About

Looking for how to get in touch with me? Head on over to my contact page.

So I’m guessing you’ve come to this page for one of two reasons 1) you want to know what on earth RobAroundBooks is all about, or 2) you want to know who on earth this guy Rob is i.e. that guy gawping at you from the picture on the right.

I’m guessing you’re mainly here for the first reason, because it’s infinitely more interesting than the second, so I’ll begin with that!

What’s RobAroundBooks?
The best way I can think of describing RobAroundBooks is to call it a celebration of everything bookish. That may sound a lot grander than it’s meant to, but in all honesty that’s what I feel the essence of this place is all about. I love books, any books and anything about books, and this is the corner of the Internet that I now use to vent about books and to share whatever bookish nuggets I can find worthy of sharing with others.

I used to do all of my ‘book talk’ on my more general blog, but such is my passion for books that having it all mixed up in amongst mundane tales of my daily life, wasn’t doing it justice. I also have passion for showing recognition to those who inspire me, and on my general blog this was a difficult thing to achieve when my reverence for other readers and writers was quickly buried in the eclectic mish-mash of ‘everything and the kitchen sink’.

RobAroundBooks is purely related to books and writing and I hope it’s fairly straightforward in its presentation. The main focus is on me talking about books from my lowly, unqualified perspective, but it’s not just about that. It’s also about me sharing what knowledge I can with other readers and writers (although please note, at this juncture I in no way consider myself competent enough to be labeled as a writer), and for other readers and writers to hopefully reciprocate. I guess what I really want RobAroundBooks to be is a warm friendly place where everyone who comes here feels welcome and comfortable enough to interact. ‘Ideal world’ scenario maybe, but you can’t knock a guy for hoping )

Categories Explained
The key to RobAroundBooks is probably the categories so it may be of some value to quickly run through them and explain what each one is:

Book News – Pretty self-explanatory, this is the category that provides any significant ‘book world’ news.
Rob’s Reading Life – This category is for anything related generally to my reading life. It’s not so much to do with what I’m reading, that’s covered in a more specific category, it’s more to do with bookish news directly related to me i.e. I bought a new reading chair yesterday (I wish), I won a book competition (I wish even more) etc.
What’s Rob Reading? – This is the category that deals more specifically with what I’m reading at any given time. With my 50 Novel reading challenge running right now there will be a slight category clash (as I have a specific category for that challenge) but generally this category covers the up-to-date specifics on what I’m reading.
50 Novels in One Year – This is currently my biggest reading project, it’s the reading focus I’m talking about the most right now, and so I feel it’s worthy of its own category. The ‘master list’ for the challenge can be found here.
Afterthoughts – This is my posh name for reviews, although it’s not really posh at all. I just don’t consider myself in any way qualified enough to call what I do ‘reviews’, so I prefer instead to call them afterthoughts. On the face of it though it’s exactly the same thing
Others Talking Books – This is a very important category for me because I love talking about other people, especially when those ‘other people’ are talking about books. These ‘other people’ could be anyone from prestigious book journalists to lit bloggers like me.
Featured Articles – Occasionally I pull out the stops and spend more time than usual writing a specific article on a specific aspect of books and/or writing. These are more detailed than my general posts, and they are presented in a much more formal way.
Site News – Again, pretty self-explanatory this is the category where I file any news relating to RobAroundBooks.com such as site changes, updates, problems (hopefully none) etc.
Books on my Shelves – This is a category that focuses on the books I have on my shelf. The form of the posts filed under this category focuses either on detailing books I’ve bought or mooched, or on some of the favourite books on my bookshelves. Quite a fun category, this is where my passion for books may well demonstrate itself the most.
Rob’s Reader of the Week – Despite it’s low placing in this run-down, this is one of the most important categories for me. It’s the feature I use to highlight, interview and revere fellow readers who have in some way inspired me. If you only follow one thing on RobAroundBooks then I urge you to make it this. These reader interviews offer incredibly insights into other reader’s lives and they’re full of tips and inspiration
Writers & Writing – This website isn’t solely about books. it’s also about the people who write them and the craft they use to get the job down.
Learning the Craft – Finally, although it isn’t visible yet, is the category I use to file anything on my own personal journey to learning the craft of writing. So anything I’ve learned about writing, any specific writing-related books I’ve read, details of my progress in NaNoWriMo etc.

That’s about all I can think of saying right now in relation to RobAroundBooks so I’ll eave it at that. If you have any questions about or problems with the site or generally want to harass me (hopefully not though) then head along to my contact page

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Who’s Rob?
Well quite simply I’m one of these book-sniffing weirdos that loves to be surrounded by dead trees. Considering in every other aspect of my life I try to live as paperlessly as possible, that’s a contradiction in terms. However, despite trying to read as paperlessly as possible (two and a half of my four recent years at university were almost entirely paperless – and that’s in a book-heavy history-based degree), physical books are an indulgence I find difficult to give up, and ultimately my love for books has me keeping well-stocked, mainly 2nd-hand filled bookshelves in my home.

As I’ve said before I love books but until recently I had a real aversion towards reading anything fictional. I’ve always read non-fiction, copious amounts of it, but that changed earlier in the early summer of 2008 when I decided I wanted to improve my writing (mainly at first to enter the 2008 NaNoWriMo challenge) and the best way I thought of doing that was to launch myself on a fiction reading quest, mainly through a ’50 novels in one year’ reading challenge. That single quest has already completely changed my entire attitude around books and reading. Although non-fiction will probably always occupy the biggest part of my heart, a dark corner is newly alighted with a real passion for fiction.

So who’s the real Rob outside of his bibliophile guise? Well I’m in my early 40s (yikes!), I’m married, have two amazing, but hormonal teenage daughters, and we all live happily (most of the time) in the most beautiful place on the planet – Scotland. I spent almost half of my life working in retail, before going away and getting myself educationally ‘improved’.

After completing a Multimedia Development course at Falkirk College, I went on and gained a Bachelor’s degree in the same subject at Napier University in Edinburgh. More recently I’ve just completed a Master’s degree at the University of St. Andrews in Medieval History and Archaeology. Attaining this final degree has been my proudest and most remarkable moment – but now my head hurts ) I’m now in the process of hunting for the elusive ‘perfect job’.

Again if you want to contact me for any reason (but especially if you’re offering me that ‘perfect job’ )) then head along to my contact page