About Me

Hello you, and welcome to my little cosy corner on the internet! My name is An (pronounced more or less like “ahn”) and I’m a thirty-something stay-at-home mom from Belgium. I love reading AND I love writing, so what better way to combine those two than with a book blog? And working on this blog gives me some well-earned me-time in between taking care of our precious daughter, chasing two furry rascals off the furniture, and trying to keep our home clean (why are household chores never truly done?!).

So who am I?

Some random facts about me:

  • Lord of the Rings, Outlander and Daughter of the Forest are my favourite books of all time
  • As a kid I adored Matilda (and yes, of course I tried to move objects by staring at them!)
  • My favourite food is either pizza or french fries
  • I don’t drink coffee, but love hot chocolate and tea

I’ve always been a big fan of books and reading. In fact, when I try to come up with some of my earliest memories, going to the library is definitely one of them. I would spend hours exploring the children’s books section and trying to convince the librarian to let me take home more books. Only five books per person per visit? Not enough, amirite?!

As a child, I was either exploring magical worlds through the pages of a book, or dressing up and turning our living room (or my grandparents’ backyard) into an imaginary king- queendom. But then secondary school got me. Suddenly, there were mandatory reading lists and text analyses of literary works. Alright yes, the author might have been an important voice 50 years ago, but honestly, it’s just booooring.

And just like that, my love for reading vanished. Books became a chore and teachers gave me the feeling that grown-ups had to read these literary works. Fantasy and adventure novels were frowned upon. So for the next couple of years, I rarely touched a book for fun.

Until the year 2011, when I found myself in the middle of a severe depression.

Back then, I barely got out of bed in the morning, and it was an achievement if I managed to get dressed. I wanted to lock myself away from the world outside and that’s what made me pick up a book again. A fantasy novel, of course, since it was escapism I was looking for. And then I just didn’t stop reading anymore, apart from the occasional reading slump.

You know what helped me do that? Realizing that all those teachers with their boring capital-L-literature books were wrong. Reading should be about having fun, and whether you enjoy fantasy, science-fiction, horror, or romance, IT’S. ALL. GOOD.

So I decided that I would just read whatever the hell I wanted to. And I think you should too.

Which brings me to the two-fold reason I started Traversing Chapters. This blog isn’t just to document my own reading journey. Oh no. It’s also to help you, fellow reader, discover books you might enjoy.

What can you expect from my blog?

Enough about me, let’s talk about this blog! My main focus are fantasy and science-fiction stories, with an occasional foray into romance novels. I tend to gravitate towards Young Adult books because that age category provides an astonishing diversity in stories and voices (although we always need even more. Looking at you, publishing world!). And as someone who has always struggled to find her place in this world, I adore how that theme often pops up in YA stories.

Now that you know what kind of books you can expect me to write about, you probably want to know *HOW* I write about them, right?

Well, through book reviews of course, that is the first and most obvious answer. The last couple of years, I usually read about 40 to 45 books per year. That translates to almost one review per week. With the added caveat that since I became a mom recently, I’m not sure how many books I’ll manage to read in the near future.

But that’s not all! You can also find all sorts of lists here. From the recurring Top Ten Tuesday lists to other (random) book tags, Traversing Chapters is the place to be.

And some of my favourite posts to write are the monthly overviews of new books you can buy. I love gathering all the info about these upcoming books and then picking the ones I’m most excited about. So if you’re overwhelmed at the sight of all those fresh YA novels each month, look no further!

Feel free to dive into everything this little blog of mine has to offer, add me on one of my many social media: Goodreads, The Storygraph, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and even a mostly defunct Instagram account (more on that here). And of course drop a comment to say hi!