One of the misconceptions about book blogging is that you have to write reviews and that you have to post a lot of them. I highly (and respectfully) disagree with this opinion. Maybe it’s because I find writing reviews a bit difficult and don’t post them a lot. Maybe it’s because I like writing discussion posts (like this one) better. Whatever my reasoning is, my thoughts still remain the same. To me, book blogging does not require a lot of reviews.
Sure, we should have a certain number of reviews, but honestly an enormous amount of reviews is tiring. So many blogger post reviews daily that sometimes they start to seem like memes. Especially if a popular book just came out. Then the reviews just don’t stop coming. The other day I was checking my email I received five different emails from five different blogs with five reviews of the
SAME exact book. Sure the reviews were all different, each blogger had her own opinion about the book, but can I just say
boring! There are only so many reviews that I can read.
I don’t think you should be pressured into writing more reviews. Write what you want. How many you want. Because let’s face it, if you feel like you have to write a review, it won’t be nearly as passionate compared to if you actually wanted to write the review. It’s better just to have two well written reviews than 20 poorly written ones. Quality over quantity, people. Don’t forget that.
The truth is, I think there is more to book blogging than to writing reviews. Book blogging is about sharing your passion and love for reading and books. It’s about spreading the word on how great books are. And yeah, you can do it through reviews, but that isn’t the only way. There are other ways to do the same thing. Maybe you can have a recommendation feature where you recommend good books. Or maybe a connection feature. I don’t know. Think of something. Be unique. Stand out from the crowd. And remember, reviews aren’t everything.
What do you think?
I agree! Every time a popular book is released, the same bloggers that get a lot of ARCs are the ones posting reviews (before or day of the release), and since I’m following (I’m assuming 200+) a lot of blogs now, it gets annoying and definitely tiring. Right now there are Cruel Beauty reviews all over the place. When it happens, I literally just look at ratings.
Also, is it a thing to read detailed reviews before reading a book? I feel like even without spoilers, they’re a bit spoilery. Reading how people feel and felt while reading the book, it kind of sets you up for how you’re going to feel or it affects you somehow. Definitely a turnoff for a book that just came out.
It could be just me, but I prefer reading reviews of books I’ve already read or older books that don’t get talked about much.
Too many reviews from one blogger or multiple bloggers is always too much for me.
(Also sorry if I got a bit off topic! I was thinking about all the reviews a bit myself a day or so ago!)
Exactly! I was thinking of Cruel Beauty when I wrote this! I swear, everyday, a different blog would be posting a review for that book!
I also agree with the no spoilers, but still spoilery reviews. I usually just look at the ratings if I didn’t read the book yet or am considering to do so. I’ll only read the review if I already read the book, or there aren’t many ratings for it.
Thanks for stopping by! 🙂
To me, reviews are definitely not a top priority. I normally (when I’m not super busy) post about one a week, but in order for me to write a review I have to be extremely passionate about the book. And it takes my like two hours to write a review…. That’s a lot of time! Reviews are not something I normally read.in blogs. I like to skim them and get some general ideas about what the book is about and what to expect, but reviews are not something I generally look at.
Great post Emz! I love reading your Investigated posts!
And YES! Quality over Quantity!!
Yes! I’m not the only one! It takes me like two hours to write a review too (which is probably why I don’t usually write them as often as I should…) I’m glad you like the Investigated posts! 🙂
Thanks for stopping by Cal! 🙂
I love to read discussion topics and will usually pick them out on my blog roll.
Me too! In my opinion discussion posts are more fun to read than reviews (or memes).
Thanks for stopping by! 🙂