The Sunday Salon.com

It’s a day of updates! I’ll just dive right in:

Erin Reads

Well! I’ve gotten through a couple of weeks as a once-again honest-to-goodness student. I’m back to spending long days in the library, pouring over textbooks. I quickly realized I couldn’t sustain my previous posting schedule on Erin Reads but wasn’t sure what would end up being feasible. I’ve done plenty of thinking about setting realistic priorities, and here’s what I’ve come up with:

  • Top priorities are continuing with Reading Buddies (which I LOVE!) and keeping up with galleys I accept for review.
  • I still hope to read a good number of classics, but I can’t keep up with weekly Classics Reclamation Project posts (unless, of course, you want to hear about the same classic for a month straight!). Instead, I’m relaxing the rules a bit. Any classic I read will still count toward the project, but I’ll just post my thoughts on them whenever I finish. Instead of ceasing, CRP posts will just become a little less frequent.
  • I’m letting My Week in Books, my Saturday feature, go for now. I think it was actually the weekly post that took the most of my time, with all the linking and vlogging and such. If I find I have the time, I may try to do Sunday Salon posts that highlight interesting books received, posts from the previous week, and so on.
  • I’m considering (temporarily?) removing some of the more time-consuming widgets in my sidebar. It sounds silly, but the At Present box takes time to update! I’d rather read a blog post with that time.
  • My goal is two posts a week: a review (or other book-related post) on Monday or Tuesday and a Reading Buddies post on Friday. I think that’ll be manageable.
  • I have been skimming my Google Reader when I have a moment. I apologize for being so absent from the comments sections; I hope to get better about that once I’ve gotten into the rhythm of student-ness again!

Armchair BEA

Armchair BEAThis is my first year participating in Armchair BEA, which kicks off tomorrow! It’s a kind of virtual conference that runs simultaneously with Book Expo America, a huge event in the book world, and Book Blogger Convention. Basically, it’s a fun way for bloggers who can’t get to New York City for the festivities to participate. There are all kinds of cool things going on during the week (see the Armchair BEA site for more). Each day there’s a theme on which bloggers post. This year the schedule looks like this:

  • Monday: Who are you, and how do you Armchair? (a bit about the blogger)
  • Tuesday: Giveaways galore, and/or the best of 2011 (giveaway details, if you’re hosting one, or else your favorite books of 2011 so far)
  • Wednesday: Work the network! (blogger interviews; I’ll be interviewing Rebecca from kindle fever!)
  • Thursday: Nurturing relationships (with publishers, authors, etc.)
  • Friday: Blogging about blogging

I’m planning to participate in at least the first three days. Friday will be the Bel Canto Reading Buddies wrap-up, as scheduled.

Books!

In the weeks since I dropped the My Week in Books ball, some very exciting books have found their way into my home. Since the vlogs are on hold, at least temporarily, I’ll share them here:

New Books: May 22, 2011

All four look excellent, and I only wish I had more reading time so I could get to them ASAP!

Your turn!

I’d love to hear from you…what’s new or different in your life? Are you (Armchair) BEA-ing?

Join the Conversation

10 Comments

  1. I’ve done a lot of streamlining and cutting out time-consuming parts of my blog too. I completely understand. As well as the Google Reader thing, which I’ve spent the last few weeks marking all as read…

    I hope you enjoy The Big Over Easy!

    1. It’s been seeing other bloggers reconfigure that’s let me give myself permission to do it, too! Gotta keep blogging fun, though, or what’s the point, right?

  2. It sounds like you’ve got it all figured out, and that you are managing your time wisely. I hope that everything works out, and that you are able to blog in the way you want to during this time. I also am anxious to hear what you think of the new books that have made it into your mailbox!

    1. I certainly hope so! I think it’s going to be trial and error until I settle fully back in. I’m so excited for all the new books…I just hope I can get to them soon!

  3. Good for you for setting priorities – it is not easy to do and we all seem to struggle finding the right balance. You are definitely not alone. I am loving the covers of those books that arrived for you this week!

    1. Thanks for the support! Aren’t the covers beautiful? This batch, in particular, I love.

  4. I’m sure it is a big adjustment to get back into student life. I think a blog has to evolve as the blogger’s life evolves. I’ve been scaling back too and it will get even worse during the summer because the Little One is not in school and I have less time to clean (and by clean I mean write blog posts). Glad you got the book safely!

    1. “a blog has to evolve as the blogger’s life evolves” –that is certainly wise and excellent advice. Thank you! It must be hard to find time to read, let alone blog, with a little one screaming around the house!

  5. Good luck with your studies, I’m reaching the end of mine for the summer and although I was aware that it would cut my reading and blogging down I wasn’t aware it would do so so much. You’re right to have planned for this early on.

    1. Thanks! I went the summer semester route, though I kind of wish I hadn’t. I miss reading…and blogging! Glad to hear my cuts aren’t unnecessarily large. I just hope they don’t have to get any larger…

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