Looking Back on 2016 and Looking Forward to 2017 (and beyond)

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Oh, 2016: the year I accidentally quit blogging. I didn't actually quit blogging, but I rarely chose to spend my time blogging. I posted only 44 times this year. I think I spent more time creating elaborate lists about how I could and would catch up on all the unreviewed books I read than actually blogging. I miss blogging, both the writing and the interacting with those of you who (still?) read this blog. As I've been thinking (yet again) about what the realistic future of this space, I realized how much my online book life has changed in since I started blogging 2007. These days, I do more interacting on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Litsy than here. I'm okay with that switch, but I realize I'm more drawn to those kinds of conversations about books than I am in writing reviews, and I want to make this space reflect what I'm most enjoying (and finding the time for) elsewhere.

So what's next? I want to talk about books more than review them. It's a fine line, I know, but I want to move toward writing more about what I'm reading and why. I'm imagining it as book journaling, with more emphasis on the book than my life, but I'm most interested in exploring the books from a personal point of view than a professional one. I've realized I have no desire to be an objective book reviewer; I don't want blogging to feel like work. At some point, blogging became an endurance sport filled with spreadsheets outlining publication dates and galleys wished for and received. I think the biggest disconnect with the blog is that what I was reading became disconnected with what was appearing on the blog. On Twitter, I have the freedom to write about what I'm reading when I'm reading, and I want to find a way to talk about what I'm reading in this space.

I want to spend 2017 reading more, writing more, and blogging more. I don't know precisely what this space will evolve into in the coming months, but I hope to see this space be an object of pride again rather than a neglected object of guilt.

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