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Current state of play

I wasn't going to write this post. I've thought about it for a while but didn't want it to become a pity post or an outlet for me to moan but then after a lot of thinking I thought I would so those people who kindly send me books and read my little bit of the internet would know what is going on ...

I  love reading. I love talking about the books I've read and that was the reason why I blog and why I've done so for the past 4 years however of late I'm not feeling it. I'm struggling with the books and as a consequence I'm struggling with the blogging and I can put it down to a variety of reasons

1) My reading time in the last month or so has got smaller and smaller as work has got tougher and tougher. New changes brought in by the government to change what I'm doing day to day at school are making the paperwork side of my job insane. Teaching is fine, the kids are fine but the paperwork is not. Nine years ago when I started this job I saw myself doing it until retirement. Now I'm not so sure I'll be doing it in two or three years time. To cut a long story short after a day at work my poor brain just can't cope with getting down my thoughts about the particular book I've just read.

2) I'm giving up on so many books at the moment. As mentioned my reading time has got smaller so I am getting less and less tolerant of books I'm not actively enjoying and less willing to stick with a book for the sake of it. In the last month alone I've given up on over 15 books that I just couldn't be bothered to finish.

3) All the books I've had of late, barring a few exceptions, just haven't been that great. It's not to say they have been awful but just OK and once or if I finish them I've really not got anything to say about them with any enthusiasm or excitement.

4) I'm currently sitting in TBR limbo. I'm caught up on review books and nothing left on my TBR pile is anything I really really want to read. I've not received anything new for review for a good while because it seems that generally not much is released YA wise between mid October and January and it is possibly too early for January review titles to start arrive yet which means I'm now just waiting for those to drop through my door (That said I have had one. The Art of being Normal by Lisa Williamson. It was awesome. Literally the best thing I had read since the beginning of August. I cannot wait to review that on here).

I don't want to stop blogging but I'm worried if I carry on trying to force it I am going to start to resent it so my plan is to carry on reviewing titles as and when / if I have something to say about the books I read between now and the new year. I have several guest posts pencilled in which I think will be fab. I'll still be posting bookish posts and vlogging with Bookish Brits. However it is going to be a lot quieter between now and January to give me a bit of down time, allow me time to focus on the lovely January 2015 titles I'm hoping will start to arrive in the not so distant future and get myself scheduled ahead for the new year so I can come back with more enthusiasm and excitement.

In the meantime if you want to know what I'm reading (or giving up on) find me on goodreads (see my sidebar for widget that'll lead you to my page) or on twitter @overflowingklc. If you have any really awesome reading recommendations to get me through the TBR limbo let me know in the box below because I need something to read and get excited about desperately.

Comments

Sarah said…
I hope you get your reading mojo back soon Kirsty! I think taking a bit of a blogging break is probably a good idea. I know I'm finding it hard to get motivated at the moment too so I can understand where you're coming from :o(

I don't want to give up completely either but I've decided to put less pressure on myself to review things in a certain time frame & I'm trying to read more of the books that I bought for myself alongside the review copies which is helping.