Upcoming Events:
I am taking a blogging break for a little while. I am in the process of getting all of my challenges for 2011 picked out so you'll see a bunch of those posts.
New Beginnings is a meme hosted by MizB over at ShouldBeReading. How this meme works: First — post your list of New Years’ Resolutions in a post at your blog (or in the comments here, if you don’t have a blog).
Second — every week, on Wednesday, write a new post about how you’re doing with each of your goals … you’ll have to list them, again, each week, as people won’t remember what you’re working towards, otherwise. Be brief in your updates, as there may be several blogs to visit! ((come give a quick update here at Should Be Reading, if you don’t have a blog)).
Third — after you’ve written your update, come back to Should Be Reading, and share your link so that we –the other New Beginnings participants– can stop by your blog and encourage you!
Important! … It would be absolutely great if you could visit at least ONE other participant’s blog on Wednesdays and leave a comment on their post to share some encouragement for their efforts! Show your support! That’s what this event is all about — standing by each other to finally reach our goals!
My Goals:
I didn't really have any New Years resolutions this year that were really "memorable" so I just decided right now that I'm going to come up with a list of goals and declare today unoffical "New Years".
1. I am going to go to Ireland when I'm either debt free or I turn 30. You can read more about this goal on my new personal blog Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.
2. I am going to give up soda entirely. This one is going to be really hard for me. All that "wonderful" sugar is going to be hard for me to give up!
3. I am going to lose about 40 pounds.
4. I am going to get outdoors and move around more...this shouldn't be too hard with 2 VERY demanding dogs.
5. I'm going to start eating better.
6. I'm going to start working out on my Wii Fit again.
I was going through my google reader earlier this week and I found a post that I totally could relate to in more than one way. The O.W.L posted about why she is taking a review request hiatus. After reading this post and feeling/agreeing with many of the points I to0 feel that for now The Book Junkie's Book Shelf will be taking a TEMPORARY review request hiatus.
Why have I decided to take this hiatus?Well let me just say to begin with this....when I first started this blog I was just hoping that someone would read it and maybe leave me a couple comments. I got my wish there! Then I got my first author request and it has just kept snowballing from there. So here are my reasons for taking this hiatus:1. I have a bookshelf (that is soooo full you can't put anymore books on it) and an under-the-bed storage box full of books that I have NOT read yet. Only a handful of books on the bookshelf have been read and NONE of the books in the under-the-bed box have been read. 2. I'm starting to think of reading as a second job. I don't want that. Reading is something fun to do....NOT a job. 3. My TBR list is HUGE! See #1 and then there are the books I don't even own yet. 4. I really don't like the guilty feeling I have when I take a long time to review a book. 5. Saying NO has always been a problem for me. 6. I want to become re-aquainted with my public library. Monday was the first day in MANY months that I've set foot in it and I left with a bag full of books. PLUS while I was there I put like 40+ books on hold. What this DOES NOT mean for my blog 1. I will still be stick to a VERY ecclectic array of books. That won't change at all. 2. Only, this time I will be reading and reviewing books that I want to read and review. I don't want reading to continue to feel like a job. 3. For those authors, agents, publishing companies that I've already said yes to. I will honor those requests. After that point feel free to drop me an e-mail but please know that I will more than likely be trying to stick to books that I will have highlighted in Wish Lists posts. I LOVE to read and LOVE working with all of you but in the future I want to do it out of passion NOT necessity. When I do start taking review requests again (At this time I don't know when that will be) I do plan on reviewing and making changes to my review policy. Right now I think I've left it a little bit tooooo open. I will be studying up on this in the future that is for sure.
Part of what lead to my "This is the story" post was me and my debt. I've finally gotten sick and tired of being sick and tired and I'm going to do something about it. So I have created a new blog where I will document my journey to become debt free and live a happier, healthier life on less. If you want to follow my journey I can be found at This is Me getting DEBT FREE!
Who is officially in a super huge funk. Story to come later. As a result of this "funk" I haven't been real interested in a whole lot that has to do with blogging. You've probably noticed that I still haven't drawn the winners of the Pleasure of a Dark Prince giveaway yet (which ended over a MONTH ago)....I will draw the winners I just need to make sure that there's $ in the budget to get them all out right away, or let Juju at Tales of Whimsy now that she won a little something something for being the first person to correctly guess which pictures were taken behind glass. Or that I still have yet to post my "bajillion" awards that I've recieved over that past few months. Or I have been VERY infrequent in my commenting. So I just wanted to apologized for my "funk" and let you all know that I haven't forgotten about y'all. I'm in the process of working things out both mentally and physically. But more on that later.
