Back to the Blackboard

Hi, allow me introduce you to For Books’ Sake. If you’re reading this, you might be wondering about the reason behind the rebrand, and the truth is it’s a little difficult to explain.

Originally this blog was something I started for my old job because, at the time, I was working as a school librarian. I made this website to be a place where the students I was working with could come and engage in reading outside of the classroom. Outside of the numbered bookshelves, and hourly bells, and the part-pencil-shavings-part-ammonia-part-seventh-level-of-hell smell that seems to perforate every place of education I’ve personally ever visited.

But times have changed. Since then I’ve been through a period of depression, I quit my job, I took a year-long writing sabbatical, my Uncle had a series of debilitating strokes, I (along with my mother) became his full-time carer, I got my mental health back on track, I met, fell in love, and started a long distance relationship with a wonderful man, I travelled to America for the first time in my life (I’m from the UK in case you’re wondering), and I even got engaged.

And through all that change, this blog - previously Word Nerds - lay completely dormant.

Until now.

Which brings us to the title of this post. Most of you, I’m sure, have heard of the saying going back to the drawing board; the phrase we use for when an idea has been so unsuccessful you have to throw the whole thing out and just start again. Yes, I do know it should be drawing board. Don’t worry, I’m getting to it.

So why blackboard? Firstly, and most obviously, I happen to like them. I’ve always loved messing around with chalk ever since I was a kid, my bedroom walls are currently painted with swathes of blackboard paint, hell…even as a librarian I eschewed the modern interactive boards for good old-fashioned blackboard.

There’s more to it though. As someone who’s used a lot of blackboards in the past, let me let you in on a secret: no matter how much you clean that thing - and oh trust me I’ve spent many an hour scrubbing with soap and water in my time - there’s always an echo leftover. You can never truly get rid of all the chalk left behind. YOU CAN NEVER TRULY START FROM SCRATCH. You have to work around, and with, what came before. Which, when you think about it, is kind of beautiful, right?

That idea, what I’d call my ‘blackboard philosophy’, is the motivation for this post’s title, and ultimately the redesign of my website. Word Nerds might have had its time, but there were things there I was proud to have made. The bones of this website were still good. So I’m keeping them here: for nostalgia, for transparency, and for inspiration of how I want to change the blog moving forward.

So what are my aims moving forward? It’s a new year, and part of my 2020 resolutions are to explore genres that I’ve previously overlooked. I want to read more classics, contemporary, sci-fi, mystery, poetry. (In fact if you're interested in seeing me talk about any of these particular genres, there's a poll on my homepage.) I want to expand my bookish horizons outside of the YA Fantasy hole I’ve fallen into and refused to crawl out of for most of my reading life. I also want to write more, and talk about my personal experiences with the creative writing process.

Will I succeed in doing those things? Who knows. But I’m going to try, and you’re welcome to join me along the way.

#rebrand #resolutions #lifetalk #2020