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.

January 2020 Wrap-Up

This just in: January was a crazy month for me. A lot happened that kept me away from the blog (namely, a heart surgery), but I managed to finish reading 11 books (across a staggering variety of genres, though only including two ARCs…yikes) and wrote a couple more posts besides.

Now I’m getting back into my groove, hopefully kicking off a killer February and getting going with the rest of what is sure to be a great year! Here is a quick rundown on what I read/watched/wrote/thought about this past month:

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.

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.

November 2019 Wrap-Up

Yeah, yeah, I’m technically a day late on this. I’m not apologizing; it’s been a chaotic weekend, what with the Thanksgiving holidays and family and friends coming in from out of town and general stress as I finish up my law school applications…eeeeeek. Is a personal statement about writing poetry too cliche?

And yet, amidst all this chaos, I actually managed to finish ten books in November (and was in the middle of three others at the month’s conclusion). Here’s a quick rundown of what I read, including links to my reviews:

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.

Writing book reviews still makes me anxious (or, insecurity in the book blogosphere)

Okay, folks, time to talk blogs and recommendations and big-time insecurity. I started writing this ramble a few days ago and realized that maybe, just maybe, some of y’all have had similar thoughts from time to time. And, as yesterday marked my 50th post here (!!!), this seemed like an apt time to wax philosophical.