End of the year thoughts

I have been thinking about this blog a bit lately.  I feel like it has drifted and gotten off track.

My career is really in flux, and with two young kids my schedule has changed a lot, and I think all of this has contributed to a lack of focus.  I don’t feel like I have written enough or well enough lately to make this site worth reading regularly.

The end of the year seems like a good time to think about things moving forward.  Getting ready for New Year’s resolutions and whatnot.

My one idea so far is to try and connect some themes in both my fiction and non-fiction reading.  Read more than one book by a given author.  Read a couple of books on a given subject, etc.  I want to focus less on reading the latest releases but connect some newer books with older ones that I have always wanted to read.  How this will work in practice remains to be seen.

So I am going to continue to spend some time thinking about what my focus should be and how I can make this a site worth reading given my work and family constraints.  Part of working on being a better writer – which has always been a rationale for this site – is knowing and developing an audience.  I think this is something I need to work on.

As always, I appreciate feedback.  What do you think CM does well?  What kind of things should I focus on and what things should I ignore?  In other words: What do you want more of and what could you do without?  If you have ideas or opinions send them my way.

Kevin Holtsberry
I work in communications and public affairs. I try to squeeze in as much reading as I can while still spending time with my wife and two kids (and cheering on the Pittsburgh Steelers and Michigan Wolverines during football season).

4 Comments

  1. “Read more than one book by a given author. Read a couple of books on a given subject, etc. I want to focus less on reading the latest releases but connect some newer books with older ones that I have always wanted to read.”

    This sort of more in-depth, contextual commentary seems to me a useful direction in which you might go. Less keeping up with what’s new, etc.

  2. By way of feedback: I enjoy your books coverage. On several occasions, you’ve pointed me to books I otherwise wouldn’t have known existed, and if I remember correctly, your blog gave me the final push toward Olen Steinhauer’s Eastern Europe series, which I really enjoyed…

  3. By way of feedback: I enjoy your books coverage. On several occasions, you’ve pointed me to books I otherwise wouldn’t have known existed, and if I remember correctly, your blog gave me the final push toward Olen Steinhauer’s Eastern Europe series, which I really enjoyed…

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