to note was that I had graduated from an English Literature degree in 2008 that burned me out from reading for about a year. I had picked up the Twilight series in late 2009, read and really enjoyed them (yes, they are problematic, but they are easily digestible and that’s what I needed to get reading again). They were the first books that got me back into reading after my degree. They were also the catalyst that made YA absolutely explode, and coupling it with social media, I had discovered my new favourite type of book: books about teen girls written by women for women.
2020
I consistently read at least 50 books a year, which are a mix of ARCs, audiobooks, and books from my own home library or local library.
DID YOU WRITE REVIEWS?
2010
I didn’t have a book blog, but I had joined Goodreads, and had what I considered at the time to be a pretty good following. I was consistently in the top 100 best reviewers in the UK, which was pretty smashing, and a feat I’ve yet to replicate in Australia, even though I write the exact same type of reviews with the exact same voice.
2020
Funnily enough, when I quit Goodreads under my original name and started blogging under The Moonlight Library, I didn’t reach the same kind of popularity I had in 2010 until many years later. I have no idea why this is.
FAVOURITE BOOKS?
2010
I loved the Vampire Academy books, but my favourite books at the time was probably Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver and Touch of Power by Maria V Snyder.
2020
My most recent favourite book was The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller. There have been many before that. I can’t be tied down to just one book. Unless you force me, then I’ll say it’s something like Wuthering Heights.
WHERE DID YOU GET YOUR BOOKS FROM?
2010
I didn’t have a job, so I was depending on other people to buy me books, which mostly happened around my birthday. I used to do these online surveys which actually paid money, and when I got a $5 Amazon.co.uk voucher I could afford a book and I was so excited I nearly cried. And of course, Netgalley, but I was reading them on my computer, and that’s a different experience to reading on a handheld.
2020
Fucking everywhere.
- Netgalley/Edelweiss.
- Amazon.
- Bookbub.
- Book shops.
- Online book shops.
- Libraries for both physical copies and ebooks.
- I’m probably forgetting some.
WHAT THINGS ANNOYED YOU MOST IN BOOKS?
2010
General poor writing. I think I may have been really hard on just clumsy writing. Poor word choices, definitely punctuation mistakes, incorrect dialogue tags, anything that made a book awkward and not flow well. Published books should be edited, but editors can’t make shit shine.
2020
‘Alphaholes’. I love a good enemies to lovers trope but I absolutely HATE it when the guy is an nonredeemable dick to the girl and she still melts like putty in his hands. I do not find overbearing alpha douches attractive and I cannot understand how other characters do, even when they are empty-headed nitwits.
Also, I can’t stand books that bore me (including poor worldbuilding), are completely inconsistent, utterly unbelievable even when suspending disbelief, or just plain stupid. I’m getting better at DNFing them, and I’ve abandoned 5 in the last 12 months.
WHO DID YOU DISCUSS BOOKS WITH?
2010
No one 🙁 It’s why I started reviewing.
2020
I have maybe one real life book friend, but her taste is vastly different to mine. I don’t engage in a whole lot of book discussion on Goodreads. I basically post my reviews, get my feels out of my system, and move on. So that’s to the 5000+ followers of The Moonlight Library. Thanks for sticking around and reading my brain barf.
WHAT’S BEEN THE BIGGEST CHANGE?
I still love YA fantasy and sci-fi, but I also enjoy contemporary and have developed a real love for YA mystery/thriller audiobooks rather than the fantasy I would normally consider my go-to.
I have an entire library room dedicated to reading, with a comfortable chair picked out just for me (that my cats adore, too), and my to-read books cover one wall of that library.
What’s been the biggest change for your reading life over the last 10 years? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!
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About Nemo
A lover of kittens and all things sparkly, Nemo has a degree in English Literature and specialises in reviewing contemporary, paranormal, mystery/thriller, historical, sci-fi and fantasy Young Adult fiction. She is especially drawn to novels about princesses, strong female friendships, magical powers, and assassins.
