The Top Five Things I've Learned Through Book Blogging

Now that I've been blogging for more than four years, I can honestly say I think that I'm finally getting a hang of this book blogging thing. I have a clear voice for my reviews, I feel comfortable in giving less than favourable reviews and I finally feel like I can put aside my fangirling enough to actually ask relatively insightful questions of authors. But it hasn't been any easy ride all the time.  Sometimes you need to take an 8-month hiatus (whoops).

But, through that time, I learned what I consider to be some pretty valuable lessons, and you won't hear me complaining too much because, at the end of the day, I've been having a blast. So, without further ado, here are the top five things I've learned through book blogging.

If you don't love it, don't do it. I felt burned out by book blogging by the time I took my hiatus. I felt too pressured to provide a certain number of reviews. I felt defined by the number of page views or ARCs I received in the mail, and I really struggled to actually enjoy it as I had in the beginning. Most of all though, I let my fun hobby turn into a chore, so I stopped. Luckily, I rediscovered why I loved it in the first place, and I taught myself that if I wasn't going to love it, it was no longer worth it. 

You are not defined by the number of ARCs you receive in the mail. This is one of those tricky ones that I'm sure most book bloggers have grappled with at some time or another. I see some of my favourite bloggers receive incredible books, and why I'm happy for them, there's always a twinge of "what am I doing wrong" that crosses through my mind. I've learned that it's not so much what I'm doing wrong as it is that the other blogs just have a little something else that they might be looking for. And, at the end of the day, publishers and authors are incredibly generous towards me and i swim for oceans, so I have nothing to complain about.

Give yourself some space. I think that if you force yourself to get up a certain number of posts a week, or a certain number of categories, that's when it starts becoming too much. Bear in mind, I have a job outside of book blogging, as most of you do, as well, and it can become incredibly overwhelming. However, when I came back, I committed to doing what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it, and it's been liberating. I don't feel so many obligations anymore.

Remember to be kind. Not everyone is going to take kindly to a poor review. Heck, you'll probably receive an email or two that condemn your reviews (yes, it's happened), but as long as you maintain your integrity in your reviews, you can feel confident in it. I remembered my first bad review, but I also knew that I didn't want to BS my readers. If I don't like a book, that's fair…but I still need to explain why it didn't work for me. There is nothing to be gained from simply tearing a book apart for fun.

Don't get bogged down by the drama that will inevitably exist in the blogosphere. Guys, in my time book blogging, I've seen everything from authors trashing bloggers, to bloggers trashing authors, to people plagiarizing full novels and pretty much everything else you can imagine in between. In the end, there is nothing we can do to stop that. These days, I simply focus on making sure that what I provide it the best of my abilities - nothing more, nothing less. Live and let live.

What sort of things have you learned through book blogging?