If you've been paying attention, you'll know I went on a cute little hiatus for over half of January. I even gave it an adorable little title that made it seem like I was still in high school or college, was just going off to some warm place for the week and didn't want to bring my laptop to with me. Oh, and I was too lazy to schedule posts in advance.
But I'm back now and I've had some time to think about all of the stuff. These are some of the conclusions I've come to:
1. I need to take more breaks
I think a week or two off every couple of months is a good idea for me. It's not something I'll schedule in advance or anything, but when I feel like my life is getting mega busy (like it did this past January month) or I'm traveling (like I was in October) and don't want to spend my travel time blogging (like I did), I might just stop putting up new content for a bit and that's okay.
2. I need to remind myself why I started this blog
Sometimes I think forget why I write reviews. I read the book and then think to myself: "I read it and now I need to review it so everyone can read how awesome it was and know they need to read it too. Also, I need to stick to my schedule. Duh." Obviously, the former part of that statement is definitely part of why I run this blog, but I started this little site here because I just love books and my reviews are my way of expressing this. So yeah, I want you, my lovely reader, to find your dream book, but this blog is primarily a place for me to gush about what I love and get a little grumpy pants about what I don't love. Of course, this doesn't mean I'm gonna get all ranty and ragey in my reviews if I dislike a book. There is a level of respect and professionalism I'd like to maintain, but that's also for me. I'm a respectful, vaguely professional human being and I want my blog to reflect that. I don't want to think it's the internet and no one's looking so I can get loud and it won't matter. Because it does matter.
3. This is my hobby, not my profession
I spend a lot of time on this blog. Whether it's working on content, plotting new things, tweaking the design or layout, I'd say I spend far too much time on this thing. And yes, it's important. I want to work in publishing so my blog really is a good portfolio or sorts. But it isn't actually my job and I shouldn't be spending every free moment obsessing over it, fretting over what content I put up, or whatever else. Instead, I should probably take more naps/go to bed earlier because that'll help my sanity way more than writing all kinds of crazy posts. (I will say, it helps that I don't really proofread. I don't know how people proofread everything multiple times do it.)
4. Spend more time with friends
I'm not gonna lie, I've left an outing a bit early because I've made this mental deadline for myself with this blog. Like, I'll tell myself I'm going to get a post I forgot to schedule up and done by midnight so I'll leave my friend's apartment at 10pm, go home and bang it out. Instead, I should probably just say, "sorry blog, I'll do it tomorrow" and stay at my friend's until they kick me out. The problem with this, however, is that I'm a very serious, rule abiding kind of person (despite all the silliness, smiles and giggles you find on this blog) and when I have a deadline, whether self imposed or other, I meet it. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy taking my blog seriously, even though it has a kind of light tone going for it, but I think I need to mentally take some of the pressure off and put my social life first.
Okay. That's all for my revelations. I really wanted to think of a fifth for this list, because a list of five sounds better than a list of four (see? SEE HOW CRAZY I AM?), but I can't so this is going to be the beginning of me letting stuff go (this beginning is going to last three seconds, for real).
Anyway, yeah, in case the two reviews in the last day didn't cover it, I'm back to posting more regularly now. Tomorrow I'll actually probably post my ALA haul. Not the whole thing, though. I'll probably just film a little video with my top 5-10 grabs and maybe a little recap of events. Unless you guys want to see my whole haul. Then I'll post a picture, I guess. I know there's ARC envy out there (a discussion for another time, please not right now) so I'll only post it if enough people say something. But I feel like enough other people have posted their hauls for you guys to be able to figure out what I got.
Now please, do me a favor: scroll down to the comments section and let me know how happy you are that I'm back to blogging regularly. Okay? Thanks. <3
