Reading Journal ... blogging and books

Over the past several months something had been bothering me regarding my reading and I wasn't sure exactly what it might. Just a niggling feeling that something was off. Maybe it was my reading selections ~ were they all running along the same genre, was there not enough variety? Maybe it was the pressure to read X number of books in a year ~ I had signed up for a lot of challenges and book-a-week group and this from a person who is not a goalsetter. I never have been nor do I ever intend to be one. Maybe it was feeling like just more thing I have to do along with everything else in my life. The top 3 biggies, of course, being working, eating, sleeping but in addition there are chores, blogging, getting the shows cleared off the DRV and this daily thing called living. Now was I going to let reading become just another thing on my mental to do list? Then it came to me ~ after reading all these wonderful book blogs from very talented people I was feeling pressure, self-imposed, I can assure you that I needed to come up with something insightful to post on my blog about all these books I was devouring. I mean why else blog, especially if it's out there for public consumption, unless you have something to say, really say?

I realized I was letting my blog get the upper hand. Letting my posts interfere with my reading pleasure. This blog started out as one thing and morphed into something else, taking on a life of it's own. Now I'm not a writer, that's my big brother's job and his blog is a sad thing to behold, (forgive your little sister please! I'll offer bribes next time I come visit) and I'm pretty certain that if an English teacher or two got a hold of my blog posts that they'd grammatical shred them. They'd also break down my thoughts and impressions about the books I read just to make sure I'd covered all the relevant points so that my readers could make informed decisions. I never set out the write book reviews. There are plenty of bloggers who do an outstanding job of it already. This was just a place I would use a reading journal to give my brain a little tap and remind myself what a book I'd read was about. Maybe it's just a matter of the semantics, or is that syntax, that I use for labeling some of my blog posts (book reviews). So for now I'm changing how I post to suit where I am in this blogging world. I'm also finding that I don't always have something to say about every book I read. Just maybe I want my reading to be for reading's sake and not because there's an underlying motive.

Yes, it's still a book blog ~ my book blog. It won't be going under drastic changes, no major overhaul. Just minor adjustments, baby steps. I'm giving myself permission to change course and see where the path takes me. The only thing I hoping to accomplish is getting back to reading purely for pleasure.

That's it for the pity partying this week. Two pity party posts are quite enough. I don't usually hold pity parties but I just needed to get a couple of things cleared out my brain so I could move past 'em. Done!

Marcia