Changing up my Reading & Blogging

Image by Tria Aminatun

I've been thinking a lot about my reading and blogging lately. I created a diverse TBR list for summer because I wanted to read more genres with stories that have characters that have different races, ethnicities, religions, sexualities, and disabilities than what I typically read. I've had a few standout reads this year but my reading has felt sort of blah lately. Last year I had a class that had me exploring more genres than I'm used to which gave me an overall fun experience. I wanted to recreate that with a bit of a spin by making sure to include diverse characters. This planning got me thinking of my reading and my lack of blogging. I'm finally going to be done with my Masters this month and when I say I'm exhausted from constantly being in school, I mean it. It's exhausting. I finally feel like I have the freedom on focusing on a hobby I love again. I've been out of the blogging world for the longest time. I haven't felt committed in years but I love blogging. I love visiting blogs and creating connections. I don't do that anymore and I want that to change. This is what this post is about. How I am changing up my reading and blogging from now on.

Reading

Exploring genres - I am stuck in contemporaries which I love and don't plan to change. I just want to add on to that with sci-fi, mysteries, horror, etc. 

Reading more adult fiction - I love YA books but there are times where I feel like I need to be reading books that are more my age. YA will still be the majority of my reading but I want to add more adult books into the mix so I'm not reading about teenagers all the time.

Reading diverse authors and characters - I've never cared about what the character or an author's background is in the books I read but I can't deny the happiness I feel when I read a book with a Hispanic main character. Reading diverse points of view along with different genres also makes reading a lot more fun. 

Reading Hispanic authors - I don't read enough by Hispanic authors. I have this thing where I don't feel Hispanic enough especially living in Florida and not being able to communicate in Spanish. I've been neglecting my heritage in the one area where I can easily feel at home with it and that's reading. I have read 16 books out of 1,187 books read on Goodreads that are by Hispanic authors. 11 of which had clearly Hispanic MC's. I just finished a book by and about Hispanic teens so it was 15 in total just a few days ago. I want to change this completely.

Reading books in Spanish - I don't read books in Spanish. The thing is I understand most of what people say in Spanish. There is a knowledge there that I'm not accessing and there's an easy way for me to learn Spanish on my own by reading children's chapter books and moving up from there once my vocabulary becomes broader.

No more monthly TBR's - I didn't use to do monthly TBR's. I would just read a book and review it. I don't plan to be as haphazard about my blogging since planning is fun for me. I just plan to focus on creating seasonal TBR's and being okay with not following them exactly. I want to use those TBR's as a guide and mood read again. I'll be satisfying my need to plan and mood read in one go.

Changing my Goodreads Challenge - My expectations for my Goodreads challenge has changed. I always want to push myself to read more because I want to read as much as I can in my lifetime but that's not realistic. I'm finally ready to let this notion go. I'm planning on participating in the Can't Wait Wednesday feature and creating a non-realistic seasonal TBR but I'm not holding myself to read all the books that sound amazing. I'll try, but it's finally okay to let that idea go. I originally planned to read 175 books this year to really push myself but that wasn't happening. I went down to 139 which is 1 up from what I read last year. I recently put it down to 100 which is extremely achievable since I am currently at 71 books read. In the future, I might put to challenge myself to read 25 books and be happy when I go above that marker.

Participating in fewer readathons - Readathons will be few and far between. I don't like it when I don't complete a goal so joining readathons and completely failing isn't fun for me. I plan on focusing on a few readathons each year that I know for a fact I have the time and energy for and that I've included realistic goals for. I'm sure there will be a Hispanic or Latinx readathon in September/October so that's the next big one I plan to focus on. Halloween readathons are always fun too and the Magical Readathon is always exciting. Otherwise, I don't plan on being ridiculous like I have been trying to do a readathon almost every month.

Less reading challenges - The number of reading challenges will be a short list from now on. I always take up too many reading challenges and regret it. I don't follow along with my goals after a couple of months into the new year so it's time to give up on them... to an extent. I want to focus on goals but not to be strict on what I read for them or when. For instance, say I want to start and finish more series but I just won't be too strict on which ones I read and when I get started with them.

Blogging

I've set up a reasonable schedule for my posts each month that is consistent and predictable. 

Mondays - Discussions/Lists/Lowkey mini reading challenges

Tuesdays - Reviews

Wednesdays - Can't Wait Wednesday

Thursday - Hispanic Book Discussion

Friday - #FitReaders

I'm always planning on reviewing everything I read but not everything I read needs to be reviewed to the extent I want to so having one dedicated review a week is realistic. If I've read more than four noteworthy books that month than I can have planned out reviews for the next month. As I add on to those, I'll never feel anxious by not having something ready. 

I've always wanted to have more book discussions or lists on books like ones I always look up on places like Epic Reads or other blogs. I love making lists so I'm really doing myself a disservice not doing them. Discussions too are something easy and fun when I've got something to say. 

I tend to overplan my posts so I finally have an easy schedule that'll be fun and simple to follow along. I don't know why I haven't done so sooner.

But what if I miss a post? This is always my problem with overplanning. I overplan and never execute. When I don't post what I want to I feel like I'm behind and it bothers me so much that I hardly get any more posts up. I do think with being done with school so soon that I'll feel free to be more active - I already do. So I don't foresee this as much of a problem in the future. But if I do miss a post, honestly I'll have to find a way to let that go and adjust which is hard for the stubborn person I am.

My wrap-ups are going to change too. I was doing them once a month for a while but I didn't enjoy the format. I plan on doing quarterly wrap-ups that include standout reads as well listing all I have read. Stats are for sure something I plan to do as well as keeping track of my new goals - Read 100 books and read Hispanic authors. I've joined the Con Sabor Reading Challenge which is a challenge focusing on reading Latinx books.

I do plan on doing mini reading challenges for myself which I tried and failed to start this year. I think the extra time will help. I plan on doing these challenges spur of the moment when I feel like it and since it'll be a secret before I post them if I don't end up completing my goals it won't be a big deal.

Lastly, commenting. I've been a terrible blogger. I no longer feel overwhelmed by commenting on other people's blogs because 1) I'm excited about blogging again and 2) I'm scheduling my commenting on my days off. For now, until my schedule inevitably changes again, that means I'll be commenting on the weekends. I'll probably listen to some music or audiobooks while I read and comment for an hour or two on the mornings of my days off. I love commenting and miss it so I'm excited to finally be energized to do so once again.

In conclusion, I'm happy to be back. I've changed my website's theme which if you've known me for a long time I used to do all the time because I get bored so easily. I'm going to be slowly adding/fixing the page tabs so it might be a while before you see them up there again. Anyway, I am happy to back and committed to blogging once again. Thanks for sticking with me.

How has your reading and/or blogging changed throughout the years?

What reading goals matter to you?