My Reading Habits + Survey

One of the Armchair BEA topics for today is a freebie or a topic of choice, so I'm going to talk about:

Some of my upcoming reads are pictured above!

Since I started blogging I think my attitude towards reading has changed.  Because now I read for quantity.  I try to read as much as I possibly can - I no longer read leisurely.  But I don't mind this because there are so many books that I want to read, that I am almost always impatient to get to the end of my current book.  I can see why it is nice to dwell and savor a story, but if it is really good, then it is more likely I just want the book to get in my head as fast as possible so I can mull it over and savor it afterwards.

In keeping with my "devour" mindset to reading, I have embraced ALL the formats.  Physical, ebooks and audiobooks.  During the week, when I have work and a commute, I like to read a book in one of the mobile formats - ebooks and audiobooks.  I can listen to audiobooks while I'm working (I'm so glad I don't have to work with people too much!) and I can read my ebook during lunch or when I have a few minutes here or there.  Whispersync between my Kindle and my iPhone is my dearest friend - I love that I can pick up reading on different devices so quickly!

Physical books I like to save for the weekends when I can really enjoy holding the book and turning the pages (because during work lunch it's sometimes difficult to hold a book one-handed and read while eating).  Also I feel better keeping my books at home since I want to keep them in as good condition as possible!  It's terrible to think I can spill things on it or accidentally fold pages while it's in my bag!

The other habit I've gotten into is to not read too many books at once - at least I always try to read only one book in one format at a time.  It's easier for me since I'm not a mood reader, and I feel like I am much more productive blog-wise if I finish a book in a week, instead of finishing three books at the same time in three weeks.  Then I can space out my reviews better.

Lastly I read any time I can. The different book formats help me pick up a book whenever I want. I get a lot more reading time on the weekends usually, but if I can read most of a book during the week, I feel like I made a lot of progress.

What are your book reading habits?  When are your most productive reading times?

I would also really appreciate it if you would fill out this brief survey below on reading habits.  It will be interesting to see the results!

Continue reading →

Limiting Your Book Genres + Survey!

Most readers have a preference for what kinds of books they like to read.  And especially for book bloggers, we like to set that up in advance - by stating what books we like somewhere on our blog.  However, I say I don't usually read such and such genre but I don't always stick to it.  Contemporary and non-fiction are among my unfavored genres but I have read and reviewed a few for my blog in the past.  And I've actually read three contemporary books in a row just recently!  And enjoyed them!  So I was wondering how much do people really limit what genre of book they read?  If the book sounds interesting will they give it a shot no matter what?  How often do we step outside of our boxes and try something new?

What am I really limiting?

Even though it's apparent that there are some genres I say I don't like to read that I actually do when it suits my interest, there are some plots that I really have no interest in.  I may enjoy the right book with that plot, but as a semi-picky reader with a lot of books to read, I don't have the time or inclination to try out those books.  Books with a specific focus like real-world politics, war, or military operations are really very uninteresting to me.  So I know what scenarios I find unappealing, but with the other genres I generally don't read - especially contemporary or middle grade - they can all have plots that I really enjoy, just written in a way or set in a world that I'm not always inclined to get into.  It would probably be more accurate to list what plot points I like rather than what genres I like to read.  It would be a more accurate way to pinpoint what it is I don't like as a reader, but of course that's much more complicated.

Equal Opportunity Reading

I think ideally readers shouldn't limit their book genres.  There are so many kinds of books out there that you can't assume that ALL of one genre isn't for you based on prior experiences.  But the very valid counter-argument to that is 'who wants to go through dross when one already knows what they like?'  Especially when you already know what genres tend to provide that?  But as a blogger who reads through a lot of book summaries, I think I am getting better at refining what it is in a book that I won't enjoy and I'm finding that genres are not always the best way to measure that.

But this is all based on my experiences - I am curious to know how often people really stick to just their favorite genres so I created a survey to fill out.  It's below, so please fill it out if you are inclined!  I think it will be very interesting to see the answers!  I'll update this post with the results in about a week.  (And I might try to keep this updated with the current results daily if I have time.)

