Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Book Clubs, Etc.

It's been awhile.  A long while actually.  A lot of non-book, life stuff has been going on.  Illness, family illness, work, and just plain being busy has kept me away from blogging.  I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about.  We all have a lot going on.  Despite all that life stuff, I've still been reading.  I haven't reviewed everything I've read, but I do have a few reviews ready to go. 

During my sabbatical, I came to a few conclusions about reading.  Specifically the things we do that make reading a chore instead of fun.  There are three things that I realized were making my reading life hell:  blogging/reviewing, book clubs, bookish social media.  One would think those things would enhance the reading experience, and maybe they do for others, but for me they made reading so stressful I just didn't have any real interest in reading.

After about six to twelve months of no blogging/reviewing, I realized I was enjoying my reading time more.  I enjoy reviewing books for my blog, but I realized I was getting to caught up in feeling like I had to review every single solitary book I read.  Within the first three months away I was stressing because I had read four books and hadn't reviewed a single one of them.  I kept worrying about how I was going to remember enough to write a review.  I worried that I might confuse them and write a jumbled review about all the books when I thought I was only writing about a single book.  Then I worried that I wasn't reading the kind of books people wanted a review of.  And then I worried that I wasn't blogging right anyway.  And on, and on, and on...

Then around about month six I realized none of it mattered!  I realized I don't do this blog for followers or money or notoriety.  I do this to share what I've read with whomever might happen upon my blog.  I don't advertise my blog.  This blog is more like my online reading journal.  Reading Journal Lite, to be exact.  To be sure, it is nowhere near as exhaustive as my paper reading journal, but I never meant it to be.

I took some time to mull over exactly why I started this blog and what I intend to accomplish with it.  The answers were actually pretty easy to come by when I just took a moment to think about it.  I started this blog to share.  Nothing else.  I don't want to monetize it nor do I have dreams of becoming internet famous with it.  That realization brought up the question of exactly what I wanted to accomplish with the blog.  The answer was the same.  I just want to share.  I assume the people coming here already have an idea what the book is about, so this is a place to share about my experience reading the book.  Did I like the writing style the author uses?  Did I enjoy the plot and the pace of the plot?  What did I think of the characters?  That's it.  I only want to share my experience. 

Once I had all this settled in my mind, it was once again enjoyable for me to read.  In fact, I began to look forward to reading again.  And if I wanted to write a review that was fine.  But if I didn't, I no longer felt that guilt.  Blogging was no longer a chore.  It was something I knew I would come back to when I was ready.

Now about the time I settled the whole blogging issue, I got involved in a book club.  (Cue the ominous music.) It started innocently enough.  I thought it would be nice to gather and talk about whatever book we read that month.  Seems innocent, right?  Well...

Here's what I learned about book clubs:  You know those judgmental people you encounter in so many other aspects of your life?  They're in book clubs too.  Maybe you're more introverted.  Great!  Guess who's going to be going out once a month to gather with people you don't see except for when you go to book club and don't interact with unless you're at book club together.  Do you work full time and have a busy life to boot?  Well guess who now has to finish a book by a certain date?  I learned I do not like to be told what to read and when to read it. 

I tried to like book club.  Honest.  But it just wasn't for me.  I do not like hanging out with people that really are just strangers.  I did meet two people that I actually liked, but other than comments here and there on Facebook we had no interaction outside of book club.  My time is limited.  I work full time and what precious little free time I have, I'd prefer to spend it with people who want to actually be my friend.

And then there was the demands of book club.  It isn't that the "demands", such as they are, were onerous, I'm just not real good with the whole being told what to do thing.  It's like checking books out from the library.  I don't like to be told I have to read anything in an allotted amount of time.  Nor do I really relish being told what I have to read.  Not mind you, that the book club selections were awful.  After all, the books were put to a vote.  And the books to be voted on were books that were there because we voted to move them from being presented for consideration to being contenders.  So honestly it's not the book club's fault I was feeling unfulfilled. 

After about eighteen months, I just pulled the plug on it.  It just wasn't for me and I was not about to read The Handmaid's Tale.  That was one that didn't get a formal vote.  It was thrown out as a hey what do you think thing and some people said it would be good to read it and the next thing I know we're reading it.  I have some serious issues with that book.  If other's want to read it, that's fine with me, but after an executive decision to read The Hate U Give, I wasn't really wanting to read another book that didn't make it through the voting process.  It just seemed like the controversial books never got a vote.

So my conclusion on book clubs was that they are great for other people.  I'm clearly not the type who needs to be involved in book club.  My personality is simply not geared for it.  The book club I was involved with, I would recommend it to anyone looking for a book club in this town.  For the most part, the women are great and the books chosen were usually good books.  So, it's not the book club at all.  The problem is all me.

Leaving the book club, brought a sense of relief to me.  I no longer had to read anything on a schedule.  It was an amazing feeling.  Now I'm reading more than I'm watching TV.  I'm reading a book every other day and I'm loving it.  Reading is fun again!

Which brings me to the last thing that made reading a chore for me.  Bookish social media.  You know what I'm talking about.  Things like Booklr, Bookstagram, Facebook reading groups, etc.  Those are great things -- for someone not me.  For me, they again made reading a chore.  Trying to keep up with them all was just too much.  I found I spent more time reading/looking at the various accounts and groups than I spent actually reading a book.  There was that pressure to be an active, contributing member when all I wanted was to just read my book.

My solution was to just turn off the notifications and if I happen to be scrolling and see a post or pin or whatever, great.  However, I no longer strive to be an active member.  I don't know how people who post that they read hundreds of books a year have time to also post twenty or thirty times a day.  It boggles the mind. 

Ultimately we're all different.  I know there are people out there who might be reading this who are surprised by my reactions to these things.  I also know there are people out there who have a similar experience.  I'm certainly not saying these things are bad.  This is just how they affected my reading life.  How do you feel about these things?  Does your experience parallel mine?  Do these things actually enhance your reading enjoyment?  I'd be interested to know.