Owl Be Sat Reading - our blog about their blog

Owl Be Sat Reading


Blog Name: OwlBeSatReading
Social Media: @owlbesatreading (Goodreads/Twt/IG/Pinterest) 



A little introduction: 

Hi, I’m Lisa, a (late 🥴) forty-something book-mad British Blogger from Hampshire, UK. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I will never get to read all the books on my TBR before I die. I’ll read them all in library heaven. That’s a thing isn’t it?! I’d like to think so….


What made you start blogging? 

I decided to start my blog in 2017 after being on Goodreads since 2010 and wanted to get my reviews ‘out there’ beyond the Goodreads community. I wasn’t very confident initially, as I’m not the most tech-savvy of people, but slowly, VERY slowly (😆) I got the gist of creating Blogposts on the Wordpress platform and am pleased to say I’ve convinced almost 600 booklovers to subscribe to my ramblings! 



What genres do you blog about?

My favourite genre is horror. It’s what got me into reading at 9/10 years old. When I got to senior school I hung out with a group of mates who loved horror movies and books and then discovered James Herbert. His writing sealed the horror deal for me and I’ve never looked back. My taste has changed a little bit as I’ve got older and now I read and also blog about Historical Fiction, particularly if it’s dark and gothicy, Literary Fiction, I just love QUALITY writing, anything that is a bit weird, twisted or questionable piques my interest. I also love a bit of True Crime, I like my reads a bit grisly, shall we say! But, above all, my first love is horror. I love to be thrilled and scared (and sometimes shocked and disgusted 😂). 


What are your favourite books?

The Hobbit by Tolkien. All of James Herbert's books will be my life-long favourites. I’ll give a special mention to every Sarah Waters novel, also A M Homes and her ability to shock, and Beth Underdown for her gorgeous prose and very clever and magical story-telling. 



What are your 3 top reads from the last year?

I’m a huge supporter of Indie authors and a stand out book for me this year is Immortelle by Catherine McCarthy. Catherine’s writing sings to me, she writes horror, but it’s gentle, quiet and creeps right into the bones. There’s a beauty in horror stories, and she does it so well. 
Next, it’s another horror, The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward blew my mind. I tell everyone to read it. It’s dark, twisted and the big reveals we’re enormous. Massive! I was speechless on finishing. It took me a while to get my brain in gear to review it, because it had such a WOW factor for me. My third choice is Alice Jolly’s Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile. A recommendation from BookTwitter and I can honestly say it is the most unique, spell-binding historical fiction tale I’ve ever read. Jolly wrote this story in poetic style without the use of punctuation. That’s right, no full stops, commas, speech marks, nothing. Sounds mad yes?! It took a few pages to get used to, but once the story and characters grabbed me (and boy, did they?!!) I devoured it. It made me cry, and that never happens. 


Which part of having the blog do you love the most?

I love everything about it, as I enjoy sharing my thoughts about what I read. The main thing I get from it personally though is when someone has read one of my reviews and then they go and buy the book. It is so very satisfying. I like to think I help do my bit for authors and publishers by sharing the book love. Particularly when they’re Indie authors/publishers. 



Where did the blog name come from?

My Mum was quite a reader and I got my love of stories from her. She was also passionate about wildlife and birds, especially owls. Me being the pun-lover I am thought I’d incorporate Owls with reading and came up with OwlBeSatReading as my blog name and social media handles. I’d like to think it’s quite unique, and it means a lot to me. 


What do you love most about books?

Escapism, mainly. But also I get a huge amount of enjoyment from authors who write with a difference, quirky styles, (see Alice Jolly!) The witty and wordsmithing antics of Sir Terry Pratchett is an armchair travel fun guarantee for me as well. 



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