Hey Guys,
It’s been a week or so since my last post, I’m sorry about that. I had so many idea’s for Christmas gift guides and just christmassy posts but life has been hectic, between my masters degree and my job I feel like there is no time. Today I wanted to do a discussion post on something which has been niggling at me for a while and it’s feeling lost in the book community.
The Book Community is something which changed my life so much so for the better, I have made amazing new friends, had amazing opportunities to review books before they come out, interact with authors & more. But sometimes I feel like I’m drowning in this community.
Sometimes I wonder… Maybe it’s my age? I blog mainly about YA but I’m 23 so i’m technically out of that demographic which doesn’t matter largely but when I venture onto Social Media such as twitter I feel out of my depth because i’m sometimes 10 years older.
In regards to the social media aspect, this is something which a lot of people have noticed and commented to me about and that is how Twitter for example is full of drama. I mean absolutely no hate in the slightest but there seems to be a new argument every time I log on and it’s hard to keep up. I’m all for fighting for what’s right, I love people making their voices heard but I’ve seen so much abuse being thrown at others and authors for things such as a person just doesn’t like their books and it makes me not want to log on again. BUT then comes the dilemma of if I don’t log on then I’m losing a place to talk to friends and interact with so many people about our shared interest in books. I have also learnt so much through Twitter, more about international news, diversity and even fights for the Women’s Rights Movement etc.
Another thing which makes me feel lost in the book community is how there is so many books and so little time! There is a constant cycle of books being published and I always want to keep up to date but gosh is it hard! I have books I would love to read but their from series written 5 or so years ago and my brain tells me I shouldn’t get into them now because who would care if I reviewed them? There is undeniably hype in newer books.
Thus brings forth another dilemma into Hannah’s brain. Why am I deciding what I want to read based on statistics for my blog? I try to be so good when thinking about statistics because I’m doing this because I love to read and blog but well my anxiety tells me nobody ever wants to read what I have to say. I try to keep things exciting or do things I know people will like and if someone potentially won’t like a post (like this one) I spend a LOT of time panicking over it.
As I’m writing this i’m realizing that it probably barely makes sense because my brain is full of thoughts and trying to get them coherently down right now is difficult. To summarize I simply feel like I am drowning lately, between my job, uni and my blog. I feel so much pressure on my shoulders and I need a release, which i’m hoping this is. I guess i’m hoping that someone will comment that they completely understand and I will read it and finally breathe knowing it’s not just me.
Let me know in the comments if any of this made sense to you or if you share any of my feelings. I promise I will try to do better. I have so many ideas for posts and I just haven’t got the time right now to execute them the way I want.
mortalreader.wordpress.com 
I definitely feel this pressure as well! Much of what I read are classics, which certainly don’t feel as relevant to this community when compared to recently published YA books, etc. For the most part, I try to push that voice aside and read whatever makes me happy– but it’s definitely difficult at times!
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We need to definitely push that feeling and voice aside in 2018 and read and blog about whatever we want to! 🙂
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Slow down. the blog, the interaction – do them on your terms. The only obligation is to yourself, so do the things you enjoy, make time to be elsewhere, in the real world, or a movie, or [find something].
It’s true about the numbers. Not everyone is going to read your words. Can you imagine having to respond to thousands of responses? No, me neither. Keep in mind that the people who follow you do so for their own reasons, and those reasons usually involve some level of commonality. Enjoy it, don’t be hog-tied by the need to do it.
And as for the age-range – I’m not young, but I missed out on a lot of the life as an adolescent, so I write in that age range. I write my stories for my younger self, what I like in stories. I know lots of people my age who find their favourite authors and stories in the YA or NA (and sometimes even children’s) genres. My favourite movie is Kung Fu Panda [ any one of them, all of them ]. We don’t have to grow up just because we click over in terms of an age.
We don’t have to follow the trend – we can, however, create one.
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This was such an amazing comment, thank you so much for your words. You are so right and I am going to do exactly that, not get tied down and just let myself post whatever I fancy. I love reading and I love blogging and I need to stop being stressed over all the nitty and gritty with stats etc.
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Hannah… this was a really timely post for me as I feel like I’m drowning in things to do for my blog and yet I never seem to get ahead. I’m looking at a long list with only 3 things checked off it and I agree that a voice whispers “just discard things that don’t get your numbers higher” yet I want to take the stress off by scheduling some posts and doing some setup and not just treading water… I think we just need to follow our hearts as hard and trite at that seems! ❤
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So sorry it’s taken so long for me to get to my comments, you know christmas… Stressful and i’ve had essays to write! I hope you can forgive me. You are so right, we do need to follow our hearts and we need to not put too much pressure on ourselves. Blogging is supposed to be fun for us so we should post whatever makes us happy and not worry too much about the stats or what’s on trend right now. How i’m thinking of it, is not everyone has read all the books obviously so if I read an old series and wanted to blog about it I should. I could inspire a new reader to pick it up, if that makes sense? I could be rambling! I hope not… xx
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It’s all good Hannah! Don’t stress, I do love your philosophy.
