About blogging: 

Blogging takes a lot of work. I think my grammar is shit. Haha, I really do wish I had an editor, or just a friend who would review my work before I post it. English is hard, especially since it’s not my first language (says the person who now knows English better than their mother tongue. Ah, life as an Asian American). 

You know, I’ve discovered that I have a writing process. (Wow, writers have a writing process. Crazy). 

Speaking of this, I just learned that novelists have a writing process. This whole time, I thought ideas just flowed through them and they wrote books. As someone whose dream is to be an author, I wonder what the writing process looks like. Anyways, I realized my blogging process is similar to my academic writing process. Research (reading the book, with notes sometimes), then write the first draft (word vomit all ideas that intrigued me), and edit (make my shit sound smart and make it flow well). Then edit some more, take space away, then edit some more. As I’ve read some of my work back, my older stuff is so meh. I really like the direction of some of my newest reviews like The Cartography by Peng Shepherd. I love the blend of analysis, likes and dislikes, and structure. I could’ve never written something like that without that first blog post.  

This blog is me writing. Badly. And hopefully, with progress. 

About me: 

I struggled a lot with perfection. Once the world started telling me that I had a lot of potential, I developed an all or nothing mentality. I think this blog has been refreshing to do things badly, in front of everyone. What do they call this? Exposure therapy? I know maybe five people read my blog. But doesn’t that seem like plenty? Five total strangers stopped to read something I wrote. I feel so honored. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. 

Tone. I’ve asked myself the question of what type of tone would I like to write in for this blog? Do I want to write cleanly? With almost an academic, concise type of tone. Or do I write like I’m talking to my best friend, full of slang and slurs? Can you imagine that, a book blog called “Slang & Slurs” and that’s the tone of every review. (Honestly, that’s amazing, write that down). I’m still unsure. Reading back on some of my work, it varies depending on what I’ve read, and what mood I’m in when reading that book. I think I’m enjoying that. Some books lend themselves to discussion more easily, and some books feel like pure escapism. Each book speaks to a different part of me, and in return, that part of me responds.  

About books: 

With more and more books I read, and with more time that passes, I am falling into the abyss of memory loss. Not literally, but I find that I’m forgetting books. My brain is so finite that I can’t retain the intricacies of these books I’ve read and loved. For example, books I’ve read in high school, like Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick or Graceling by Kristin Cashore, I can only remember the baseline plot or even worse, just that I really liked them. I don’t remember the author’s writing style, the character names, or how they fell in love!!! 

I fear that even in a few years, I will find myself in the same situation. However, as I’m writing reviews, I’m finding myself retaining more details, especially when I’m behind schedule on writing (whoops).  So, I’m hoping these reviews will mark the moment in time of my very specific likes, dislikes, and thoughts on these books. I hope it seals what in the book made me upset and in awe, what made it good or bad. And at the very least, I hope to capture the feelings I felt when I read them.

Isn’t it crazy that I won’t be able to read every single book in this lifetime? Even more crazy, all the books I have read in my lifetime, I won’t remember them all. At least not to the extent I’d want to. But, I think that’s okay. I don’t think that’s the purpose of books. I think being moved, feeling empathy, learning something, I think that’s good enough. 

Long story, long, I think I am capturing the happiness of reading when I write these reviews. 

Thank you for reading a stream of my inner (and inner) monologue. WAIT! Did you know some people don’t have an inner monologue??? That’s insane because mine (me, I?) won’t shut up. Comment if you’re team inner monologue. Anyways, cheers to another bright year of reading and writing!