Survey

Continue reading →

5 Ways to Get Back on Track with Blogging

Lately I've seen a few bloggers get a little overwhelmed with blogging and taking a break. With many valid reasons ranging from not enough time, to too much school/work or just going through a slump.  There are many great posts about why this is not a problem - and it is definitely not!! - but I wanted to talk about how to get your blogging mojo back!  And how to maintain it! These ideas I've come up with may not be helpful or apply to you specifically but I'm throwing them out there anyways!

1. When you get an idea, write it down

Sometimes some crazy (good?) ideas for a blog post can come to you at odd times, so you should always be prepared to make a note of them!  On your phone or in a special handy dandy notebook (Blue's Clues anyone?).  Because often if you think "Oh I'll remember," chances are you won't.  Or if you do you'll think it's not a great idea anyways but perhaps seeing that idea written down some days or weeks later will inspire something new or a new take on it.  And for me, if I have trouble thinking of what new post to come up with, referring to my list of ideas will spark something in me to talk about and I'll be set for another day.

2. Read a short story

And review it!  Sometimes it's hard to find the time to read a book, but short stories are so easy to start and finish and then you can make post of a short review!  And it's okay if it is short - there is nothing wrong with just putting down some thoughts on the story and doing away with your strict, analytical approach to reviews (if that's your thing).  Authors are putting out a lot of short prequels or stories to go along with their books, and I for one would appreciate reading some thoughts on them from other bloggers (sometimes so I'll even know that they exist and I should go and check them out!)  

3. Pace Yourself

There are times, happily, when you are on fire with writing those posts!  You have a backlog of books read and some ideas for other posts and you fire them all out in a space of a couple of weeks.  And then you are overwhelmed again with things.  If you have an idea that this might happen to you, why not schedule those posts a little further apart and give yourself more of a safety net so that when you can't post you have something locked and loaded.  You don't have to post every day - you can spread them out a little (like twice or three times a week) and see how your schedule goes - and if you can maintain your productivity for awhile then start scheduling more within a week.

4.  Visit other blogs

You might not have time or inclination to write for your own blog, but if you have time to browse the internet, why not steer clear of tumblr (just for a little bit!) and check out what other people are doing or saying.  It could help jumpstart your interest in blogging for yourself or inspire you to pick up something new to read.  And it's encouraging to see other people continuing on with blogging and seeing what they are putting out there.  Let them rekindle the interest for you.

5. Book blog, schmook blog

Yes, we are book bloggers and reading is kind of our thing, but not every post has to be about books!  If you are currently obsessed with _____ (fill in the blanks) then just post about it!  Your personality shines through in these posts and I think that is interesting for any blog reader.  And it doesn't have to be a recurring theme or feature, either.  You don't have to feel constricted by the book blogger label - it's your blog and you can do whatever you want!  Talk about what you love and why you love it!  Or in the case of being too busy with work or school, talk about what is interesting or not about what you are doing.  Just change the format whenever you wish!

If you have any more ideas for things that work for you I'd love for you to share them in the comments!

Taking A Look At Book Ratings

When I first started blogging I didn't add star ratings to my reviews, mostly because I found it difficult to narrow down my thoughts to numbers.  It's all pretty subjective anyway.  But since most websites that look at reviews force you to give star ratings and I did find that I liked getting an immediate visual on other blogs for how the blogger felt about the book, I thought I should just add it to my reviews.  But it's still hard sometimes to decide on a rating!  For me, the overall deciding factor (especially when there are small issues I had with the book)  is how much did I enjoy it?  And such a subjective measure does bother me a little because I do like to think my ratings are fair and generally accurate and true across the board.  But they can't be if my number one measure is personal enjoyment/preference.  Oh well.  It is the same for every blogger.  Sometimes I like to kick around the idea of a rating that analyzes specific factors and takes away personal preferences - a way to logically argue a viewpoint of things like characters, plot and pace and takes off points for a character doing something stupid and unbelievable for instance.  But that's ridiculous really, and way too difficult!

