Top Ten Blogging Confessions

Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

Because lists are fun.

I've been feeling just a little bit guilty because I haven't posted in a week. Every blogger out there knows the feeling. Hey, no one asked me to do this, so why should I feel guilty! Also, how many angsty posts have we all read about how a blogger is thinking about giving up her blog? Too many, am I right? This week's Top Ten Tuesday topic might be the best one ever: confessions of a blogger, about blogging--you know, that totally voluntary activity that no one ever asked us to do? Yeah, but we love it! Because this is where we talk about our obsession as if it were completely normal to own more books than....anything. This is where there is a general understanding that yes, we all have a TBR bookcase (forget the TBR pile). But still, it gives us angst and stuff. Here are my top ten blogging confessions:

1. The more I love a book, the harder it is for me to write a review. Books that I just sorta like....those reviews practically write themselves. But a book that I underlined, argued with, and cried over--that review takes me a loooong time to write. And maybe (Cormac McCarthy, I'm looking at you) I just never write it.

2. I know I sound like a schoolmarm sometimes and I hate it. This blog is where I indulge my reader self. But I've been teaching high school English for more than a decade, and sometimes I read my posts and go ugh, there's the schoolteacher voice!

3. I've never done a vlog, and the idea both intimidates and intrigues me.

4. I get comment envy. One of the best things about blogging is the conversation, and I'm disappointed when a post doesn't get many comments.

5. E-books leave me cold. I'll read them, because they are convenient, but it is my last choice. Thus, Netgalley and I just didn't get along.

6. Review copies make me anxious. Eww, I just broke out in a cold sweat. They're looking at me--make them stop!

7. My book hoarding/book buying tendencies are worse than I admit.

8. My blog impresses my mother more than almost anything else I've ever done. This is puzzling to me, since Mom doesn't even own a computer. I think she saw and read a post or two on a friend's computer, or at my sister's. But my mother acts as if writing this blog is a huge accomplishment. The only explanation I can come up with is that movie, Julie and Julia. And by the way, my mother would like Meryl Streep to play her in the movie about me and my blog. The fact that my mother looks nothing like Meryl Streep is irrelevant.

9. It still surprises me that I have readers. When I started this blog I knew nothing--nothing! And when I started to have a few followers I was shocked. I still remember the moment that I realized that twelve total strangers were following my blog. I felt like a rock star! And I am still very grateful for anyone who takes the time to read what I write here.

10. I want to write books. I can't think of a higher calling. Nothing gives me more pleasure than writing and reading, and the two are completely intertwined. When I review any book, I'm always aware of how difficult it is to write a book, let alone bring a book to publication.

What are your blogging confessions?