Eating Exploring Reading
Why Owls, Bees and Reading?
In order to celebrate the first milestone of Owl.Bee.Reading – the fact that we reached 100 followers on Instagram 🎉 – I’ve decided the time has come for some explanation. Sure, for many bookstagrammers having 100 people following them is not a lot but to me it means a lot. So, a massive THANK YOU for sticking around, I hope you enjoy today’s blog post.
🦉🐝📚
What is the reason behind choosing this name for my blog, you may have wondered. Why owls, bees and reading? Here comes the because.
Owls?
I like the quietness and consider myself a night owl. I’ve always felt drawn to owls and even though I’m terrified of birds, owls are the only ones that I can tolerate, how weird is that? For one of my birthdays, my sister got me one of the best gifts ever – she adopted an owl on my name! I even got to meet and hold the tiny creature (a beautiful barn owl), I met all the people who work in the rescue centre for wild animals and learned a lot about the whole process of taking care of them.
I love the whole perception that surrounds owls. They are creatures of the night, related to the darkness, the mysterious, the magical. They symbolise wisdom, keen observation, silence, ancient knowledge and the courage to explore the world under the cover of darkness. The secrets of the night are easily revealed to them, just as reading lets us peer into untold stories and uncharted ideas.
Bees?
Bees are hard working, loyal and I love the idea of how such a tiny little thing can be of a huge significance for the entire world – bees are crucial to the economy. They don’t just provide us with honey, we also need them to pollinate our crops, plants, wildflowers.
During the ages, bees have inspired many – ‘[f]rom pub signs and town names, from Shakespeare to JK Rowling, from beehive hair-dos to phrases like “having a bee in your bonnet” – the bee has been a star for centuries. Roman philosopher Pliny referred to honey as “the sweat of the heavens and the saliva of the stars”, while Medieval author and poet Chaucer was one of the first to use the phrase “busy as bees”. The bumblebee has always been a source of special delight because of its portly features and furry bottom. Mr Bumble in Oliver Twist and Dumbledore (a Cornish word for bumblebee) in Harry Potter suit their names well.’* Associated with the soul, bees also symbolise productivity, hard work, impeccable organization and strong work ethic.
Bees embody curiosity, community, and relentless work ethic. They flit from flower to flower, gathering nectar and spreading pollen – mirroring how readers collect insights from one book and share them with others. The buzzing hive is a network of voices, much like a reading community exchanging thoughts and recommendations.
Reading?
We’ve come to the last part of the name, the reading. That’s easy to explain. I’ve been reading books since I was six years old and I just think it’s one of the best things you could do for yourself – get some alone time, some ‘me time’, and read. Reading is the act of gathering knowledge nectar and cross-pollinating ideas. Each book offers a new bloom of insight, and your mind – like a garden – thrives when you tend it regularly. Whether you delve into fiction or non-fiction, the pages you turn become pollen grains carried by the wisdom of owls and the industrious spirit of bees.
I’m not going to list all the benefits of reading, as they are infinite and I’m sure you all know them very well but I’ll share some of my favourite quotes about reading instead:
The library is inhabited by spirits that come out of the pages at night.
Isabel Allende
Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.
Anna Quindlen
Maybe this is why we read, and why in moments of darkness we return to books: to find words for what we already know.
Alberto Manguel
I love books. I adore everything about them. I love the feel of the pages on my fingertips. They are light enough to carry, yet so heavy with worlds and ideas. I love the sound of the pages flicking against my fingers. Print against fingerprints. Books make people quiet, yet they are so loud.
Nnedi Okorafor
So, that’s the story behind the name. I wanted for it to have a hidden meaning but also to be fun. As you have probably noticed, when you say ‘owl bee reading’ out loud, it sounds a lot like ‘I’ll be reading’. The intentional use of homophonic words is a form of word play that exploits similar-sounding words for an intended humorous effect. It’s called paronomasia or the more common term is a pun. The wordplay invites readers to join me on a literary journey. I’ve combined these three elements – the owls (symbolising wisdom and thoughtful exploration), the bees (industry and community) and the reading (growth and personal enrichment) – in order to form a three-part ecosystem of continuous learning and create a narrative of an inquisitive mind, a supportive readership, and a lifelong pursuit of knowledge.
Also, I really like the shape of the honeycomb, so I definitely wanted to have that on my website. 😉 🍯
In case you need me… #owlbeereading!
* The facts are taken from this website.