I wanted to break down my feelings on what each rating I give means to me in this post - as a way for me to fully understand why I give what I give to keep me consistent, and also to see what others think when it comes to how to rate books.

Five star books for me, almost always excel in the storytelling.  The writing, characters and plot doesn't have to be perfect, but my enjoyment of the book was perfect.  Sometimes everything about the book was perfect to me - and I like to highlight that in my actual review - but there are times when I was disappointed here or there but I felt like the book held my interest and captivated me enough to give it all the stars.  If I couldn't put the book down even if there are flaws I think it deserves a rating that reflects that I was totally involved with the story.  Also I would recommend this book to others and if it's a series I am definitely planning to continue on with it.

Probably this is the rating I give most of the books I read.  I did enjoy it and I connected with the story and/or characters, but there were little issues that meant I felt it wasn't the perfect read for me.  Oftentimes I give this to a story that has a great plot and characters but the writing or execution of it somehow was disappointing.  Or even if a book has a big disappointment for me, but also something rather brilliant about it, I will rate it more for that brilliant part.  Basically there are flaws, but I still thought the book was an excellent read.  If this is a series though, I may not put continuing with the series on my priority list, but there is a big chance I will continue with it eventually.

I always feel bad giving this rating because these books almost were great for me.  They had a lot going for it, but in the end I couldn't get into it as much as I wanted to.  These books could even be generally thought of as excellent, but my own personal enjoyment was middling to bored and I can't say I would recommend the book.  I might even forget the book the minute I finish writing the review.  So probably the best thing I can say is that it's not bad, it's just not worth the time I put into it.  

This is a book I could not connect to.  My enjoyment level was near the basement, and I forced myself to continue either with the hope that it would get better or because I felt like I had to finish it for some reason.  But really I didn't care for it, and I was disappointed by it most of the time.  There may be some merit - in the writing, characters or plot but it wasn't enough for me to feel warm happy thoughts about the story.  

I've never actually given out this rating on my blog.  There are definitely books that deserve it but they also belong to another category that gives me less stress and allows me to enjoy reading.  And I don't review these on my blog.  What are these?  The DNF.  To hit this category I have to dislike the writing, the characters, the plot, maybe even shudder at the title of the book.  To my mind, the worst book I ever had to finish (the one that made me hate life as I turned pages) was Moby Dick.  I know it has merit.  I just couldn't find it.  And it didn't help that it's so bloody long.

In the end, I still don't really like to give star ratings to my reviews.  Mostly because I feel bad about docking stars from a book.  I want to love you Book!!  But it is necessary when readers are faced with so many books in the market, and on average star ratings on websites (like Amazon and Goodreads) are pretty accurate when gauging the quality of the book.  When first you factor in what genres you like to read of course.  It helps readers make a difficult choice - What book should I read next?

If you are a reviewer reading this, how do you feel about giving ratings?  How much do you rely on them when scoping out your next read?

Taking A Look At Author Review Requests

When I first started my blog, I was eager to open it up to self-published authors who were looking for their books to be reviewed.  I was even a little awed that these authors would even consider giving a copy of their book to me.  Now I understand a bit more how hard it is to get attention for a new book - especially if it is self-published - and how amazing it is when a book reviewer will decide to give it a read.  There are just so many books out there!  And I have so many that I want to read at any given time, it's ridiculous to think of adding to my list (though of course I do all the time).  Over time, I've become much stricter in what I look for in self-published books.  It's mostly to do with my recent experience with reading outside of my favored genres and recognizing indicators that I might find a book disappointing.  Obviously these are my thoughts and opinions from my (short) experience only!

