My Trusty Book Reviews Instagram account is coming along very well and growing nicely. More people are now being exposed to my book reviews who otherwise wouldn’t have done – and that’s wonderful. I like to try and read quite widely, but I know I am guilty of primarily reading the classics and while there are a lot of “classics” out there, I’ve decided it’s time to try and broaden my horizons.
So what do I mean by that? Well, for one thing, I’m finding tonnes of new recommendations on Instagram, many of which I’m excited to read. I’m always looking for new reading recommendations and at this point, I’m sure my book list has over 1,000 books on it. I hope I managed to squeeze them all into my life time! But I’m trying other avenues too – I’ve always believed that some of the best pieces of literature ever written may be lying unread and unpublished in a writer’s bedroom. With the number of writers in the world and the number of books which will have been written and not published, it’s undoubtable that there are some real hidden diamonds out there and I’ve made two attempts so far to try and hunt for those diamonds.
First of all, I’ve gone to Fanfiction.net, a website I’ve used myself occasionally to publish short stories. I know fanfiction is generally looked down upon, but I think there’s a snobbishness in that. People don’t just post short stories there – it’s also home to lots of independent novels, some of them exceedingly long. I’ve been looking through the website in order to find the shining stars of the fanfiction world, which I’m sure will shine as bright as those in the rest of the world. So I’m quite excited about that, especially as it will give me a chance to revisit beloved characters and settings in new and unexpected ways.
I’ve also registered as a book reviewer with a service which sends the you the PDFs of newly published novels from independent, unknown authors. I’ve already been sent an enormous number of these and I’m not sure I’ll ever have a chance to read all of them… but I’m delighted to have this new source of books. Who knows, I might just find a new favourite there?
So at the moment I’m very enthusiastic about this decision to broaden my horizons. I may also give WattPad a chance, as I know a lot of authors use that to get started. In fact, back in my university days, I used to read and leave feedback on a fair few WattPad pieces. There’s just so much to read and so little time! Speaking of which, since the pandemic began I’ve been reading a lot more and have quite a list of book reviews I still need to write – I’ll probably have another week or a book review every day again soon (and maybe one for video games too). I hope you’ll enjoy my book content in future!
