Friday, September 20, 2013

Discussion Question: Do You Review All the Books You Read?



Do you review all the books you read?  If not, about how many reviews do you write compared to the books you read?  If you don't review a book, why not?  Is it because you didn't like the book?  Or is it just a time issue?

I've been reading an average of almost a book a day since January, and I'm definitely not writing a review for each book I read.  Sometimes I feel guilty about it because I feel like if I read a book, I should review it.  But then I'll tell myself that I'm writing a lot of reviews and so if I don't review every single book, that's fine.  And for me, there's no reason for it.  There are books I absolutely loved that I didn't review, like Lola and the Boy Next Door.  


One thing I have done that's helped is to write mini-reviews.  I'll group books together that I've read, either by the same author or in the same genre.  I posted one today for all three Kody Keplinger novels, and I just drafted one that I will post in the next few weeks about novels set on a college campus.  They're about one paragraph each and just hit the highlights.  Sometimes I think that might be better than writing a full-blown review anyway (I wonder if people actually like reading the really long reviews?).  


Anyway, I'm just curious about whether you review all of the books you read (and hopefully the answer is no so I don't feel guilty!)


                         Posted by:  Pam

16 comments:

  1. No, I just can't. I've read 185 books so far this year (and only starting reviewing/blogging in April) and I want to, but the list of 'to-review' just stacks up. I'm trying to get better at it, but then I get stuck in another book :)

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    1. I feel the same way. Once I start reading another book, it gets hard to go back and write a review. ~Pam

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  2. I do mini reviews for more popular books, ones that nearly everyone has read already and that everything has been said about. For the most part I review every book I read, though there are exceptions. (And I don't always do Vintage Reads posts for school books.)

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    1. The mini reviews for more popular books is a good idea. Sometimes there's so many reviews of a particular book that you just keep reading the same thing over and over again and so if I'm writing a review of that book, it feels like I have nothing new to say. That's why I didn't review Crown of Midnight. ~Pam

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  3. Nah, that would take forever, I read way too much. And sometimes I just don't feel like thinking more about the book after I finished it. I read 2-4 book a week and review one.

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  4. No, I don't review every book either. I read a lot of books that are adult books, like classics and for school, I definitely don't review those. Only YA on my blog:) And sometimes there are just books that aren't really good or bad and I just don't have anything to say about. So I just skip reviewing those. But I do try to review most of my YA books:)

    Eveline's Books

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    1. Yeah, sometimes I can really like a book, but I don't have that much to say about it. And I definitely don't review any adult, or even new adult books, I want to keep this blog just YA. ~Pam

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  5. I don't review every book I've written. If I absolutely hated a book or DNF I don't usually review it. I figure if I have nothing nice to say, then I shouldn't say anything at all. I do review majority of the books I read though. I like the idea of mini reviews. I'm going to be doing them for books that I read before I started blogging like Divergent and Insurgent before Allegiant comes out as well as the Legend series by Marie Lu.

    Rebecca @ The Library Canary

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    1. I always wonder if I should review a book if I really hate it, there are definitely different viewpoints about that. I think you can criticize a book in a professional way and that it benefits people who are trying to decide whether to read a book or not. But I do feel bad writing a negative review. ~Pam

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  6. Nope. Just too many books! And I state upfront that I'm only writing recommendations of great YA books beyond bestsellers on BooksYALove, not reviews.

    I like the grouped mini-reviews idea & will probably do the same for a few 'clusters' of similar books so that I don't inundate my readers with full-blown recommendations for each title.

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    1. I agree, too many books. And I wonder about writing reviews about really popular, best-selling books. Does anyone need to read my review of Allegiant when it comes out? Probably not. ~Pam

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  7. I am the oddball out here because I do write a review for every single book I read xD I think that is because I don't have a lot of time to read anymore so therefore I don't have a lot of other books to post about so I almost HAVE to write a review to keep my blog updated.

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    1. I really try to, but right now we're about three weeks ahead with posting (right now we're posting 4 reviews a week) so then I think, do I have that much to say about this one? Or I'll just start reading the next book and I get so involved in it that it gets harder to go back and write a review of an earlier book. ~Pam

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  8. I didn't review all the books I read when I was in school because school took up a lot of time, but now that I have graduated, I review all the fiction books that I read but I never review the nonfiction books that I read.

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    1. That's great that you're able to do that. I don't even read any non-fiction (except for work). ~Pam

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