Hi everyone,
In my first post, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Gaby, I'm a 22-year-old recent graduate living in Austin, TX. I finished an Architecture degree in 4 years before realizing I don't care much for designing nor was I much good at it. I wasn't built to take the brunt of harsh critique. Up to now, I've been unhappy at some corporate position (remote, luckily) and have been doing the work of 3 people for entry-level pay.
At some point I realized I wanted to do lots of things with my life, starting with reading every book under the sun and followed by being able to rollerskate backward. If that's unrealistic, then I at least want to start reading again as much as I did when I was 13, inhaling Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and literally any book that fell into my lap. My 8th grade English teacher had a bookshelf in his classroom and I walked by it every day hoping to see a book I hadn't read. Now if I see a published writer using the wrong form of "they're/there/their" I close it and move on to the next.
As it is now, I can't get through a book from my favorite author in under 2 weeks. Admitting this is just as painful as seeing it on my Goodreads profile, and I feel like I'm letting my younger self down. I'm starting this blog because my husband says I talk too much about books and that his tiny attention span can only follow so much. I considered a YouTube channel because it's easier to talk about books than to write about them, but you need a certain pizazz to put your face on a public platform like that. If I couldn't take the heat from professors being paid to grill me, what chance did I have of entering late-game YouTube in a niche so small and tight-knit, I can name 5 book reviewers off the top of my head?
It didn't take me long to get hooked on fairy books and I haven't let go since 2010 when I found the 13 Treasures series by Michelle Morrison, so you can just imagine my absolute delight when I found Sarah J. Maas in high school with her Throne of Glass Series.
Somehow I could once again finish entire 600-700 page books in a day and a half. I was eating up any book I could get my hands on that involved fairies, magic, the fae, and (now that I was approaching young adulthood) spicier scenes. Karen Marie Moning, Naomi Novik, C.L. Wilson, among many other authors. I noticed the fantasy romance genre getting popular again as well, with authors including extremely detailed scenes in their fantasy worlds. I thought it was great - I found myself with no capacity for Game of Thrones or any similarly written medieval fantasy steeped in fake politics. This genre was perfectly suited to my tastes - I got a great fantasy story, an alluring romance, and sometimes a great climax within a few books.
With this resurgence in a will to live and a favorite childhood hobby, I naturally wanted people to talk to about it. However, my major wasn't exactly one that people pursued if they wanted free time after classes nor did they want to spend what little free time they had to devote to books. Very few people in my friend circle read what I read, and even less wanted to hear about it. I should've started this blog years ago, but again the major wasn't conducive to being a well-rounded person with time to myself. Now I start because I moved away from home, my friends are starting medical school and I'm in a new city as an adult working full-time from home - not a lot of chances to meet new people.
I come to the wide-open void of the internet and I'm going to cast my opinions, ideas, and reviews in an effort to put my thoughts together. Maybe I'll get a response and I can finally fan-girl about Rhysand with someone.
Gaby