It is with mixed emotions that I report on this, the tenth (!) anniversary of emilyreads.com, that I am taking a break from the blog.
I started this blog as a way to keep track of my own reading, and it has served its purpose well in that regard. The first few posts were more typical book reviews, but I quickly learned that Lazy Emily was incapable of sustaining that kind of production, especially when combined with the editorial letters and other manuscript assessments I do all the time in my professional life. So the Review Haiku was born.
To confirm: the reviews I write are not actual haiku, not even close. But the syllabic structure gave me a helpful means to crystallize my reactions to books. I seldom posted reviews of books I hated, unless they were a) adult books, so there would be no potential conflict-of-interest or awkwardness in future encounters with authors; or b) commercial juggernauts that did not need my help to find an audience anyway. So if you see a book on here, I probably liked it.
Running this blog introduced me to the broader book-blogging community, particularly the Cybils crew. Being a second-round judge for the Cybils for nearly its entire history was super fun for me, and gave me much more exposure to SFF and graphic novels (a new favorite genre!) than I would have had otherwise.
I will still read, of course. And I will still review adult books for my good friends at Unshelved. But I am taking a break from the three-day-a-week posting grind, which proved ever more difficult to keep up in recent years. You can always search for past reviews using the search box, or by tags.
Happy reading, y'all.
7 comments:
I don't know how many books I've discovered and enjoyed thanks to your blog, but over the years it's been a significant number. Your haiku reviews may have been the best way for you to do this, but they were also wonderful for me. As an elementary school teacher and mom of two girls in the same age range, keeping up with books is a challenge. So thank you for all of these reviews. I will miss seeing them, but I'm grateful for the archives here.
I've always loved your blog!
Thanks for all the great reading! Best wishes for whatever comes next.
And congratulations on 10 years!
Ten years is a good time to take a break. I'll miss seeing your reviews in my feed, though.
To whom it may concern
I am an author of 5 Christian Children's books. They are bible stories told
through the eyes of inanimate objects. Joseph's coat, Noah's Ark, Moses's
Staff and David's Pebble. The Easter story has to do the with the Tree that
Jesus was hung on.
I was wondering if it would be of interest to your organization to write
about them, read them or sell them. I would be happy to give you the books
in return for a review of the books, or anything else you may deem fit for
your organization.
I truly believe these books have a different perspective that makes the
historical events come alive for children. They are written for Right
Brain/Early Education too.
This email is just a brief introduction. If you have any further
questions, I would be more than happy to talk to you in detail about them.
I know the books will be a blessing and bring Glory to God.
If you want to take a look at them, you can always go to
https://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=mandy+jacob
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Best
Mandy
Grateful for shaaring this
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