I’m coming up on my sixth year of blogging, and I still enjoy my little hobby today, just as much as I did when I started six years ago. Possibly even more, because through blogging I’ve had the pleasure to meet so many amazing, intelligent and thoughtful women who share some of the same interests as I do. The big one, of course, being reading romance novels. And talking about romance novels. Going on and on and on about romance novels.

The first blogger I met, live and in person, was Rosie, who happens to live in roughly the same geographic area that I do. We met at a local used bookstore, did some shopping, then had a nice, long lunch where we discussed, what else?, romance novels. We’ve spent a fair amount of time together “in person” since then. We’ve had countless chats. But she did say something to me once that has really gotten stuck in my head….

She called me an idiot savant of romance novels.

I’m one of those people, that once I read a book, I can at least recall some details about it. Depending on how much I loved or loathed the book, I can generally recall quite a bit of detail about it. I can’t recite the whole book verbatim. For example, I’m terrible with character names, even for books that are in my treasured keeper collection. I also won’t remember every single plot point or character trait. I tend to recall the highlights, or the “big issues” that stuck in my mind while reading the story. I also can always tell you if I’ve at least read the book. Some readers inadvertently buy duplicate copies of books they’ve read before or check a book out from the library, read the first 50 pages and realize, “Hey, I’ve read this before!” Yeah, with me? That never happens. There are instances where the book in question was merely an “average” read, and because I didn’t have a strong reaction to it (I didn’t love it or hate it), I might not recall a single thing about the book. Nothing. But I will remember, at the very least, that I did in fact read it. I know I read it – even if all the finer details have since flown out of my head.

If you’re on the fence about starting your own blog, take a look at the Blog Starter’s guide to creating a blog and see if it’s something that catches your fancy.