via GIPHY
Hello book people. I've been feeling very disorganized and stressed and just meh about a lot of things these past few years. It's probably been apparent from my sporadic posting on my own blog and I hate that. I always tend to put my blog last on the long list of things I need to do and I need to stop that. I still love books, but I've had a very long think and I need to change how I spend my time. I've wasted way too much time on social media and it does nothing but make me feel terrible no matter how well I try to curate my feed. I'm finally pretty close to being done with the daily scrolling.
So, I'm going to go back to basics and will focus more of my time on Goodreads and my blog and interacting more with people who actually love books and less with the people who do it to push books for fame and fortune or whatever the heck they're trying to do. I am tired and prefer genuine readers to any of that nonsense.
If you're new to my blog, here's what I'm about:
❤ My reviews will always be honest.
❤ I will fight for readers and honest reviews with my last breath.
❤ I absolutely do not believe in review rules. People who write those "rules" posts are full of themselves. We're all different. Write whatever the heck you want to write as long as you stick to the content of the book and don't get personal about the actual writer. That's my only "rule".
❤ I don't take my reviews super seriously. They're my opinion and no one has to agree with me. I've tried being a serious reviewer writing for popular sites and a newsletter and it nearly made me hate reading.
❤ I do my best to read books written by marginalized writers but sometimes I'll read popular stuff too.
❤ Insta-love and love triangles drive me bananas. I love awful people hiding terrible secrets. Oh, how that's my most favorite thing. Actually, that's not true. Monsters are my most favorite thing.
❤ I don't believe in over-inflating a review to be nice. Those types of reviews help no one and set readers up for disappointment.
❤ There may be sarcasm and curses in my reviews. I write how I talk and I am who I am. And this is why most of my reviews get rejected from Amazon. Ooops
❤ I am mostly closed to review e-copies. The pressure these past few years has been too much for me. With Netgalley, KU, BookSirens and BookSprout I'm pretty well covered for reading material. If you have a print copy that fits in with the stuff I like, please feel free to contact me as I'm currently recovering from crazy medical debt and am on a no-buy anything fun including new books until the health issues and the bills get sorted out.
❤ If you want to be blogging friends just leave me a comment and I'll be happy to visit your blogs. I feel a little out of touch with the blogging world sometimes and I'd like to change that.
Anyhow, thanks for reading my blog and happy reading.
I love your honest book reviews! And your cursing never bothers me either. So I'm very happy you're still going to continue with your blog. I miss your posts and comments when you're gone. :D
ReplyDeleteYou're so sweet. I do love reading/writing reviews so I'll likely never go away but I do need to mind my time better and spend it doing things that don't make me feel awful (like social media!)
Delete"awful people hiding terrible secrets" har. Social media is such a pain in the a&*. I hardly do it anymore either...
ReplyDeleteIt's become so awful. I'm sure there must be better ways to avoid the nonsense and the awful but I'm trying of trying to figure it out.
Delete*tired of trying
DeleteI totally get it, my friend, as you know. The latest author ranting about their 4 * review really just topped things off.
ReplyDeleteUgh, it's just been an endless cycle of that nonsense and I'm done letting it ruin my mood or my favorite hobby. They can say what they want to say because they're going to do it anyway but I don't need to know about it.
DeleteI know this feeling well. I was just thinking I need a change. Everything is so tiring anymore. Bleh
ReplyDeleteIt can be very draining. I'm doing my best to post, check on friends and get the heck off without scrolling the feed. That's where all the trouble begins.
DeleteI can understand that. Social Media is so hateful at times. I have so many people blocked on Twitter.
ReplyDeleteYup, more get blocked every time I look! I don't know why people are so awful lately.
DeleteI've pretty much been off Twitter since the start of the year, it's really not the place for me anymore either. While I've been good with keeping up with posting, I've been trash at visiting blogs I enjoy. When I caught this post, I bookmarked it for when I'd have time to comment because I think so many feel like you do. I'm going to try and be better about commenting too, it can feel kind of lonely on blogs at times.
ReplyDeleteAs always, love chatting books with you. I really do feel like we're horror-romance sisters :)
We are totally horror-romance sisters! I miss booklikes so much. It was the perfect little community for awhile. Blogging can feel very lonely at times. Twitter was always a fun and interactive place but it's become such a hateful mess.
DeleteI'm sorry to hear you've been feeling so stressed and down about things. I'm proud of you for doing what's best for your mental health and prioritizing your happiness and peace! I tried returning to twitter and facebook a few months ago after hardly being on either site and it wasn't worth it, so I've pretty much stopped scrolling both of them for the most part again. 😭🤣 At least bookstagram usually makes me happy, but it's the only social media I like nowadays besides Goodreads if you count it as one. I've been taking the time I normally would spend doomscrolling and trying to devote more of it to reading and participating in my Goodreads groups and it's been a nice change.
ReplyDeleteI've yet to find my groove with bookstagram. I like to scroll for the doggie pictures but the rest of it feels like so much work to me. I keep trying and I keep failing, lol.
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