Hello!
I had a couple of reviews planned for the past 10 days or so, but I've been held up by a) we have had no internet at home since last weekend (!!!) and b) I have had review writer's block!
So, here i am at a local cafe taking advantage of their free internet and writing something a bit chatty instead =)

At least for a little while - our internet providers are supposed to come today to fix it, and have given us the very specific (not!) window of "between 10am and 2pm", and i really don't want to miss them because it is so hard to even adult without the internet these days haha (also, it is hard to write without emoticons!)




The second issue - the review writer's block - has been bothering me for a week or two now. I just feel like i'm sitting down to write and simply can't think of what to say. I'm not necessarily very good at words at the best of times (i'm definitely a big 'hand talker'), but usually if i have an opinion I'm pretty ok at expressing it. But right now I'm having trouble putting my opinion out there because it's different to a lot of the others I'm seeing. Yes - I'm totally peer pressuring myself into silence! There is a book I finished lately that I really loved, but every time I start writing about it I find myself wanting to qualify my feelings about it - to say I liked X about it, but also maybe you wont. Or, this book has copped a lot of negative reviews, but I thought it was ok.... It's not really how I want to write...

So, how to fix it? I've been thinking a lot about what I want to say in my reviews, and who I want my audience to be (because, really, even though publishing things here means the whole world could read them, really what I mostly want to do is keep a record for myself of my reading thoughts and experiences. But, then, it is fun to feel like we're having a conversation). I'm reading some other reviews to see what I love (or not) about the way others review, and trying to put together a kind of template for myself to fill in, so that when I sit down to write up a review I have something to start from. And, in the meantime, maybe a few more chatty posts like this.

I'm also open to any advice! If you review books, how do you do it? Do you get nervous about sharing your feelings? What do you like/dislike in book reviews? Let me know in the comments!

xo Bron