Top Ten Tuesday is a feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s theme is: Ten Bookish Things I Want to Quit Or Have Quit (aka ten book series I think I’m going to abandon, ten bookish habits I want to quit, ten authors I quit reading, ten types of books I’m quitting, ten tropes I want to stop reading about, ten books I marked as DNF (did not finish) recently, etc. Get as creative as you want)
I admit, this has been a hard one for me. So this is going to be super random, but that’s kind of my forte anyway. So these are like, open letters to myself on why I should quit these things that I can’t actually quit.
1. Stalking Google Analytics
Seriously, why do I care? It’s ridiculous, and three fewer pageviews don’t mean anything… except to the tortured mind of a person who stalks Google Analytics. Repeat after me: It is neither healthy nor productive.
See, that isn’t helping anyone, now is it?
2. Thinking there was a more perfect GIF than the one I just took seven hours to find.
Look, no one knows or cares. This GIF is fine. The last twenty eight were also likely fine.
3. Not DNFing
This is a serious problem. Do you understand the sheer volume of amazing books I have in my possession? Or, at least, potentially amazing? I have a literal crap-ton of books to read that I am absolutely dying to get my grabby hands on. So, why no DNFing? ::Shrugs::. I feel like I am competiting with… myself, I guess? It’s all ridiculous at best. You’d be proud though, I have set aside two books that just weren’t working for me at the moment. But I don’t think was a perma-DNF, so is it even progress? I want to stop but I can’t.
4. #BooksforTrade
Le sigh. First of all, I am awful at it. I traded a book yesterday, and was super excited about the one I traded for. Today? Email that I had won the book. Or I’ll give away a book I thought I wouldn’t like, only to find ten friends give it five stars in the next two days. Of course, it’s a huge timesuck too. And well, we all know that I am far too trusting and got scammed by the ultimate scammer so… I should probably just quit and start throwing books at people like Oprah. 
5. Freaking out about my shitty commenting turnaround time.
Raise your hand if you care that it takes me a few extra days to comment back. All hands are firmly down, I suspect. Because I do comment back, and I like to comment back but… I have these small humans, and sometimes I simply can’t right away. And I freak out about every second of every minute that I am keeping commenters waiting. And that is dumb. Because I would never in a million years think a single negative thought about anyone else being busy so, why the freakouts? I don’t think me feeling like that helps anyone, right?
6. Not having a plan.
Yeah, I want a plan, it sounds fabulous. Seriously, in pre-parenthood life, I was such a planner for say, 99% of things. Now I am not. At all. Not because of lack of desire, but more that I have let my shit get so out of hand, there seems to be no good way to get it back on track. I need the following in order for this to work: One week of non-child rearing (bwhahha), several hundred dollars for coffee and/or wine, and ALL the books. I only have one out of three. At this point, I would take just getting back out from being behind, which I have been since BEA. Yeah, that’s almost six months of fail. 
7. Drinking coffee at 11:00pm
You’d think this is just good sense, right? But you know, see above. Maybe even if I could just push it back to say, 9:00? 
8. Failing at Twitter
I miss a lot of stuff, I feel. Like, I am on Twitter, but my feed is really out of hand, so I mostly just ignore it and hang out on my own notifications page because at least that doesn’t overwhelm me? I have made some lists and set up TweetDeck but I then completely forget about TweetDeck. I don’t want to miss all the things, but I think if it wasn’t for Holly (she excels at Twitter), I would have no idea what was happening a good 98% of the time.
9. Creeping on my own porch for book mail
I think both the mailman and the UPS guy are scared of me. For one, they must think “what is this bitch always getting delivered to her house?”, and two, I pounce when anything book-shaped is in a 500 foot radius. Dude isn’t even out of his truck and my beady eyes are peeking through the curtains. New goal: wait until after the guy drives away to flail with glee.
10. Book hoarding
No, I am totally kidding, why even? Who doesn’t want to be a book hoarder? Please don’t call TLC, or Dr. Phil, or whoever you call in this situation? I still have room for one or two more on my shelves…
I miss a lot on Twitter too! For a while I was trying to go through and unfollowing people I didn’t know had unfollowed because I couldn’t keep up. It is nice to be able to turn off RT’s, so at least that can help. I wish I knew how Google analytics worked! I need some kind of crash course in using them to their potential. *sigh* Fun post, Shannon!
