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Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a great New Year’s Eve – whether you were partying or cuddling up with a book like a true bookworm^^ – and I wish you all the best for 2016! May you read lots of amazing books, meet great (bookish) people and achieve all you goals you set yourself for the new year! 😉

I also want to use this occasion to announce a little (or maybe not so little) change concerning my blog which you might have already noticed when you have read this text until now: starting today there will be regularly posts in English. I’ve been thinking about switching completely from German to English but I’ve been weighing the pros and cons for quite a while but eventually decided against it.

Here’s why I decided to switch at least for some posts: When I started my blog almost 5 years ago I didn’t really expect it to have so much influence on my life and also that I would still be blogging 5 years later. Especially during the past year I’ve noticed that my interaction with other readers and bloggers has become much more international and as a result I have grown more and more unhappy about my blog because I’ve often felt that the German language has become a limitation for me.

I’ve consistently read a lot of English books during the past 5 years and written a review for every single one of them but even though I try not to be influenced too much by statistics like page views etc. I’ve often felt like I wrote them mostly for myself, especially when it came to books that were a bit older and not as popular. For example I read a lot of English thrillers and murder mysteries and it’s actually not easy to find other German readers to talk about these books as long as it’s not the latest Stephen King novel or the new Robert Galbraith mystery which have a big audience in Germany, too. I would love to talk much more about books like these but it’s always a bit annoying if you actually do find someone who has read the same book like you but it’s like „hey, I’d love to tell you in detail what I loved about this book or which books are similar but I can’t show you my review because it’s only in German“…

The same goes for international bookish tags like „Top 10 Tuesday“ for example where I also would love to have more interaction with other readers but can’t because 99% of the participants don’t understand the language and just see some pretty covers but can’t find out what I love about these books. There are also lots of interesting international events or challenges around the blogosphere like „boutofbooks“, „SciFi Month“, „Bookish Scene: Project 52“ and so on but it’s not that much fun to take part in such events when nobody understands you – I know that usually it’s also possible to participate via Twitter etc. but often that’s just not enough and you want to share more of your passion about books but can’t.

So blogging in English became more and more a serious option for me but I don’t think switching completely would be the right way for me. I still read a lot of German books and all my audiobooks are in German as well and I still do enjoy reading books by German authors or listening to my favorite German narrators. I don’t really see the point in writing about these books in English because who would be interested in reading an English review about a German book that probably isn’t even available in your language and maybe never will be? I’m usually also reading quite a few review copies where German publishers naturally expect a German review and I don’t want to have to write reviews twice because my blog is already quite time-consuming and I don’t want to make blogging unnecessarily work-intensive – I still want to have time to actually READ books and not just write about them 😉

I was also worried about scaring away some of my readers by switching to English but on the other hand I think that most of the bookish people I use to interact with read a lot of English books or are even blogging/tweeting/instagramming in English theirselves and those who don’t feel comfortable about reading in English probably also wouldn’t read the posts about English books so that I’m optimistic that this won’t become a problem.

I know that blogging partly in German and partly in English probably isn’t the perfect solution to my blogging problem but it’s the best I could think of and I also realized that it’s my personal blog and therefore I should be allowed to do whatever I want with it, so I’m just going to give it a try and see how it turns out. Maybe I’ll look back in a few weeks and realize that it was all just a big mistake but maybe it also works out better than I’m expecting right now 😀

So from now on all the reviews about English books will actually be written in English, the same goes for posts about international book tag, events and challenges. I will keep blogging about German books in German and also all general post concerning German books, events and challenges (like for example „Das Jahr des Taschenbuchs“) will remain in German. I just want to allow myself to be more flexible in my blogging life and hope you don’t feel offended by this change. 😉

Thanks for your attention and once again: Happy New Year! 😀

P.S.: The (German) blog name stays as it is. I already dislike the current one, I don’t think I could manage to dislike another one 😛 I’m not sure about changing the menu labels etc. though…

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21 Antworten zu diesem Beitrag

  • Hallo Sebastian and Happy New Year!

    I find your idea is really good, but I guess I have an advantage being British and also speaking the German language like a native speaker. I have often thought about it myself because, as you know, I also read a lot of English books.

    I would be curious to know what effect your decision has on your blog, your readers etc. Maybe you could write a post about it in a couple of months, I would be greatly interested!

    Have a great year with good health and happiness 🙂

    Best wishes
    Janice

    • Thanks, I wish you a happy New Year, too! 😉

      I’m pretty excited about this and will definitely share my experiences, at least at the end of the year when it’s time for my 2016 recap 😀

  • Yeah, I was two sentences into reading this and then I was like… HUH this is english?! I really like your decision, it makes sense. And because I never told you I have to tell you now: I really love the green on your blog, and your consistency with it. Whenever it pops up on my reader i know it’s you ^^

    Happy new year with loads of good books 🙂

    MoosE

    • Thanks, I really love the color and don’t think I will grow tired of using it as much as possible in the near future! 😀

      Happy New Year, too! 😉

  • Let the blog-pushing commence! ;D

  • Öhm, ich kommentiere mal in deutsch, mein Englisch ist in Schriftform mehr als ausbaufähig! 😀 Aber ich finde deine Entscheidung nur nachvollziehbar und logisch, wenn Du dich viel im englischsprachigen Bloggerbereich bewegst und deine Artikel auch für mehr Menschen zugänglich machen willst. Und englische Bücher auf englisch, deutsche auf deutsch zu besprechen, macht Sinn. Und diesen Artikel hier habe ich wunderbar verstanden und kann für meinen Teil sagen, dass ich deswegen sicher nicht abgeschreckt bin. Im Gegenteil, spannende Sache! Dann gibt es doch sicher auch die Bond-Romane in englischer Besprechung, oder? 😉

