My poor neglected blog, it has been some time. I’ve been contemplating what to do with this site now I’m doing more freelance work which is leaving me less time for blogging. The irony of this is that I’ve read more books this year than ever, largely because I wrote a significant amount of the copy for the Manchester Literature Festival brochure and so I read many books in a fairly short period of time. This means that books I’ve read but haven’t reviewed have been piling up in my flat. The photo above is just those that were on the shelf nearest to me. There are more in the flat, some on my Kindle and others that I no longer have copies of because I took them back to the Festival office. And you know what? Lots of them are great. Some of them are on my books of the year list. And it seems ridiculous that I haven’t posted about them here yet.
So the plan is this:
- round-ups each month of the things I’ve been reading (in order to write about the good stuff I’ve read this year, I’ll be doing several of these between now and Christmas)
- the occasional longer review – when I have the time to devote to something I want to say more about – and interviews with writers whose work I really love
- I’m going to bring back In the Media, because I really miss reading and sharing people’s articles/essays, but it’s going to be in a much more succinct format
- a new ‘5 Books…’ feature where I group 5 books by theme either because it’s something topical or just something I feel like curating. I’m increasingly frustrated with the number of lists of books predominantly by white men with a token white woman thrown in. I also get asked for recommendations quite often so hopefully this will be a handy resource for people looking for particular genres/forms/gift ideas.
I don’t want the blog to quietly die while there’s still a disparity in coverage of books by women so this seems to be the most manageable way forward. And now I’ve posted my plan for you all to see so you can hold me to it.
I always enjoy your blog posts but appreciate how much time & energy goes into creating them.
Happy reading & I look forward to reading your blog posts & recommendation lists that include people other than white cis men!
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Thank you!
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Yay! I always enjoy your ‘in the media’ posts and I do love a curated list.
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Thank you!
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We’ll look forward to hearing more from you in the near future then! Lovely to hear that you are so busy though – things must be going well.
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Thank you. Yes, I’m doing a good variety of things and I’ve got a PhD to complete in 2019!
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Be great to see you blogging some more Naomi 🙂 The plans sound doable!
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Thank you!
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Excellent, no need for the long reviews, but yes please, keep sharing what you’ve been reading and have been impressed like, sometimes when there’s a longer gestation period, it can be even more thought provoking, seeing which reading experiences have really stayed with you. Great to hear you’ve been doing freelance work though, that sounds exciting too.
Have missed your posts, thanks for the update and all the best with your current projects, I hope you’re working on your own storytelling or at least planning to. 🙂
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Thanks Claire. I completely agree that it’s interesting to see which books hang around long after you’ve read them. The freelance work is great but it wasn’t supposed to equate to a full time job! Aw, thank you, I am! I’m supposed to submit my PhD in 2019 and there will be a complete novel included – eek!
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Sounds like a great, realistic plan Naomi. Glad you’ll have something regular in place because I’ve missed your posts but I know how much time and effort it takes to post about individual books. Good luck!
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Thank you, Eric, what a lovely thing to say.
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It would be great to see you back, Naomi. I do the occassional ‘five books’ post – works very well and it’s enjoyable, too.
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Thanks, Susan. Yes, I’m looking forward to compiling them.
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Good to see you back, and looking forward to the new format posts!
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Thanks, Laura
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So good to hear you’ll be back – I love your recommendations and have discovered some amazing authors thanks to you. I also love In the Media so yay! Juggling work and blog can be hard, harder I have found when they overlap!
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Thanks, Cathy. So pleased to hear that. I feel like I shouldn’t moan about having work that involves books but it does make it difficult to write about them outside of that. Woe is me etc.!
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I think you’ve set some achievable goals for yourself. Your roundups could even include screenshots of tweets where you engage with certain books (super-mini reviews) or Instagram posts (previews of upcoming releases). And there’d be no shame in inviting guest posts, especially for the all-female five-book lists.
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I hadn’t thought of using my social media posts – great idea! Thanks, Rebecca.
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these are really cool blog post ideas!
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Thank you!
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I bow down to your productivity! Brilliant to read about your plans and I really appreciate your recommendations and thoughts about books and the whole literature scene. I’ve added your URL to my WordPress reader so that I don’t miss your blogs (in an attempt to be more organised myself).
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Thanks, Josephine. I think my PhD supervisor would probably tell you it’s down to avoiding work I should be doing to finish my thesis!
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I like the sound of your plans, especially the month-by-month round-ups and ‘5 books’ posts. As you say, those lists often focus on books by old white dudes, so a more diverse selection would be welcomed.
It’s interesting, isn’t it, to reflect on the books that have stayed with you vs those that haven’t? I’ve been thinking about this recently as part of my prep for a books-of-the-year post in December. Some of the books I had expected to be in the running have faded away into the background, while one or two others have grown in stature. I guess that’s always going to happen – but even so, it’s interesting to try to understand why!
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Thanks, Jacqui. I’m looking forward to compiling the lists in particular and it will be nice to share what I’m reading without feeling the pressure of writing a big review – that’s why there’s so many stacked up, it’s daunting to go back to them!
Yes, I wonder why too. I’m sometimes surprised by books that I can recall huge chunks of while ones I know I loved at the time I can’t remember a thing about. I wonder how much is some personal connection of some sense?
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I’ve not shared stuff with you this year, as I got the impression you were not in a place to receive it. Let me know if you want me to start again and how (I’m ok if not, I know it’s not personal).
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Congratulations on having more freelance work. I’ve missed “In the Media” so I looked forward to its return!
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That’s lovely to hear, thank you!
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