[Guest: Phyllis Helton] Behind the “Reads”

I started reading almost before I could walk.

Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but according to my mom, I was more than happy crawling well past the age when I should have been walking. Also according to my mom, I taught myself to read when I was very young, making my statement almost true.

I have read countless stories and believe they have helped me to understand people better and (hopefully) be more patient and compassionate towards those around me.

As an avid reader, my worldview has been formed largely through the books I have read over the years. From biographies of Christians who have poured their lives out for our Savior, to fictional accounts of adventure, love, hope, and redemption, I have read countless stories and believe they have helped me to understand people better and (hopefully) be more patient and compassionate towards those around me.

My reading life changed dramatically when I got my first Kindle. Prior to that time, my book budget allowed me a new book or two or three per month. So I read, re-read, and re-re-read my books. With the advent of eBooks in my life, I found countless books for free or for a very low price and quickly found that I could read a new book every day if I wanted. And I wanted!

As I amassed new books, I discovered some amazing authors everyone should know about, and I discovered some that need never give up their day jobs.

As I amassed new books, I discovered some amazing authors everyone should know about, and I discovered some that need never give up their day jobs. At that point in time, I was keeping track of the books and authors on Goodreads but wasn’t writing reviews. Frankly, it hadn’t even occurred to me to write them.

Fast forward several years and a thousand books read. I had now subscribed to mailing lists for several dozen authors and discovered some of them offer pre-release copies of their books to people willing to post reviews. I gladly began accepting those books and writing my two sentence reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.

After another couple of years, my husband came across an article about Christians making an income from blogging. He was considering starting a blog, though he really had no topic in mind. Then about a month later, I had an epiphany. I should start a book review blog!! After all, I had lots of books I could write reviews for and was always reading new ones. Plus, because I had spent time compiling lists of great authors and those who are not as good, I could help people find amazing books to read.

My husband and I brainstormed blog names and taglines and came up with “Among the Reads” “Drawing treasures from a sea of words”. The fun part then was coming up with a header image. Not content to just have my blog name in a fancy font, again my husband and I brainstormed and came up with the header I use today, of a woman drawing books out of a word-cloud “sea” with famous first lines of books. With a net. (And thus I selected a “dot net” for my site instead of “dot com”.)

My goal for the blog is to be a ministry to authors and readers alike. The books that I review are a combination of ones by independent authors who often sell their books for a dollar or two and those by traditionally published authors selling their books for full price. While I read books that are both Christian and secular, all have to meet my criteria for being a “clean read” – and I try to highlight any concerns about language or subject matters that might be a problem.

With a goal to match readers with authors and books, there are several ways readers can filter to find treasures on my site. I have a few ideas for improving this process and hope to have time to implement them relatively soon.

My blog posts have evolved over the year and a half my blog has been in existence. I cringed recently when I went back and looked at my first review. I like to think that I have improved quite a bit in what I share and how I write my posts.

I know that it is important to my readers for me to be honest and I know it is important to the authors for me to be kind.

One thing you can always expect from my blog is for the posts to be bathed in prayer. I do try to pray before writing any reviews and in determining the ratings. I know that it is important to my readers for me to be honest and I know it is important to the authors for me to be kind. So I am always working to keep that balance.

My favorite part of the blog posts is sharing quotes from the books. As I read, I highlight passages that stand out and then create quote images to include in the posts and to share on social media. Some authors drive me crazy because they have so many quotable quotes it is hard to pick only a dozen or two!

I do hope you will stop by and visit me at AmongTheReads.net and spend some time exploring and finding some of the treasures I share. If you do stop in, please take a moment and leave a comment to let me know you came by!

Phyllis can be found online at amongTheReads.net and on social media as @amongTheReads.