Blogging and Bookstagram

I have another new hobby - taking photos of books. Who knew it could be so much fun and that you could spend hours at a time browsing countless websites or wandering through department stores, craft stores and looking around home for props?

A year ago this month I launched/started Book Blogger NZ. It was only really meant to be a hobby. I love writing and I love books so setting up a blog about books seemed the next step. It is still only a hobby and I only write about books that I've enjoyed. If I don't like a book I stop reading it or I finish it and I don't write about it - simple really. In a world where there is so much negativity I prefer to stay as positive as I can.

I've loved writing blogs about books but another aspect of blogging I've enjoyed is taking photographs of books. I also love seeing the creativeness of the many photos on Instagram/Bookstagram. Some people reading this must think I'm a little crazy. Well Bookstagram is a thing you know. Look up #Bookstagram on Instragram and as at 3pm (New Zealand time) on Monday August 20, 2018 you will see I'm not alone. There are 22,714,700 images posted with that hashtag. And #Bookstagram is just one of the many hashtags where you can see photos of books. The images are STUNNING! and I'm blown away by some of the ideas people have when it comes to taking photos of books.

I'm not one for clutter. My husband loves ornaments. Me not so much..... that is until now. Now that I know I can find some way of using it in a photograph. I've taken to spending way too much time wandering through stores, browsing the internet or looking around our house for props that will accompany a book in an image for my blog and Instagram.   

I've even starting writing a list of all the props I could use in a photo. However. I have learnt a valuable lesson. Wait until you're nearing the end of a book before buying any props. The other week I spent an hour or two looking and then buying some props to go with a book I was reading. I got home and continued reading the book and just got frustrated with it and thought I don't want to finish this book and I don't want to take a photo of it. I now have four rubber ducks and a pair of swimming goggles in my Bookstagram Box/Drawer. Yes I do have a place where I store bookish props.

For all of those out there in Bookstagram world - thanks for the amazing images - please keep taking more!