I’m still reading book blogs
This post by The Paperback Princess has me thinking about how my reading has changed, six months into the pandemic.
I don’t think my *book* reading has changed much at all, except in quantity. That was already on a downward trend. In 2019, I read 64 books, far from my usual 90+. The reasons for that are here. This year I’m trending towards forty books. The reason for that, briefly, is that…
My media consumption has changed though, and I don’t just mean binge-watching Tiger King. I’m not keeping up with book media. Not reading blog posts, not watching Booktube, not reading my weekly emails from LitHub or Bookmarks or Longreads or any of that. I seem to have shifted my online reading to doomscrolling on Twitter, and what I will dub “joyscrolling” on Tik Tok (the kids and I recently discovered Dungeons and Dragons Tik Tok and it is indeed a joy).
But it’s not a complete shift. I *am* still reading book blogs. And I’d like to read and share more. I’ve been sitting on this post for weeks, trying to figure out which blogs I want to share. My favourites, my longest-followed, the most insightful? In the interest of getting this out in the world, and hopefully hearing from some of you about how your bookish-internet habits have changed, I will share with you the last five blog posts I read and enjoyed enough to comment on. I used the newfangled “Conversations” feature on WordPress. Later I’ll try to do the same for Booktube, podcasts, etc.
- Volatile Rune, “20 Books of What on Earth Happened to Summer“, a beautifully written post on a common theme right now
- The [Blank] Garden, “My Victober TRB“, with an overwhelming array of options
- Shelf Love, “Eventide“, a review of a book I’ve been meaning to get to for, oh, fifteen years
- pace, amore, libri, links to her review of “Hamnet” on Book Browse, a sure thing for the Women’s Prize?
- The Paperback Princess, “20BooksofSummer recap“, in which we both failed but had fun.
Reading in Bed 
Ohhhhh the doomscrolling. So many hours spent this way.
The pandemic has been *excellent* for my reading though – I’ve read more than 70 books since March. But that’s been a concerted effort to drown out the dumpster fire world. And I don’t have cool kids showing me the Tik Tok.
I don’t know what Conversations is but I must check it out. Also can you teach me how to get back into blogging regularly 😂
Thank you very much for the mention. I’m reading Hamnet and the short list as well.
Doomscrolling…I hear ya!
I went through a stage at the beginning of lockdown when I couldn’t concentrate on reading because I was so distracted by the news. But it got better. And I think, in terms of reading blogs and working on my own, my time for it has gradually decreased over the last couple of years – probably starting with when I got my job at the library about 3 years ago. Then I joined a reading group and a couple of boards. You know, things you do once all your kids are taller than you. But I still try to make an effort to visit all my favourite blogs when I can. Otherwise, I start to miss them!