Hi! It’s been a while. Yes, I am still alive.
In a nutshell: Life happened. Since August, I switched jobs, successfully defended my thesis proposal (and now I have to write a full-length essay collection!), dealt with several professional and personal crises, moved apartments…
Basically, I did everything but read and write. Plus it got tough to keep up with all the books I was buying/downloading/categorizing – tsundoku is real, people! – then putting the actual reading part off.
By December I had finished just 12 books, with eight on the ‘unfinished’ list. That includes some books I’ve posted about here before and on social media, and some I haven’t.
Not to be a total downer, but I don’t think it’s going to get better in 2020. There’s only so much I can do in a day. And being in the business of content marketing now, I don’t see myself doing the same intensive strategy work we do for clients for this little ol’ blog. Frankly, I just don’t have the time and energy for that in my off-hours.
There are two ways around the problem of occasional updates: Shut this blog down, or change how I’m going about it. I pride myself on being practical, but my hidden sentimental side says I shouldn’t permanently close and delete a blog celebrating its 10th birthday next month.
(10! Damn. If this blog were a child, I’d be raising a fifth-grader by now.)
So… I guess I’m changing my approach.
- Instead of reviewing by theme (and with two to three books per post), I’m going to do rundown-style posts for this year instead. Sometimes I quickly lose interest in a theme or I suddenly become real busy, which leads to longer delays. And I don’t like forcing myself to finish a book for the sake of sticking to a chosen theme.
- Don’t overthink it, or be too “literary” and precious about it. I’ll read whatever I want, when and how I want to.
- Set a soft deadline, at the very least. One or two posts per quarter should be good…?
Well, let’s see how this tactic goes!
