Creator, writer and editor of What Makes You Curious. This project started in April 2018 with the hopes to spread information in an entertaining and easy to learn format through articles and hopefully videos in the future. The website name “What Makes You Curious” was chosen because of my daily shower thoughts and musings, which led me to think that I couldn’t be the only one who is curious about random things in the world.

In 2020, I realized that my love (plus marriage to and obsession) for books was the way that I wanted to share what made me curious. I will mostly be doing book reviews and other book related posts on this website/blog. But I hope this inspires you to find what feeds your own curiosity, imagination, and creativity.

MY STORY

In 2018, I had a dream to get into the blogging sphere (as a means to solely make money). I was (am) broke and desperate. I wanted quick money. So I purchased my own domain and was really excited to create content that will start earning me passive income.

I racked my brain for topics that I could focus on for my blog. It was DIFFICULT. I had too many topics I was interested in. No focus. No direction. I was absolutely confused as a “blogger” so I never put in effort into actually writing content. Just gave myself a lot of pressure, stress and anxiety for about 3 years.

They say “you’ll figure it out along the way”. I guess they weren’t wrong. I DID figure it out eventually (in January 2021 in fact!). Reading through others’ blogs helped me better understand what topics I kept returning to.

Thus, my decision to focus on book-related topics (for the most part) came to be! And I was so excited! My blog had purpose for the first time. This only came to be because I stopped focusing on my blog as a “money maker” (Uhhh, *spoiler alert* I make no money on this blog.) and started using it as a sanctuary to express myself. I was inspired by other bloggers who loved sharing their opinions on certain books they read. And I thought, hell yeah I wanted to do that too!

*Please note that all books I review are not sponsored or given to me for free by the author/publisher/company. I purchase the books myself or borrow from the library, friends and family and read through it completely before giving my thoughts about it. All the book reviews I’ve done are based off my own personal opinion.

How I Review Books I Have Read

I don’t know about you, but I feel like having all the information in the world at our fingertips isn’t so great all the time. We always want that instant response, knowledge, gratification. For me, this (rant) is about books – mostly. I love reading and I wanted to start writing book reviews as a way to archive the progress I’ve made on my goal to increase my reading. Like a personal-not-so-personal-because-it’s-online diary. 

However, sometimes I see a book that I feel I’d be interested in and BAM, the rating for the book comes up. Now, even though I tend to avoid giving too much power over the rating determining how I, personally, will respond to the book, it’s hard at times to avoid letting that 3 star or 5 star, okay more like 4.8 star rating, (posted literally everywhere as soon as you search the book) not influence your first impressions of the book or product. Thanks subconscious thoughts and conforming brain of mine.

Long story short (as you can already tell, I’m a long winded writer –and speaker), I wanted to write my thoughts and opinions on books, and maybe some other stuff, without a rating system. Because they’re my personal comments and maybe you’ll agree or disagree with some points. Either way I hope you gain some insight into the book through my review. 

My philosophy for reading: “Every book/story is worth the read. Someone took the time to write it.”

That being said, I’m only one person. Though it would be my heaven to just read or write all day and have money magically roll in to cover my expenses to live, I won’t have all the time in the world to read every single book. But I want to take the time to read and appreciate the things I do read.

Adopt and Rescue a Book!

As part of my environmentally-conscious efforts, I try to “adopt” books whenever I can. From used book shops, thrift stores, friends, family, neighbors, online, garage sales, etc. Lots of places to look for used books! They waiting for you to adopt them!

I consider myself a “book rescuer” – I adopt them and they now live in my home. This is my way of expressing my awareness of my consumer behavior. Just like I believe every story is worth the read (since someone out there wrote it), I believe that every physical book should have several chances to be enjoyed by people before it ultimately enters the book afterlife called “recycling”. Or if they’re really unfortunate, they’ll go to a dark and scary place of every book’s nightmares called “the landfill”.

PAPER PRODUCTION AND WASTE

1. Paper production uses lots of water, energy, and chemicals (like bleach). Paper has to use virgin fibers in order to make new paper. So even recycled paper requires virgin fibers, which means new trees are cut down to continue the paper production process. 
2. There is also tons of paper waste where used paper ends up in the landfill rather than being recycled.
3. Check out this eye-opening article on how our usage of paper effects the environment (*not sponsored by this company): Paper-Waste-Facts
4. Paper and the publishing industry (*not sponsored): https://bookriot.com/environmental-toll-of-paper-in-publishing/

BOOKS WANT TO BE READ

As much as these tough cookies like hanging out with other titles on a shelf at a warehouse or bookshop or chilling in someone’s forgotten box in their garage, books desire to snuggle up in your hands and be read! 

Adopt a book when you can! They’re excited to have you as their new guardian. Especially the ones who may be preparing for the book afterlife. Let them put another smile on someone’s face before the end of their journey.

So when you see the label below in any of my posts, the book I reviewed is an ADOPTED BOOK (AKA a used book). And I couldn’t be happier to have them with me!

POST SCHEDULE

Every Monday on the blog at 10 AM (PST), 1 PM (EST) or 5 PM (UCT)

The monthly schedule is posted every Sunday at 3 PM (PST) on Facebook so be sure to follow us there!

MY BLOG STYLE

• Honest (I write what I think or feel)
• Sarcastic (at times)
• Long-winded (I mean like writing essays when it should be the length of a Tweet)
• Stream of Consciousness (it’ll sometimes make you feel like you’re listening to my soliloquies)

I’ll add a warning before the posts (i.e. mature content in article – mention of strong language/violence/drugs/adult content; spoiler warnings, etc.)