Ugh, I feel you with the Twitter thing- one day, I painstakingly eliminated like, 200 people I didn’t know… and then somehow ended up with at least that many back, not even a month later! HOW!?
And Google Analytics is super easy- there are some very good tutorials out there. This one is pretty thorough, and has a whole series of posts in case you want more info! http://www.blogsbyheather.com/2012/04/how-to-install-google-analytics-on-blog.html%20
This whole post made me laugh so hard! I can totally relate with the delivery man situation. It’s gotten to the point where I feel like me and the delivery man are friends (although I don’t even know his name?) because we see each other so often. And, I’m like “Maybe I should make him a little goodie bag or bake him some cookies?” Hahaha. Also, I want to say that it’s completely fine that you don’t respond to posts immediately! I’ll be working on something new for my blog and see a comment from you on another post and think “Oh, someone’s still looking at that?” Great list!
AWW THANK YOU 😀 You seriously have no idea how much better you’ve made me feel. I have had a pretty solid case of the guilties these last few weeks, so it kind of made my day!
And I don’t know my delivery guy’s name either, but I should. Definitely during the holidays I will have to leave him something 😉
I’m a few steps away from being a book hoarder, or maybe I’m already there… 🙂 I can’t have enough books!
I’m pretty sure the UPS driver hates me – mostly because I have a long driveway and he has to turn around at the end to get back out. Although once the guy reversed all the way out to the road at like 30mph…those packages won’t deliver themselves I guess! XD
Check out my TTT.
I feel you! Maybe we all should get together and have a big reality show! 😀
Aww poor UPS guy 🙁 But I had a friend who worked for UPS for awhile and she made some decent money, so… he’ll survive. And you need your books!
I struggle with letting go and DNF-ing as well, but I’m trying to get better at it. Life is just too short to keep reading books you don’t find either informative or engaging.
I’m so bad at DNFing books as well. One of these days though!
Oh gosh, Shannon, 5 & 8 are totally me. I do love commenting, but it’s hard to do so promptly!! And I am the worst human on Twitter. LOL. I honestly don’t even know what I’m doing half of the time . . .
Loved the list!
Duuude, you’re not alone in many of this! I mostly hang out in my Twitter notifications too and the next thing I knew, something big happened and I’m like, “uhhh what happened?” I’m following 1000 people now and I agree that it can be so overwhelming sometimes! But I was able to strip away my care for stats, thankfully… I used to be obssessed with them numbers before but now I’m free and it feels great! It was a hard journey getting to this mentality though… getting there, I used to fret still about it every now and then. Also, my commenting turn around time is pretty sucky too! I think I comment once or twice a week? But I do it in huge numbers, but that takes so much hours, too! And with my wedding preprations in progress, I just don’t have that much time >_<
After reading this post, I feel like you’re my spirit animal. I always think of gifs that would be better than the ones I’ve posted AFTER hours of searching for the one that’s up. I really need to allow myself to DNF more books and stop wasting time on the ones I’m not enjoying but I usually feel soo bad..like what if I’m putting it down right before it’s going to get good? I dunno.
I always make plans but have such a hard time keeping to them. My co-blogger works so hard on trying to keep me on track too…><
I'm a huge book-hoarder…and I refuse to admit that it's a problem haha.
Girl GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!
<3 Britt
Yeah I think there will be lots of variation this week- should be fun! LOL about the GIF thing- so true. I’ve only ever used them a few times, and I think the time I put in to it was perhaps… a bit much. 🙂
And coffee (or caffeine in general)- I don’t think there’s ever a bad time. Although I really should cut back too…
First of all, your posts always crack me up. Second, I DON’T DNF EITHER! I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE. I’m perfectly happy with the lack of DNFing in my life though. And the Twitter thing? I just don’t even get Twitter. So take solace that you’re not failing at it as bad as I am lol.