The Review Request Email

This post is only about self-published or small publishing companies requests since I have yet to receive an unsolicited email from a major publishing company (fingers crossed?).  Overall I have found authors to be lovely in their emails - they do all the right things like addressing the person by name, adding a synopsis, including a link to the book on Amazon, and just generally being polite.  Some even try to increase the personal touch with some comment on my blog or my review style.  Which is nice but not necessary.  When I look at the email I look for three things:

1. Book Cover
2. Book Genre
3. Plot Synopsis

And in that order.  For me (and I am a little bit ashamed to say this) the book cover is my number one indicator.  If the book cover is great I will be more interested in the book.  And it is difficult to say what is a great cover.  It shouldn't look cheap, have bad image blending, or be bland.  At least for me, an attractive cover excites me for the content of the book.  Yes it is superficial, and it doesn't necessarily indicate book quality. Although I do kinda think what's on the outside generally reflects what's on the inside.  And I can't think of one book with a bad cover that I have really loved.  If I was an author I would really work hard on not selling that aspect of my book short.  It must look appealing!

I have a paragraph on my About page on what types of books I like to review.  It's fairly broad, but to try to be more specific would probably only encourage an author to skim and maybe just send the email request anyway.  I don't mind considering the book - I'm sure it must be difficult for the authors to go through so many blogger's About pages and try to comply!  So when I look at a request from an author I really appreciate it when the genre/synopsis is clearly marked out.  It makes it easier and faster for me to see if this is a book I would like to read.  I have received a fair amount of book requests over the months I've been blogging and I thought it would be interesting now to go back and see what kinds of books have been sent my way for a review request.  I went through my email and actually counted some up.  (I didn't know I had that much time either!)

What's in RED are the book genres I don't read, and what's in GREEN are the ones that I do.  Overall I've had 84 review requests in genres I don't like to read - about 36% of the time I am already not interested.  Which isn't very bad really.  It seems like authors are reading the About page (or I just got lucky) which is great!  I did have to use my discretion in categorizing some of the books though.  Authors sometimes categorize their own books very widely.  Which is really not a positive in my opinion.  I wonder at how cohesive the story is if it crosses so many genres.  And then I also wonder at whether or not the author is just trying to hit keywords.  I had one email where the author described their book as a YA/NA/Adult crossover.  Huh?  So it's pretty clear there are no children in this book.

Review Request Turn-Offs

While again, the majority of emails I receive from authors are great and if I have to turn down their request I feel bad, there are some things that make it easier to turn them down.

• Email Blasts: Sending out one email to multiple recipients is understandable.  But if you are one of many it is easier to just ignore the email altogether.  In all probability the email won't really interest me anyways.


• Wrong Name: Sometimes the email is not addressed to anybody or generically and that's okay, but if you have the wrong name - maybe you didn't mean to send it to me, and maybe then I don't need to read it.  Although one time it was addressed to "Jane" and that gave me a laugh!


• No Information on the Book: I hate this!  When an author sends a request with just "Would you like to read my new book?" -  no synopsis, probably no cover or link to the book - how am I supposed to evaluate?  It's just lazy and really annoying.  


• Quotes from Positive Reviews: It's great that the book has positive reviews, but it doesn't prove anything to me to have quotes from these reviews included in the email.  I do like to know what other reviewers think, but to have the author try to show me what opinions they think are valid is again very annoying.  And it lengthens an email which really doesn't need to be that long.


• Email Attachments:  Actually I don't mind this so much if the relevant information is in the body of the email, but please don't expect me to open up an email attachment to read the plot synopsis or see the book cover.  (And if you can include the book cover in the body of your email that is fantastic!)  Sometimes an author will include a copy of the book with their request and although it is very presumptuous, I honestly don't mind it that much.  If I don't plan to read the book, I will not even download it so it's like it was never there.


• Long Plot Synopsis: I do need to know what the book is about, but 4 or more long paragraphs detailing the plot is just too much!  And I don't have time to read all that! 

I think these are things that would generally turn off any book blogger, but in particular they do annoy me.  I personally don't do cover reveals on my blog so requests for those are turned down.  I also happen to find books in any genre that include "strong violence," "explicit," "gory" or "gritty" in their plot synopsis to not really be my thing.  These are things that have taken me quite a while to realize.  Book blogging has been a very interesting learning process, and with this post I was glad to reconsider what I expect from review requests.  In a way I hope this post will help any authors thinking of contacting me or another blogger for a review.  But if this post helps out new bloggers still struggling to deal with review requests that would make me very happy.  Thanks for reading!