Most of us book bloggers like to write book reviews- if we don't love to write book reviews- but here's today's question. When it comes to LT (and your blog), do you review every book you read? Do you just review Early Reviewers or ARCs? Do you review only if you like a book, or only if you feel like you have to? How soon after reading do you post your review? Do you post them other places- other social networking sites, Amazon, etc.?I love your first sentence, because I do like to write book reviews, but sometimes I certainly do not love to! I do reveiw almost every book I read. Because I am often reading four books at a time, one less than impressive book (that I may not even finish) may sleep through the cracks. On LT I usually post at least a portion of the review with a link to my blog for every book that I read. As for when things get posted, it depends on the time of the semester. If I am busy grading, I might take a break to read for relaxation, but not to write. While I try to review all books, I find it most difficult to review the books that I absolutely hate which are thankfully few, and sometimes against the mainstream. I have only posted one review on Amazon, and do not use any other venue. Time is always an issue for me.
My biggest problem with reviewing books is forgetting that ultimately I am writing the reviews mostly for myself and other book lovers. I often agonize over how much to tell about the plot, the characters, or literary style. I think it was Library school that did me in. We had to write reviews for children's books and the instructor's critiques were positively heartless. One would think the result would be better reviews, but sometimes I feel like I became more timid in my reviews. Another slight problem for me is that I find most books rather okay, a few I love, and a very few I cannot tolerate. So you may find that my reviews are mostly positive. I don't know if it is because I do not have discriminating tastes or because I read phone books when I was little!!! Either way, I just have to remember that reading is fun, sharing is fun, and the writing, well, just part of the process.
Happy Holidays,
LibrarysCat
5 comments:
I sometimes feel like my reviews are too positive...but for the most part, I am just good at picking books that I like. And I am pretty diplomatic at trashing the rare book I don't like :)
I don't think I'd be likely to review a book I absolutely hated. I'm pretty picky about choosing books that I'm fairly sure I'll enjoy at least a little. That's one of the reasons I've cut back on ARCs - I just don't want to feel obligated to read a book I might really dislike.
I always wonder also if I put to much of the plot into my reviews. No one has complained about them so I guess I do okay with them. Hope you have a great day. =)
My reviews are always pretty positive, but that's because I choose books I know I'll like. I don't want to waste my time with books that don't really interest me.
You know, I used to worry about giving too much of the story away, and I will try not to give away the huge spoilers, I am writing a review, and I feel if I don't include a good idea of what the book is like (sometimes including spoilers), I'm not going to be happy. That said, I do try to keep in mind that people don't always want to know all the main punch-lines.
Here's my Thinger!
:) Wendi
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