I quit reviewing for Booklist. Or, more accurately, I let my editor know I need to take a break from reviewing for an unspecified amount of time.
I’ve been debating this move for a couple years, honestly. I’ve been really struggling to make myself read for a while now. I kept thinking I’d get back into it, that my reading mojo would come back, or at least that I could make myself do it, but it’s just been getting worse. I’ve been turning in my reviews later and later, and it stresses me out. I no longer feel that Booklist can rely on me for this task, which isn’t fair to them, and I no longer enjoy it because it feels like too much pressure.
I need a break. If I don’t feel like reading, I want to be able to just not read and not feel guilty about dropping the ball.
I hope I’ll want to read more if it’s just for fun and not an assignment. In truth, I’ve always had this issue: I didn’t read a single assigned text all through primary school. If you tell me I HAVE to, then I don’t want to! I have a powerful contrarian streak. Reading has always been an indulgent happy place for me. I don’t want it to be work. I’m a little surprised I was able to keep up these reviews successfully for as long as I did.
I’m clearly still coming to terms with this decision. But I feel like it’s the right decision for me right now.
There are a couple reviews I already submitted which haven’t been published yet, so I’ll post those when they are. But then I won’t be doing any new ones.
I’m curious: I used to write long-form book reviews of stuff I read just for fun. But I pretty much completely stopped writing just-for-fun book reviews once I started reviewing for Booklist. I wonder if I’ll go back to it. I prefer being able to analyze things in depth, so maybe this has also been part of my struggle. Working within the strict character limit of Booklist reviews was a fun challenge, it taught me a great deal and made me a better writer, but I’ve never been interested in brevity.
Anyway, that’s a thing I did. If you enjoy my reviews, I feel a bit bad that I’m ending them, but I think I need to. I may take them back up again in the future. We’ll see.
John the Librarian 