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Thank you Dani! x
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I have gone through all of this. Twitter is tough for me. I have a hard time breaking in to that community so I read peoples tweets but rarely tweet myself! I always worry that I am not reading enough new releases even though I really enjoy reading reviews and seeing bloggers talk about backlist books!
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I’m sorry your feeling the same Kristin, it sucks feeling like you can’t break through into that side of the community. I hope you know you aren’t the only one now! One of my 2018 resolutions was to not be hard on myself regarding my blogging, i’m going to blog about whatever I fancy instead of worrying about statistics too much or if people even care about a certain book. x
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It’s not just you, Hannah, you are definitely not alone in feeling this way. ❤ Twitter is the worst, at times. I find it a beautiful place to connect easily with people, even chat with authors and discover great news, bookish hype and so on. Twitter is also the worst place, when you're not logged on for half a day, you feel like you missed out on everything, there is always some kind of drama, it's the hardest place to feel like you really fit in. I have a conflicted relationship with twitter as well. but you DO have your place there, in the community, in blogging, no matter what, as long as you love talking about books. It's hard NOT to want to read, or at least try, to read all of the hyped books just to fit in, to make people come on your blog and so on. I know I do, I know I found gems and was glad to read popular books, but I also know it's important to listen to ourselves and what we want to read. We'll always be there to support you, yor blog, great reviews and fantastic ideas you have, no matter what. ❤ ❤
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Thank you so much for your comment sis. You always know how to make me feel better and I have decided for my 2018 resolution to be better to myself. I want to not get bogged down and stressed over my blog and to post whatever I feel like. Reading and blogging is fun and if I do a post on a super old series, someone out there still hasn’t read it and they might pick it up! As long as it inspires people to read:)
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YES! I’d love to hear your recommendation on some older series or books you love 😀
We all should take time to relax and not stress out too much about it all. ❤ ❤
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This is so, so relatable! I’ve been wanting to write a post about feeling pressure to read certain book because they’re new and hyped even though you don’t want to. It’s not like all good books are YA published in the last year, but that’s the only ones you hear about (which is why I like Holly’s blog, because she doesn’t do that). Anyway, it totally makes sense and yeses basically
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I understand completely and feel that pressure ! We need to remember that blogging is a fun hobby for us and we should write about anything we want to. I’m definitely going to try be better to myself this year and write about any book I want to rather than stopping myself. So many people haven’t read some of the older series or even any book out of YA too so you can always inspire someone to pick it up! Thank you for reading x
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Just enjoy your books 🙂 I recently had a look at books that will be published this year and got stressed out immediately. So i get what you mean. What i keep telling myself is i survived until now without reading all the latest stuff, so i will probably be ok this year too.
I don’t own a twitter account, so can’t really contribute to that discussion.
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Thank you for your contribution Norrie! I definitely agree with you and i’m going into 2018 doing just that, enjoying the books. I told myself this year to take the pressure off myself so the first books i’ve picked up are just books I wanted to read. 2 of which were on my TBR for over a year 🙂
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So relatable! I am a really sporadic blogger and tweeter because of the same pressures. Feeling “lost” is the perfect way to describe it – there are so many avenues for a book blogger to take, it’s overwhelming sometimes! I just changed to a new blog at the beginning of the year to get a clean slate and begin blogging with more purpose (ahhh what am I doing with my life lol) so I IDENTIFY WITH this post. Hang in there ❤
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I feel the same about reviewing blogs. On the one hand, I want to read the books I want to read, even if they are old. On the other, I know they will not tract much attention in the way of stats on here. And it’s not like I don’t want to read new books. It’s just that others have been on my THE list longer and it seems unfair just to throw it aside because I want to stay with the hype. I just decided to do what makes me happy. I’ll read whatever book I want to read regardless of blogging. I would have read them if it wasn’t for the blog so there is no reason to not read them now. Make a review if you want. People might still want to hear what you have to say. And you can throw in a new book occasionally if you want. But otherwise, just be happy. That’s what I’m trying to do anyway haha just know that you are sooo not the only one thinking the thoughts you have. You have literally put into words my thoughts and feelings about blogging 😅
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Thank you for your comment love! After writing this, I started the new year most definitely doing just what I want. I’m reading books off my TBR and reviewing them and I’ve been SO much happier. Just go with the flow and don’t worry 💕
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Read what you want and blog about what you want (I do!). This is your blog, after all. 😉
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I chose to do that since the new year and it’s been so good! ☺️
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As a blogging newbie, I totally feel this. There’s so much out there that I feel like I don’t have enough time or concentration to find all the content I want to read, and give it proper justice, and then write my own posts. Should I be on social media? How do I get people to read my stuff? Am I reading stuff that’s super out of date? ARGH! And then I just hide away from it all, which is a shame because I really want to be part of this world. (yes, I did just reference the little mermaid.)
Really relevant and interesting post 🙂
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Thank you so much for reading and sharing your thoughts. I’ve had all the same questions as you and you’ve also got The Little Mermaid into my head now!
To get your posts out there then I would suggest just commenting on other people’s posts and perhaps joining twitter. Whilst there is sometimes drama on twitter it is the easier way to keep track of the community, share your posts and interact with authors too!
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