New Year, Renew Blog

My name is Shelly, aka @writeforareader, and I am the writer of this blog.  I started blogging over 2 years ago and I was an avid reader, reviewer and blogger, but something happened.  It's called life, and I let it get in the way.  This is my first blog post in almost 2 months, and I apologize to all of my readers/followers for my hiatus.  I hope you will forgive me, let me start anew, and stick with me as I re-New this blog!


I had no real goals when I started this blog.  I just wanted to read and review books.  Well, I couldn't read fast enough for the number of books that were coming into my house.  So, I've purged the books I had, thanks to Half Price Books and good friends, and I'm ready to start anew.  My blog began as a children's book review blog, but I started reading and reviewing a plethora of genres.  Over the last couple months, I've had time to think about what I really want to do with my blog.  For the new year, I'm making some blog resolutions.

1. Go back to your roots...Write For A Reader began as a blog to review children's books, so I'm going back to the basics.  I will review books for children of all ages...picture books, middle grade and YA.
2. Enjoy books...I love to read, always have.  Although I won't be reviewing adult books on the blog, I will enjoy them, add them on Goodreads, LibraryThing and let others know about them that way.
3. Blog 5 days a week...blogging 7 days a week is ideal, but when I couldn't do it, I started blogging less and less.  So, 5 days I will blog and if I blog 7, then it's a plus!
4. Renew blogging and author friendships...I have made many friends through my blog, but because I am not online as much as before, via Twitter, I feel that I have let some of those friendships lag.  I want to renew those and stay in touch.
5. Read and comment on blogs...I used to get so much enjoyment out of reading other's blogs, but I had so many in Google that it became overwhelming, backed up, and defeated me.  So, I'm cleaning out my Google Reader so that I can focus on blog reading  and commenting again.
6. No challenges...I signed up for many last year, and didn't complete any.  So, this year, I'm not committing to any, that way I won't let myself down.

I'm sure there are more resolutions I could make, but for now, that is what I have come up with.  I'm ready to get back into the blogging community.  I love it, I miss it, and I hope it welcomes me back.