Haha, love it! 😀 And as always, your gifs are amazing – I just hope you didn’t spend 7 hours finding them. And don’t worry, I’m definitely bad at returning comments in a timely fashion too 🙁 We can work on it together!
LITERALLY ME
I’m such a book hoarder, honestly. A few weeks ago, my sister suggested I donate a few and I was mortified. AND I CREEP, TOO. I smiled at the Fed-Ex guy once while waiting on bookmail and he looked at me like I was psychotic. ha. All-around great post, Shannon!
Haha, great list, Shannon! I especially relate on the gif front – I have to find the right one, dammit! Also don’t feel bad about taking a few extra days to comment; you actually have a reason in the form of those small humans, whereas sometimes I don’t comment back because I completely forget or I’m just lazy. I don’t think you need to defend yourself – I always know you’re going to comment, and if anything it’s quite nice to find an extra comment a couple of days after all the others. 😀
OMG I love your blog so much Shannon. I JUST LOVE IT. HOW ARE YOU SO AWESOME AND EPICALLY FUNNY ALL THE TIME??! And omg do NOT fret about #5. Right now I’m like 3 days behind replying to comments and I feel baaaad about it, but sometimes I just have to say “okay, gonna stop trying to catch up and just go from here”. I don’t think anyone cares. HAHA. OR ELSE THEY DO BUT PFFT. YOU GOTTA DO WHAT YOU GOTTA DO.
I CREEP MY MAILMAN TOO. OMG. I’M NOT ALONE. But my dog hates him and ergo I think the mailman hates our house.
I want to quit rearranging my bookshelves and just live with the fact that THEY’RE NOT ALL GOING TO FIT, EVER, CAIT. STAHP TRYING. But, you know….if I just rearrange them for the 589038th time maaaaaybe they will. I can live and hope and cry I guess.
I always love your lists. Your gifs make me laugh. I totally agree with #5 and #10. For #5 those damn little human always get it the way right??? Good thing they are generally cute. How the hell do you drink cofee at 11pm??? I have already been asleep for like an hour to an hour and half at that point. That probably makes me sound old…oh wait I am 🙂 Great list!!
I am obsessed with my stats, although they make me sad. I have literally spent hours trying to figure out why that post got more attention then the one I just wrote.
Also, I am even worse at commenting back. I let Sunday comments sit there until Tuesday, and that is just bad form. I may not make it to that commenters site to comment back until 4 days later. By then they have probably forgot they even visited me. There is too much pressure to comment back in this community, I think.
I have been known to get (more) coffee at 1pm. Miguel comes home from work and gets coffee. And, yes, he drinks it in the morning too. There is no set cut off for coffee, relax (or don’t cuz you have consumed too much coffee).
I am with you on getting back on track. I was so hoping to do Blog Ahead and then BAM I’m back on track, but no. I am now behind on Blogging Ahead as well as reviews, discussion posts, memes (even my own), and reading.
So I totally feel you on these things. You are NOT alone.
I don’t use GIFs a lot but when I do, I have that problem. I go crazy wanting THE perfect GIF and know there must be better ones. There should be an easier way to find these. Yes to DNF’ing! Idk how to do that… I just don’t. I’m trying and as recent as a few days ago, I DNF’d a book and I felt proud for doing that. I haven’t been able to comment on blogs much and it’s killing me! I need my laptop ASAP. At least, it’s on its way. I fail at twitter MISERABLY!! I feel like a joke on the Twitter-verse. Book hoarding? Pfft, every book lover should have this problem so don’t worry there. We are all in this together.
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I can relate to so many of these, especially not being on Twitter. Truthfully, I go on there once a week (if that) and I rarely post. I have it set up to automatically post my blog post for the day to Twitter, so if you see that my last twenty posts are of blog links, that’s why. Up until this year, I had such an issue with DNF’ing. I NEVER did it. Once I had posted my fifth one star review in a row on Goodreads (or something like that) and I had a friend ask me why I kept reading stuff I hated. He had a good point. I also have way too many books on my TBR list to waste time on ones I don’t like. Another reason I DNF more is kind of morbid. I think about how short life is. What if I were to get hit by a bus or something?? Do I really want the last book I was reading to be a horrible book? The only real exception is review copies. I WILL DNF ARC’s, but I don’t unless I have to. Since I promise a review of them, I cut them a little more slack than other books.
