What Should I Do to Improve My Blog?

Lately, this question has been on my mind more and more.  Since I started this blog over a year ago, my goal was to have some way to keep track of the books I was reading and to have fun while doing it.  Not to be a big book blogger.  Not to even be a "blogger".  Several times I lost the overall meaning of my blog and then I jumped back to the original game plan.  How did I lose my purpose?  Well, I joined book tours and started using author guest post, cover reveals and giveaways as post fillers about books I would never read.  Don't get me wrong not all of them were just fillers.  I did read and review a few books from a book tour and I loved them.  But that was very, very few and far between.  Then, I joined a ton of giveaway hops and memes to get my numbers up.  It worked but I was not suppose to be blogging for numbers.  I'd lost sight of the original goal.  Keeping track of the books I read.  

Ok!  Now it's almost two years later and I have had a bit of time off!  It's time to do some soul searching about my blog.  And I really REALLY! want your thoughts on this too.

Writing

I am not a writer at all.  In fact that is the one thing about blogging I am not excited about.   I like to read and to tell you the truth I don't re-read/proof read my post as often as I should.  I find typos, misspelled words, and bad grammar all the time.  And I know you do to.  I need to get that part of my blogging together.  I think because I don't like writing to much you will find very few post like this one.  A post were I just talk and talk about something outside of a review.  But I am thinking about fixing that.

Reviews

I have a hard time with reviews because I have to write them.  I am not the formal 8th grade book report reviewer who talks about the protagonist's struggle with nature and himself.  I am more or less like the girlfriend you ran into at Starbucks and asked me about a book.  Something like:

You:  Hey girl!  What's up?  I haven't seen you in awhile.  How are you?

Me:  What's up sweetie?  I'm good!!!  You look amazing!!! Did you lose weight?

You:  No!  Just living right. 

Me:  Well it suits you well.

You:  I see that book in your hand.  What are you reading?

Me:  This one is called (Insert book name).

You:  What do you think of it?

Me:  (Insert review)

You:  That sounds like a book I would be into.

Me:  You should check it out. 

Side Bar Widgets

I am thinking about getting rid of a few of them.  The sidebar is looking cluttered to me.  I am not making money with the Sponsor Love section at all.  I think I have made $7.00 from Google Ads and nothing from the other one.  So is it worth keeping?  $7.00 in almost 2 years.  Do I really need it?  

I think Twitter and Feedly can become buttons up top with Pinterest and the others.  

I am going to revamp the "Blogs I Love" during Bloggiesta.  There are blogs that don't blog anymore and ones I visit that are not on there and should be.  That is a must to fix up!  

As for the Reading Challenges...hummm...I don't know.  Should I keep them?  Just use text only or remove them?  They are just another thing to keep up.  I don't mind but does it look like a ton of clutter?

Load Time
On my computer this blog loads pretty quick but I am not sure if you all are having the same results.  I know when I visit a blog with a ton of gifs, videos, and animation in the side bar it takes forever for it load.  Most of the time I just give up and move on.  Nothing personal but I hate to wait!  Does my blog take awhile to load?  Does it try your patients?  I want to add a vlog of monthly wrap ups but if it's slow now then now way.

I  am not looking for a pat on the back!  Really!  I want "honest to God" thoughts and opinions about improving my blog.  Don't sugar coat it!  If there is something you hate, like the load time, comments on Disqs, tell me.  There are so many book blogs out there.  Soooo many!!! And not all of them are user friendly or fun to read.  I just need to know if I am one of them.  LOL!

I have been reading other blog post about making a better blog and here are a few of them.
Another Novel Read:  5 Reasons Why Your Blog Makes Me Sad.  
Another Novel Read:  5 MORE Reasons Why Your Blog Makes Me Sad.

  What should I do to improve my blog?