I'm Back! With Sincere Apologies and Lame Excuses.

I feel awful. I mean really awful. I have neglected this blog for nearly a year. But I do have my reasons.

What started out as a fun hobby and a place to showcase books I enjoyed rapidly turned into a very time-consuming job that I wasn't getting paid to do.  That is completely my fault. I took on far more than I could chew (so to speak).

First of all, I agreed to read and review more books than any sane person could read in a year, let alone the short amount of time I was giving myself (roughly six months).  Again, totally my fault. I can't say no. I get an email asking me to read and review a book, I say "Sure! Why not?"  I had my list of books to read at well over 150 books.  This included books I agreed to review and books I just wanted to read. That list of books would have required me to read roughly one or more books A DAY. Not going to happen. I do love to read, but I also have a life.

Second, I got a new job. In my previous job, I could read frequently during the day. I mean, I could read A LOT, sometimes for hours at a time. Unfortunately, it paid practically nothing. And I couldn't afford to keep working it. So, I found a new job with more hours and more pay. But, no more reading at work. I barely have time to take my lunch, let alone pick up a book to read. When I get home, I have to cook, clean, chauffeur my kids around and be a mom and a wife. I was only grabbing time to read for about a half an hour before bed and a lot of the time, I fell asleep while reading. Oops.

Finally, I was trying too hard.  I was trying to write reviews that were earth-shattering. Ground-breaking. Amazing. And too much work. I realized I just needed to tell people what I thought about a book. Did I like it, love it or hate it? Was it just "meh?" I needed to stop trying so hard and just write the review. I'm not Shakespeare or Jane Austen or Emily Bronte. I'm Amie, a mom who reads the books her kids read and writes reviews about them. I need to embrace that and run with it.

I am re-dedicating myself to this blog. I can't promise a new book review every week or even every other week. But I am going to try to post reviews at least once or twice a month. I'm also not going to work so hard at posting a review. I am just going to write what I think about a book, instead of killing myself to write some masterpiece.

Hopefully I haven't lost too many of you. I apologize to those who were frequent visitors to my blog and I let you down. I hope I can regain your trust.