The Dark Night of the Reviewing Soul

I don't think I have to state how much I love reading and that I love blogging and that I particularly love book bloggers. I certainly believe in literacy and the beautiful fragile way we fight to keep a community of book lovers alive..those who love story and know it's redemptive power, the pleasure of exiting our worlds and escaping into another, celebrating the wonderful things we read, the way the words change us, inform us, and entertain us. But for as much as I love it, as thankful as I am to be a part of it, I hit a wall last week. Of all the posts that I write on this blog, the book reviews are the hardest. I'm not really a book reviewer. I think I've gotten better than when I first started, but I don't really offer literary criticism...I offer my impressions and my interaction with the book. You might be surprised that I find the book reviews the hardest...mine are a lot shorter than others! But I do. Opinion pieces? Easy...only problem is that my fingers can't type fast enough for my brain. But the book reviews? Always a challenge.

Add to that, I have more ideas for this blog and this community than I will ever have time to enact. I also write for two other blogs that I've been neglecting lately. And of course there's that thing called real life.

So when I reviewed two books I was fond of and excited to share and got zero comments, I thought...maybe this isn't what I'm supposed to be doing. Because way back when I first started talking about books on my blog, it was to share what I'd been reading, to process through it, and to interact with others about books. In short...to share my reading experiences. So maybe I lost that vision somewhere, got caught up in the frenzy of reviewing books, forgetting to let them sit in my brain before I went onto the next one, forgetting to let them slowly be absorbed into who I am.

Please don't misunderstand. I'm not really whining about no comments. I understand that people are busy. I can only read a few of my favorite blogs through the week. I just was wondering if my reviews were really adding anything to the book blogosphere and community or if perhaps there was a different roll for me to fill. And then I remembered something Steph (one of my most favoritest bloggers ever) said back during BBAW (Book Blogger Appreciation Week). Here are her words: "god knows that while book blogging is a community thing, it is extremely lonely and sometimes (okay, most times) we get little to no return" The message of that to me? I am not alone in my (sometimes) loneliness.

Sadly, I didn't remember all of this before I sent out a message asking if I should stop reviewing on Twitter. (a bit of a pity fest for myself, I guess!) Here are some of the wonderful responses I got:



You all are so fantastic thank you so much!

Do I only review for myself? Well yes and no. I'm not sure I would review books if there was no one to read them. Would anyone? Isn't the very nature of a review that you know someone will read it and you are writing it for someone to read? But mostly I review to share my reading experiences..and interact with other readers.

So that's why I'm excited to participate in By the Chapter with Marcia of The Printed Page.
I can't tell you how wonderful I think Marcia is. She is so very thoughtful and I'm excited to be joining in a more interactive way of discussing a book on a blog.

So all of that to say...I'm not going to give up reviewing books. Anything that is worthwhile gets hard sometimes doesn't it? It can't all be comments and puppies and love. Sometimes, I might still feel like I'm sending my voice out into the very empty universe. But that happens to us all. And it's worthwhile to reexamine why I'm doing what I'm doing...and if it's really adding benefit to the literary community.

Do you ever get tired of reviewing books? Do you get more comments on book reviews or other posts?

By the way, my fourth blogiversary is at the end of March and I'm planning a big bash! Hope you'll stick around!