So at nearly five years as Runalong The Shelves why am I still here? Five years in blogging what has it taught me and what do enjoy about it?

Finding my voice

I think my last Wombling had quite a few saying the same thing we need the blog to get our thoughts out of our head. Every book for me creates a reaction I want to discuss and though I love my close friends and family in my Northern stronghold (and especially the last few years) talking about books in depth is hard. Blogging allows me to get that out of my system and hopefully compel a few people to pick a book up.

The other half of this is as you blog you get to find the format and structure that works best for you – the voice of the blog. As someone who hates talking in public its fun to create that voice and once you know the format experiment with it too from time to time. Blogging is very much you are putting your opinions out there so it’s a great way to say ok this is why I think this book is worth a look (and on occasion not)

Womble, Know Thyself

Talking about that personal reaction to a book does also make you think about why you did react that way. Why do school stories turn me off - I hated many years at school. How much influence has Doctor Who had on my reading tastes – a lot. But each book also challenges you to think about love, death, and life in general. I think SF&F is better than most at allowing us to look at all of this at a 90-degree angle and put a slice of the impossible into the mix too. Reading the finale of Tade Thompson’s Wormwood trilogy made me rethink how I saw colonisation in a smarter way. Anna By Sammy H K Smith gave me an insight into sexual violence as a man I had not considered before. I am fascinated what Becky Chamber’s Wayfarer books are saying about life in the 2010s. We love in this genre to talk about books being in conversation with other books (they are) but what for me is interesting is the magic of books being also in conversation not just with the past of a genre but the current world and also the reader. Each book tells me something about me and being human. When that clicks that’s a brilliant feeling.

Experimentation Is The Name of the Game

I am a general reader. I really do like a bit of everything in SF&F and I can’t read the same tpye of story that many times in a row. Something I have enjoyed is sometimes just taking a book on trust because I know the publisher, an editor or even seen the writer say something useful on twitter. On top of which the other evil booktempting bloggers that surround us. Its so easy for us in a genre to read the one tye pf os story and I love the infinite variety we can actually get. Books I have fallen just in the past are This Is Our Undoing, The Book of Disappearance, Sinopticon, Gigantic and that’s just a small sample from last year alone. There is so much more out there and often it is not UK/US based.

There is nothing like finding a book you knew nothing much about that grabs you by the heart and after which you want to tell everyone about it. I think bloggers are in a position where checking just the big 5 publishers and prominent self-published is forgetting about a fascinating world of indie publishers in the middle who blend all the worlds and often you may see various authors cross across because that’s the best place for that type of book. Its glorious to realise how much more there is out there and dipping your toes in it is fun. Although I have realised the word cosy is often a bad sign for me!

Revisiting old friends

Linked to this has been rediscovering some genres I had not expected to come back to. Thrillers and horror in particular called me back after leaving each other in my teenage years. Instead of revisiting old favourite I have though discovered new authors and these genres are in rude health and have their own communities to get to know and understand. The world Horror can cover everything from the psychology of Last House on Needless Street to Irish forests of deadly creatures in The Watchers. I suspect without that I would not have discovered podcast horror too. Again, sampling a genre is bound to find something that chimes with you and actually you may spot an awful lot of cross pollination across the genres these days too!

A blog is for life not just for release day

Ok I admit it I like to look at my blog stats and if you’ve ever one day felt this blog ain’t getting any instant reaction then don’t give up. What is fascinating is seeing people each day pick up blogs that were written weeks, months and in some cases years ago. How they find the blog is a mystery but its nice to see the long-term traction a blog can create. The more you will write the chances the more it will one day be written. We can be a little too focused on the now. Also don’t forget paperback publication dates! A second bite at the cherry always waits you.

Did I Mention Blogging Travels In Time?

I’m conflicted about this as I know it is a regular pain for me and many others - too many good books and too little time is a constant blogging complaint. But if you were to ask me what is the key to blogging its making this a habit …be that a blog a month, a week and for some lucky places a blog a day. The more you do the more it gets a little easier to put one together. Blogging isn’t easy and you need to learn to balance priorities – a review is not more important than the rest of your life but learning you cannot do it all or have it all is a useful lesson and taking a few checkpoints to see how you’re doing and act accordingly is a useful life lesson not just for books. I will read them all…eventually. I can never say I don’t know what to read I just need to learn to actually stick to a book to the bitter end or condemn to DNF and that’s a lesson once learned you’re set.

Being in the Room Where It Happens

Blogging by its nature makes you not just aware of what books are out there but how books and publishing works. It’s a fascinating world and the people in it are generally quite awesome and a pleasure to chat to. You can tell a book that people think will be special the ay they talk about it. The fun and occasional torture of being on a blog tour and a chance to interview authors are all high points. The downside is you can become aware of the ecosystem’s problems – its not well resourced; its rather big issues with sexism and racism and bullying. Its not by the way just publishers where this sits this is the dark side of readers and blogging. Being a blogger does mean having to decide when to call this out and when to avoid just falling into social media pile ons and also avoid creating one by accident. I never expected blogging to also require social conscience, but I think everyone should have one and its not about ‘just reading good books’ as so many who don’t get this say.

You are not alone

Blogging at your laptop and reading are solitary hobbies but you know what there are loads of us. A high point is meeting in social media and also real space at cons and events the other bloggers. Its fun to see other ways of reviewing, exploring other reactions to books (and learning why you may have missed them) and it can also be a great place for encouragement, support, and advice. You do see blogs come and go and the more people have someone to talk to and say its ok to have a break; not review every book and sometimes yes you are allowed to hate my favourite book (I know you’re wrong but I respect that…deep down). Reading other blogs if a great way to learn how to do better blogging yourself and it’s a lovely part of blogging that its not as solitary as you can think when its late at night on the sofa. One of the fun bits of Subjective Chaos has been that discourse and I think its made me a better blogger.

So five years in and I still enjoy talking to you gentle reader and that’s not changing. Who knows what books are coming next?

Next up – The Art of Booktempting