So I’ve been missing on here and social media for a while now. And this is the story of WHY.
In July I joined in on a Debut-A-Thon read a thon. I got through a few books, more than I normally would. Then I kind of stopped. Reading that is. I would start a book, read a bit then stop. Start another, and so on and so forth. I'm not joking. I currently have 6 books that I have started but not finished. I have read complete books in the mean time, books that I finished within a day or two (see below*). The thing was - I lost interest. I lost interest in reading. I lost interest in trying to keep up with blogging.
Then I had uni assignments, so I did them and stayed away from reading. I still tried to post on the blog, but if you look over my posts, you'll see I went from 40 odd posts per month prior to August to 16 in August and 12 in September.
I joined another read a thon thinking it might motivate me back to read. ..... No. It didn't. That ended on the 22 Sept. My last post was a promo on the 23 Sept. I haven't posted in 2 weeks.
Add to all this the kerfuffle with negative reviews, authors/reviewers, and now Goodreads. All this negativity was getting me down. I don't need that kind of stress over something that was meant to be a positive, fun hobby.
I still like reading. I still visit goodreads. I just stopped reading and book blogging when I realised it was consuming my life and that it had become my life. I was starting to not have time for anything else. I was always worried about getting reviews up in time, getting books read, helping out with promo posts and what not. It was consuming my time. So I stopped.
I'm still not in the mood to read. I'm still trying to finish those books - and yes some of them are review books so I apologise to the publishers that are waiting on these reviews. They will come, but it will be when I'm ready.
This brings me to the changes. I'm not going to be posting on here all the time any more. I wont be doing a pile of promo posts. I wont be doing memes every week.
So what will I do. That's easy.
I will post reviews.
I will post discussions.
I will post promos and cover reveals of books I am actually interested in. Not just promos for the sake of promos.
But I will be posting these when I want to. I'm not reviewing books any more - unless I specially want to read a particular book (Look out for my Countdown review which will be up soon). I don't want to read to a schedule. I don't want to have to read a book by a certain time. I want to read what is on my shelf. I want to read at my own pace. I most of all, I want to enjoy reading again.
I have a life outside of books, blogging and the internet. I don't want books to define me. I have other interests and I'd like to take the time to pursue them too. To do that, something has to give, and that something is posting frequently on the blog and spending all my time reading to do so.
So that's it. I'm still around. I'll still chat - Twitter is probably better to get me on as I get notified on my phone. But I wont be posting as often.
Another thing - I mentioned a while back that I was going to do a giveaway to celebrate my 1 year blogoversary but I never got around to doing it. I will probably be doing a giveaway in the near future as I have a couple of double up books I'd like to get off my shelf (for Aus peeps only - sorry, postage is too expensive) so keep an eye out for that. I'll also do an international one around the same time too.
Well, now you know the why's and I hope you all understand.
I'll see you all around the place at one time or another. Have a great week! :D
The books I read lately (and loved)
Why did I read them - I don't know but I loved them from the first page so maybe they held my interest better!?!?
