Well I am back. Its been a while and I thought I was done,
but I have been feeling the words well up inside me for some time now and
decided that I might as well get back into it. No gimmicks this time; I enjoyed
the teasing aspect of my reviews, however, I ended up with half read books all
over the place while they awaited a written review and it was just too annoying!
For the past few years I have been delving further and further into the book
world. Reading is my favourite past time, followed closely by the collecting of
books, and very few things make me happier than sitting in my book room; reading
in the comfort of my second hand lazy boy, or going though my books. I have so
many that I have been known to forget about some and delight in re-discovering
the books sitting on my shelves. Through my reading bestie (and one of my best
life besties) I have discovered the wonder and joy of booktube – a little
corner of youtube dedicated solely to books and the lovers of them. This has
led me to discovering so many people with obsessions similar to, and much bigger
than my own. I have also found book lovers on Instagram, shared my love with
them, found new books and even interacted with some beloved authors. I love
books – I am not sure that I have made that clear yet – and it’s nice to see
that there are so many people who share my love. I should have studied
literature in school, I should have gone into library sciences or publishing.
But I didn’t, so now I must immerse myself into this world in a way of my own
making.
When I initially started this blog at the end 2014, I had
dreams of becoming famous (you know, in terms of book blogging…). I had visions
of free books from publishing companies and becoming friends with authors. This
didn’t happen, obviously! I admit that I became a bit discouraged with the lack
of readers. Even if I wasn’t actually expecting book blogging fame, I was
hoping for a few more hits. I wanted people to read what I had written; to be
inspired by my reviews, to pick up a new book, discover a love of reading, or
re-discover their old love. However, I have always been a person of little
patience; a not quite full blown millennial, I want things right away and hate
waiting. I kept up the blog for just over a year the first time. I put a lot of
pressure on myself and forgot my main reason for starting it; my love of
reading and my desire to share that love. What does it matter that most of the
time it was only my mother who read my reviews? She found a new author to love,
so doesn’t that make it a success? One thing that I discovered is that blogging
is not easy, it takes time to write the reviews and to try and find content
that is new and interesting; and in a life that it already quite busy, it was
difficult to set aside the time to make it a successful venture. See, the
secret to becoming famous and to making an impact is taking the time to do it.
Putting in the hours and making the sacrifices, and most importantly as my
boyfriend reminded me earlier today (albeit under different circumstances);
determination, motivation and persistence. I had to change my definition of
success and I have to persevere until I get there. Instead of seeking glory,
which honestly is near impossible in a world that is saturated with blogs and
social media influencers, my goal is to, quite simply, share the love. I’ll
post when I read a book that I feel the need to review, the good ones and the
bad ones. I’ll continue sharing the love through the blog and social media and
I’ll see where we end up.
I am a great believer in resolutions, in fact, I do them
twice a year: New Years and my birthday; both can truly be considered new
years. I don’t believe that its always a good idea to completely change
yourself, nor is it always possible, but taking the time to reflect on what you
want and where you want to go is never a bad idea. We are all over worked and
under paid. It’s impossible to measure up to the constant barrage of perfect
lives we see on the internet (remember, quite often their posts are their
literal jobs and not actually real life) and nothing can be gained by trying.
It’s also too easy to sink into despair and let life happen to you. Instead I
am going to try and find the things that I love and do them for the sake of
that love, rather than trying to keep up. I am going to seek out life and not
let my fears or laziness hold me back.
So welcome back, mostly to my mom (she’s the only guaranteed
reader I have). Welcome to Booker Tease 2.0. Let me know what you like, let me
know what you don’t – just do it gently, I beg. I am a sensitive soul. Follow
me here, follow me on Facebook or on Instagram. Don’t follow me at all, but
creep on my profiles once in a while, I don’t mind.
2019 is going to be grand.
No comments:
Post a Comment