I used to be a book blogger at Damaged Pages and Atta's Bibliophilia. I used to love it. Now? Not so much.
Being a blogger is very time-consuming. As somebody who was blogging just for fun, it was okay until I decided to try and get a little more into it. I would usually check my stats, not expecting much of them at all. I was a blogger for years until I realised that I was supposed to share my content, comment on other bloggers' blogs and basically, make myself known so I could build my audience.
This newfound knowledge stressed me out and put pressure on me. This didn't sit well with me since I'm usually a pretty chill person. I don't put a lot of effort into my hobbies because I'm not a perfectionist. I'm often satisfied with whatever I get from the first try unless it's very bad or I overthink it. Having to share my content and spend more time on it, made me enjoy blogging less. Hobbies are supposed to be enjoyable, not an obligation. It is entirely my fault for trying to become something I've never been.
I read several articles about starting a book blog and expanding it, saying that I needed to upload as often as possible. Most of the bloggers I found would upload almost daily. Me? I didn't have the content for that. I didn't even have the content for posting twice a week because I was already a university student and I was also reading longer books. I've always been a slow reader, so this meant that I couldn't post often enough. One thing I've noticed over the years is that if you are a small blogger and you don't stay as active as possible, people forget about you. Just like in real life. Nice.
That isn't the main reason. I'm just lazy. Having to put so much effort into something, just to get noticed, wasn't and still isn't worth it for me. What I was supposed to do was comment on other people's blogs if I wanted them to notice me, and comment back and follow them if I wanted them to follow me back. I would have to reply to comments, which I don't mind, I love comments, but then I would have to go to their blog and do the same. I don't mind it as long as I am genuinely interested in their content but I've never been. I have liked only two book blogs in the past 5 years. I actually find book blogs very boring... Ironically, I used to have one...
One of the reasons I hate commenting for comments is because my comments feel like lies to me and, knowing how I feel about it, I can only imagine how genuine the other people are. It could also be just me being a bad person. I'll never know.
What's more, in my mind, other bloggers would always be my competition. I've never seen the point in supporting my competition, even if they supported me back. This is all so fake to me. I thought I was writing for people interested in books and not for bloggers. This is one thing I would never fully understand even though I do get the idea. However, instead of spending time commenting on other people's blogs, I'd rather read and have content for my next blogpost.
These reasons so far are all true and played a part in my decision to stop blogging but the main one is that I don't want to read new books, which kind of defeats the point of having a blog. What my journalism classes have taught me is that I always have to talk about new things. Yes, that's all good but I am not interested in the new releases.
I've come to the realisation that I don't read books that most people my age are interested in. At the moment, the young adult genre is very popular but I hate it. I can write a whole post about it and probably will. I just do not like YA, I love fantasy and that's what I read but the majority of new releases people are interested in, especially the target audience of my blog, are YA. This year, I enjoyed only one new YA novel and I didn't even enjoy it as much as I wanted to. It just isn't for me. However, not talking about YA has never gotten me views, so what's the point in writing about books and saying that I love connecting with people when nobody reads it? What's the point in writing about books when I don't enjoy the books I have to write about? What's the point in having a book blog when I can't write about the books I love because nobody gives a shit about them?
I'm not a person to pressure myself for reading books, so I just took the easiest decision I could and stopped blogging. Honestly, when I realised that I had started finding excuses not to blog, I realised that that was it for me and book blogs.
I'm not saying that I hate them, I'm not bashing anybody who likes book blogs and enjoys reading and/or writing them. I'm just saying it's not for me. I am too lazy for this.
Yes, I have tried writing about the books I like in both of my blogs but since they are old high fantasy novels, I would usually get close to no views. On top of that, because I needed to be active for my blog, I'd put off reading longer books, and I love books that are more than 600 pages long, because I wouldn't be able to finish them in two days and hence, I would have no content for the next day on my schedule. On top of that, writing about books and not getting to interact with other readers just makes the whole thing pointless to me.
However, I love writing and I miss having my little speeches on here, even if they are ignored most of the time. I decided to create a personal blog where I would just share whatever is on my mind and hope that somebody would read it, because I've decided to share it only on my Instagram account.
Honestly, after quitting book blogging for real, I feel great. I read whatever books I want, I take my time with them and I've read 6 of The Wheel of Time books so far. This is a series I've wanted to read for years but kept putting off because it would take me one hell of a long time to finish but, now that I'm in no rush for anything, I just read it at my own pace. And I love it. I have so many more big books I want to devour and all I need is some free time.
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