I've been going through some of the back log that is my google reader and I've come across several posts about the current "condition" of the book blogging community. I've noticed it while I've been out and about visiting people as well and it saddens me that something that is supposed to be fun has turned into something, that in some cases, that is nasty and very un-fun. So in advance I would like to thank Becky from The Bookette for her Honesty post, McKenzie from The Book Owl for her Blogger Relations post, Staysi at Lost in Ink for her observations post, and In Which A Girl Reads for her posts here, and here.
So here it is....The State of the Blog Address:I started book blogging way back in September of 2009 (which really isn't all that long ago) so I'm not really a new blogger but I'm not really an "old" blogger either. The thing that I LOVED about joining this community was that I was expressing my love for a hobby with other book bloggers out there all over the world. I wanted to read, review and post as many books as I possibly could. I wanted to gather followers as fast as I possibly could. I wanted everyone to like me.But now that I've been blogging for a while now I have come to realize some things, some of them good, some of them bad and some them are just plain UGLY:1. You don't gather followers faster than the speed of light. If you are a new blogger who is reading this...It's true. In the beginning I started to follow blogs just hoping that maybe they would follow me back...In some cases yes that did happen, but in MANY that was NOT the case. It takes time and a little elbow grease to develop a committed readership. In all honesty, recently I have taken to COMPLETELY IGNORING the number of followers I have. I really don't blog to gather followers...I blog because it is and should be a fun HOBBY.2. Keeping it REAL can lead to GREAT discussion. I came across a comment while I was reading one of the posts on the subject at hand, where the blogger was afraid to post an honest opinion of the books they were reading because they didn't want someone to disagree with them and start a "conflict." In the beginning I was like this too, but I quickly said "nuts to this" and started keeping it REAL. If I don't like a book I say "hey I didn't like the book" but I give reasons why I didn't like the book. If I LOVE/LIKED a book I say "hey I really liked this book" and I give reasons why. By keeping it real you can start some really interesting discussions about all sorts of different types of books.3. Don't post just to post. I did this in the beginning and I think in the long run it hurt me. I was reading, reviewing and posting reviews just to get them posted and I can honestly say that I have learned from that mistake. If your going to blog about books, then blog about books YOU feel are blog worthy. If your going to participate in meme's do them because you enjoy them and just as a reason to get another post out there. If you've got nothing, it's ok NOT to post. In the long run posting just to post WILL burn you out. 4. Don't follow blogs just to follow blogs. This is one that I can say I am VERY guilty of. I am currently following close to 300 blogs. I bet you can only imagine what my google reader looks like?!...Trust me it's a very scary place right now. JUST DON'T DO IT! 5. Since when are new bloggers NOT worth the effort and why is it assumed that they are just in it for the "FREE BOOKS and ARC's"? This would be one of those "just plain ugly" things I've observed recently. We all were new bloggers at some point! I bet there are a bunch of new bloggers out there who don't even know that there are such things as "free books and ARC's" and are just blogging because they enjoy it and want to share what they like and don't like with the rest of us. New bloggers are MOST definately worth the effort. I've just recently found a couple of blogs that I am now following who are new bloggers and I LOVE what they have to say. We ALL love encouragement so why aren't we encouraging new bloggers? Why are we assuming the worst about them? Ok, so I don't turn this into a big ole "we suck and must be punished" post I am going to stop right there with my observations and tell you what I am going to do about it here on my blog and THEN I am going to go and issue a challenge...Just cause it's my blog and I can do that sort of thing on my blog. Recently, I have found that posting has turned into a second "job" for me. I've already got one of those and really don't need another one thank you very much. So from now on I'm only going to post when I have something to say or a really awesome photo that I took and I want to share with you. So yes, there will be LESS posting in the future but it should be about quality and NOT quantity right? Because I'm following close to 300 blogs I will be going through and unfriending some. I NEED to get myself down to a manageable number...It sucks logging into my google reader and finding I have over 1000 unread posts (trust me it has happened). If I do unfriend you it's not because I don't enjoy your blog...I just need to get things under better control around here. If you feel the need to unfriend me that is unfortunate but I won't hold it against you either...We've all got to do what we've got to do sometimes. I'm only going to participate in meme's that interest me. I'm not going to post just to have a post up. I hope this one is pretty self explanatory.
