Braiden Asciak talks about Books and Aussie Bloggers: pt 1
Since I started Uni, I’ve begun to realise that going to a private all-boys school, one of the top academic schools in the state, was definitely a privilege. But when I actually attended school, it felt more of a demand. I was excited to attend this college, I really was. But the choices I made, and the things I did during my high school years made it just that little bit more grueling.
I used to be an avid reader when I was in Primary School. When friends were bringing in 100-page books with medium-sized font in Grade 1, I lugged along a 400+ page hardcover of Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace in my bag. I was just that type of kid. At that age I loved to read. I went to the library all the time, spending my days off reading, finishing off a book and diving straight into the next. My Godmother sent me the first two books of Harry Potter from London before they were released in Australia, and I devoured them. Then the buzz started and I felt happy that I had read them already. Grade 2 and 3 were filled with reading the books together in class although I had already, having a week dedicated to Harry, and going to watch the films. It was the life! And even the MS (Multiple Sclerosis) readathon was personal favourite.
But when year 7 hit, I fell into that gaming craze. I began playing World of Warcraft. I’ll admit it was addictive. Late nights playing online, my studies were left to the last minute; the only time to read was on the train, to and from school. I was glad my school had a good reading program for Years 7 and 8 in English where a class every week was dedicated to going into the library and reading, being tracked on our progress and the books we read. And still I played the silly games through to Year 9 and 10 where then I quit them, months later picking the old habits as I had nothing else to do in my spare time; reading had become a distant memory. Something I loved to do to escape and be immersed in was substituted by a game that had escape but in a more virtual sense, more social, less real.
It wasn’t until when Year 11 & 12 rolled around, my VCE, that I quit for good as I realized my wrongs. Those years spent on said games damaged my
growth as a student, and as someone who was creative in a way my family hadn’t seen before. I missed that opportunity to be great in my studies. I tried to regain that composure. And it wasn’t until a term into Year 12 where I found that passion of reading again. I missed that thrill.
Year 12 was so arduous that you can really lose yourself mentally and physically. In Psychology during the unit of memory, I was very interested in this story about Clive Wearing’s complete loss of memory, and his love for his wife Deborah. I thought that that would be a fabulous basis for a musical. So I went in search for Deborah Wearing’s memoir. I did find it in Borders, but as I searched in Angus & Robertson, I found myself immersed by all these books again. This distant memory of mine flooded me; it returned. I saw this title on the Adult shelves: it had a great cover, an interesting concept; it was Siege by Jack Hight. I read this book and absolutely loved it. From that moment I fell in love with reading again.
Although from then it was reading Adult Fiction, mostly True Crime like Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein and other Historical Fiction like Siege. And as I found myself submersed on eBay and in bookshops, I then found myself gravitating over to the Young Adult section. I didn’t care much for Twilight. To be honest, due to my absent years, I hadn’t known Twilight was really a book. Just shows how long I was gone from this world of reading.
Obviously, I came across The Hunger Games, and from then on my love for the Young Adult genre blossomed. I believe too somehow, that I was first introduced to a lot of the books in YA, acquiring a lot of my initial knowledge from YouTube. I can’t recall exactly whom it was that inspired me, but I had begun vlogging and reviewing on YouTube. I had a rough beginning as my first review for Halo got posted to Facebook, which caused a little stir in my confidence at school when many knew that I began doing this. But I kept going and stuck with it.
I believe I began vlogging from July/August, and it wasn’t until I found the world of blogging, the blogosphere, in December that I made that change, that transition, to go from talking to a camera, spending hours on end filming,, to blogging (although it still takes me hours on the end to just write a freaking review!).
Going from a small community on YouTube – which now has grown tremendously since the last time I was on there – to the big lights of the blogging community was daunting. It’s hard to make yourself visible out of the hundreds of blogs, and possibly thousands, that are out there, all to do with Young Adult in particular. I was lost. But I quickly found my group of blogging friends to rely on, some being watchers from YouTube. There was one little community that I found myself in immediately, a community that I belonged to. And that was a community of Aussie bloggers. It took time, but I got there.
Followers and friends may have lost me through my multiple changes of blog names, URLs, etc., but I continued to not lose them. And it’s hard to not lose them. We as Australian bloggers are so close you just wouldn’t believe it. I see some US bloggers interact with each other a lot, but they seem to be only in that symbiosis –mood when it relates to books. We Aussies on the other hand, talk about whatever comes to our mind, be it about books or anything else not to do with books, because of our closer proximity and smaller number of us.
There are so many bloggers that I love, vloggers too, but I just don’t want to name names. They have each influenced me, made me grow more confident as a blogger, as a writer, as a reader, as a person, an individual. They’re love for books has trickled their way into my own; forging bonds I could never have dreamt of. Many of us have come together to do things for others, i.e. Jess (SheKnownAsJess), Brodie (Eleusinian Mysteries), and Rachel (The Rest is Still Unwritten) doing You Give = We Give, an opportunity to use the Kmart Wishing Tree as a platform to share our love for reading with the less fortunate.
And it’s not just the blogger friends I have made, but those authors as well. Whether I talk to them only online, or I’ve met them physically and had my
books signed, I’ve had the pleasure to meet so many amazing people who have shaped me as a person even more. The generosity and kindness on what these book communities thrive on is a fabulous commodity for each one of us. I’ve had the chance to attend many book signings within the past year, a couple of book launches, some festivals, and of course even getting to interact with other authors and bloggers outside these bookish festivities and into a more social and friendlier setting. Thanks Marianne especially for that!
I am glad Fate, Good Fortune, the Spirits, the Gods, whatever you want to call it, brought me to the reality that I’m living now, to the life I want to continue, and the friendships I want to keep and cherish for my lifetime.
Blogging is tough, arduous, uninspiring. But when you do it for the love, and the fun of it, instead of the number of followers you have, you know you’ve found something special, a passion. A chance to dream.
As many of us are of similar age from 18-25, it makes it that much easier to interact with one another as we understand where we each are coming from.
I’m no sure if I’m including everyone but I’ll try my best. I know I’ll miss quite a bit but I’ll add my favourites I guess?
Jess SheKnownAsJess
Brodie Eleusinian Mysteries
Nomes Inkcrush
Skye In The Good Books
Erin Tales of the Inner Book Fanatic
Lisa Read Me Bookmark Me Love Me
Brittany Nice Girls Read Books
Kylie The Talking Teacup
Saskia & Ros Tea Mouse Book Reviews
Brent Demons Read Too
Lisa Badass Bookie
Cass Words On Paper
I know I’m missing a few, but trust me there are loads more of awesome Aussie bloggers. These ones above are just those that stand out to me at the moment as I’m writing this. You can possibly find many other blogs on this thread over at the Aussie Swap, here.
Braiden
