It's been a while...

It really has.

I've been wanting to get back to blogging again for ages, but there's always been a combination of things stopping me, the main one being my own ability to procrastinate at all costs.

And then there's the added pressure that comes with choosing to review books on a regular basis, that underlying guilt when you finish one, leave it a while and say 'oh, I'll probably write a review next week', but then you start another book and another and before you realise it, several months have gone passed and you've all but given up on the reviews, because, really, what's the point?

And then you start to miss it, writing and discussing books, writing for the love of it, writing because you can and not because you have to.

And then there's the more practical reasons associated with non-blogging - life stuff, moving house, family, work, not being able to bear to look at the screen of my laptop in the evenings without my eyes glazing over. The usual.

Things I found whilst packing, some more respectable than others.

Which all brings me back to right now. This blog has alwasy had a reading and writing theme and this has mostly been to do with YA because that's what I like to read and write about. This probably isn't going to change in the future but I think I'm going to enjoy the fact that my blog doesn't really have any particular theme or remit and write about other stuff too. Life stuff, books other than YA (which I have been reading a bit of recently) and maybe even bits of my own writing. Who knows.

Anyway, in short, I'm back for a bit. Not going to make any promises, but here are a few things you can expect in the coming weeks, months etc...

I recently attended the Judy Blume talk in London and I still can't get over the fact that I sat a few feet away from Judy Blume. JUDY FRICKIN' BLUME. When I think about my favourite books as a kid and a teenager, I think about Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Superfudge, Deenie, Are you There God? It's Me Margaret and Tiger Eyes, so not only did this talk bring a huge grin to my chops, but it's also inspired me to read the Judy Blume back catalogue, to revisit those old favourites and discover the ones that weren't stocked by my local library the first time round.

(By the way, this will be a lot of different blog posts over a long period of time, not one MAMMOTH  JUDY BLUME POST, as amazing as that would be).

Before that though, I'm going to write a bit about all the books I've enjoyed and haven't reviewed in the last six months or so, because they deserve a little bit of love for being so fantastic.

But that's for next week. This week is about me saying hello again and this photo....