Quick reading recap: I finished Genesis by Bernard Beckett and Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver last weekend – reviews to come soon – but the rest of my reading week has been awfully slow. And now the Olympics are on and I tend to become obsessed with them and leave everything else behind, which anyone who follows me on twitter has already figured out. But I’m enjoying The Unnamed and hope to at least finish that today.
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On to my curiosity. On Friday, I was telling someone at work that I was going to New York in May. She asked why, so I went into the whole book blogging/BEA explanation. Then I realized that I haven’t really discussed the fact that I blog with anyone at work in the past. I’m not sure if this is a conscious decision or it just doesn’t come up.
My question to you: How many of you other bloggers share your blog with the people in your “real” world? Do you tell everyone or keep your blogging identity a secret?
I do share it with a few people. My parents know about it (but I don’t think they read it), some real* people I’m friends with on twitter have obviously figured it out, and I know some of my friends do read it (hi Susan, hi Erin, hi Lisa). I’m not trying to hide anything – a quick google search and a couple clicks could bring you here easily. But I don’t have this site on my facebook page and was recently pondering whether I should or not.
Leave your thoughts in the comments – I’m super curious about this one. And if any of my real life friends and family are reading this, say hi in the comments as well!
*I mean no offense by the term “real”, it is simply an easy way to distinguish people I know online and people I know in person. I realize my online friends are also real people and I know some of you better than I know a lot of the people I interact with in person.
my books. my life. 
My real life people know about my blog but I think the only one that reads it is my best friend. I can’t imagine my blog’s that interesting if you don’t like books or movies, so I don’t really discuss it with people.
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I imagine that’s true. Only other readers would really enjoy reading what I have to say. Luckily there are lots of us to read each others’ blogs. 🙂
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I do share my blog with friends, but I think only one friend reads it. I’m grateful for other bloggers, I love reading what everyone else is reading!
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Yes – I’d probably have 2 readers if not for other book bloggers.
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My friends know about my blogs and I have a link on my facebook page, but the main reason I blog is that they are simply not that interested in books and I had to find online people to finally discuss books 🙂
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Interesting.
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I have kept my blogging private with the exception of one good friend. I like the idea of blogging with less inhibitions – I am sure I will eventually let more people in my “real” life know.
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That’s how I originally felt but as time goes on, more and more people find out about it.
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I am one of Michelle’s real life friends. Just saying hi!!
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Hi Lisa!
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I’ve told friends about it, but they read it once then don’t read it again. I’ve stopped telling them about it, because it’s just something they don’t get, which is okay. 🙂
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I think that happens with some people I tell about it. They’ll take a look but won’t stick with it. And I definitely understand that “just something they don’t get” sentiment.
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I’m a secret blogger. Only my husband knows and I once got mad at him because he said, “You have a blog?” So I’m guessing he doesn’t read it.
I’d be too self-conscious if everyone I knew read it.
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Wow – you’re super secret then. My husband definitely knows about my blog because I end up talking about it a lot. And I know he reads it.
I don’t feel too self-conscious because I still have the security of sitting behind a computer. I just know not to post things that I wouldn’t like people to discover.
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I wasn’t being secretive with my husband.lol I talked about reviewing books & talking to people on the internet but I don’t think he realized it was on a blog. That part went right over his head.
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*waves* to Michelle’s “real” friends!
I have to admit I’m one of those bloggers who holds that part of her life very close to the vest. My parents know about it but my brother and sister do not. My brother mainly because he couldn’t care less so there isn’t any need to share and my sister because once I tell her she’ll want to do it too and it would become more about her and helping her than about me and enjoying it.
I certainly don’t mention it at work or with colleagues. The reason for this is two fold. I don’t mention anything to colleagues mainly because I don’t feel it appropriate for them to have any glimpse into my personal life. Work is work. Second my employer has a very stringent policy on how our personal lives affect work and their reputation so I wouldn’t want to have to have my blog scrutinized and ultimately have to make the choice between work and blogging.
In the end I would definitely tell family members or friends about my blog if I felt it would enhance those relationships but ultimately most wouldn’t understand it and I don’t feel like I need to add another thing in my life I need to explain to people, haha.
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Ditto on the explaining things part, Michelle.
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I think it’s something everyone has to decide. You’ve obviously considered the reasons you blog secretly.
I think I’ll probably end up telling my boss about it when I explain my absence for BEA. But I work in a small office and have a pretty open/relaxed relationship with my coworkers.
