This week's Spotlight Blog is the wonderful Amy from Pursuit of Wonderland. These past few months, so many brilliant people have started blogging, Amy being one of my favourites. She hasn't been blogging long but she is definitely making her mark in the blogging community already and it's been amazing seeing her blog grow in the recent weeks. She posts brilliant content and I absolutely adore her reviews. Check out Amy's post below on what books mean to her.  

Hey, I'm Amy (or a.jade on twitter!). I've been blogging less than two months now and I'm so grateful that Zoe chose me to be her spotlight blog! 

Recently, I was asked by my family why I decided to start book blogging (after almost fifteen years of reading without feeling the need to tell people about every single book I finished), I told them why but it did make me wonder why books are important to me. 

I won't turn this into an essay, despite how much I could shout about loving books and their readers, but there was three reasons I thought of: creativity, connecting with others and how a good book can help with stress. 

My cousin is in the generation that likes playing on their laptop more than out in the park (if it's different for others, then that's great!). When I asked her why she didn't pick up a book when she was bored, she told me she hated reading. After I got over the personal offence, I encouraged her to join the summer book challenge (or bribed, depending on how you look at it) and by the end of it, she admitted that she did enjoy reading more than she thought she would. She found a collection of books she adored, which were the exact same fairy books I read when I was her age. I loved watching her sit at the table and draw the characters she just read about, or when she pranced around the garden and acted out scenes from the book she found funny. 

As well as pushing creativity, reading is a huge stress reliever. Maybe not so much if you're reading a horror and constantly jumping at every noise, this might not apply to you, sorry. But whenever I'm feeling anxious or having one of my bad days, I've always found that as soon as I'm reading or talking to someone about books, my mind is too busy to think about any of the bad stuff I was worrying about. I always give books bonus points if they feature mental health that makes me feel less alone. 

I joined the YA book community less than two months ago - time flies when you're reading after all! - and I've watched as the love of reading connected hundreds of people together through various group chats and discussions. The biggest community of all, to no one's surprise, is the Harry Potter fandom, one that I haven't quite joined yet because it's been too long since I last read the books (I can already hear the faint cries of the fandom). It's so easy to find someone that loves the same character as you or wants to discuss something that happened in the book. Twitter is a great place for the book community (unless scams and the NYT list is involved) and a great place to make bookish friends. Admittedly, I haven't quite bucked up the courage to start many conversations with other book bloggers, but I know there's a wonderful community out there for me to join when I'm ready. 

Just in case I haven't made my love of books clear.
Books are important to me:

What do you enjoy most about books?

Thank you so much Zoe for letting me post on your blog! Hopefully we get to meet each other at a bookish event soon xo