Book Blogger Confessions is a meme that posts the 1st and 3rd Monday of every month, where book bloggers "confess" and vent about topics that are unique to us. Feel free to share, vent and offer solutions. Just keep it respectful - no bashing authors or other bloggers!
If you want to participate just grab our button and include it in your post with a link to either Tiger's All Consuming Media or For What It's Worth. We will be providing a linky at the end of our posts so people can "hop" to see all the participants answers.
Question: Choosing your next book. How do you decide which book to read next? How do you balance “review” reading with “fun” reading? (Thank you to Kitt from Paperback Dolls for suggesting this topic)
This was so easy when I first started blogging. I read whatever I bought, then I talked about it.
I never had it in my head that I *had* to review so many days a week or read *x* number of books. I just went to the store when I had time and picked up what I felt like it. If I had something to say fine, if not, fine. Didn’t have time to read? Fine. I didn’t read.
Flash forward a year into blogging.
I started getting review requests. Mostly from indie/self pub authors. I was thrilled. Free books! They want ME to read their books! I said yes to everything. Then I had to read them all. Then start scheduling them to review. There was no time for *fun* reading. The books I bought sat neglected on my shelf.
Late last year I realized I needed to put a stop (or at least set limits) to review reading. I just didn’t have time to meet my reviewing obligations or read for fun anymore. I spiraled into my worst ever reading slump. (8 months) I was hating everything! Every.Thing.
Flash forward again to present day. (just over 2 years into blogging)
I rarely accept a book for review unless it really grabs my attention. I don’t get many books from publishers for review – maybe 10 or so (if that) a year so that’s not a problem. I’ve started a weekly Indie author Spotlight on Saturdays to offer a guest posting option rather than a review so I can still help spread the word about books that may be of interest to others without me going crazy trying to review everything,
I have decided that this year ALL my reading is fun reading. I don’t accept it if I don’t have time or I’m not interested. I’ve also cut waaay back on book purchases for the same reason. No one is forcing me to read those books but I want to get to them all so it stresses me anyway even without the obligations attached.
Epilogue….Karen is at BEA in NY right now ignoring everything she just wrote by oohing and ahhing over the pretty covers and coming home with more books than she can possibly read in a year. She will complain about this and probably work it into a Book Blogger Confessions topic:
“What the hell is wrong with us bloggers anyway? Don’t we realize we are ill? You can’t read ALL those books. EVER!”
P.S. I might not be able to comment on your posts right away (the whole away at BEA thing) but I will get to all of you to comment back!
June 18th: We have created a blogging time machine! Pretend you can start over. Knowing what you know now about blogging – what do you wish you did differently when it comes to creating your blog?
“What the hell is wrong with us bloggers anyway? Don’t we realize we are ill? You can’t read ALL those books. EVER!”
ReplyDeleteI'm guilty... I still haven't gotten myself out of this hole I put myself into. Yikes.
Arianne Cruz
I can TOTALLY understand.
ReplyDeleteHave fun at BEA and bring home more books to overwhelm you. :D
Have fun at BEA and enjoy getting the books even though we know you'll never read them all. :) I was like you and took on too many review requests and had trouble finding anything I actually liked to read. Now I read what I want and review what I like.
ReplyDeleteOh I am in fully aware of my illness, but I just don't have the will power to quit. There seriously needs to be some sort of AA type group for us as it seriously is an addiction. I am almost 100% scheduled out on my blog through the end of August, and several posts are already scheduled in September. Too many damn review books!!
ReplyDeleteI will usually pick 2 or 3 books from my pile, then pick a random page number (ex. 17) and read that page from each book and see which one interests me more. Why do I do this? I have no clue;)
ReplyDeleteOh thing that I still don't do is split my books into review/fun. I read all of them for fun. With the exception of on book right now.
ReplyDeleteI, too, want to know what's wrong with us. Even when we're not at book conferences, we gather 100s more books that we could conceivably read within a couple of years. It's kind of frightening.
ReplyDeleteAnd my Baby Bro is now turning out just like me, reading a book a day. Heaven help us.
do we realize we are ill?? LOL!! i think that's all book lovers, not just bloggers!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate what you said about getting a little overwhelmed with requests -- that happened to me recently, and I'm thinking I might just accept 1 - 2 per month. I'm looking forward to reading about how other bloggers balance everything. I think I do an ok job most of the time, but I wouldn't mind some new ideas.
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting!!!
But I waaaaant to read all those books!
ReplyDeleteI go by the, first, if I got review books then books that I most want to read, or if I want another genre. And I try to put in a library book too
Have fun at the BEA.
ReplyDeleteLove your idea about the Saturday Spotlight!
We do realize we have a sickness and we won't be able to read all those books...doesn't matter. Still want. Books pretty.
ReplyDelete