A Mid-Year Reflection on My Blogging

Alan Bennet said, “Books are not about passing time. They’re about other lives. Other worlds. Far from wanting time to pass, one just wishes one had more of it.” For over a year, Armed with A Book has been at the epicenter of all my planning. Even when I pick books to read, they get a spot on the blogging calendar before being read. Reading leads to writing – it’s a cycle I encourage myself to maintain.

Since February 7, 2020, I have posted everyday on the blog. Reading Unfrazzle (review out on August 1st), gave me a refreshing perspective and realization that my pursuit of blogging everyday is for myself. I am proud of the 150+ day streak I have going on right now, but that does not mean I have to continue to do it. 

Ever since I started book blogging, I have dabbled in a number of projects, new additions emerging as old ones get completed:

• 2019 in books for Book lovers – I hosted book bloggers and readers over the course of two months to share about their 2019 reads. I am hoping to do this again in 2020!
• Armed with A Bingo – A year long reading challenge with Ariel.
• My History Map Project – To read about history from around the world.
• Resident Book Blogger at WriteHive – Organizing bookish events on the Discord server and managing social media for WriteHive.
• Acquisitions Intern at Inked in Gray – This was announced this week! I will be looking through pitches and queries of stories, the first steps in publishing.
• The Creator’s Roulette – I started this series in January and continue to host creatives to share about their passions and craft.

I have taken on more and more because I love doing bookish things. In my Likes: Who do I write for? post, I outlined the success criteria for Armed with A Book:

✨ Writing everyday.

✨ Finding actionable insights from books to apply.

✨ Exploring new topics.

✨ Prioritizing reading over stress from the opinion of others.

✨ Scheduling and organizing content.

Recently though, exploring new topics has been on hold because I have been trying to catch up on all my review requests (I did go overboard there for August-October upcoming releases, not the mention what I had from authors already and blog tours). I have a good collection of nonfiction books I want to read. Jordan Peterson’s Maps of Meaning and Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens and Homo Deus being the priorities on my list, in addition to the books in my History Reading Map. But where is the time to read and reflect on them going to come from if my focus is review copies (mostly fiction) and I am working on deadlines (often self-imposed and related to the blog) to get them done?

Reading was never supposed to be a race to read more. That is exactly why I stopped doing the Goodreads Reading Challenge. I know how many books I can read in a month while maintaining a full time job and blog everyday. But it still feels like a race when I am trying to finish books by deadlines. Instead of X books a year, I have started thinking X books a week. Somewhere between the fun of planning and actually doing, I have turned reading into a chore that has to be completed. I still get enjoyment out of it but I know there is stress.

Reading, for me, is about pursuing learning. Fiction does teach but nonfiction is what I crave. It is slower to read but it is the one with more knowledge and insights. Having committed to so many fiction review copies, my desire is to finish them all off – imagine the sweep of your arm across the table. Free the table! Bring on more meaningful books along with fiction reads. My organizing skills have helped me focus on these goals, but sometimes, with reading taking priority, I do not get enough time to write on the blog and flesh out our articles as much as I would like to. Today, for example, I was planning to explore Magical Realism as a genre and its postcolonialism connection. Though I got my skeleton of ideas together, I wasn’t happy with the time I spent on it and needed much more before I could publish it to the blog. This naturally led to, “what will I post on the blog then on the 15th?” and then I considered pushing myself to write the post because I did not want to miss a day. 

A small voice asked me why it mattered so much? Since this is my blog and I decide the schedule for it, why does it matter if I skip a day and spend that time fleshing out my ideas more or reading what I want? There must be a way to balance!

I interpreted writing everyday as blogging everyday but writing is a tool for reflection and reflections don’t all have to make it to the blog. I only have so much time between my day job and the books and the blog, and somewhere has to give if I want to pursue interests outside of reviewing.

Now that I have come to that realization and bought into it, I have decided that I will not be aiming to post everyday on the blog. That will give me freedom to pursue new areas of studies and my books, while carving out time for finishing my review books. It will also give me flexibility with my collaborators about getting their posts published. I don’t know if this change will truly change the blogging schedule but a little switch in my mind to not make sure to book everyday a month in advance will surely relax some tensed muscles.

What are your thoughts?