Discussion: Is There Pressure To Read In The Book-Blogging Community? ft. lists (!!)

THERE ARE SOMETHINGS THAT BOOK-BLOGGERS NEED TO ADMIT:

1) that there will never be a sole ship, there will always be an ARMADA, 2) Books will never be pretty 1560% of the time, 3) AUTHORS WILL ALWAYS BE TORTURING US, 4) Dragons do exist, 5) we cannot read every single book ever no matter how much we try, 6) we are made of 80% stress and craze.

Now, since in almost every single post that I write, and that many other’s write, the dooming TBRs are mentioned, I thought that I would actually address this TBR-CRAZE. In previous posts of mine, I have legitimately referred to a TBR as “[something that] will grow to an, even more, unconquerable pile and then we will die with a pile of unread books scattered around us and we will be buried with the shame on display for all to see.”

^^^ SIDE-NOTE: I should totally do definitions for the dictionary. ^^^

Now, even though I wrote that, and yes, its intent was to be comedic*,  I feel there actually is this PRESSURE to read every. single. book. out. there. And even as much as I wish I would be able to do that, I know deep down that I can’t. **

Why people like to read:

• Escapism.
• Relaxes them.
• The book sounds cool.
• another blogger threw it at them.
• They jus bought it because of the cover**
• PRESSURE ON THE INTERNET TO READ MORE AND THEN IT DRAINS THE ENJOYMENT BECAUSE EVERYONE IS RAVING ABOUT IT SO OBVS YOU NEED TO BE TOO, RIGHT???? 

And fair enough, some people may not feel the pressure that I refer to in this post, and may be laughing at the stupidity at such an idea. However, I do feel this pressure??? And I’m not convinced that I’m the only one that feels this way.

*I’m hoping it was, if not. . . *cries* ** I KNOW. DISASTER!! (see this is what I mean!!)  ***WHO WOULD DO SUCH A THING? oh, yeah, me. . . 

On Goodreads, you see all these goals for 2018* that are much higher than yours, mine for example being set at 45 and then seeing many many more goals being set at 100 books or more. I understand entirely that there are different reading speeds, and if you can read that many books in a year, CONGRATS that’s honestly so cool. But part of me thinks, why can’t I do that? 

And don’t get me wrong, I think that Goodreads goals are a brilliant thing because it really made me want to read more last year, and many people meet/exceed the goal that they set and THAT IS SO MOTIVATING.

BUT.

Before I started blogging, I purely read books to fill my free time and it became a hobby. I didn’t set Goodreads goals, and I loved reading, and I still do. and I never panicked about my reading speed/ how meany books I read a month. But I’m sitting here, on the 7th day of the new year, panicking over WHAT BOOK TO READ, and panicking over the fact that I don’t feel that I CAN’T READ FAST ENOUGH and that I’ve only read ONE book.

And it’s utterly silly. Its Ludicrous.**

Panicking over a book to read? I’m collapsing with HYSTERICS. The fact that I let myself worry so much actually makes me laugh, because really, THERE IS NO PRESSURE RIGHT?  I can read when I want, I can read whatever I want, and no one can interfere with that. YET, I’m the one that decides that obviously because I’m not reading 3257 books in one month I need to change that and be more like other bloggers and read more.

EVEN THOUGH RIGHT NOW I’M HAPPY WITH THE BOOKS I READ, YET I’ll always want to read MORE.

Why people want to read more:

• the books they haven’t read sound really cool.
• someone with amazing recommendations recommended it to them. SO DUH THEY NEED TO READ IT.
• They saw 467 pretty books and thought, “hey, I need those rn”
• THEY WANT TO GET TO THEIR GOODREADS GOAL. 
• They see everyone else reading loads and immediately decide that they aren’t reading enough and being a bad bookworm so THEY DECIDE THEY NEED TO PICK UP THE PACE 537 MORE BOOKS TO READ AT ONE TIME.

*still strange saying that. **don’t say I’m never punny, ok?

And I think that the more and more we joke around about wanting to read “ALL THE BOOKS” and the more that we “sob” on the internet about NOT being able to do this, the more we actually stress our sane part of our brain out and then all of a sudden we are no longer joke-stressing out about this, but legitimately-stressing about the amount of books we read.

WHICH !! IS !! SILLY !! because, we all have lives (mine consists of sitting in a cave and withering away) and, no, we cannot read all the time. There are slumps, and books that take longer to read than others, exams etc, that prevent us from being able to read all the books we want to.

AND WE SHOULDN’T STRESS. But, we do. Because we are bookworms, and that is what we do.

It’s similar to the way that we stress about the “need” for us to post, and for us to have super long posts, or to be active on twitter 674% of the time, and to always have space on out shelves, and all that jhdlrgberhb that we should just relax about.

BUT DO WE RELAX?

NOOOOOOOO!!

WHY NOT?

I DON’T KNOW!!

SHOULD WE?

PROBABLY!!

So here we are/ I am, stressing over the fact that I/ we stress about reading.

What do you think about how much you read? Do you want to read more? Do you think about how much you read a lot? Do you think that you think too much about how much you read? What are your reading goals for 2017? Let me know! 

Luuuuu