Hello my lovelies! I know, I have been super absent lately, what with graduating, working full time, going through a break up and learning how to be single, and just being an adult for once. However, when cleaning out my room I found my Blogging Journal, where I keep all my reading notes and handwritten reviews and it made me realize how much I really missed the blogging world. Even in the last few months that I've been slacking off, I haven't been keeping up-to-date with new and hot releases and it's made me feel a little out of the loop.
I also came to the realization that I haven't read much YA this year, since most of my time was spent reading school books and once I was done with classes I got really into reading graphic novels (holy shit, why has it taken me so long to get into Batman?!) But now all my friends are going back to school so I'm spending less time with them, and I'm finding myself with more time for reading and more time for writing. Also, I recently saw a pack of my local blogger buddies and realized I haven't been keeping in touch with them either and that makes me really sad. I haven't been attending as many author events and I haven't been finding as much time to just spend chatting about books outside of work.
The thing about blogging is that it's time consuming. It takes a lot of time to format a post, write a review, pick a WoW book, take photos of book hauls, and all that other stuff that goes into blogging. I wish I had unlimited time to just spend reading and writing, but unfortunately I don't. My job requires me to read a lot especially now that the holidays are approaching. I need to be informed and confident in my recommendations to parents and children and in order to do that I need to read a large quantity of books. These books range in age appropriateness as well. I need to know at least a few good books for children of all ages. Because of this, I've spent a lot of my free reading time reading for work and not for blogging.
Don't get me wrong, I love having a job that basically requires me to read. I love coming home and reading until the wee hours of the morning and then coming into work the next day and being able to talk to kids about that book that kept me up all night. I love giving parents stacks of books to take home in hopes that their children will love them as much as I do. But it gets exhausting. While I may want to veg out on the couch for the evening, stuffing my face with popcorn and consuming junk TV like Awkward and Real House Wives of every town in the entire world, I just feel the obligation to read and read until my eyes burn. And some nights all I want to do is lay in bed and read until 3AM even when I have to work at 9AM the next day. Some nights I even want to sit down and write up a blog post.
That's my love/hate relationship with blogging. I love it. I really do. I love the blogging community. I love being surrounded by people who love YA lit just as much as I do. I love being around people who won't judge me for being a 23-year-old grown woman who loves to read books for teens. But what I don't love is the pressure. Sometimes I just want to do my own things and not worry about scheduling posts or writing reviews. Sometimes I'd rather spend my nights out with friends than in reading. Most days I don't have time to respond to every comment or traverse the blogosphere commenting on everyone's posts. I wish I did.
Blogging is hard work and I always scoff at those who think it will be easy.
For those who think that blogging means free books, meeting cool authors, being besties with publishers, and all those other cool perks, it's not. Don't take it lightly. It's a commitment and if you let it, it will wear you down. I let it wear me down last year and now I'm paying for it.
But, I'm going to start making up for it. I'm going to find a nice middle ground where I can blog, read, and still have a fun social life. I hope you'll all bear with me while I get my act back together. Because as much as I may hate it sometimes, I really do love it.
What about you? What kind of relationship do you have with blogging? Do you find the stress of it to be too much sometimes? Do you find it to be the easiest thing ever? Are you somewhere in the middle?
