Let’s Talk Bookish #3

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme that was originally created and hosted by Rukky at Eternity Books in August 2019. As of April 2022, it’s hosted by Aria at Book Nook Bits.
Today’s Question(s) is …

What have you learned since you first started blogging? What advice would you give to new bloggers? What is your favorite thing about blogging? What is the hardest part of blogging for you? Is there anything you wish you’d done differently with your blog?

My Answer(s) is …

I started blogging back in June 2007. Before that, I maintained a personal website that I painstakingly created by coding with html and CSS. I like blogging a lot better because I can focus more on what I’m writing than on what I’m coding.

Blogging has been a huge part of my life and I’ve learned a lot. I’m more creative and I’ve learned to be okay with me. I can express myself better and I’ve made so many awesome friends. Even though I still struggle with my voice, I’ve learned to be a little more free with my writing. (I was a technical writer for nearly a decade and that rigidity doesn’t leave easily. Because of technical writing, my writing’s much more formal than how I actually speak. I’m still trying to learn how to write more conversationally.)

The best advice I can give new bloggers is to be yourself. Even though you’re writing for an audience, you need to enjoy what you post. Otherwise, blogging will become a chore and you’ll want to stop. Trust me. Been there, done that.

Taking time to blog hop is my second best advice. Not only is it a great way to make friends, you’ll also gain more followers. The friendships you’ll make are definitely worth the time and effort you’ll expend blog hopping. Interacting with others is most definitively my favorite part of blogging.

The hardest part of blogging for me is pushing through my depression and continuing to blog even though the last thing I want to do is write or comment on other blogs. Fortunately, the skills I’ve learned in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) this past year have helped me learn to cope when I’m emotionally dysregulated.

The only thing I wish I’d done differently is not delete 14 years’ worth of blog posts in a moment of emotional dysregulation. Thanks to Feedly’s archiving feature, I can at least access my posts from May 2013 onward.

How about you?

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Let’s Talk Bookish #2

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme that was originally created and hosted by Rukky at Eternity Books in August 2019. As of April 2022, it’s hosted by Aria at Book Nook Bits.

I’m a day late in posting, but better late than never, right?

Today’s Question(s) is …

How do you keep track of books you want to read? Do you have a lot of books on your TBR? Is there any order or organization within all the books you want to read? Does your TBR ever feel overwhelming?

My Answer(s) is …

I keep track of the books I want to read on an Excel spreadsheet and on Goodreads. I used to use Shelfari too, which I preferred way more than Goodreads, but Amazon shut it down. The reason I do both a spreadsheet and Goodreads instead of just Goodreads is because Goodreads doesn’t keep track of everything I want to track and the filtering capabilities in Excel are so much more robust than what Goodreads can do. (Hmmm, can I say Goodreads again? )

Do I have a lot of books on my TBR? Um, yes. My TBR has over 1400 books on it and it grows faster than I can read them. My TBR has EVERY book I want to read on it, not just the books I own in physical or electronic form. I do cull my list once or twice a year and remove the books I’m no longer interested in reading.

My main worksheet is alphabetical by author and I can mark whether I own a book, it’s on my wishlist, it’s signed, when it’s due for release, and if I’ve read it. It also shows if I consider the book a favorite and how many times I’ve read it. Below is a screenshot showing a section of my main worksheet. (I haven’t updated it for a while; I need to reconcile it with what I’ve added to my Goodreads “to-read” shelf in the last six months. I’ve been putting it off because it’s going to take hours.) You can see that I have several worksheets in my workbook. Those other worksheets are just more things I like to keep track of.

My TBR can feel very overwhelming at times. I know I only have a finite amount of time to read as many books as I possibly can. With how fast my TBR grows, I won’t make a dent in it before I die. I’m currently 44 and the average lifespan of a woman in good health in the United States is around 79. I’ve read an average of 26 books each year since 2007. I have 35-ish years left to read. I’ll probably read no more than 1000 books (not counting rereads) between now and when I die unless I can kick my reading speed up a notch. Even though I know I won’t get to every book, I still want to keep a list of all the books I might be interested in.

How about you?

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Let’s Talk Bookish #1

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme that was originally created and hosted by Rukky at Eternity Books in August 2019. As of April 2022, it’s hosted by Aria at Book Nook Bits.
Today’s Question(s) is …

How do you feel about unhauling books? Do you get rid of books often? Or do you hold on to every book you buy? How do you decide which books to get rid of? Are there any books you would never get rid of?

My Answer(s) is …

I’ve gotten rid of (or unhauled) books before. They’re usually cheap paperbacks that I’ve replaced with nice hardcover editions, or books I’m no longer interested in reading. (Much to Corey’s chagrin, I have a book buying problem. I often buy books before I read them. ) And, sometimes, I’ll get rid of a book after I read it because I didn’t like it very much.

There are a few books I’ll never get rid of. They have sentimental value. For example, when I was ten years old, my parents gave me a whole slew of books for my birthday and Christmas. I didn’t read them back then because I hated to read. (My parents were hoping to pique my interest with the books they gave me; sadly, it didn’t work.) I’ve now started reading each of them and I haven’t liked a couple of them. However, because both my parents are gone and they wrote an inscription in each cover, I can’t get rid of them. It would almost be like losing my mom or dad again.

When I do get rid of books, I donate them to my local library, my friend’s Little Free Library, a used bookstore, or I find someone who may want them. I never sell them and I never just throw them away.

How about you?

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