Sunday Salon: A "Reading and Weeding" Staycation (with a side of rambling)

I've been mostly hanging out at home for the last several days. Tall Paul and I had submitted vacation requests for this time months ago, in anticipation of attending San Diego Comic-Con this weekend. So much for that--we couldn't get tickets. But we weren't about to give back the time off, either, and so we've been "staycationing." (And although we aren't taking pictures in San Diego, I've been playing with pictures this week--I'll be sharing a few of my #DailyBookPic photos in this post.)

It's been awhile since I've been home during a vacation and didn't have a huge list of "stuff I need to do on my days off," and I've been enjoying it...particularly the parts where I've been able to spend good chunks of time reading. As I write this late on Saturday afternoon, I've almost finished my second book since my "staycation" started on Wednesday, and I don't go back to work until Tuesday, so the third one is on deck. I'm planning to do some writing on Monday--books read must also be books reviewed, after all--but I want to get some more reading in too, and with luck, I will!

I need to make a confession, though: my reading this week really hasn't included many blogs. My "books blogroll" feed folder long ago exceeded critical mass, and although I did some reorganizing on it a month or two ago--the group blogs that post multiple times a day got a folder of their own--I'd find myself deliberately avoiding it until the number of unread posts reached my "nuclear option" threshold so I could justify hitting "mark all as read" and starting over. So I did some long-overdue pruning this week...and I hated it. I hate doing it, because it always makes me feel like I'm letting someone down when I let them go. I have abandonment issues going both ways, apparently. But I also have control issues, and I do feel a little more in control of things now that it's done. Odds are that I'll find I've accidentally dropped some blogs I didn't mean to--and I'll resubscribe to those when I realize I miss them!--but blogs that I don't interact with at all probably don't need to be in my feed reader. (I also did some weeding out on Twitter, but probably need to do a good bit more if I want to get it back to something that feels useful again!)

And on a related note, some blogs may not be in your feed reader any more because you're getting their posts from other sources, like links on Twitter and Facebook. The 3 R's Blog Facebook page is creeping up on 100 "likes," and I'd really like to see it cross that threshold, so would you please consider "liking" it if you haven't already? I just might have to do some sort of giveaway to mark that milestone...

One reason I really don't do link roundups here any more is that I'm sharing links on social media instead, and it felt redundant. The more bookish ones get posted to The 3 R's Blog FB page (which is one more reason to "like" it!), and sometimes even generate discussion there. Here are a few I've shared there recently:

• An author's plea: "Kill my ARC"
• A blogger's open response to an author's "open letter"
• Twitter's rules for authors: beginners' edition

As much as we book bloggers love and value what we do, for many mainstream readers, mainstream review outlets still matter. There's a reason Jennifer Weiner cares about what the New York Times says (or doesn't say) about her books. And so Beth Kephart is understandably thrilled that the NYT Sunday Book Review has reviewed her newest, Small Damages, which is out this Thursday. (My own review posts then, which will understandably be far less thrilling.)

This afternoon we're off to a chocolate-themed birthday party for my nine-year-old nephew, but I hope I'll have some time to read before we go. Hope you have a great Sunday!