I stalk my pageviews religiously! 😀 I know I should stop doing it, but I am a bit ambitious about blogging, I guess. And it sucks when I don’t get a lot. It makes me want to get a corner and sob and die there.
Your #booksfortrade story is legendary now! It sucks. She still isn’t doing anything about it? Miss. scammer has been doing this since YA Book Exchange time!
I have a feeling that my post man thinks I am crazy. He even knows me by name now. And when the address is written wrong, it still comes to my house! 😀
OMG, Shannon, reading your list totally makes me want to send you a virtual Valium or something. LOL Chill, woman! 😀 A couple I can relate to but most I never do… or even considered. LOL Like, Google Analytics who? (Yeah, that’s what a blog genius I am.) I’m way better at DNF’ing these days and even better at quitting series that I’m not truly invested in or excited about. I think most people are just happy with ANY comments no matter WHEN they are made. So who cares how late they are? And I’m a major fail at Twitter. I find my feed overwhelming and yet refuse to scale it down so I go the avoidance route usually. And book hoarding? Such a ugly word. I prefer book collector. 🙂
I totally agree with EVERYTHING!!! Except I don’t think I’m going to fix my book hoarding problem. Nothing’s going to get better, let’s be honest. I don’t know why, but I refuse to DNF, whether it be a book, an author, or a series. I’ve read a bunch of books by authors I don’t like for reasons unknown. I could be using that time to read books I WANT to read, but nope! I know that I’m obsessed with stats, but I feel like that’s because so many people talk about all the page views they get and you want that too. Amazing list!
I can relate to quite some fo these. Although I don’t stalk google analytics, I do check my stats sometimes. I do find they can be interesting, but like you said a small decrease or increase in views is probably just a coincidence. While I’ve gotten better at DNF’ing books I am not enjoying, it’s still hard and I still read on too long at times as well. I DNf’d 4 books this year so and most of those past the 30% as I keep tryign to convince myself it get’s better as ruin several days trying to read a book I don’t enjoy.
I am the same with commenting back I feel horrible if I don’t comment back on the same day or the next day if I received a comment when I was asleep. If I can’t reply and comment back to comments one day I feel horrible. And like you said if another blogger says they coment back later I am all hey no problem I am alreayd really gartefull that you do comment or comment back, I don’t mind if you comment back late. But if it’s me, then nope I have to comment back as soon possible.
I actually manage the plan pretty well and schedule posts ahead. I am also guilty of drinking tea at 11pm, although recently I switched to green tea in the evenings as that doesn’t have caffeine in it. I also could be better at twitter, but at least I remember to start up tweetdeck every day, if only I actually managed to interact wth peoepl there, that would be great. Great list!
I can relate to all of this. I am so incredibly slow at commenting back. My blog doesn’t even get many comments, so that makes me feel even worse about it.
I’m basically with you on all of these points! But I always think your GIF’s are pretty well chosen!
Haha!! SO MUCH YES!!! Though I have ZERO problem DNF’ing books. I actually do it quite often. If i’m not loving a book, I put it down. End of discussion. It used to really bother me and I felt so guilty! Then I realized that by reading books that I didn’t even care for, I was missing out on SO MANY books that I would probably love! SO NO MORE!! I’m actually a closet DNF’er, since I try not to show when I DNF books. So I guess on the inside I still feel a little guilty? Like I’m hurting the author’s/publisher’s feelings? But I still do it. LOL Such a fun post today!!
I fail at lots of those things!! I’ve given up on Gif hunting because I suck at it lol I can never find what I want! BTW I love the Rory “I love coffee” gif!
I put Tweetdeck into my Chrome browser and I still fail to keep up with things on there.
I’m working on my plan issues by taking a part in the Blog Ahead challenge this month and so far it’s helping a LOT to get organized!
As for book hoarding.. thats not something ANY book lover would consider a fail.
