Category: discussion

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books & Dani @ Literary Lion, where they discuss certain topics, share their opinions, and spread the love by visiting each others’ posts.

NOVEMBER 12: BALANCING READING FOR YOUR BLOG AND OTHER HOBBIES (DANI)

Prompts: Reading enough to keep a blog running can be stressful in the best of times, but what happens when other hobbies start to get in the way? Do you force yourself to prioritize reading even when you want to be drawing/knitting/playing music/watching a new show/gaming? Has another hobby ever made you miss a reading goal? What is your strategy to balance reading among your other hobbies?

Definitely a fan of this fun topic today here on LTB. In this day and age, outside of perhaps this bookish community, reading books becomes a rarer hobby, as audiobooks and podcasts rise to prominence. I’d love to hear how all of you balance your hobbies with reading, and which hobbies take priority when there is a time crunch.

For the most part, I try not to think about hobbies “competing” and getting in the way of each other. But I guess when time is ever so precious and limited, certain things do take priority and “outcompete” other things. That being said, reading blogging are definitely fun hobbies for me, so it hardly feels like a chore…most of the time.

I’d say in general, reading is the goal, so I try to make time from my other “commitments” and interests to at least set a little bit of time aside for reading. Of course, life and school/work take high priority, but one of the first things I try to work back in is always reading. Not only do we want to put out great content for you all, but honestly I just miss reading. So I’d say for the most part I’m not forcing myself to prioritize it, I think it’s just at the forefront of my mind: how can I find some time to read this week?

Of course, other things in life have always made me miss minor reading goals. But if the goal is big enough, most of the time you’ll find a way to fit it in, barring extenuating circumstances. I think it really helped to have a partner on my blog to not only juggle responsibilities back and forth as necessary, but also to encourage my reading goals. The Buddy Reads we do together are also a fun way to make sure that I’m at least reading something!

My main strategy for prioritizing is scheduling for this blog, I think. Having a routine (not necessarily something so strict as a schedule) really helps to keep things on pace and on track. If you’re not a blogger, I think it’s nice to set aside an hour (or even half an hour!) here and there to try and commit to reading as often as possible. If you can build the habit, it becomes easier and easier to “find time” to read. And if reading is as relaxing for you as it is for me, it’s not hard to work in excuses to read. Let me know in the comments below if you agree with that sentiment!

How do you all prioritize and work in reading into your daily life? Is it your side goal or main goal? I know most of us are super busy – what are some strategies that you have found make it easier to find time for reading? I’d love to hear all your thoughts!

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Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books & Dani @ Literary Lion, where they discuss certain topics, share their opinions, and spread the love by visiting each others’ posts.

NOVEMBER 5: WHEN A POST DOESN’T DO VERY WELL (SUGGESTED BY NICOLE @ THOUGHTS STAINED WITH INK)

Prompts: Imagine you’ve spent several hours, even days, perfecting a post that you’re so excited to publish. Finally, you hit publish and eagerly await the response. But the response is not as much as you’d expected, or worse, it’s nonexistent. Has that happened to you before? How do you handle poor post results? Do you think there’s usually a cause for poor post results?

Welcome to the first LTB of November everyone! I don’t know about where you all are, but where I am it has already begun to feel very cold and wintery. All the better to distract myself from that by writing a blog post. Today’s topic is something that we’ve recently discussed here at DTRH between Andge and I. I’ll try and expand on this a bit below.

I think in general we try not to post for the direct gratification of people liking and giving us a response, as this could likely lead to unhealthy addictions. Of course, that being said, we are trying to build up a following and push out content that we enjoy, and we definitely wish every post was super successful. I wouldn’t say we don’t care about the responses, but we certainly hope for the engagement, as that is the whole point of us posting content that we’d think you all would like!

For the most part I don’t think any of our posts really has us slaving for days, but of course there is a lot of pre-planning and idea brainstorming ahead of time that goes into it. Despite all this, some things just take more time but don’t get the proportionate responses – and that’s okay! I think it’s best not to put yourself too deep in a hole for things beyond your control; sometimes there are inexplicable factors involved.

Recently, Andge and I have discussed a period of time where engagement was very low, but there was no visible change in anything that we did. Sometimes this just happens! We have kept to our schedule for almost a year now, and yet sometimes a month will just be silent for whatever reason. I think we were both a bit confused at the idea, yet we just kept at it – sure enough, the next month was back to normal. I’m sure there’s plenty of reasons why it might have happened, but it’s not too important in the grand scheme of things.

I’m sure there was some sort of cause that is beyond my knowledge, but I try not to contemplate it too much. That kind of thinking probably won’t be productive. I try to stick to the fact that I (we) love posting for you all, and that I enjoy doing it no matter what the engagement is. In the end, this is supposed to be fun, after all!

What do you all think or do when a post doesn’t seem to reach? I’d love to hear what other strategies there are to try and improve engagement too. Let me know in the comments below! I already love all of you who reach out regularly, it really does make my day sometimes.

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Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books & Dani @ Literary Lion, where they discuss certain topics, share their opinions, and spread the love by visiting each others’ posts.

OCTOBER 29: WHAT MAKES YOU LIKE A CHARACTER? (SUGGESTED BY RACHEL @ A BOOKWORM’S PARADISE)

Prompts: Are there any physical qualities you look for in a character? What personalities tend to draw you to characters? Are there any archetypes you prefer, are you always falling for the villain? What makes you like characters?

Welcome to the final LTB in October, everyone! Honestly time flies way too quickly. It’s almost Halloween – any of you have any plans for it this year? Anyway, before I get too off track, let’s dive into this week’s topic.

First of all, I don’t think I really look for any physical qualities in a character. After all, I am reading a book, so I just imagine basically whatever I want. I think sometimes I prefer the ambiguity of the physical features. Obviously some defining features will help me remember a character, but I don’t need absolutely everything described to me in detail.

Now for the money question, what personalities tend to draw me to characters. I’d say in a protagonist, definitely a strong will. As I think I’ve mentioned before, characters who can struggle through the face of adversity and overcome/fight with their best, tend to be my favourite kind of protagonists. In general though, I like when characters are consistent to their core character – little deviations are okay – but if I can’t even understand the motivation of why they’d do something, it’s probably too much.

There are definitely many archetypes I prefer, too many to list out. I rarely fall for a villain, but I do enjoy really well-written ones. I think the morally ambiguous, is he good is he bad, types are really good. Stories where you finish the whole book wondering who was actually the villain really makes me ponder the power of perspective.

What kind of characters do you all like? When choosing books, do you look for any types of characters in particular, or leave it all as a surprise? Let me know in the comments below!

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