Who I Am

Hey everyone. My name is Danielle. If you've come to this page then let me say, thank you! Thank you for reading my blog and for taking the time to get to know me a bit more. I want to get to know you more too so never hesitate to comment on my posts and give your opinion. I would love to have a conversation with you! Here is what you need to know about my blog. The Reader is primarily about, what else, READING. Hense the completely original never before seen title...
While books are at the heart of this blog, I also aim to build off of what books offer us. Books challenge our minds and help us think critically. Naturally I think critically about many elements in my life and try to write about it all on this blog. I am a Christian so you can see my worldview mixed into my posts. I'm also a big fan of Disney so that'll be on here too. I post a blog every second Tuesday of the month and on the last Tuesday of every month I post an episode of my podcast called The Gourmet Reader where I discuss books even more! If you want to check out all the other projects I am involved in, just look at the side columns of this blog. I am on a Disney podcast called Talk Disney to Me and I also have a Disney blog called Disney Danielle. In addition I have another podcast called Saint Saviour that discusses the BBC2 TV Show, Rev.
Thanks for stopping by! I look forward to having you over many times to come! Cheers!

How was this blog conceived? - In the Spring Semester of my junior year in college, January 2012, I took a class titled Writing and Computers and it was a requirement to make a blog.  Our blog needed a focus and needed to be updated consistently throughout the semester.  At first I could not decide on a focus for my blog.  The first theme that came to mind was writing but I had already tried to make writing blogs in the past and found I didn't enjoy the experience very much.  I needed a new topic.  It eventually came to me that since I was going to participate in the challenge to read 50 books in 2012, my blog focus could be reading.  I would post book reviews for each book I read.  The thought was very intimidating because I never thought of myself as someone who would write book reviews but after the first few, I grew to love it!  I ended up reading 58 books.  Although the challenge is over, I still try to read as many books as I can every year.  I don't view it as a challenge anymore because I am at a place in my life where I have a lot of other things to focus on such as work, family, podcasts, my own writing, and much much more.  Reading is a huge part of my life.  I've loved reading ever since I was a toddler.  I hope that comes across when you visit my blog!