I wouldn’t say this is the most brilliant insight ever to occur to a human being… but it does feel like a breakthrough for me:

I need more freedom!

Specifically? Freedom from deadlines and commitments. Freedom from obligations. Freedom from pressure.

And what I really mean is, I’ve become too bogged down in all the “shoulds” and “musts” in my reading world, and I need to make a change!

Having just returned from an almost three week vacation, I’m taking a fresh look at how and what I read, and how I approach book blogging.

One thing I loved about my vacation was my break from blogging. I do love blogging, and I’m not quitting! But it was really nice to just read for pleasure, without worrying about posting schedules, memes, comments, and the like.

Instead, I read the books I felt like reading — the old paperbacks I’d thrown in my bag for beach days, the Kindle titles I’d been meaning to get to, and the new release I was salivating over. And I loved it!

I know it’s a common complaint for book bloggers: We spend so much time reading the books we’ve committed to, trying to make sure we read our ARCs and post our reviews, and we lose the ability to read for fun.

NO MORE!

Somehow or another, I continually find myself overcommitted to ARCs, despite my best intentions to cut back. I think it started when I was more of a blogging newbie, when I’d get turned down for more ARCs than I’d get approved for. Solution? Request A LOT. I thought I’d reduced my number of requests, but as I get approved much more regularly, I still find myself with a reading backlog that’s extremely daunting.

This year, I started using an Excel worksheet to track my review copies, color-coded, sorted by date, and with a nice check mark to show the ones I’ve finished. (Yes, I’m an Excel geek.) Seeing it all in black and white makes me realize that in order to stick to a schedule and read all review copies by their release date, I’ll never have time to read anything else. And that’s just not acceptable.

What about all those books already on my shelves? What about the older books I’ve always wanted to get around to? What about the new releases that I actually *gasp* buy for myself as a treat? What about my backload of Buffy season 9? Where’s the time for reading all of those?

And then there’s the issue of my blogging schedule. I’m not overly focused on posting every day, but I do end up posting most days of the week, between my regular features, participation in blog memes, and writing 2 – 3 book reviews each week. I blog for fun, but when it starts feeling like just one more deadline to meet, the fun factor goes way, way down.

Solutions?

I need to read what I want to read more often, and worry less about keeping up with ARCs. I do feel that I have a responsibility to read the ARCs I’ve requested, and I still intend to do so. But maybe I can relax my own expectations a bit, and worry less about the timing. If I review a book a month or two after its release date, so what? Not everything has to be done according to the calendar.

I need to request fewer review copies. That means cutting back on scouring NetGalley for new listings. Sure, I still want to read plenty of new books, and always will. But I need to differentiate between the ones I really want to read because they appeal to me and the ones I request because I think they’ll be big and I want to be in on them.

I need to read books when they strike my fancy. And if what I feel like reading has been sitting on my shelf for years, that’s okay. I need to give myself more leeway to read whatever I feel like reading, whenever I feel like reading it. Elemental, I know, but apparently I need the affirmation to give myself permission to read without obligation!

I need to cut back on my blogging commitments. Readers of my blog probably won’t notice much of a change, but I think there are certain types of post I’ll be doing less frequently. Maybe I’ll only do the Top Ten Tuesday topics that really call to me, instead of trying to participate every week whether inspired or not. Maybe I’ll rethink some of my own regular features. Maybe I’ll spend less time on other social media. I don’t know yet what this will look like, only that I need to do it.

So consider this my own little personal Declaration of Independence. I hereby declare that I embrace the freedom to read without schedules, to read whatever suits my mood, and to pick my books to suit my whims! Give me liberty, or give me… chocolate chip cookies? Just give me the liberty to read freely, and I’ll be a happy bookworm once more.