Blogging Resolutions for 2011

Since I saw that my blogging bestie Jess did a post yesterday about blogging resolutions and some books that she really wants to read next year I thought it would be a cracking idea for me to think about it and do a post of my own. My blogoversary is in January although technically I was only properly blogging from about the end of April so it makes sense to have a plan for my first whole year as a blogger.

Blogging Resolutions
1. Read Slower- No really, I think that this year I have read too quickly and in doing so I find that I tend to miss little nuances about books which I really ought to savour and I get through books so fast that I forget my thoughts on them by the time that I want to write a review. So next year I would like to try and take my time a bit more when reading, to not read a book in single late-night gulps so I can keep my opinions about them straight long enough for me to review them properly which brings me onto my next resolution.

2. Review More Books- I think everyone who reads my blog has thought at some point "she reads so many books but where are the reviews?" heck *I* think that sometimes. I know I haven't done reviews for even a quarter of the books I read this year which is rather crap when I'm supposed to be a book blogger, it'd be worse of course if I had loads of ARCs from publishers that I wasn't reviewing but still I should be doing more.

3. Blog More Efficiently- by that I mean take less bloody time to write out a simple post which shouldn't take several hours to finish. I seem to spend ages doing posts that I could have done so much faster if I'd not procrastinated and messed about. I need to have templates for the meme posts I do and have a decent amount of stuff scheduled ahead of time so when I have slumps like the past week or two  there will still be posts going up on the blog even if I'm not actually writing anything new. It does nothing good for my blog traffic and only ticks off my wonderfully patient followers if I go for over a week with nary a peep and no explanation for the absence.

4. Comment More- Jess mentioned this as well but I think for me it goes doubly. I really need to step up my participation on other blogs. I follow over 300 blogs (which perhaps is a number I need to cut down) and there is no way for me to look at every post that appears in my feed but the ones that I do read I don't tend to comment on unless I have a fairly strong feeling or opinion about it. I think that next year I should dedicate time every day/week to read other blogs and comment on them even if it's only a quick "great post/review" style comment.

5. Be Less Afraid of approaching authors/publishers- I'm one of those people who hate ringing people up on landlines and is really not that good with talking to strangers in a professional capacity. To that end I get really nervous about the idea of emailing publishers about being put on mailing lists for review copies and authors about interviews or whatever. I know from following many of them on Twitter or via their blogs that YA authors in particular are the loveliest bunch of people who are really friendly and love to get to know the people who read and blog about their books. Compared to some authors who couldn't give the time of day to reply to a email from a fan, the YA authors I know of make a concerted effort to answer questions and interact with readers as far as they can.
My problem is that I am still slightly in awe of them and feel somewhat unworthy of approaching the "Mythical Author Beings" to tell them how much I loved their book. So next year I want to try and man up a bit and actually email the authors I read to ask questions about their books or to ask for a blog interview/guest post etc. The same goes for publishers and review copies although I think that will be to a lesser extent since I'm sometimes too much of a moody reader to be completely reliable about reading a book by a certain date and that's not fair if I have an obligation to a publisher to review it by a deadline.

I will do another post soonish about some of the books that I really must read in 2011 because that will take me a bit of research through my TBR list and I need some time for that.

So what are your blogging resolutions for 2011? What books are you *dying* to read next year?
Leave a comment or link to your own resolutions post
LadyV