Thursday, March 13, 2014

The Real Blogger

A few weeks ago, I looked at my upcoming reviews and I got a little nervous. Almost back to back, I was going to be reviewing Bread and Wine and City of God. One book is about inviting people into your home and the ways that food can evoke memories. The other was about living in a city of diversity and finding the shared humanity that exists there.

Both are memoirs and both are about faith.

Christianity plays a big part in my life. I am the daughter of a pastor and my husband is a pastor. I have previously been part of the staff at two different churches and I currently lead the praise and worship team at our church. The ways in which we relate to God and to each other are things that are consistently on my mind.

But when it comes time to blog about those parts of my life or review books about them, I hesitate. I wonder if you want to read about those things. I wonder if I drive away readers by posting books about Ash Wednesday or God's ability to solve all of our problems. I know that not everyone who visits this blog shares my beliefs.

Faith is a part of my life and so it will inevitably be a part of my reading and writing. There are many blogs that I visit and not every post on every blog is interesting to me or applicable to my life. That's ok. But I am being disingenuous if I don't share those parts of my life. If I don't write about a great devotional or spiritual memoir, I lose the opportunity to record my thoughts and the chance to share it with readers who might enjoy it.

So I'm making the decision to share all the parts of my life that I want to share and to review all of the books that I want to write about. Not everyone will read every post or get something out of every post and that is just the way the internet works. But I promise to show you a true version of myself, music rehearsals and church services and all. I will review all of the books that I loved and hated, whether they are spiritual biographies, historical fiction, or quirky mysteries. Thanks for coming along for the ride.


How do you balance writing about all of the facets of your life? Are there topics or certain books that you hesitate to write about?

15 comments:

  1. That's a great question, how to balance what you write about. I think many of us wonder at times should I post this, is that too personal? If it's important to you though I say go with it. As a Christian myself I don't mind that kind of content- of course it won't be for everyone, but you have to be yourself.

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    1. Thanks Greg. I think it's tricky to find that balance, but it's so much more interesting when we get to know each other and about books!

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  2. I applaud you for sharing the face behind the blogger! If you think of it, why would anyone take my word for whether or not a book was worth reading? Maybe because they have gleamed a bit of my personality from comments I make on my own blog or on others. If you don't know anything about the blogger themselves, then it is difficult to see if you have similar tastes and appreciations. I actually have read several faith-based non-fiction books in the past year to get an understanding of how other people live. I don't pretend to want to read every book you do even though I enjoy your blog, and you certainly wouldn't want to read all of mine :)

    I thank you for giving me insight into books "off the beaten path" that I might not read, or conversely, might discover here and choose to. Sorry for rambling, but I wanted to get my message across coherently (hopefully!).

    I recently discussed my husband's cancer on my blog. I almost didn't, because people might not want to hear depressing topics on book blogs. But I finally did because I wanted folks to understand why I wasn't into blogging for a stretch of time, and that it was the stress and depression keeping me away, not my love of books.

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    1. Yes, you are definitely making sense! I think I worried that people would write me off after just a few posts as "the one who always writes about Christian books." But I think very few of us blog about just one thing. Even if we are book bloggers, we read and write about many different kinds of books.

      I think too that the community aspect of blogging comes from reading about what is going on in other people's lives. While I certainly wasn't happy to read about your husband's illness, I feel like I know you better from seeing how you went though that difficult time.

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  3. I like that you share your faith and belief in God. How do you ever get through life without that? But I get what you mean about being hesitant to blog about it. But it's your blog, right? It should be true to you and your beliefs.

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    1. Thanks Lark. :)

      I think the balance can be tough to find because I want the blog to be representative of me but I also want it to be interesting to read!

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    2. That's the tricky part for any blogger!

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  4. Completely honest: I am not very religious, and I do generally skip posts that deal with religious themes. THAT SAID, if it is a blog that I do enjoy (like yours!) I won't stop reading it just because there are some religious posts/statements mixed in. As you said, not every post on every blog interests you, even on your favorite blogs, and that doesn't mean they're bad posts. I appreciate your ability to be open and honest. Post it, girl! :)

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    1. That's so good to hear. Thanks for letting me know your thoughts, Kelly. :)

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  5. Please include reviews of religious books. I want to read them! I feel like I have real trouble reviewing books with sexual content because of what people in church will think! I also struggle with reviewing Christian fiction because I don't generally love that genre....but that's what other Christians want to read. It is such a dilemma.

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    1. I can certainly understand that! I don't read a lot of Christian fiction (although I will love Dee Hendrson forever), but I do enjoy a lot of nonfiction writers.

      I think that the best we can do is just to read what we want to read and then share our honest reactions. Cloying stories are certainly not limited to Christian fiction and books with a lot of sex may not work for many people, not just those in the church. If only this were easy!

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  6. Faith is a big part of my life also. I figure if people dont like it when I post on those kind of things they can just skip over it. I look forward to seeing what you post on the topic!

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    1. That's a good viewpoint to have! It's so easy to get caught up with appealing to reader and keeping up your stats. At the end of the day, it's about you and the books that you enjoy!

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  7. Beautiful post, Lindsey! Thanks for letting us, your readers, have a glimpse into different facets of your life.

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