Hiatus and me: self-imposed pressure in the blogosphere

As some of you may have noticed, I ended up taking a hiatus (inadvertently, might I add) for most of February and March this year. This was due to a large number of factors, including stress about law school (by which I mean I was spending every free moment refreshing my application status checkers and checking r/lawschooladmissions to see which schools were sending waves of decisions), added responsibilities from my new position as a moderator in the TBR and Beyond Facebook group (big shoutout to everyone there–y’all are wonderful and I love it so much), general coronavirus anxiety (yeah, we’re all in that headspace now), and a family vacation to California (which was super fun until the coronavirus things started majorly blowing up during our last 2-ish days there, and then was a tad more stressful).

But there was one other thing that I think was keeping me from making blog posts, and it wasn’t just being generally busy, because let’s face it–even when I was really stressed and had a lot going on, I still had time to watch TV with my family, idly scroll through social media, and keep reading books. No, the real problem was that I was starting to dread making posts because of the time commitment involved.

It’s my 100th post! Wowee!

Did that sound sarcastic? It wasn’t meant to. I can’t believe I’ve made 100 posts on this site so far. So many hours of reading and writing for this fragile little flower of a blog, and it’s really starting to blossom.

Had to jump back and edit this right after getting this notification so I could add the picture!

New(ly repaired) heart, who dis?

Yes, last week I only posted twice. I swear, this was for good reason: I had heart surgery! And, though I knew about the procedure well in advance, the doctors called at the end of the week before to move it up by two days. I didn’t really have the time (or the content, if I’m being honest) to scrape together some pre-scheduled posts, and so, here we are instead.

December 2019 Wrap-Up

Yeah, yeah, we’re a solid 6 days into 2020 already, but I’ve had other posts for y’all. Now seemed as good a time as any to give a quick rundown on everything I read, posted, watched, and/or did last month.

December was a good month, reading-wise–between print and audio, I finished 12 books (even if two were fairly short). 7 of those were ARCs, which is even better because I’m actually relatively on track with those for once (and I nailed the 50/50 ARC/owned book split) and was able to boost my NetGalley percentage a little bit. So…yay for that! Without further ado, here’s my list:

New Year, New Goals – my 2020 reading plans

It’s hard to believe that 2019 has come and gone. We are officially in a new decade (does this count as the Roaring 20’s all over again?), and like so many others, I’ve got a couple goals for myself in the coming year. Currently, those goals are mostly book- and blog-related, but that’s largely because any fitness goals will be hard to figure out reasonable limits for until my heart surgery is done–and there are now under two weeks until that day, which is pretty exciting.

All that said, here are my plans and goals for the upcoming year:

Where did you come from, where did you go? Why aren’t you posting, K-Specks, yo?

Hello, lovelies! This is a super quick update/apology, because it has been 9 days without a post and I am WAY behind on things these days. Between the festivities associated with the holidays, family members coming in from out of town, polishing up my law school applications, and binge-watching to get through the end of Friends with my mom before it gets taken off Netflix on January 1st (no, I’ve never seen it before; yes, we’re on track to finish), I’ve been a little distracted. Since I’ve been off from work (see previous mention of holidays), I haven’t had the time on train rides to write posts like usual, and I was in the middle of five books but done with none of them.

But fear not! The last applications have been submitted! I finished reading a book last night, and I’m on track to finish at least two more in the next day or two! THERE WILL BE NEW CONTENT STARTING TOMORROW!

Spilling the Tea: bookish questions I literally never want to see again

Alright, folks, time for another round of hot takes on the book community. Today’s focus: annoying, repetitive questions. See, I’m in a lot of bookish Facebook groups, and in those groups, there are certain questions that just get asked over and over and over. They aren’t original, nor are they questions whose answers will change over time, and all they end up doing is cluttering everyone’s newsfeed. Like…have you people never heard of using the search bar? Or Google?

For the convenience of all parties, today I am going to list (and answer) a couple of these oft-repeated questions. Please, for the love of all that is sacred, don’t ask them again–to me or to anyone else.

Spilling the Tea: the Goodreads Choice Awards

Folks, it’s that time of year again! All around the world, readers are flocking to Goodreads to place their votes for which books were the “best” this year, in genres ranging from Historical Fiction to Romance to Memoir to Young Adult Fantasy. Close to 4 million votes have already been placed (3,948,345 as of the time I type this paragraph). It’s a fun, interactive way for the bookish community–both dedicated superfans and casual readers alike–to have a say in the determination of a literary award, and given that it is hosted through (probably) the most popular book-tracking website, it reaches a huge audience. In theory, it’s an awesome award and a good rally point for bookworms everywhere.

In practice, there are just SO MANY PROBLEMS with it.

Now, don’t get me wrong: I love the concept of people being able to choose and vote for their favorites. It’s like the People’s Choice Awards, but for print media instead of movies and TV. But for a site run by the almighty Amazon, you would think that the logistics of this popular contest would be ironed out a little better. Some of my quibbles with it are small, others are quite substantial, but all of them add up to form a resounding impression that this contest just doesn’t work like it should. Here are some of my reasons why.

Where did all my comment sections go?

Two posts in a day? Insanity, I know, but this one isn’t about books. There is a picture of a puppy at the end, though. See, last week, when I posted my responses to the Sunshine Blogger Award, one of my followers sent me a message through my site’s Questions page, letting me know that the comments on the post were turned off for some reason. I figured it was a quirk or a glitch of some sort, but I manually went into the post’s details and fixed it. No problem, right?

Well, today, I became aware that this problem is continuing to happen, now on the majority of my posts, including the one from earlier today. I have no idea why WordPress is disabling comments, especially since:
a) In my site settings, I have it set so that all posts will automatically allow comments, and
b) They aren’t even disabled on every post, just most of them–it’s totally random.

Sunshine Blogger Award – on books, swimming, and fun facts

I love being tagged in book tags, and this one feels even more special because it has the word “award” in it (yes, I’m one of those people). Huge thank you to Amelia for nominating me–y’all should go check out her blog for sure 💜

What is the Sunshine Blogger Award?

The Sunshine Blogger Award is given to those who are creative, positive and inspiring while spreading sunshine to the blogging community.

How does it work?

• Thank the blogger(s) who nominated you in a blog post and link back to their blog.
• Answer the 11 questions sent by the person who nominated you.
• Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions.
• List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post and/or on your blog.

What was the book that made you fall in love with reading?