Evoution of a Reader/Blogger

I'd like to say that I'm the same reader that I was before I started blogging, but that would be a lie. A big lie. My habits and thought processes have changed immensely in the time that I've been maintaining this blog. Though my blog has been around only a short time, it really has changed my life. I take this blog really seriously, which means that I have to take reading seriously as well.

Basically my childhood.

Growing up, I was always a voracious reader. I'd read anything and everything set in front of me. I spent hours perusing the book store and the library looking for the perfect book to take home with me. Some things never change (though now I'm less likely to limit myself to just one!).

I went through a brief reading slump shortly after graduating high school. I barely even noticed it was happening, but between my depression (a post for another time) and my dead-end full-time job, I just didn't have the motivation for reading. I still considered myself a reader, but I was doing much, much less of it.

It wasn't until the summer before I started university that I started reading all the time again. I spent that entire summer reading the A Song of Ice and Fire series (it was around the time that the TV series premièred). I read all five of those massive books before the end of August, and my hunger for books was reawakened. It was also around that time that I discovered and subsequently became addicted to Goodreads.

The end of a book slump! Hurrah!

The next few years involved me reading far more books than I probably should have, given my tendency to skip class to lounge in bed and read all day. I'm pretty sure I've spent as much if not more time, since starting university, reading for pleasure as I have reading for my classes. My yearly number of books read has increased slightly year by year, though I'm nowhere near as quick a reader as some other bloggers.

I started my blog last summer, after spending a month or so writing a backlog of reviews. I didn't really know what I was doing, but I knew that I liked books and I liked book blogs and I wanted one of my own. I quickly learned that book blogging is a lot more work than it looks like.

Unfortunately, around this time last year my blog went on an eight-month-long hiatus. I just wasn't prepared for the commitment of juggling full-time coursework, a part-time job, and the blog. I stopped posting, but I didn't stop reading. I read a lot of books during that time, but I didn't write reviews and I actually feel kind of depressed when I think about those books because of it. I want to go back and look at the books I read during those eight months and read what I thought about them at the time of reading. Because for the most part, I don't remember. I feel almost disappointed in myself for taking that time off, even though I know that I shouldn't be.

I don't want to read less!!

I'm unfortunately going to have to cut back on my reading again now that school has started back up. I'm taking five classes this semester, all of which are third or fourth year classes. I'm going to be BUSY. But that doesn't mean that I'm abandoning my blog again. I may blog less often, or post fewer reviews, but I'll still be around. I'll still be present, because this blog matters to me. It's small, but it's important to me and I don't want to feel like I'm letting myself down again. I've got a lot going on, but literary wanderlove is a priority. it doesn't come before school or work, but it is a priority nonetheless.

How did your blog come to be? Have you always been a reader? How do you prioritize blogging within the rest of your daily activities & commitments?