54 THE QUEENS COURIER • BUZZ • MAY 20, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
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Bayside resident turns love of reading into popular ‘bookstagram’
BY JENNA BAGCAL
jbagcal@schnepsmedia.com
@jenna_bagcal
When Bayside resident Robyn Bonavita
started her “bookstagram” — a portmanteau
of the words “book” and “Instagram”
— she gained about 1,000 followers in her
fi rst month.
Now, Bonavita, also known as @Robyn_
Reads1, has amassed a following of more
than 5,250 fellow book lovers and voracious
readers who enjoy her honest
approach to book reviews.
“I try and do my page a little bit different
than a lot of bookstagram pages
because I try to be really true to my personality,”
she said. “I don’t have an eye for
aesthetics, I can’t set up a pretty pillow and
make it look like a studio shot. I just post
funny book memes and I post my reviews
with my real, honest opinions. I really try
and engage with the other people that are
on bookstagram. It seems to be working.”
She started the account as a way to
rediscover herself in the midst of COVID-
19 and being a mother to two young children.
Th e book reviewer told QNS that
running the account has helped her stay
true to her own interests and “not follow
what everyone else is doing.”
“Starting this bookstagram has just
opened up a whole new part of me and
it made me feel like myself again. I followed
my heart for the fi rst time in a really
long time,” Bonavita said.
Growing up, the lifelong Bayside resident
shared that both of her parents were
“huge readers” and their quality time as a
family centered on making regular trips to
bookstores or the library. Since her family
did not own a car at the time, Bonavita
and her father would walk about a mile to
the nearest library on Saturdays.
“Th ere’s a 25 book maximum that you
could take out and every week I would
take out the 25 books,” Bonvita said. “My
dad always encouraged it, he always
wanted me reading as much as possible
and we would read together all the time.”
Long before starting her Instagram
account, Bonavita reviewed books for
print magazines like RT Book reviews,
which became defunct as the internet
grew in popularity.
Th ese days, she still considers herself a
professional book reviewer since publishers
regularly send her books to read.
“Th ere’s this thing called NetGalley and
it’s where you go on and you request the
books that you want to read from the publishers.
If the publisher likes your credentials,
they approve you for the book. Now
that’s what I’m doing. Because I am on bookstagram
and I’m writing the honest reviews,
I have authors reaching out to me asking me
to review their books,” Bonavita said.
When reading a book she intends to
review, Bonavita said that the fl ow of the
story is the most important feature she
looks for.
“If I can put a book down and
not think about it and not want
to pick it up, then I know there’s
a problem. For me, the fl ow
is everything about a book
because I don’t want to be
slogging through it, I want
to be excited to pick it up
again,” she said.
Second to story fl ow is
character development
and she said that good
stories have characters
who are “fl eshed out.”
“I can not like a
character, that’s
totally fi ne, as long
as they’re a real
person to me. I
want to know
b a c k s t o -
ry, I want
to know
w h y
t h e
character is the way they are. If you give
me that, I’m happy.”
At the time of the interview, Bonavita said
that she had read 32 books since January
and she was on track to read between
120 and 125 books for 2021. Some of her
favorite authors to read include Karin
S l a u g h t e r ,
T a y l o r
Jenkins Reid, Jude Deveraux, Jennifer
Crusie and Lisa Lutz.
She said that her love of reading is something
she got to share with her daughters.
“I have two daughters, one is 3, so she
just sits there and fl ips through the books
and pretends she’s reading. But my 7 year
old loves books, so we try to have reading
time every single day where we all sit
on the couch and we read our books. Her
teachers are always telling me how much
she loves reading and how well she’s doing
with it,” Bonavita said.
Her advice for those who want to start
reading when they have not found
books they enjoy is “don’t stop.” She
suggests aspiring readers to try different
genres and authors in order to
fi nd something that interest them.
I personally have started to believe
that you can’t fi nish every book. If
you don’t like the book, just stop,”
Bonvita said. “Th ere’s so many good
books out there, don’t waste your
time. If you’re not feeling it by page
100, you’re probably not going to.
I always say, ‘what are your interests?’
because once you know what
your interests are, you can fi nd that
and translate that to book form.”
Find Bonavita on her Instagram page
@Robyn_Reads1.
Photo courtesy of Robyn Bonavita
2022
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