Now that I will be following less blogs I am hoping that this will give me more time to get out there and comment. I'm sure that some of you have noticed that I don't comment very often. There is a reason for this....I'm feeling overwhelmed. I am here to encourage new bloggers. If your a new blogger, drop me an e-mail (it's right up there near the top, under the goodreads and bookmooch widgets) if you want...I check it religiously and I promise to get back to you....it doesn't even have to be book related. Making new friends is ALWAYS fun. If you have questions about blogging feel free to approach me...I'm no expert but I can share what has worked for me with you. If your an older blogger, drop me an e-mail if you want. Again making new friends is always fun. Who doesn't like getting an e-mail that just says "hey have a great day!"? I an open to constructive critisim when it comes to my blog but please know that if you are rude, malicious or nasty I will respond in the same fashion. My blog is my space to say what I want and on MY blog turn about is fair play. (Not trying to be rude, nasty or mean. Just honest.) I'm on Twitter, Goodreads, Bookmooch and many different Ning groups too. I really don't think that there is anyone that I haven't friended. Also, if you are a blackberry/crackberry owner if you want to chat about books, movies, life in general BlackBerry Messenger is a pretty awesome thing...You can either use my e-mail address (bookjunkie221@gmail.com) or my pin number which is 31343900. So my challenge to you is this: Go out and drop some random blogger an e-mail. Go out and leave a new blogger an encouraging comment. I TRIPLE DOG DARE YOU!
NOTE: This post is NOT intended to upset/offend/irritate/etc. any one. I'm just expressing my feelings. It is MY blog after all :) A few weeks ago I wrote a post on my "view" of the affiliate "craze" that's running rampant through the book blogging community. My hope was to glean information from this post so that when I saw "affiliate" related links in my google reader it wouldn't upset/frustrate me as much as it had been up to that point. I simply did not understand the process....Why it had to be so "difficult" and "cliquey." So I posted my post and I got a lot of feedback both from people who have affiliates and those who don't. What I did NOT intend to do when I posted this post was to upset/offend/trash anyone who had or has affiliates. I was just trying to learn.Natalie from Mindful Musings wrote this post and pretty much explained a LOT of my questions in it. Which I think was really awesome of her to do. From what I can see (and I may be offbase here) she took a subject that a lot of people had questions about and saw it as a way to educate not only myself but others as well about the process. And I think a lot of people who read that post learned a lot from it. I know I did.But then I came across this post over at Book Crazy and I felt really bad because I felt that I was the cause of this particular post. That is a pretty much the crappiest feeling in the world. Seeing someone take something that you wrote as a way to learn more about a process personally. So here I am feeling responsible for hurting someone unintentionally by asking the "hard" questions about a process.Then it all sort of died down a little bit for a couple of weeks and then this morning while I was going through my google reader....The subject reared it's "ugly head" again. I found this post, which is really about getting affiliate related material out there to the book blogosphere and not so much about the process. But here I am feeling responsible again because the second paragraph of this post brings up the other two posts that I've already talked about. "Defending the trend," but because Natalie wrote her post, answered my questions and linked back to my post and Jen at Book Crazy used information that I voiced as "concerns" in my original post, then I am feeling that Natalie and Jen are "defending the trend" against a big ole blogger bully...Little ole ME.Personally, as of this post I am DONE feeling responsible. Right now at this very minute I feel that I have a big ole bulls eye painted on my blog because I asked the "hard" questions and because there were some who took the way I happen to learn things (I'm ADD and some think I'm a bit dyslexic too. So I tend to ask a lot of questions and prefer to see things in writing.) personally. For that I am sorry....That was NOT my intention. What I will NOT apologize for is asking those questions. You may or you may not have liked them but I felt at the time that I had a right (maybe that's not the right word but it's what I came up with at the time) to know the answers to those burning questions...To understand the process. Is that so wrong? I am done with those feelings. I just wanted to put that out there. I'm not looking to fan the flames....Personally, I wish the issue would sort of just go away....It's now a NON-issue for me why can't it be for others?
