You Are a Book Blogger and You Are a Reader.

I think that I have definitely failed with coming up with an eye-catching title for the post that jumps off the screen and entices the reader. I had to cut it down from the original which is ‘It Doesn’t Matter How Much You Blog, You Are a Blogger and It Doesn’t Matter How Much You Read, You Are a Reader‘ as was rather a large mouthful.😂 I probably should have gone with something in the vein of a clickbait title to get those ‘oh so sweet’ views. Something like ‘the secret to getting ARC’s‘ or ‘how to get 100,000 views on a post‘ would have done it. Alas, I don’t know the answer to either and if this post gets 50 views I’ll be happy and will class it as a win for my small blog.😂😜

I was drafting up my monthly wrap-up post for July earlier and I thought to myself that I had ‘only‘ read five books for the whole of the month. I have to admit that I’m not the fastest reader at the best of times. Sure, occasionally I can fly through a book, but even then, my flying through a book means that I read it in a couple of days and not a couple of hours like for most people who use that same term.😂 Mostly, however, I manage a book a week, sometimes more and sometimes less with no books read at all…and you know what?!🤔 That is OK.

After thinking to myself that I’d ‘only‘ read five books in July something clicked inside that made me look at it in a different light. It was like I’d been slapped on the side of my head by someone far more knowledgeable than myself and told not to be stupid. I hadn’t read ‘only‘ five books, I had read five books and there was no ‘only‘ to it. The addition of the ‘only‘ needed to be cast aside, exorcised and thrown into the deep dark abyss of BS thoughts where self-doubt dwells and left there to wither and rot.

Contrary to what some think there are no minimum monthly requirements that need to be met to be classed as a reader. Shaming someone for how few books they read a week, a month or a year isn’t on and it isn’t acceptable. It doesn’t make you any more of a reader if you read ten books in a week compared to another person’s one book. There are no tiers to being a reader where the more you read the higher up and better you are and likewise, with the less you read, the lower down you are. Looking at it from the other side, there should be no shaming people for how much they manage to read either. There is no limit to how many books people can read if they are able too, that behaviour also isn’t acceptable.

It doesn’t matter if you read one, five, twenty or fifty books per month you are a reader and that is something that, at times we all need to remember. That it isn’t the number of books that we read that determine whether or not we are a reader, but simply that, regardless of the number or how long it takes us to finish a book that we are reading books.

The same thing applies to blogging too. Over my four and a half (nearly) years of blogging, I have posted a lot, but this year has seen a sizeable decrease in the number of posts that I have been posting. It is partly down to the current situation in the world, like with my reading, but I’m not going to lie and part of it is also down to falling out of love with blogging and reviewing too. I’d class it as to keep blogging, I cut back on posting, but I’m still a blogger. Usually, I have a Music Monday post on a Monday, shocked with the title, huh?😲😂😜 And, a book review posted on another day, that’s two posts a week. Rarely, very rarely, there might be more than one review, an extra meme or a book excerpt/guest post here or there posted in a week too. Each month there is a monthly wrap-up for the previous month and on occasion, a book haul post, but on average, I don’t post much, I aim for posting twice a week and that is what works for me.

No matter how often you post on your blog, having a blog requires effort as you have everything else that comes with running a blog that you need to consider too. You have drafting posts, writing posts, creating graphics, commenting, replying to comments, liking posts, reading posts, sharing your own posts on your SM, sharing other bloggers posts if you do that too and it all adds up and it all takes time.

Lots of bloggers post daily, some more than once a day, day in day out. That takes a lot of time, a lot of effort, it is far more than I am capable of and I offer my praise to them. If that is the schedule that works for them then good for them and as long as they enjoy it, then they should do it.👍 Some bloggers post a few times per week, some have specific days for posting and others post daily in the week and then take the weekend off, it is the balance that works well and is right for the individual blogger. Other bloggers only post once a week, a few times a month or once a month and again, if that is all that they are able to do then that is OK.

It is bad enough when you doubt yourself and the validity of your own blog without seeing other people questioning the commitment of those who only occasionally post. It is like kicking someone when they are down and it only serves to make them feel worse. It is like you are telling them that they are not worthy of the name and that they shouldn’t call themselves a blogger. Let’s cut the crap, something that needs to be remembered is that it doesn’t make you any less of a blogger if you don’t post much and it doesn’t make you any more of a blogger if you do. At the heart of it, regardless of how much or how little you post you are a blogger.

You don’t have to love one another, I’m not down with that happy and harmonious nonsense and you won’t see me talking about the power of positivity, bright flowers, fluffy clouds and rays of sunlight. I live on the darker side of life, lengthening shadows, depression, black thoughts and doubt that cloud my waking time and make me unlovable and unwanted, but it’s not hard to get it. Build each other up, be there when others stumble, when they fall, don’t needlessly put each other down, don’t try and raise yourself up at the expense of others, let each other be themselves and don’t shame people for how much or how little they are blogging and reading. Instead, celebrate that they are blogging and that they are reading and that they are a book blogger and a reader.😀📚