Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Top Ten Tuesday: Blogging Confessions

This week's Top Ten Tuesday topic at The Broke and the Bookish is a little scary.  They're looking for my top 10 blogging confessions.  There's some definite dirt behind the scenes here, but hopefully airing my dirty blogging laundry will prove cathartic.  So, here they are, true confessions of the book blogging kind.  Only promise me you won't think less of me, will you?   ;-)

1. I am the the slowest reader.  I know I'm always saying this, and maybe you don't believe me, but I truly am the slowest reader.  I feel like that didn't matter so much when I started book blogging, but now that there are so many book bloggers and they all read vastly more than me, it's something I worry about a lot.  And I shouldn't.  Because it's not about how many you read, right?  It's about how much you enjoy the reading.......right?  *looks nervous*

2. Chunksters started to scare me.  As a book blogger and a slow reader, the prospect of reading a chunkster has been increasingly scary.  Me reading one book for three months = the death of a book blog.  This is a shame, because in my pre-blogging days I really loved chunksters.  I forget sometimes that I can read a really good chunkster way faster than a short, mediocre book, though, so I'm trying to unravel my inclination to avoid the thicker tomes on my shelves.  Progress has been made in this area this very year.

3. I almost quit blogging a lot.  I don't mean the random disappearances that have always been my MO.  I mean, like, write a farewell post kind of quit.  For much of last year, I didn't want to write posts, and so I just didn't write them.  I hate forcing myself and my posts suck when I do.  I figured I should probably write a post and say an official goodbye, except I can't picture myself not blogging again ever, so I just let it languish.  In the end, I'm glad I didn't quit completely.  Makes it easier to come back when I change my mind.  Again, and again, and again....

4. If I don't get a few posts written on the weekend, there will be no posts.  I don't write blog posts on weekdays.  I just don't.  I read blogs and comment on them if the mood strikes, but I never write a whole post on a weeknight.  I spend all day working on a computer, and by the time I get home, I'm not interested in putting my hands on a keyboard.  Plus, there's never enough peace and quiet on a weeknight either.  Ergo, if I have a busy weekend, the blog unfortunately goes dark because it's hard to get ahead when you only write posts one or two days a week.

5. Sometimes I feel like an outsider.  This might not be true, but I often feel like all the bloggers seem to have their extra special buddies and their Twitter conversations that spawn brilliant blogging ideas.  They know who their roommates will be at BEA practically without having to ask.  They've visited each other's hometowns or have quarterly meet-ups with local blogging friends.  I feel like I have some good blogging "acquaintances" and that it's easy to talk to even bloggers I don't know well at events like BEA, but I still feel like I'm missing this whole aspect of blogging that everybody else seems to be plugged into.  Alas, maybe to make better blogging buddies, I need to be a better blogging buddy, but ya know.  Where do you start?

6. I have a conflicted relationship with review copies.  A lot of the time I want to be free of the heap of obligation that comes with them, but I'm addicted to getting shiny new books in the mail.  I want to be one of the first to read that next "big" book.  The new books are a great perk, and I occasionally credit review copies with keeping me from throwing in the book blogging towel long enough to realize I don't want to throw in the book blogging towel, but, you know, with great new shiny books comes great responsibility.  ;-)

7. I hate when people try to lend me books almost as much as I hate lending out my own books.  If you want to borrow books, go to the library.  I'm not lending you a book I haven't read yet.  You might split the spine or lose the dust jacket or spill your coffee on it or something that will cause an irreparable rift in our relationship.  Also, as much as I want to hear about how great the book you just read was and might probably want to read it someday as a result, please don't lend it to me.  I don't want to feel obligated to drop everything I'm reading to blog about to read your pet book, because just because you loved it doesn't mean I will love it, I hate reading on a schedule, and I have about a million of my own books to read. 

8. I have to be in the right kind of mood to write a book review.  Posts like this are easy to type up on a whim.  Writing book reviews is a little more challenging.  When I'm in the right mood, book reviewing is quick, easy, and results in a post that is worth reading and that even *I* might want to read over again someday.  When I'm not, it's almost easier to pluck my teeth out one by one than write a review anybody would want to bother reading.  I hate writing a review that sounds forced and hate even more trying to force myself into that review writing mood.  So, yeah, book reviews?  They're hard!

