Reading for the Sake of Content // some honest thoughts from blogging over the years

Happy new year, again! Cue the yearly reading challenges, resolutions, and pledges to read more!

NY resolutions from january 1-30 🥳

Maybe not, though.

This year, we all seem to want the universe to please cut us a break. It appears that many people have taken the initiative to carve out some guilt-free, time for rest in the upcoming months, and for some avid readers, this means cutting down on how many books we’re aiming to read by 2022. 

Although I personally don’t plan on scaling back my reading this year—there’s only so much reading my “slow-reader” butt can cut down on before I’m not reading anything 😅—the idea of slowing down how much literature I’m consuming brings to mind a question I ask myself often: how much do I read for the sake of content for my blog and YouTube channel? 

Should You Start A Booktube (Book YouTube) Channel? // why i finally made one and some pros and cons based on my first impressions

The short answer is a tentative yes, but the long answer is… longer and needlessly wordier.

*You may be able to generalize this post if you’ve had an overall interest in making a YouTube channel, bookish or not 🙂.

Do You Follow The Hype Train? // my opinion on reading hyped books

Are you a passenger on the hype train?

Train metaphors ✌️😅.

i watched this gif too many times than i’d like to admit.

Every month, Rukky from Eternity Books shares weekly bookish discussion topics for her awesome Let’s Talk Bookish feature. I always look forward to the discussions and am finally participating in today’s: The Hype Train! Rukky provided some great guide questions, so I’ll keep this intro short 💃:

Check out Rukky’s blog and the discussion topics! Her posts are always so fun and thoughtful!

Should You Join Book Twitter? // the pros and cons of book twitter based on my first impressions

Twitter scares me. 

But first, what is Twitter and Book Twitter?

i bet we were all real curious about that stock price too 😯💸.

Book Twitter is an expansive micro-community within Twitter composed of book junkies—from authors, publishers, book-related media companies to formal and casual readers like librarians, bloggers, booktubers, and instagrammers.

If you’re anything like me, you may have your reasons for not joining Book Twitter.

I Used To Hate Writing, Now I Love It // a brief history and the unexpected comforts of the process

I didn’t start out an adversary to writing. 

During what I now consider the pinnacle of my writing prowess, aka the third grade, my classmates regarded me as a deft and literate comrade. I distinctly remember their tiny, gawking faces when I would be the first one to hand in our in-class essays, and then watching them form again when the teacher would read my work out loud. For once in my short-lived academic career, I felt like I was excelling compared to my peers.

I was a young J.K. Rowling in the making. I was a genius! 

I was in third grade 🤦🏻‍♀️. 

Appreciating Author’s Notes // why I like them, their affect on ratings, and when should they be read

A little moment of appreciation for Author’s Notes.

Of everything that goes into book publications, book covers seem to get the bulk of exposure. They receive constant praise for their beautiful art, are chided for misrepresenting their story’s content (1|2), and may be judged for any other detail bookworms can pick at. That’s what they get for being all out in the open—easy targets 😈🎯.

In comparison, there’s very little buzz about the Author’s Notes section in books.

where is the buzz?

Behind the book covers, tucked safely before or after the main story, author’s notes exist inconspicuously and don’t drive book sales for obvious reasons. However, even once readers finish a book, author’s notes are rarely referenced asides from the quick nod in a book review or the infrequent discussion they inspire.

Maybe there’s truly not much to say about them, which is fine, but it’s also a bit of a shame considering the thought authors put into writing them and determining where they fit according to the format of a book.

So, here’s my official Author’sNotesAppreciationPost✔️ where I consolidate all the reasons I like Author’s Notes, discuss how they affect book ratings, and question when they should be read. Let them not be in vain 💃🏽!

You Can’t Make A Human Connection To An Ebook? // some thoughts on ye ol’ physical vs. ebooks debate

“I think you have a much more human relationship to a book that’s printed than you do to one that’s on a screen.”

I was watching a TED video entitled “Why books are here to stay” when the narrator Chip Kidd made that statement. My initial reaction when I first heard it was, “What—no 😲??”, and I started to draft a post about why I disagreed with him. But, when I started to consider Kidd’s opinion more, I realized that perhaps I was deliberately missing his point for the sake of being contrary 😅. So, here’s why I both agree and disagree with Kidd’s statement:

What Do You Think Of When You Look At Your Blog Stats? // numbers, the people behind them, and being number one

How often have you looked at your blog statistics and actually wondered how many of the viewers were impacted by your posts?

This question, or rather, something similar to it, was posed by one of my favorite (and grossly underrated) Youtubers Nathan Zed.

In a recent video, he spoke on end about how people, specifically creator-types like musicians and internet personalities, want to claim the number one spot in their respective fields. Nathan went on to cite how some of these people pine for first place so bad that they resort to moves like buying followers or making public pleads to their fans to help them achieve just that.

It’s all a bit disconcerting. As creators, they rightfully want to be acknowledged, but don’t they also want to be genuinely impactful? What will people remember of their work if they never even connected with it in the first place?

While listening to Nathan’s points, my mind predictably began applying them to the blogosphere. I questioned myself,

“How often do I actually wonder if people were impacted by my posts?”

Finding Value In Your Blog Even If You Don’t Make Money From It // and the obsession with making money from our hobbies

Money!

Let’s be honest, it would be a dream to make money from home by blogging. Consistent bloggers know that it takes a butt-load of work to post regularly (my inconsistent blogger butt knows that too—only a fraction of it, but still 🙋) and being compensated monetarily would certainly add some value to the effort. But, I think most bloggers, especially the book type, are cognizant of the fact that there’s a slim chance that their blog will one day pay their bills.

Many of us don’t start our blogs with any ulterior motives except to talk about books.

Yet, there are still whispers in my head that all of this, this whole blogging thing, is a waste of my time. It’s silly because what would a good use of my free-time be then?

Fortunately, I know where this feeling that I should be doing something else is coming from: it’s coming from an obsession with making money from hobbies.

Book Recommendations Based on My Favorite Neopets // the book rec list no one asked for

Neopets was my childhood.

For those of you who don’t what the heck I’m talking about:

In summary, Neopets is an online gaming site where you can adopt virtual creatures and collect points, usually by playing mini-games, to buy items to take care of them. Because it is online, users can also interact with other players across the world through various channels on the site, such as chat boards, guilds, and auctions.

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This site gets full credit for starting my internet addiction at the age of eight.