A 2022 Reemergence
Ladies and gentlemen….she’s back.
*Booing*
As I disgracefully slink back into the book blogging community, I’d like to offer my sincerest apologies for the complete lack of, well, anything over the past twelve months.
As I’ve begun to think about my hopes and dreams for 2022 (already 20+ days into the year, of course), I’ve realized how much I miss having an outlet to express my creativity, especially when it comes to reflecting and logging what I’m reading. Which, by the way, is a lot!
My goal for reviving this blog from it’s very sad, sudden demise is to once again have a space for posting reviews, fun lil’ wrap ups, and engagement with friends and fellow blogging book-lovers. I think part of the reason I stopped using this site (aside from starting a post-grad, full-time job and moving to a new city), was that I felt a lot of pressure to consistently post and track literally everything, which took away from the fun of just freewheeling. This go-around, I’m putting less pressure on myself and hoping to just have fun with it!
I’d like to preface this section by mentioning that for the past month, I’ve been saying “that’s one of my 2022 goals” at least once a day. So naturally, when I sit down to actually, you know, follow through, they elude me.
1. Read 50 books
If you look at my Goodreads goal, you’ll see that it’s set at 30 books this year. If you ask my boyfriend, he’ll tell you that the goal is undeniably 50. Obviously, they don’t get along.
I tease, I tease. After some reflection on 2021 and the sad acceptance that having a real, adult job leaves me with very little energy to read, I decided on a 30 book goal for 2022. However, my boyfriend has set a goal of 50 books for himself this year, and in the spirit of ~partnership~, I’ve decided that he absolutely cannot beat me and that I will crush him we’re in it together. (:
2. Explore alternative avenues of joy & inspiration
On a recent trip to Barnes and Noble, I came across this super cute magazine called Oh Reader, which has all these super cute little essays about topics related to reading, such as “Reclaiming the Smutty Romance Novel” and “Finding Creative Freedom Through Rainbow Bookshelves”. I’ve had a lot of fun reading them, and they’ve even sparked my interest in possibly writing something for future submission. Finding things like this, that both spark joy and encourage creativity, are a huge win.
In 2022, I’d like to keep exploring alternative forms of creativity that make me happy in addition to traditional reading, such as a magazine dedicated to reading, or writing book reviews, or even just keeping track of my favorite quotes.
3. Read my BOTM that same month
A fun lil’ development: I signed up for Book of the Month! After finally being worn down by all the booktube sponsorships and the ads popping up on every platform I’ve ever been on ever, I decided to give it a go, and it has brought me so. much. joy!
I love getting to pick out a book (or three, don’t act surprised) each month and have had some great reads in our short relationship thus far. I’ve also joined some fun spoiler-y groups on Facebook and have gotten a ton of happiness from just seeing everyone’s predictions and thoughts on the picks. Books are such a bonding experience!
However, I’m finding that I’m having trouble actually picking up the books once they arrive, and thus have a backlog of BOTM books currently waiting for my attention. In 2022, I’d like to make these books priority and do my very best to read them in the month that they arrive. Seems doable, yeah?
4. Stop feeling so much readers' guilt
As I was sitting down to write this post, I chastised myself on using time for blogging rather than reading, and then I chastised myself for chastising myself. How exhausting!
Reading is supposed to be fun – something to unwind, relax, look forward to. But there are other things that make me happy, and those things are just as valid! Sometimes, laying on the couch watching TikTok videos for an hour makes me happy, sometimes taking a nap makes me happy, sometimes going on a coffee run makes me happy. While reading is an important part of my life, it won’t be if I’m constantly forcing myself to read when I just simply do not want to. Therefore, one of my goals for this year is to stop feeling that imaginary hammer hanging over my head whenever I’m not reading. Will I do this and still hit my goal of 50 books? Um..
It’s very possible that this list extends itself as the year goes on. I have verbally expressed at least five other goals that I can guarantee aren’t on this list, though nor are they in my memory, so we’ll see.
Anyways, I hope everyone’s new year is off to a wonderful start, and I hope to start seeing old and new friends around a bit more often. (:
9 Comments
April
ah i’m so glad to see you back! your blog was one of the first ones i found and inspired me to start blogging myself so i’m glad you’ve decided to come back to this outlet! best of luck with your goals and hope this year is great for you!
erin
Aw, this makes me so so happy to hear, thank you April!! 🥰 I absolutely love reading your posts and can’t wait to interact more in 2022!! Biggest hugs!! (:
Dini @ dinipandareads
Welcome back, Erin! No ‘booing’ from this direction—seems like you had a lot going on and 2021 was… really a lot 😂 When the pressure becomes too much and reading and blogging no longer becomes fun, there’s really no point in doing it! Glad to see you back though 🙂 Go at your own pace, keep it fun and hopefully we’ll keep seeing you on the blogosphere!
erin
Couldn’t help the boo – I am my own worst enemy! 😅 Totally on the blogging-becoming-work thing; feeling very refershed and ready to jump back into it!! Hope your year is off to a great start!! 🥰
Bernadette
Welcome back!! I also took an um…unplanned hiatus *hides*, so…I get it!
All your goals are some awesome??!! I hoping to read 20 books this year (maybe 24 if I can pull it off), I succeeded last year and hope I can again!
erin
Thank you!! ❤️ I’m excited you decided to jump back into it – I can’t wait to read your posts this year!! (: 20 books would be awesome, cheering you on and can’t wait to follow along!!
Tasya @ The Literary Huntress
Happy new year and welcome back! 🙂
Morgan
Yay, I’m so glad you’re back!! Happy New Year’s! 🎉
I really relate to your thoughts on pressure making you not want to blog! For me, it’s the constant tracking of everything is that killed some joy out of reading, that’s why I decided that this year I won’t use Goodreads or any reading spreadsheet, and just read whatever, and whenever I want to. And it’s already been super helpful, because my reading and blogging enthusiasm came back, but now I feel freer. So I really hope you’re also going to be able to be more easy on yourself!
I’m glad you’re enjoying Book of the Month groups, it sounds fun!
I was really happy to see your post pop up in my reader! 🥰
24hr.YABookBlog
Glad to see you are back Erin, I can’t wait to see what you have planned. <3
I'm also with you on finding new forms of creativity, that's something I'm working on this year too as a book blogger!