Blogging stress and tips to avoid it

When I decided to start a blog I never realized the amount of work it took. I knew it would require time and dedication, but I didn’t quite know how much. I actually don’t think anyone understands the work behind a blog unless you start one yourself. For me, blogging and reading are my biggest hobbies. As such, they shouldn’t feel like a job. But if you aren’t well prepared (or even if you are!), sometimes they can start feeling a bit stressful.

Accepting Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) or requested reviews from authors is incredibly fun and definitely a book blogging perk, but if you go overboard, you can feel pressured by it. The same goes for writing posts. If you overthink it or try to keep up a schedule that is too much for you, you can feel anxious about it. As of lately, I’ve been struggling with this so I thought that I would share my own experience and hopefully hear about your own and how you cope with it.

Too harsh rating books?

For me, rating a book can be a very hard task. Sometimes I finish a novel and I immediately know how many stars I think it deserves. But, more often than not, I have to spend a few hours or days mulling over it. Over at my Review Policy you can check out my star rating system, which is fairly simple and based on the one provided by Goodreads. My problem is that I overthink it. I always think that my rating has to convey perfectly how I felt about a book. This is obviously impossible and where reviews come in handy, but star ratings are the quickest way to see if people have a similar reading taste.

Because of that, I prefer being overly critical and tend to be a bit harsh rating books. Over at Goodreads I have an average rating of 3.12. I decided to look at other people’s average rating and found that I had the lowest number, as I suspected. The lowest I saw from almost 20 people was 3.40! I’ve been meaning to change the way I rate and I thought it would be of great help for me to have this discussion post, so join me and let’s talk about rating books.

Limiting our TBRs

As readers, we are constantly discovering new books. Sometimes people introduce them to us and other times we find them ourselves by sheer luck or through our own research. Either way, it’s a never-ending process of adding books to our mental, digital or written lists of books to read. The notorious TBRs.

I never gave much thought to what I added to my ‘to be read’ list on Goodreads until I saw someone on Twitter commenting they were ‘cleaning up’ theirs. That got me thinking in all the books I’ve added that I’m never really going to read, which are a nuisance when I’m looking for something that I actually want to pick up. So today I want to discuss if we should limit the books we add to our TBRs or if it’s better to add any book that calls to us, no matter how small the reason might be.

Disclosing plot twists

I think it’s safe to say we all love a good plot twist from time to time. When a story takes an unexpected turn, a revelation changes the way we see things, or we finally discover what is behind a mystery and are genuinely surprised we are left awed. Of course, sometimes plot twists are predictable or change a story for the worst, which can ruin a book. Either way, when someone mentions a shocking or amazing plot twist in a book, it’s very hard for me to resist picking it up. Then comes the problem: I can’t stop thinking about the plot twist while reading the book. I try to guess, pick up clues in every page, and even read faster than usual just so I can finally read the supposedly incredible revelation.

So today I thought I would talk about the positive and the negative things about plot twists and about disclosing their existence in a book. I even conducted a little poll on Twitter to find out some of your thoughts beforehand, so if you’re curious of the result, read ahead!

Is reading classics a must?

A few weeks back I discussed hyped books and literary snobs and there was a recurring theme that I considered interesting for another discussion post: Classics. I’ve also been seeing around the tag #SaveTheClassics from Olivia @LibroLivNot which I found pretty cool (click the hashtag to check it out at her blog). All of this got me thinking – is reading classics really a must? Should everyone read them? I’ve been mulling over these questions in my head for quite a while now and I think that, as in every discussion, there are many perspectives. So today I’ll be talking about why people should or shouldn’t read classics and I would love to hear your input on this!

Hyped books and literary snobs

Since joining the online bookish community I’ve been feeling pressured to read as many hyped books as possible. I feel left out of so many conversations! But I’ve come to terms with it and realize that I can enjoy them as an outsider. The truth is, I don’t want to read what everyone else is reading just for the sake of feeling a part of the conversation. I pick hyped books that actually call to me or are recommended to me by people I trust. To this, my past self would tut-tut in disapproval. I was, not for long, a literary snob. I only read books that were, according to me, respectable. Luckily, something good came out of that shameful time and that’s exactly what I want to talk about today: How my past as a literary snob changed the way I see hyped books.

Why reading slumps are not so bad

We’ve all been there. You finish a book, look at your TBR and nothing stands out. If you pick a book, you leave it at page 2, distracted. You turn your TV on, go out, check social media, cook, do anything but read and now the book is abandoned on your nightstand or your shelf. Weeks pass by and the book is coated with dust, unmoved. You start feeling guilty, seeing everyone update their reading statuses. What is happening!? 

You know it. A dreaded reading slump has arrived and settled in your life. But worry no more! They’re not as bad as you think. We always seem to want to get rid of them, but I’ve found that sometimes fighting them is the wrong approach. So today I’m making my case in defense of reading slumps and why they’re not exactly bad.