My Triumphant Return! And a few changes.

Hello friends! I’m back from my travels!

(I may be exaggerating the extent of my travels just a wee bit.)

I hope the holidays treated you well, and that you are having a fabulous 2013 so far.

So I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my blog, and about what I want it to be when it grows up. And here’s what I’ve come up with:

1) Fun. I started blogging as a creative outlet, and a place to connect with other people who like the same sorts of books I do. I did not start blogging so I could read books I don’t like, so I could stress about page hits or comment count, or so I could feel like a failure if I didn’t hit my goal for number of reviews or books read. So from here on out, folks, I’m embracing the fun.

That means I may not post as frequently sometimes, because real life comes first. But when I do, it’ll be happy posts that I actually care about.

2) Enough negativity. Something that really got driven home for me in 2012 with all the fabulous book events that I went to is that authors are people too. People who love stories. People who love to tell stories. People who, often, work full-time jobs while also writing books, for us, so that we can have more stories. And that’s amazing. And you know what? Even when I may not be too fond of a particular story, someone out there loves it. And that’s fantastic, because these authors put so much work into their books, and it would be really sad if no one liked them.

So I’ve decided I’m not going to do negative reviews anymore. I’m still going to do honest reviews. But I will only do them about books I really enjoyed. After all, the purpose of this blog is to help people find and discuss great books — not to put down books I didn’t like.

This will also alleviate the stress of feeling like I must finish books I’m not enjoying. Because blogging is an unpaid hobby, which means it should be fun. And what’s the fun in forcing your way through a so-so book?

The main impact I see this having for the blog is that I may sometimes go a while between reviews, waiting until I read a book worthy of singing its praises online. But in between I can talk about other stuff, like movies, or bookish discussions, or memes. And I think that’s fine.

I’m also doing away with rating books. I’ll share thoughts on books I liked, and if it sounds like something you want to read, then read it.

3) Time to be flexible. I honestly don’t have any idea what this year is going to bring. So I’m not going to make a hard-and-fast plan about how I want to tackle the year. I’m just going to roll with the punches and see what happens.

And never fear: I read some AWESOME books over the past few weeks, so I’ll definitely be posting some reviews soon. Prepare for greatness.

So here’s to a year of great books and enjoyable blogging and…who knows? I’m excited. Are you excited?

4 thoughts on “My Triumphant Return! And a few changes.

  1. I haven’t visited your blog in such a long time (hangs head in shame). I love your resolutions and I’m definitely going to make blogging more fun this year. Enjoy 2013!

  2. Pingback: In which I fess up. | The Housework Can Wait

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