Books with Bunny update/changes

It's rare for me to write a blog post about Books with Bunny.  The vast majority of my posts are book reviews, often with a personal slant, or author features/cover reveals.  But things have changed a lot for me since I started this blog fifteen months ago and I feel I need to address it a bit to explain the situation.  I still love blogging and am extremely thankful for the friends I have made through it-bloggers, authors, readers, publicists.  This isn't a 'goodbye, I'm folding' post.  (If you don't want to read the lot, skip to the bottom for the pertinent points).

It is, however, a 'I can't keep going at this rate' post.  When I first started blogging (which was only a minor step up from the reading and rating I had been doing for many years) I wrote about books I chose to read.  I was then very fortunate to get publishers and authors asking me to review their titles, and I'd say yes to EVERYTHING.  Now, I'm a voracious reader, but even I need to do other things sometimes like, oooh, eat, sleep, spend time with my family.  I made a decision earlier this year to be more selective about what I read and review, especially as the vision when I began Books with Bunny was to encourage people to read.  That effectively means reading things I expect I'll like, so I can write an honest and passionate post which will make others want to run out and grab the novels I'm raving about.  However, I'm still gaining books at a rate much faster than I can read.

So yet again I'm having to be more selective still.  I have an enormous pile of books waiting 'to be read' (TBR). At my last estimate there were 300 of my own physical books and over 50 kindle titles, plus 80 physical review books from authors/reviewers and around 120 galleys.  I am not complaining.  I always said that book blogging is a labour of love and payment is in books.  Seeing as most of the money I earn in my day job goes on books anyway, it just cuts out the middle man.  I just want to explain why I sometimes take a long time to get around to reviewing titles I am given. I speak to a lot of other bloggers and know we're all in the same situation, especially since ebooks and self-publishing have really taken off and increased the amount of novels heading into an already saturated market.

Lots of you also know that I am trying to get my own writing out there (like me at www.facebook.com/kateylovell) .  I never thought I'd want to get published despite having written on and off for most of my life but numerous authors I admire encouraged me to go for it and finding time to write as well as read/review/live is exceptionally hard. 

So, the long and short of it is this.

• I will be doing far fewer blog tours. 
• I am going to have to be more selective. If you are a publisher or author, please do still approach me (or if I notice on twitter or know you have something I think I can help promote then I will approach you) but be aware that I am having to be realistic about how many books I take on.
• Most of the books I currently read are YA, NA, Chicklit and some psychological thrillers.
• I have previously kept going with books I haven't really enjoyed because I feel I owe it to the author/publicist to repay them for giving me their book.  I am going to have to be more ruthless- there may be some 'did not finish' reviews coming up on Goodreads/Netgalley.  Sorry!
• Finally, I am still as passionate about words, books and reading as I always have been.  I still love having a blog and I hope people still enjoy my reviews. 

Onwards and upwards to more reviews of books I know you'll love!