9. I hate hosting giveaways.  They're a ton of work.  Rigging up a form, packing up/shipping/acting as go-between with the winner and publisher supplying the copy, publicizing it to actually get a few entries, tracking down the winner who doesn't respond to the e-mail, tracking down a different winner when I can't find that first winner.  I hate it when people demand people follow the blog to enter because I don't think those are "real" followers, but it does feel like you should get something for all the trouble. 

10. I'm awful at e-mail.  I'm that person that aggravates you by seeing and reading your e-mail, thinking yes, I'll have to respond to that, and then disregarding it for an unseemly amount of time.  I pretty much only respond to e-mail on Sunday nights when I'm panicking about how my e-mail account is overrun.  Even the juiciest review copy can't tempt me to reform my ways.  I don't respond at all to e-mails pitching me books that don't strike my fancy, most of which the publisher could have saved themselves the time and effort of sending me an un-replied to e-mail by reading my review policy or, you know, looking at the kind of books I review.

What's your deep, dark blogging secret?

9 comments:

  1. I think anyone who's blogged for more than a few months has toyed with the idea of quitting. Keeping up a book blog is a lot of work!

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  2. How interesting! I've thought about quitting a lot - I don't know how I've managed to last so long! I know what you mean about feeling left out - there are so many clique around. I recommend finding some local bloggers and trying to meet up - meeting in person and having that local connection always means you will connect better online after that. Good luck!

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  3. I SO relate, especially to #2. I love me a good chunkster, but I find myself shying away from them, especially toward the end of the year because I don't want them to negatively affect my number for the year. It's silly because, really, who cares? Only me.

    Also, for what it's worth, I consider you one of my "extra special blogging buddies." I have hundreds of book blogs on my Bloglovin' feed, but yours is in my exclusive Book Blogs -- Favorites section. So there!

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  4. You are right! It doesn't matter how many books you read. Sometimes it feels that way though, doesn't it, when you see people are reading a hundred or more books in a year. I remind myself now and then it's not a competition in those moments I start feeling bad that I can't read as fast or as prolifically as others.

    #7! Oh my gosh, how true is that for me too! Sometimes I take the book being loaned to me, set it aside and return it unread but say I liked it hoping they don't ask questions I'd have to answer proving I am fibbing. Terrible, I know. More often than not though, I try to say no.

    I find writing reviews to be a challenge too. Like right now. I should be writing my review for The Curiosity and instead I'm commenting on your blog. I am just not feeling it right now. But then, when the mood does strike, I can kick out one, two, three reviews one right after the other very quickly.

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  5. I agree with #8 (being in right mood to write review). The reading part is so much more fun than the writing part! But I like getting stacks of books from the library or NetGalley too much...
    Here's my TTT list.

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  6. Yes to so many of these!! I HATE when people loan me books--it's the worst! I have my own reading agenda and don't need anyone else interfering with it. LOL!

    And the quitting blogging. But here we are. Ultimately I know that I'd miss it, too.

    And I feel like I'm a fairly connected blogger (in small little cirlces) but I also feel like big chunks of my circles have lately stopped blogging. I've actually been feeling a little homeless lately. Readalongs usually help me foster a bit of community--or challenges (of the non-bookish sort, oddly). But I definitely feel less connected the less often I blog. Boo. I know how you feel.

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  7. I usually only write up my blog posts on the weekend too! I just never can find the time during the week. I also have mixed with feelings with review copies. I hate the pressure that I feel to read them but I do love them so :) great post!

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  8. I've actually lost track of the number of times I've been ready to throw in the towel and quit, yet I'm still here. Always amazes me when I think about it, as I usually get bored and change hobbies like some people change wardrobes. ha!

    And I feel like an outsider too sometimes, as I never seem to get invited to the cool kids table. I know that there are lots of other introverts out there, so that's probably what's keeping us from connecting. It's not easy being so shy!

    Terri @ Alexia's Books and Such...

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  9. I identify with so much of what you've said, particularly #3, 4, 5, & 8. I've come very, very close to writing an "I quit" post, but I've always talked myself out of it. I usually enjoy blogging, and I know that taking a brief hiatus will usually solve the problem. At some point, I'll stop--everything comes to an end eventually--but hopefully it will be a gradual finish. There are times when I also feel like an outsider, particularly when I come across blogs that only review ARCs (I don't accept any and so have very little say about those reviews).

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