    Kommentieren werde ich sicher weiterhin in deutsch, auch unter deinen englischen Besprechungen, sonst mache ich mich noch lächerlich :D, aber ich bin ja sowieso (schändlicher Weise) meist nur stiller Leser, da fällt das nicht so auf. 😉 Wenn es um Krimis und Thriller geht, haben wir doch oft ähnliche Titel im Auge und ganz unterschiedliche Meinungen dazu, was ja eigentlich super spannend für einen Austausch ist. 😀

    Viele Grüße, Philly

    • Ehm ja, wenn ich die Bond-Romane dann mal gelesen habe wird’s die Rezensionen definitiv auf Englisch geben, die ersten beiden habe ich ja noch auf Deutsch rezensiert^^

      Du kannst gerne auch weiterhin auf Deutsch kommentieren, ich weiß bei auf Englisch bloggenden deutschen Bloggerkollegen auch nie so richtig in welcher Sprache ich kommentieren soll xD

  • Ich schließe mich Philly da mal an. Kommentieren tu ich jetzt lieber in deutsch, dein Vorhaben find ich aber total gut. Ich bin echt gespannt, was da noch so alles kommt und werde sich auch mal in die englischen Beiträge reinlesen.

    Hab ein ganz wunderbares Jahr mit vielen tollen Büchern. Schön, dass du bei unserer Aktion dabei bist und hoffentlich schaffen wir in diesem Jahr mal ein Treffen.

    Liebe Grüße
    Petzi

    • Ich wünsche dir ebenfalls ein spannendes neues Jahr und freue mich auf eure Aktion!

      Wir müssen uns im Vorfeld der nächsten FBM einfach mal absprechen, dann wird das schon klappen 😀

  • Happy new year, Sebastian!
    Ich finde es ganz gut, dass du (noch) nicht komplett auf Englisch umstellst. Du liest ja auch ein paar deutsche Autoren/Titel. Aber ansonsten kannst du doch machen, wie dir zumute ist. Es geht ja um die Bücher an sich und da kennen wir alle deinen Geschmack doch ganz gut. Kommentieren tue ich dann mal so, mal so. Heute war mir nach Deutsch. XD
    Wusste gar nicht, dass du deinen Blognamen nicht magst?! *.*

    • Ich bin mir auch ziemlich sicher dass ich nie komplett ins Englische wechseln werde weil ich einfach noch viel zu viele Sachen auf Deutsch lese bzw. höre und ich da keinen Sinn drin sehe diese Titel auf Englisch zu besprechen.

      Hach ja, der Blogname… ich war damit eigentlich von Anfang an nie so richtig zufrieden, ich wollte halt irgendwas mit Büchern haben und alles andere was mir dazu so eingefallen ist war nun mal schon vergeben, daher war das mehr eine Notlösung. Jetzt hab ich halt den Salat… 😀

  • Finde deinen Entschluss sehr nachvollziehbar und halte das für einen guten Mittelweg. Viel Erfolg damit und natürlich auch ein Frohes neues Jahr 😉

  • YAY! I for one am very happy, because while I can get the gist with spoken German, my comprehension of written German is… elementary at best. So I’m looking forward to being able to visit your blog and actually understand what is going on now 😀

    • Haha, I’m a bitsurprised that you find it easier to listen to German than to read it, I always thought it would be much easier to see the words written out and have all the time in the world to understand them than having to understand the spoken words with only one try 😀

      But yay, welcome to my blog! 🙂

  • Hiii! I had no idea about this until I saw a link to your blog in English and was taken aback. But yay, I’m happy about this decision. More so if it means making Maraia blog, too. =D

    I didn’t know you hated your blog name. I like it but then I’ve always hated how long mine is so I kind of get you there.

    • Hi Sana! 🙂

      „Hate“ might probably be a bit too strong and generally I think the name fits because I read a lot of bloody stuff but to me it sometimes also sounds a bit ridiculous and I find it quite annoying right now that it doesn’t really work in English 😀

      I don’t think your blog name is too long btw, that only makes it more unique 😉

      Haha, I’m not sure if this will in any way influence Maraia in starting her own blog but I definitely plan to be a pain in the neck until she gives in xD

  • Oh yes. I know exactly where you’re coming from. Sharing your ‚bilingual‘ passion for reading and reviewing, I’ve been struggling with the same decision about switching my blog from German to English for a looong time. Major kudos to you for taking that leap of faith and finally posting reviews in English. It’s a compromise, but I think it’s the best one you can make. And it’ll definitely attract more anglophone readers to your blog and boost international interaction and communication. And since you’re still reviewing German books in German as well, there’s no reason why you should lose any followers.

    In any case – I’m looking forward to sparring over books with you in English from now on, and I’m curious to see how this transition will work out.

    Cheers,
    Ute

    • Oh, I didn’t know you’ve been thinking about switching, too! Are you planning to switch completely or do you also still want to keep blogging in German?

      • Well, I said I have been struggling with the decision, and I still am. Not going to come to a satisfying conclusion about switching any time soon, though. Too many issues involved. I’d probably do it like you – one blog with both German and English reviews, depending on the language of the book itself. But there are some reviews I’d have to do in BOTH languages, and translating a review never works well for me. And right now, I barely have enough time for blogging at all, let alone huge changes on my blog, so that decision will have to wait. We’ll see.