28.Oct.2012 Bookie Mee is Five
autumn in Cambridge
Five years ago in October 2007 I wrote my first post. (In my archives you’d see there are some reviews before that, but those were backdated.) You can’t go five years blogging without some up and down times. When I moved to London 1.5 year ago reading and blogging completely took a backseat while I’m off doing other things. I said sort-of-a-goodbye beginning of the year, but then I kind of still stay. Now the anniversary date made me rethink again what I want to do with this space.
During my down time I thought the blog would probably go into oblivion in a short amount of time, but the opposite happened. This could’ve coupled with the fact that I moved to London from Sydney, but I constantly get offers for review books (of which some really interest me), I got invitations from various theatres, British Library, the TV Book Club, Faber & Faber. If not anything, they’re one of the reasons that keep me posting. I’ve got the confirmation that people are still reading. And that what I write matters to some.
That’s not to say that the rest doesn’t matter as much. The connection with fellow book bloggers means a lot to me, but it just got to the point that I thought I can’t keep up. It’s like everybody is having tea party and you feel like you have to visit them all otherwise you might hurt somebody, all the while organizing your own tea party that you want everybody to visit as well. Some people are very easy to connect with for some reason, and some people are not. You may comment on somebody’s blog for a year regularly before they even comment on yours once. It reminds me of high school – or maybe primary school. Except that I don’t remember trying so hard to make friends in school. It’s all very exhausting.
So after I stepped back a little from blogging – post less, comment less, understandably I get less comments in my posts. But then I also found out that I’m totally okay with it. All a blogger needs is some kind of confirmation that people read, and I think I get that by other means. I’m happy to continue doing what I’m doing now. Casual blogging.
Another thing I found in the past year or so is that I don’t quite enjoy reviewing books as much anymore. Some books I just want to read and I don’t have much to say about. Heck I don’t even feel like giving stars anymore. With no obligation to blog, I can read whatever books I feel like reading at the time, and not necessarily books I want to blog about (fellow book bloggers surely understand the tendency to pick books to read based on their blog-worthiness).
So what is the future of Bookie Mee?
Bookie Mee continues to live! In fact, I’ve got a lot of ideas in my head for future posts. I am thinking that while I don’t enjoy reviewing books much anymore, I still love talking about books or anything book related. And I have a bunch of materials for that that for some reason never see the light of day (a recent example that did). Book blogs are largely about book reviews and I thought I should’ve fit into the mold. But look at other book blogs talking about cooking, knitting, traveling, cats, all of which I don’t mind to see, and even enjoy. I don’t see why I can’t branch out doing other things while staying true to the book spirit this blog originally is for. So keep watching this space y’all!
I was thinking whether I should have a celebratory giveaway of some sort for Bookie Mee’s birthday, but I’ve decided it’s just gonna be a very quiet five this year. Thank you all who have read and are still reading, and those of you who just found your way here. This blog has given me so much more than I ever expected and I’m grateful. Couldn’t have done it without you readers.
(If you have a goodreads account, you can also find me there)
mee 
