She's a Saudi who lives in Dubai. She's happiest when she's in the presence of black coffee and a thriller novel. She goes by Halo on her social media account, a nickname bestowed upon her by her husband. Why? Because she worked hard to create a like-minded community, focused on her blog about books, not herself. The main idea of Halo's library is to "help motivate others to read."
"We live in the age of social media and most of what I see in the region here is more fashion related content," Halo expressed. And so the Instagram account, Halo's Library, was born. The account has brought together "fellow readers, bookworms, and people who want to start reading." In addition, Halo writes book reviews for those thinking about what to read next.
In a world full of staring at your phone, Halo wanted to connect with like minded people all over the world. The main focus of the handle are dark novels, dark enough to match the coffee consumed. Thrillers are Halo's favorite genre. She used to read full novels, aloud to her family "in one sitting."
In 2012, Halo was working in DC and had discovered black coffee. Baked and Wired was where she became hooked, and since then, Halo cannot read a thriller without a cup of joe in her hand.
Spotlighting a favorite author is the tricky for a bookworm, one thing Halo and I definitely agree on. "I have many," Halo responded. "But what I will say is the author that got me into fiction thrillers, who is one of my all time favorites as I have literally read every single book of his...is Harlan Coben!"
Halo attributes Coben as the reason why she "fell in love with dark/thriller fiction." Coben has impacted Halo in positive ways, opening her up to other authors out there who specialize in thrillers. "I would love to meet him one day and thank him in person," Halo says of Coben.
Halo doesn't consider herself a writer, but she has hopes of one day publishing her own thriller (with an idea in mind). A novel to match all those books she became so emotionally connected to. Authors have caught on to Halo's Instagram and have even reached out to Halo. "Authors are my celebrities! A few do comment on the pictures I post of their books, some have sent me direct messages, and others have followed me."
Followers have begun to recommend books to Halo and she loves the fan suggestions. Halo has Amazon deliver books all the way to Dubai, many of which are fan recommendations.
But even dark novel fanatics have to have that one book that scares them. "IT," by Stephen King is the one that freaked out Halo. "I am terrified of clowns! But other than that most of the books fascinate me more than scare me."
Halo wasn't able to give me her top three favorite books, deeming the question "impossible to answer."
You can check out book recs on Instagram @Haloslibrary
Shout out to Harlan Coben for inspiring readers all over the world.