I don't like reviews. I don't like movie reviews, I don't like album reviews and I don't like book reviews. Which, is kind of a hard thing to not like when you're a book blogger. My bloglovin feed is overflowing with reviews, my YouTube subscription box is filled with reviews - What do I do? I ignore them. Really - I pretend like I never even saw them and I carry on my merry way.
There's a reason I don't like reviews, honestly, I'm not just being petty and observing my right to not like something.
Spoilers:
I know, I know most reviewers are nice enough to state whether it's a spoiler free review or not but there are still some oblivious (or really sadistic) book bloggers out there who don't put a disclaimer. One minute I'm crying in my bed clutching Delirium and the next I'm filled with a vague sense of hope. I DIDN'T WANT THE VAGUE SENSE OF HOPE. Spoilers (whether they are good spoilers or otherwise) are the worst thing to happen to anyone ever - if I end up reading the book despite being spoiled I'm just waiting the whole time for said spoiler to happen and if I don't read the book then, it just sits on my shelf looking lonely and making me feel guily. (I'm sorry, Allegiant).
The easiest way for a book to remain spoiler free is to avoid reviews - no matter how hard it is.
I Have A Weak Will:
If a book blogger I trust (Sandra) writes a bad review about a book (Graceling) that I was considering picking up (Graceling) then I just won't pick it up. I have no strength when it comes to books. I try to avoid books that I might not like at all costs so as not to get into a reading slump or simply waste my time reading a book that I'm not all that into - THIS IS A BAD THING. I can't stress enough how much I hate that I do this. If one person gives a bad review I automatically take their word as law and so I avoid that book - a book that I could potentially love, a book that so many other people love!
How to avoid missing out on a potentially fantastic book - avoid reviews.
Jealousy/Frustration:
This might honestly be the biggest reason and also the hardest one to admit. I avoid reading reviews because I suck at writing them. Most of the time I can hardly think of anything I want to say about a book that I'm planning on reviewing so I stare at my laptop blankly hoping that some words pop into my head. I don't want to write a review about a book that I don't absolutely love in fear that I won't have enough to say - and then there are bloggers who review ALL the books and are SO GOOD at doing it. It does bring out the ol' green eyed monster in me.
If you don't want to constantly compare yourself to other bloggers then avoid reviews.
Or you know, if you're not pathetic like me then continue to read reviews - enjoy them and don't pity me as I sit here alone in my bubble of bitterness.
I don't hate reviews but they're not my favourite either. Honestly I don't want to be mean but there are very few bloggers whose reviews I actually enjoy reading. If I notice that it's a review by them then I'll read it but if not, then I usually just skim over it. But I do love writing reviews! I just love getting my thoughts out and I've come up with a system that's prime for rambling so usually I just start typing and let myself go! I never edit. Which is probably not very good buttt it's just too much extra effort and I'm sooo lazy. And actually, I always find myself having more to say about a book that I didn't like as much! It's always the books I love that I have the least to say about. Weird.
ReplyDeleteI end up just marking most reviews as read on my bloglovin feed unless I really know and trust the blogger or I've read the book!! In fact, if I've already read the book then I love reading reviews about it.
Delete(I don't edit posts either - I usually skim read and check that the layout is good but unless there's a huge mistake it'll just be left there)
I hate spoilers as well, although most book blogs I visit don't share spoilers in their review or they explicetly mention it. I enjoy reading reviews, so I wouldn't stop for fear of spoilers anyway, but I am carefull not to read any spoilers for books I am planning on reading.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I enjoy reading negative reviews for exactly that reason, I want to get discouraged from reading a book. I already have so many books on my to-read list and I don't have much of any money to spend on books, so sometimes I just read the negative reviews so I am convinced I don't want to read the book.
I enjoy writing reviews and I enjoy reading them, but I also understand that not everyone might like them, we can't all be the same. I am wondering how you got into book blogging as most book bloggers started with reviewing books and then started a blog to share them there.
I think that I've been spoiled so many times (either by reviews or not) that I just avoid anything that could possibly spoil it - it's like a automatic reaction haha.
DeleteYou see, I wish I had that mentality. When I was a bit younger I wasn't very careful about what I wanted to read so now I have loads of unread books on my shelf that don't appeal to me anymore but I feel like I have to read because my mum brought them for me (Dear younger self - read reviews and for the love of god stay away from any book that says 'if you enjoyed twilight' because chances are 3 years down the line you'll be regretting it)
I got into book blogging through a pretty unconventional route I'd say - I'd recently started watching booktube and I wanted to be able to talk about books that I'd read with other people but I didn't want to start a youtube channel. It was also around this time that I wasn't really happy with my studies and I wanted to go to uni to study Creative Writing (instead of criminology like i'd always planned) - a book blog just seemed like the perfect way to help me get more experience writing and also talk about books so my friend let me co-blog with her for a while.
(that was a very long winded story haha my apologies but yeah - since I started on a blog that wasn't new I didn't really do reviews)
I stopped writing traditional reviews on my blog earlier this year because frankly, they bored me to tears. I also stopped reading reviews for the most part on other blogs as well, unless the review is of a book that I've already read (then I love reading the review and commenting). I no longer have a TBR list/Goodreads account, and I'm a mood reader who gets all of my books from the library. There's really no point to me reading reviews, especially of not released ARC books.
ReplyDeleteI do still write reading highlight posts of the books I read, which are much shorter sort-of reviews, and I've noticed several other blogs going in this direction as well. I also still follow almost 200 book themed blogs, but I do a lot of 'mark as read' on my bloglovin feed and instead look for discussion type/non-review type posts :)
I think I'm going to start doing mini reviews when I've finished like three books or so unless it's a new release (I'm never really on top of new releases and I don't see the point of writing a full review if it's a book that a lot of people have already read/reviewed)
DeleteI'd love to hear how you survive without goodreads haha!! it's like my holy grail at the moment (although it's hard at bookstores when I think about my tbr list and then don't buy any books as a spur of the moment decision - which takes the fun out of it)
I think I'm just going to do mini reviews (with about 3 books) instead of full ones like a lot more blogs are doing now. :)