Rants and Raves: Review Funk

Rants And Raves is just something that I'll be doing whenever the mood strikes me.  Either I'll be ranting about something that I don't like or I'll be raving about something that I thought was just too great for me to shut up about.   



My first post is definitely a rant, so allow me to have a meltdown.

*Warning:  I am not a writer, but I love to ramble. A lot.*



I've seriously been going through the motions with my blogging lately.  At one point in time, blogging was fun for me, but over the last few months it has been less fun and more like work. Don't get me wrong, I like blogging, but what started out as just something fun to do in my spare time has morphed into a hobby that I was quickly losing interest in.


Okay, let me explain.  I've been in love with reading since I can remember.  In grade school I used to live for Weekly Readers and Book Fairs.  So a while ago, I ran across a couple of blogs and I liked them.  It seemed like fun so I thought it would be cool to have my own.

Now I've been blogging for over a year. I've gone through some changes, but I love my books so I've tried my best to keep it simple and fun.  I blogged whenever I felt the need to talk about a new book I'd recently read or one that I was looking forward to reading. It felt good to gush about a good read, or nitpick one I just couldn't finish.  I didn't feel the need to do everything that other bloggers were doing because I was just having fun seeing what worked and didn't work for me.

Somewhere along the way, I started to care more about those unofficial blogging rules and etiquette than what was really on my mind.  I got caught up in the "how to be a better blogger", "when to give nice reviews", "how to gain more followers" blah, blah, blah and lost my review mojo.

I found myself reading an excess amount of books.  Some were not my preferred reads and were harder to review than others.   Half the time I couldn't even start the review or I'd start it but couldn't finish it.   And rather than be stuck trying to hammer out a review, I just picked up another book and started reading.  Crazy, right?  Before I knew it, I may have read five to six books without writing a single review.  Half the time, the books I chose had such similar plots and characters that I felt like I was reading the same book over and over.  Oh and the dreaded love at first site books (stay tuned for a rant on that)-noooooooooooooo! 

While I've had my share of not so great books, I've also had my share of awesome reads that I  had no problem reviewing.  In fact the book had me so interested that the review practically wrote itself. That's when I realized that I just have to remember that reading is a chore only if I make it. Of course there will be books that I think I might like, but once I start reading them, I won't like them.  But if I spend less time on the ones that I don't like and more time on the ones that I do like, I think I'll be able to pull myself out of my funk and start having fun again.  And blog more.