Armchair BEA 2016: Beyond the Books & Beyond the Blog

It's day three of Armchair BEA! I'm still as excited as I have been the last two days. Maybe it's reaching the point where I'm overusing that word. I don't know. It doesn't change the sentiment. Now, on to day three.

Beyond the Novel

Aside from novels, I do enjoy reading manga. I don't read manga anywhere near as often as I would like. It often gets pushed aside in favor of buying novels, and admittedly, the number of volumes of manga makes it difficult for me to stay on top of it. Ouran High School Host Club has been finished for years now, and I still haven't read half of it. I absolutely love Ouran, so it's not a lack of desire. Truthfully, I'm terrible at keeping up with series in general, so the multitude of volumes in a manga series only make it more difficult for me.

One alternate form of books that I would like to get into is audiobooks. In the past, I was always turned off by how expensive they can be, but I love listening to podcasts. I figure I would like audiobooks. (This next part is going to sound like a paid promotion, but it's genuinely not. I just learned about this from another blog and am excited about it.) OverDrive is doing this thing where they're giving away two free audiobooks a week all summer. I downloaded the first two and began listening to one already. I even downloaded OverDrive for it, so I'd say their promotion is working. Maybe this will lead to me listening to more audiobooks even once the summer is over.

Beyond the Blog

The biggest way I discuss books outside of my blog in the past would be in class, since I'm an English major. However, that's changing. Or has changed. This past semester I didn't have any English classes since I've completed all my English credits. I'm actually an English education major, and next semester is my student teaching, then I graduate. So I've lost the one of the biggest ways I've discussed books outside of the blog.

However, I am going to be an English teacher. Even in my student teaching, I know I'll be discussing books with my students. (I've seen the curriculum already, and let me tell you, I'm excited about it.) Still, I wouldn't mark that down as the same thing as other types of bookish discussion. In the classroom, I want the students to discuss the stories they've read. I don't want my views to be the center of attention. For that reason, I think I'm going to have to find some new ways to discuss books now that I'm no longer in English classes. Maybe I'll come to rely on the blog even more for that sort of thing.

I do have a Goodreads account that I use religiously to keep track of the books I read. It's not, however, a place that I spend a lot of time discussing books. I do see that as a possible way to make up for my new lack of people to discuss books with.

I've thought about book clubs before, but I just don't know if they're for me. That's mostly because I like reading books I already have on my shelf, and I don't want to be in a club where I have to go out and buy books I don't already own (when I have so many that I need to read) in order to discuss it with the club. Other than that, I would find joining a book club appealing.