#BookBloggerHop – 06.03.22

Hello all and welcome to the Book Blogger Hop! This is a weekly meme that I have joined in with this year and I can’t wait to answers all these bookish questions!

The Book Blogger Hop was originally created by Jennifer @ Crazy-For-Books in March 2010 and ended on December 31, 2012. With Jennifer’s permission, Billy @ Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer relaunched the hop on February 15, 2013. Each week the hop will start on a Friday and end the following Thursday. There will be a weekly prompt featuring a book related question. The hop’s purpose is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to their own blog.

This weeks question is: What inspired you to start book blogging? (Julie @ Stepping Stone Book Reviews)

I first started blogging in the April of 2017. Sadly my nan passed away in February 2017 after being hospitalised with pneumonia. This was a huge shock to my family as up until this point my nan was still very fit and healthy, we often joked that she would outlive us all.

My grandad had passed away in 2005 so my nan had spent a lot of years on her own. During that time she decided to write a book about her life with my grandad. They met at the ages of 14 and 16 and had been married for 52 years before my grandad passed away. Whilst my nan was writing their story I was one of the only people she would share her writing with, something I felt honoured by. I’d given her an old laptop of mine and helped her to type it up and as she wrote the story she told me how much it helped her cope with her grief.

When my nan passed away I asked if I could have her story to read, edit and then hopefully publish. No one in the family had any objections and so I had my nans laptop and paper copy of her story. I was at a lose for what to do with it and so one night I decided to take a leaf out of my nan’s book and write a blog post. I titled it ‘Am I Boring?’ and was astounded when it not only got likes but it also got comments! From there I decided to start blogging more regularly and as they say the rest is history.

My nan’s book is still in a folder waiting for me but for now I still find it difficult to read without feeling that overwhelming surge of grief. I will get it edited and published as her words deserve to be heard, it’s a story that’s shaped my life and upbringing.

I guess I want to end this story by saying thank you to anyone who originally liked or commented on my first post. It was your words of encouragement that helped me work through my grief and find a new hobby that I wouldn’t be without now. I say it all the time and it I honestly do believe that the book community are the best.