Where We’ve Been, Where We Are, and Where We’ll Go

Where We’ve Been

This is pretty late but happy new year, everyone! Last October/November I had posted about my unintentional hiatus and reading slump and made a half promise to get back to blogging soon. Obviously, “soon” was not the word I should’ve used (unless you have a different definition of it).  However, the time away has given my fellow co-bloggers and me a little epiphany—book blogging used make us happy but lately, not so much.

Initially, the book blogosphere had seemed like a safe haven where booknerds from all around the world could gather and bond over our mutual love for books and reading. After being around for nearly 2 years, my perception of the blogosphere has definitely changed. It was not all rainbows and fluffy unicorns but then again, I guess nothing on Earth quite is. Pointless dramas and viciousness was common and honestly, it’s pretty scary wondering whether we might be the next target if we blog about something contradicting the widespread blogger opinion.

Moreover, the pressure to fit in with other blogs is definitely not a myth. In real life, I’ve never been one who care about being like everyone else but it surprised me how much I did care about emulating the ‘bigger’ book blogs on the Internet. It might be the urge to be heard because isn’t that why we bloggers blog? To share our opinions and let the world know about them; to leave a mark. And unconsciously, I assumed successful bloggers were successful because they followed some secret blogging template.

Secret blogging templates are clearly not real, though. What is real, however, is a similar blogging style. With a few exceptions, it seemed as if the more vicious and untactful a blog (of course they must be illustriously so), the more popular it would be. My point here is not that all popular blogs are mean—trust me, there are plenty of well-known bloggers who are amazingly nice people—but that readers seem to be attracted to bloggers that are not afraid to hurl a piece of their mind at the net.

Where We Are

Which led me to realize that I, too, shouldn’t be afraid to blog the way I want to. I know it might seem pretty dumb that it took me so long to come to terms with that. The thing is, I’ve always known that bloggers shouldn’t be afraid to run their blogs in a contrasting way to the norm but I’ve never got the hang of applying it to my own. Thankfully, time away from blogging helped a lot. It gave me the chance view blogging from a different perspective—as the reader instead of the blogger.

Ever since book blogging lost much of its appeal last year, I’ve been noticing other blogs that stood out to me, personally. Among them were Novel Sounds, The Simple Tales (known as Gypsy Reviews until recently), What She Reads, and Aeropapers. You know how sometimes, by looking at others, you discover something about yourself? That’s exactly what happened. These bloggers came off so free and liberated to me, as if they weren’t bound by some blogging box. Moreover, the things they blogged about were not limited by the term “book blog”. If any of you mentioned bloggers happen to chance upon this post, here’s a gigantic thank you to y’all!

After all this time away and a good, long talk with JZ, we’ve decided not to be so reserved in what we blog about. Truthfully, we were both intimidated by how people gobbled up scathing reviews and occasionally overbearing opinions. We can’t and won’t ever try to change the way others blog, but we can change how we blog. And this time round, it’ll be something we’re happy and comfortable with.

Where We’ll Go

No, we won’t be turning into a fascinatingly analytical, sharp-tongued, and witty blog but we will turn A Page of Heaven into the sort of blog we hope to see more of. We aim to focus on the joys of being in a fandom instead of criticizing other fandoms. Same goes for emphasizing the greatness of reading instead of putting down books we did not enjoy.

Currently, we’re still insanely busy at school, it being the end of our first year in polytechnic with a ton of major assignments due, so we probably would not be very active until mid-February. I’ve also been working on a self-made design for A Page of Heaven (yay for the module I’m taking this semester that teaches web coding!) and have been seriously thinking of moving to my own domain. More on the topic of good news: when we get back, there’ll be an influx of brand new types of posts when we get back.

Because God knows how dreadful solely posting reviews is (yes, we’ve finally learned that too).

My rediscovered love for anime has also bombarded my mind with a ton of new ideas for A Page of Heaven and I can’t wait to share them all! Lastly, thank all you dear readers for sticking around and putting up with the stumbles we’ve made. I apologize if we had not been very colorful bloggers! Nevertheless, I’m thrilled to embark on this new path with all of you.

Grab your fandom and my hand. It’s going to get fun from here on out.