Hi, friends, and happy summertime!

Lately I’ve been thinking about burnout beyond the regular 9–5 situation. I’ve sufficiently blurred the lines between work and play when it comes to my love for books. In the last five years of writing for the bookish internet, I’ve put more and more brain power into turning the books I read into something to write about to make money. And it is simply not sustainable for my happiness anymore.

This is the problem with turning your hobbies into hustles. I’ve read so many think pieces about it, but I was certain it would never apply to me. I love reading. I love writing about books. How could anything go wrong? Sigh.

Books stopped being fun. Reading became a competition to the point of not remembering anything from the book I just read because I wanted to add another title to my yearly count. Every time I read a book on an interesting topic, I started researching more books on that topic so I could compile the perfect reading list. It became exhausting.