Oh and DNF’ing is a problem for me too. Once I start a book I really need to finish it. it bugs me other wise! But I have DNF’d a few in my life (maybe 3)
OMG I love your list. I’m not going to lie I have never been able to figure out how to use gifs lol, probably a good thing or I’d spend hours at it too!
I bet that’s how my UPS and mail people feel. I get a package several times a week. I am up to the point where Ill crack a joke and be like..oh hey..fancy seeing you again 😉
Okay, this is really hysterical because I used the exact same GIF (your first one) and wrote about why I CAN’T DNF books or give up on authors and I wrote a note to myself about why I NEED to start! Except my post is not nearly as funny or awesome as yours because I only had a half hour before teaching at co-op this morning to write it. But I need to remind myself that I need to QUIT comparing myself to other awesome bloggers (like YOU!!) — it can happen, right? Somehow I’m picturing that last GIF on your post again …
Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction
Love this! Yea, sometimes it takes me like a week to get to comments. So GIFs I also have a problem with finding just the right one, so I try not to use them at all or I’ll be searching for 7 hours too lol
Don’t worry about #5 Shannon! Sometimes I take a week to get back to comments – the only reason I have a quicker turnaround time now is because I only have like three posts a week xD We still love you *hugs*
Ugh, the only reason why I DON’T DNF is because I want the book to count for my stupid Goodreads Challenge. THAT SHOULD’VE BEEN ANOTHER THING ON MY LIST. THE STUPID GOODREADS CHALLENGE. I hate hate being behind, and I was doing SO WELL until this weekend, where I read nothing. Gah.
A+ at gifs, and I think I fail at Twitter more than you do!
I so understand you about Twitter. I get on and always seem to find out I just missed some book/ book blog/ event thing once again! I am like really. Who do I need to follow to know about these things! Happy Reading!
Please feel free to see my TopTen Here!
http://wonderstruck-kcks.blogspot.com/2015/10/ten-bookish-things-i-want-to-quit-books.html
I love your list, and all of your gifs, especially the Brokeback Mountain one. I only watch it a few days ago and … totally emotional! I have only just recently started DNF-ing books, it’s hard but then at the same time it’s nice to have the time to read books that I am actually enjoying! Also, I really suck at replying to comments too! At least you have a good excuse though! I have no tiny humans at the moment, I am just very lazy!
Haha, I love the fact that you pounce on your book mail, your post guys must find delivering to you amusing! I normally wait at the kitchen window where I can see our drive and when the postman arrives. He usually looks pretty shock to see me just standing there an watching, then again it is normally early morning and I have wacky hair and no make up on so I probably look like one of those freaky girls out of a horror movie!
Really great list, I enjoyed reading it and will definitely be back to check out more! 🙂
LOL this is a great list Shannon! I have a serious book hoarding problem. Now I’m worried because I WAS worried about a lot of these things, namely putting up posts according to my schedule, blog stats and commenting but lately I just don’t care about that stuff! Now I’m too lazy.
Number 5 is speaking to me right now sista girl! I want to do all this commenting, but I usually do it while the little one is napping, which is when I’m so damn drained that I never really feel like doing it. I’m blog hopping now, because I hate not visiting my peeps for longer than a week, but sometimes I’m either too busy, or just not up for it. Having a plan would be sort of amazing too, but I’m just one of those ppl that hates doing things by schedule. I post when I want, blog hop when I want, and while being more organized would help me get more shit done during the day, it also puts so much pressure on me. Ugh, what are we to do Shan Ban? lol
ahahaha I can so relate to many of these! I rarely DNF when I should and I SUCK at Twitter. I’ll have spurts of activity and then completely ignore it. But I honestly don’t know how people live on that thing. I don’t have that kind of time… (I also am completely overwhelmed by my feed – organization might be the secret). But then I feel like I am missing SO MUCH and people forget about me lol. Ok mini pity party over =P
I can relate so much! Especially to the not DNF’ing. I feel like I can’t give up! What if, the page after I stop reading, the book turns amazing? What could I be possibly losing?? Argh!
Girl… I just feel you with the coffee… And I TOTALLY agree with the GIF below it…