Maggie Chyi Chyi: Bookstagram

Hello people!

Welcome to the first *official* blog post of the year 2016! I know it's already in the middle of January, but I'd still like to wish you guys a very happy new year! Wishing you to have a wonderful year ahead, full of amazing adventures and great blessings!

My last post — if I'm not mistaken — was in October, and it was about my song "Bully" (you can check it out by clicking HERE). The reason I claimed that this is the "official" first blog post of the year is because I did upload a post few days ago, sharing my new mashup of Troye Sivan's songs (HERE), but that was just a really short post which includes the lyrics of the mashup and the video itself, so that doesn't count.

I was thinking about starting the first post of 2016 with something typical, such as reflections of 2015 or resolutions for 2016, but then I realized if I'm about to write these blog posts, I'll have to volunteer a lot of personal information and history, which I'm not too comfortable in sharing. Whilst I was thinking what to write, an idea hit me: I can write a blog post on my newly-made #bookstagram! This is a decent idea, since I never ever tell the readers of my blog about the existence of my bookstagram. I was inactive in my blog since last October, due to a lot of events in my life, and those events aren't at all pretty, needless to say, I was (or still am) having quite a rough time. Therefore, I didn't have the energy or heart to be active over here.

It was actually those overwhelming events that lead me to transform my personal Instagram into a bookstagram, where I upload photos of my collection of books, or share which book I'm currently reading and some little thoughts or reviews on books! To be honest, I never thought of making a bookstagram at all. I love photos of books and always visit other people's bookstagram, and I'm satisfied with just admiring others' photos. Then after a long time of just snooping around the hashtag #bookstagram, I start to think why don't I try it out? I can take photos of the book I'm reading, and it kinda serves as a record for me, that I'll be able to look back and see which books I'd read.

(These screenshots are from a few days ago, so it's not the latest look of my bookstagram now)

I started this off tentatively last mid-November, where I started to post more bookish photos instead of personal or daily lives photos. I just think of it as a form of therapy during hard times, and as a new-found hobby which I enjoy too much. I never expect people to like my photos, but surprisingly, they do. I met a lot of new people who share the same interest as I do (reading, duh) and the people in this community are amazing. They all have something nice to say to each other, and most importantly, we all agree that books are the most important thing in the entire world (books > oxygen), which is awesome!

Even though we all prefer different genres, everyone are still nice and not too judgmental on what others love to read. Personally, I don't prefer any form of genres, any good books are sufficient enough for me. I mostly read books which have interesting summaries, great reviews, bestselling authors or through recommendations from other people. Sometimes I do read books just because their covers are gorgeous (shameful) but most of the time, those books with epic covers are great, so I'm not just judging the books by their covers (I think, haha). Though most of the time I avoid to read overhyped books during the time frame where everyone's obsessed with them, as I don't like that feeling of disappointment when those overhyped books aren't as good as others claimed them to be. I always save those overhyped books after the hype is over before I read them, so I can appreciate those books without any harasses. Weird habit?

I'm not an extremely picky reader, as I read a variety of books — from children's books to chick lit and also crime reads, I read them all. I think the perks of not being extremely constrained reader is that I get to enjoy different plots and writing styles, and also get to learn a lot from them.

The majority of the bookstagram community is awesome, though there's a slight minority who are a tad bit judgmental of what other people read. This is slightly an issue for me, as I don't judge people for what they choose to read. I believe that everyone has different taste in books, and we should all respect others' choices and decisions, and not put others down because their reading materials are different from us. Maybe it's because I'm not bounded by what kind of books to read that makes me more open and acceptable to different people with different choices, but I really do think even if you think that particular book the person loves to read is "really bad in both its plot and writing style", you shouldn't judge him/her, or telling how he/she should not read the book. Reading is a personal choice, and the most important thing about reading is the joy that it brings! The genres or types of books shouldn't matter, as long as the person is having fun reading.

Overall, I really enjoy this lovely community full of books and compassion! If you're a bookstagrammer or you love to view aesthetic books photos (and sometimes food), do give me a cheeky follow on Instagram! Click HERE to go to my bookstagram and have a jolly visit *wink*.