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I’ve told a lot of my real life friends about my blog, but only a few of them are interested in it. Since you’ve read The Unnamed, you should consider signing up for The Reagan Arthur Books Challenge. It’s all about reading great books, so there are no deadlines or set number of books to read.
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I might just do that. If all the other books are as good as this one, that challenge is definitely worth pursuing.
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Mine isn’t a secret. I’m working part-time in the media and am looking for fulltime jobs in either the media, publishing, legal and government areas. Apparently in the media industry its important to be googlable, so that’s why I’ve included my full name so that my blog comes up when I’m googled. But at the same time I don’t have my blog on facebook because I don’t want everyone on there to have the opportunity to trawl through it. I wouldn’t mind telling a few of my close friends about it, but I haven’t gotten around to it.
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I think that’s similar to how I feel. I don’t care who finds it really, but I don’t really want to necessarily lead a lot of my facebook friends here.
I love that you used the word “googlable”.
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I’ve told people about my blog, but most of my friends don’t read, or if they do read, it’s not in any of the genres I review on my blog. Most of them have no idea what book blogging is, they seem to think that blogging is still Livejournal stuff where you keep an online diary and tell all your secrets online. So even though I’ve mentioned it to them, it’s not very interesting to them. My family reads my blog every now and again but since it’s just books, they don’t find it interesting either.
I have mentioned blogging on my resume, that way people know I’m good at social media and stuff
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I think that’s true – that most people don’t understand book blogging and probably don’t care about the books I’m reading.
I could never put it on a resume (the nature of my work), but I’ve already been deemed Director of New Media based solely on my age.
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I do share my blog with “real” people in my life then I tend to be bummed if they don’t read the blog. Then I realize I kind of like to keep it separate. Basically, I can’t decide. I know that doesn’t help. I think my brother and a couple friends read it occasionally and it’s fun when they tell me about a review they’ve read.
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Very few IRL people know about my book blog. My mom knows and has visited a couple of times, but that’s it. I don’t talk to IRL people about it (few people I know like to read as much as I do), and I don’t talk about it with my hubby much at all (he would not understand, and thinks my time spent online is a time-suck), though we do talk about new books, etc. He knows I like to talk about books online, but he doesn’t really know details. I know that sounds extremely sad, but he shuns the internet and doesn’t understand why I’d rather read and blog instead of watching TV and going to bed early every evening. 😛
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It hasn’t really come up w/ most of my face-to-face friends, but none of them are big readers either. My parents and sister know about it, but none of them read it regularly I don’t think. I’m sure it’d be easy enough for someone who knows me face-to-face to stumble across it, though-between vlogs and my personal posts, I don’t try to hide my identity!
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Interesting post! Some of my face-to-face friends know about my blog and they occasionally peep in to see what I have written. But most of my friends don’t read much and so I don’t think any of them looks at it regularly. A couple of my friends looked at my blog and got inspired and started their own blogs, but I haven’t seen regular posts from them.
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I kept it a secret from co-workers and really anyone but my closest friends and immediate family. Recently, I urged a co-worker to join Ravelry.com, and they found my blog from there. Now that I have moved to WordPress and mainly blog about reading and running, I don’t really care who reads it. When I was on Vox, I got very political and ranty sometimes and I don’t want people I work with to find those. Nothing would have gotten me in trouble, but I just liked keeping it secret.
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I’m trying to be less personal on wordpress than I was on vox as well. It makes me more comfortable with anyone finding it.
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My blog (this one at least, less so for my Vox blog) used to be more for people I did know in real life more than anything, because I set it up for a reading challenge that I was doing and I needed a place for people who were supporting me to track me. Now that I’m past the end of the challenge, I think it’s more for the online book community and few friends in real life who like to read. Like you, I’m try to be more personal on Vox and less personal on my wordpress blog. 🙂
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Michelle I am so proud of you. I just don’t know where you get the time to do all the things in your life. I went on to your webpage
my books. my life. I am reading some of it I will visit it again,
I find it interesting .I look forward to my next visit!!!
Love Dad
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Hi dad!
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This is funny b/c it just happened to me the other day at work too. I don’t tell people at work about though because they don’t really get the love for reading, etc. and would completely judge me for blogging about books. I have made it a conscious goal, though, for me to start being real about stuff. So maybe sometime soon it will be less secret for me. But for now, only a few people know I blog (parents, sister, and husband).
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