Saturday, September 19, 2009

Evaluating Tif Talks Books


The final "assignment" for Book Blogger Appreciation Week is for us to, in a sense, evaluate our personal blogs . . . to share what we personally like AND to share where we feel we are heading and/or what we can do to improve by this time next year. I believe that much of what I want to do is in line with my Reading Resolutions for 2009:
  • Review more books in general . . . I was shooting for at least 100!
  • Complete ALL challenges!
  • Review more children's books!

I think that this time next year, I would like to see all of these fulfilled! I believe that I am on the right track. (1) I am not sure if I will make 100 total, but I'm sure hoping I do. According to my current count, I am at 42 (but there may very well be multiple reviews in one in this count). I also have a very large stack of books that I have completed that I have not yet reviewed that should put this list well above 50. (2) At this time, I have completed all of my challenges. I have a lot of work to do to complete my current ones though!! (3) I have reviewed a much larger number of children's book and still have the majority of Caldecott winners left as well.

With that said, I feel that I have had a lot going on this past year. We have moved to yet another new state. Due to my questionable sanity, we were actually virtually homeless for about a month and a half during this move. I went back to working full-time for the first time in two years. In fact, this is really the first time that I am working since I started this blog!! When I wrote my very first blog post, I was in my last weeks of my old job and getting ready to move yet again!! (Yes, we move a LOT!!) And, this time around, I now have two children and a husband who works a ridiculous amount of hours (whereas before, I only had one child and my husband was home a lot)! Does this really give me an excuse? No, not really! I just feel that I am still trying to find my new balance in life. It's been difficult and there have been times that I have not wanted to continue . . . but really, writing and blogging CAN be a stress reliever for me! I find it healing and cannot express how thankful I am for the support of this community. You will never know just how much you have helped me to survive these many transitions this past year!!!! You have been my much-needed constant!!!!

Now, this was technically supposed to be a max of 100 words according to the BBAW request. I think I surpassed that in the first paragraph, so I am going to wrap it up by just a few additional bullet points.

Improvements:

  • More consistent posts with scheduled reviews!!
  • I'm hoping to start a weekly event in early 2010. I have all the ideas and logistics, but am waiting for my life to become a little more adjusted and me to become a little more reliable!
  • To stay caught up with my Google Reader! I've been wanting to add more blogs to my Reader, but am already behind on reading everything!
  • To FINALLY lauch my additional changes that I have been wanting to launch for more than a month now! Hopefully, this one will come sooner rather than later!!
  • "To accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference." (Just a little something that I always need to remind myself when setting goals in my life!)

Strengths:

  • I like that I review a large array of books. It reflects my personality and who I am in real life . . . diverse and open-minded!
  • I pride myself in my honesty when reviewing a book.
  • I love my new design!! And, I think that my changes I mentioned above will only allow the love to grow stronger!
  • I have greatly improved in my writing and formatting over the last couple of years! And, I love to know that it can only get better!

Thanks for sticking with me until the end of this post!!! Enjoy, and I encourage each of you to post here or email me with what you like or what you would like to see changed or improved on. I love to hear from all my readers and appreciate your comments!!!

8 comments:

  1. It's hard to keep up with blogging and with life at the same time but we just do the best we can, right?

    You do a great job already, Tif! :)

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  3. I think your blog is swell :) But self-evaluating is always good. I might do this, even though it's a few days late...

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  4. Kristen . . . Yes we do!!! And, thank you!!

    Elena . . . Thank you too!! I think it is good to take a look at your work and critique it! It helps me to decide what's important and what's not!! And, my theory is . . . better late than never . . . you could always save it for the end of the year instead! :)

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  5. Great to set a lot of goals-I already love your blog! Keeping up with ones google reader is very difficult!

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  6. What an awesome post! I'm like you. My taste in books reaches far and wide. ;)

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  7. Great job on the evaluation! And we have similiar goals: to review 100 books and to complete all my challenges. You're ahead of me on the reviews, but I'm working on it! *L*

    Love your blog, and looking forward to seeing your weekly event next year!

    Keep up the good work! :)

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  8. Peaceful Reader . . . I always tend to reach high, but sometimes don't always get that high!! We will see how this year ends up! I always end up realizing that I have to just take one day at a time!! :)

    J. Kaye . . . Thank you!! Maybe that's why I love your blog so much!!

    Alexia561 . . . I'm really curious as to if I will get to that 100 mark this year! We can be routing each other on!! How does that sound?!?! :) And, of course, thank you!!

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