I have been torn about what to do with my noteworthy book lists. I have thought carefully and think I am going to discontinue them (at least for now). When I first came up with the idea, I envisioned the blog posts to be like People’s monthly book review section, on the books that mattered or impacted me the most. After four months of doing so, I have ran across a few problems that I am not sure how to tackle.
- A Novel In And Of Itself
Truly noteworthy books deserve much more than a blurb and yet trying to cover three or four books that can be anywhere from 650 to 950 words means that my blog posts are way too long. I appreciate anyone who actually reads them in their entirety, but I am sure most people skip over ones that don’t catch them right away or even see the length and think ‘is there a cliff notes version?’ and frankly I don’t blame anyone who does. I want to be able to give the books I review, what they deserve, but also hope to do so in a post that doesn’t exceed 2,000 words.
- Where Did All The Time Go?
There is never enough time, and I know that this is something that everyone can relate to. Reading all of these books and then only being able to ‘use’ some of them because they’re ‘worth’ talking about means I can spend 60% of my time reading to just barely churn out four selections a month. I question whether only doing three selections a month would be any better.
- Noteworthy Does Not Necessarily Mean Noteworthy… Anymore
This is the main reason I decided it was time to rethink this monthly post idea and it kind of piggybacks on the reasons I already mentioned. The original idea I had was a monthly showcase of the best of the best, but even if I read two books per week, on top of my business, my own writing, personal and home stuff (not to mention my guilty pleasure reading list and yes I reread everything I post about) I don’t have any wiggle room. If I read something that turns out to be not so noteworthy I have to find another book (not that fun three days before the post’s date) or make it work. I have no problem making it work and there was a lot of that with some of my previous month’s lists, but I would rather just review books without the confines of ‘noteworthy’. If it doesn’t work, I can talk about why and if it demands praise I can do the worship thing without a certain number hanging over my head. I love books, I live them, breathe them in – they are a comfort, an escape, fun. And that was the original idea, but I think I have started to veer off course and it is time to ‘right’ myself again.
I am not abandoning ‘Confessions Of A Bookaholic’ or book reviews though. First of all, I will continue my ‘Guilty Pleasure’ editions of this series, which focus on ‘Fear Street’ and ‘Sweet Valley High’ right now, but I also have some other editions coming up that are connected by theme or genre rather than associated with a series. I also am still going to post about the books that I find ‘noteworthy’ but I will do as I read them and if I feel like they’re worth a post. A lot of the books I read are trilogies and I may write about the entire trilogy and each book specifically in a single post, but I won’t go past that number, because otherwise the post is just too long. I finished June’s ‘Noteworthy Fiction’ list, had a few finished for July and was making progress on the nonfiction lists as well so I already have some wonderful books coming up, and I’ll be tying them together by themes, author or genre. I suspect, most review posts will feature two books related to one another, but just like there may be the occasional trilogy, there also may be the occasional book that demands a post of its own.
I am excited because I feel this is going to make any book review posts that much better and much more noteworthy. 😉 After all, that was my original intention anyway. So, while my noteworthy lists are officially retiring for now, book reviews on books that I think are worthy taking note of, will be new and improved. Consider this ‘Confessions Of A Bookaholic’ 2.0, because this bookaholic still has plenty of confessions to make! 🙂
-DMW
