Book Blogger Confessions - 3

This meme is hosted by Karen at For What It's Worth and Tiger at All Consuming Media

The idea of this is to recount, perhaps even vent in order to ward off violent outbursts, about the nuances of life as a book blogger.

Deadlines for reviewing and blogging. Do you set them? How do you keep them? What do you do if you can't meet a deadline?

I always try to set deadlines, but they're never stringent because I think that would take the fun of it out of reading and then reviewing. In my head, I like to think when I can finish a book by and when I might be able to get a review written for it. I finished Slaughterhouse 5 on Friday, and I have general idea that I'll review it this week, but I won't force myself to. I need to think I can sit down and write it when I have time. Even though I want to post as much as possible, I know that I have to put things like school first. I tend to still be reading, but the reviews come slower.

Concerning keeping deadlines, I do try to avoid reading more than 2 books without reviews- even if just a rough draft. I leave a book for too long, I can't write a review properly. Saying that though, a few of the ones I have left for longer and not been wholly in love with haven't garnered negative attention so I try not to have too many issues with this. I also seem to keep to a deadline if I see everyone posting reviews while the spiders are busy making my blog look old and deserted.

I haven't been in a position where I've missed a deadline (yet!) but I don't know what I'd do. I think all one can do is apologise and try to explain why it was missed. Anyone who is expecting you to do something is also human and I like to think they can understand if you can't manage to do something. We're all human after all, not robots.

One final point before I finish.

I tend to a lot of memes in ratio to the reviews I do, but this doesn't bother me. Frankly, I feel lucky if I can manage a review a week and over the moon if I can do two. I like to do memes so that I can (figuratively) say I'm still alive, reading, loving books and I haven't forgotten about my blog. But then deadlines for these (since they fall on days) also sometimes push me. I tend to do Top Ten Tuesdays on Sunday (when I try and persistently fail to do all blog things) and the Follow Fridays on the Friday morning and Thursday evening. When it comes to hopping back for comments though... it's shameful. As I said, I put other things before blogging so I only tend to hop back when I have time, which usually isn't until Mid-Week.

An excellent topic this week- and I hope this explains a seeming tardiness or lack of reviews!

Christmas Update

Hi everyone- Merry Christmas and all that!

I'm only writing this to say that I'll be taking the next week off in terms of blogging and commenting (except scheduled Blog Hops). I'll try and stay up to date, but it's unlikely that that will happen. Also, in the following two weeks I'll be mostly quiet (probably) because of upcoming exams- so textbooks take reading precedence over novels. I'll post a few reviews and perhaps memes in that time, but I won't do anything more.

Also, in January I have two book tours!!!

January 24: Dragonslayer Series Book Two, Iron Maiden by Resa Nelson
                  Guest Post by Author Resa Nelson (http://www.resanelson.com/)
                  Runs (overall) from January 16th to February 13th


January 27: The Fairy Tale Trap by Emily Casey Blog Tour
                  I'm sure I was told what was being done, but I've lost it. I'm trying to find out.
                  http://emilycaseysmusings.blogspot.com/


Both Authors are lovely ladies, and I have been following Emily for as long as I can remember in my blogging life. I adore her blog. Also, Emily has offered to give away a copy of her book to one winner, but that'll be on the blog tour day 34 days from now.

What I was going to say above, before getting sidetracked, is that both of those marvellous women offered me their books to review, but I'll be putting the reviews up perhaps at most week in advance of the tour stop. Resa gave me two (which I was made up with) so I'll have them close to one another.

So: Happy Reading, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Years in case I'm absent!!!
                 

Checking In

Okay, hi!

I formally announce that I am here to make an excuse for being AWOL on the internet almost completely.

I've been busy (I sound like a broken record) so even though I'm most keeping up with reading and life and other things, my social networking participation has plummeted recently. I check up on Twitter, but I ain't active and I'm only just on top of blogs. Life's too hard I tell you! It's good thing I didn't do NaNoWriMo otherwise I'm sure I'd be a festering puddle of fungus on the floor by this point.

Anyway...

I've got two reviews I hope to get up this week, but after that things will likely slow down. If you follow me on Twitter you'll know I surpassed by 50 book-mark for this year, and I'm now on 51. Doing the maths, it's obvious I only read about a book a week; which is quite good I think! I tell you this since I likely won't be getting two reviews a week at least until Christmas. To compensate, I'm going to try and do at least one hop a week to show that I'm still alive and a book lover. I might try and read some short books but I don't know.

And, to forewarn you, I'll be taking time off blogging come December 20th until about Mid-January for two reasons. One is that I'll be busy over Christmas with family, friends and other things that will mean I'll struggle to sit down and get too much done. The second reason is that come January I have three A-Level exams. (Which, if you're not aware of British schooling, are the exams after turning 16 but before University). They're Maths, Further Maths and Physics. Most of you will look at that and exhale like you've just been punched in the stomach, but I am good at them. Maths and Further Maths will be a walk in a windy park (mildly challenging) but Physics is going to require a fair bit of work and practise.

Thinking about it, I may not completely disappear because I'll need a way to unwind without de-stimulating my brain so blogging might cut it, but I can't promise it. I only mention this now so it doesn't seem out of the blue. It really jolts me when bloggers disappear suddenly. There is nothing wrong with that, and I understand there are unforeseeable circumstances in the future, but I still feel a tad deserted. I'm just trying to avoid that.

Anyway, happy reading!

Bout of Books Summary

Books: 3


Pages: 1041

I think I did quite well don't you?

This is my first time doing any kind of read-a-thon since they always sound daunting. I didn't stick to my rather ambitious plan (here) but I think I did well. It's self-evident that it picked up much more after my rehearsals were over and the show done. I read a book a day over the weekend. This in mind, you could argue that my original plan wasn't too far-fetched.

I want to say that I didn't really hop around the participators during the week and I regret not doing so and not taking part in the challenge. I put it down to being busy again, but really there is no excuse. So here I say well done to everyone since you all read loads in light of your busy lives and what-not. Really, I was just a bit lazy since it was my time off. Ah well.

Also, every review posted after November 8th will be (drum-roll) completely new and none of the old ones I have written. Reading them myself, I can see that they've got better (I hope so!) but I can see my own mood-shifts while writing them. I'm going to pull the teenager hormone card on this front.

The books I read during the read-a-thon will also be up soon, but probably not before next week. The mass reading I had threw me into a bit of a reading slump, to which the best medicine is forced reading. Everything should be back on track soon.

A final thing: Good Luck to all you NaNoWriMo-ers! I wish I could take part, but I decided it wouldn't work out and I'd end up stressed and prioritising against this commitment. Maybe in two years time, after my exams and stuff have slowed down. Know that every hour of every day I am sending creative vibes to all of you.

Happy reading!