Most of us are here for the same reason: we love books. Whether you are a blogger who writes lengthy reviews, a vlogger who loves talking about literature, or someone who just loves reading book blogs, we all have a love of books in common.
So what happens when that love starts getting overshadowed by the feeling of responsibility to deliver content to your readers?
I’ve only been blogging for a little over a year now, so I haven’t really been around long enough to hit that I CAN’T DO THIS ANYMORE place. I’m hoping I won’t ever get there. I really love blogging, more than I ever thought I would. Sure there are days when I don’t even want to look at my computer, but they’re rare. I have, however, been recently thinking about the difference between reading for fun and reading for review.
Obviously, it’s still fun when you are reviewing, or else none of us would be here. But I find, more and more these days, that I am forcing myself to continue reading books that I. JUST. DON’T. LIKE. It’s as if now that I am a book blogger, I have to finish every book I pick up.
There are times now when I pick up a book and say “unless I feel incredibly motivated to review this, I’m just going to read it, enjoy it, and then put it away when I’m done”. No review. GASP. It actually helps a lot. And when you read as much as most of us do, you really don’t NEED to review every book you read.
I guess my advice to new bloggers here would be this: if it’s not fun anymore, stop. Take a break. Remember, you’re here because you love this. If you don’t love it anymore, what’s your reason for being here? Decide how you are going to deal with books that you just aren’t connecting with. I usually read to at least 50 pages before giving up on a book. If the author hasn’t caught your interest within 50 pages, it’s very unlikely it will get any better.
Don’t take review requests that you aren’t 100% interested in. Cause you’re the one reading that book. I definitely learned that the hard way. As a new blogger I accepted practically every request I got, regardless of the genre or synopsis. Stupid, right? I learned my lesson VERY quickly.