I really don’t know how to open this post except: stay safe and stay positive.
I had originally planned to spend the last two weeks focusing on getting caught up on reviews and on getting better at being a little more regular here, but that hasn’t happened. I’d love to say it’s because I’ve been extremely impacted by COVID-19, but the truth is my day-to-day hasn’t changed too much.
I’m considered an essential employee, but I’m by no means a front-line essential employee. My work has been shifted to being remote, though I can’t do all of my job functions remotely. I was going to use the time I “saved” from not commuting to work to spend here, working on catching up on reviews [I’ll explain more on that later] and generally improving my presence here and on book-related social media.
For whatever reason, that ended up not happening.
I do think it’s partially because I dislike working from home. I don’t know what it is – I enjoy being home when I’m not working, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the idea of working-from-home. Maybe it’s because I can’t do all my job functions from home and that bothers me, and I’m sure part of it was because, before this “rotation” to working from home, I didn’t have a dedicated work-space. And I know, because I was lacking in job functions by working remotely, I’ve been working longer days, eating up my commute and some of my personal time. So, between disliking working from home [mainly because I know I can’t perform all my job functions remotely] and not having a dedicated work-space, all my planned time to dedicate to here and book-related social media was instead eaten up by work.
Before things locally got crazy, I sat down to try to write my All the Stars and Teeth review. I got just a little beyond the spoiler line when I got hit with the feeling like my review was missing something, and I wasn’t giving it my best. So I set it aside, deciding to give myself a little while away from it before I picked it back up, reviewed it, and finished it properly. I still feel like I’m missing something from the review, but, with where my head-space has been recently, I’m not sure I’ll do a better job any time soon.
Which introduces me to an idea I’ve been kicking around for a little while. I’ve been planning on rereading Aurora Rising, for three reasons. One, I didn’t give it a proper shot the first time around. When I first heard about it, the summary didn’t grab me. If someone had told me about it, without mentioning any authors tied to it, I wouldn’t have picked it up. But I was introduced to – and hooked on – The Nevernight Chronicles by the time it came out and, with everyone raving about it, I decided to give it a chance after reading The Illuminae Files and falling in love with that series as well. I think I mainly read it to check the box, to consume more of Jay Kristoff’s work, and to chase the magic that is The Illuminae Files series. At the end, I realized I hadn’t given it a proper shot, and realized it had gotten interesting, and I’d blown my first read of it. I needed to read it, from the beginning, while giving it a proper shot. Reason Two: I had arranged to go to YALLWEST [now a few weeks away] and had been chatting with the one-and-only Jay Kristoff about how he was the reason I was going [truth] and that I had gotten into bookstagramming and book reviewing purely for his ARCs [also true – I’m still dying to get my hands on the UK DarkDawn ARC!] and asked if there was a chance they’d be giving any away there. After a few messages back and forth, he had said he could hook me up with an ARC of Aurora Burning, if I wanted one. So, I had to reread Aurora Rising to read an ARC of Aurora Burning, of course! Even though YALLWEST has been canceled, I still have Reason One and Reason Three: the Magical Readathon. I missed the Magical Readathon last year [I joined the community too late to participate in the OWLs of 2019] and was dedicated to not missing it this year. I chose my career [not an easy choice, let me tell you], decided on my reading list, and Aurora Rising made the list.
Anyway, onto my new idea: reread reviews. I will not, by any means, stop doing original read reviews. However, I’ve been hit lately with a desire to reread some books I’ve enjoyed [or felt I didn’t give a proper chance], and I think that leads to a whole new experience – and probably a whole new type of review.
What do you guys think? I’ll do one for Aurora Rising soon [although I didn’t write one for my first read through], and I’ll likely be doing one for others, including House of Earth and Blood, which I will be reviewing here shortly as an original read. House of Earth and Blood had me wanting to reread it very shortly into the book itself, so it’s definitely on the reread list already.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention that my lack of presence here and on book-related social media is also because COVID-19 has come to my home. While I don’t personally have it, a loved one in my home does, and, while it hasn’t been crazy exactly, I can’t say it hasn’t made any impact at all. It’s also extended my working-from-home stretch, so we’ll see what impact that has not only on my work but my goals here and on book-related social media.
I’m endeavoring to get into a better swing and habit during this extended stretch of working-from-home, and hopefully that means more prompt reviews both here and on Goodreads [and my other platforms that allow me to review books that I didn’t get ARCs for]. You’ll be seeing a review of House of Earth and Blood and a reread review of Aurora Rising, hopefully sooner rather than later. A bookish friend of mine also wrote a book and was kind enough to give me an e-ARC of it, so I’m hoping to read and review that shortly as well!
I hope everyone is staying safe, staying healthy, and staying sane. If we’re careful without being extreme and focus on positivity and self-care, we can make it through this tough and weird time – not only just to the other side, but also better than where we were when this started! There’s so many things being isolated allows us to do, and I know, as a commuity, the book-lovers have banned together stronger than ever to be there for each other. We’re all just a reach-out away if we’re needed, and we’ll all help each other to get through our rough patches. If you find yourself unable to read, there are other hobbies to pursue or learn that you may find you’re able to do instead! There’s absolutely nothing wrong with struggling to read right now, but you should try to find something to help you. There’s nothing wrong with doing what you need to to get through this, so long as you’re also maintaining your responsibilities, as difficult as they may be to continue to complete, you’re doing just fine. It may take more breaks than normal, it may take more extensive and deep self-care to push through, but you have it in you – you just have to dig deep and trying to push aside any guilt you feel for taking care of yourself. You must take care of yourself in times like these to persevere – and you have a wonderful network of helpful people in the book community, including myself, so feel free to ask for help from us if you need it!
I think this post is plenty long enough as it is, so I’ll leave it there for now. I didn’t intend for this post to be this long, but thanks for sticking around until now, if you have!
TLDR: The world is a tad crazy, some of it is in my home, but I’m going to try to improve myself better than before and will be trying new things going forward to see what works best for me here!
Stay safe, stay positive, and keep reading [if you can]!
The Fox Den 