Hmmmm. OK – off the subject, but I just noticed this is my 250th post on this blog. Wow, I remember when I thought I'd never get to 100 posts. What a chatterbox.Moving on.
This week, for the Tuesday Thingers group, Boston Bibliophile has some very interesting questions about the reviewing process:
When it comes to LT (and your blog), do you review every book you read? Do you just review Early Reviewers or ARCs? Do you review only if you like a book, or only if you feel like you have to? How soon after reading do you post your review? Do you post them other places- other social networking sites, Amazon, etc.?I'm a very slow reader. And I've only been book-blogging for a little more than a year now. So in my case, we're not talking about a mountain of books here. But I do try to review every book I read. Now I don't always make that goal, and sometimes I fall behind (like right now). But I write the reviews primarily to help me remember what I've just read, so I like to do at least a short one for each book.
Do I review only the books I enjoy? Well, I think I've said several times (probably over and over again) that I generally don't finish reading books I don't like. So if it's a book I'm not enthusiastic about, I'm not likely to review it. Unless, of course, I've promised to review it.
I post all my reviews on my blog. I post them as soon as I get them written, and I try to write them as soon as I've finished reading the book. Doesn't always happen that way, but that's the ideal situation. If I wait too long between reading and reviewing, I tend to forget too many of the important bits. So far, the only other place I've posted any reviews has been on LibraryThing. In my LT reviews, I started out just posting a link to the reviews on my blog. But lately, I've started posting the whole review – or (usually) a shorter version of the review, and then a link to the full review on my blog. I try to keep the reviews I post on LT a little shorter and less "chatty" than the ones I post on my blog.
Another question I have about the LT reviewing process is how many is too many? Before you post a review on LT, do you check to see how many people have already reviewed the book? And if there are hundreds of reviews, do you still post your own? I just posted a review of Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and noticed that there were already over four hundred reviews of that work. Well, to be expected, I suppose – it was very popular. But I'm wondering if adding to that huge mass of reviews has any benefit besides ego-boosting.
OK, enough ruminating. Well, I said I was a chatterbox, didn't I? Now it's on to post #251!
Congratulations on climbing such a steep mountain, albeit a mountain of words!
ReplyDeleteI post my reviews on my blog, LT, Amazon, Booksamillion.com, Barnes & Noble, and Christianbooks.com. I don't care how many reviews are there; if I've done the work, I post it!
Oh, and I post on Shelfari. How could I leave out Shelfari? I like that better than LT.
ReplyDeleteI agree that I most likely would not post a review to a book with hundreds of reviews. Really, who is going to read all those and I am sure whatever I was going to say has already been said? And most likely better!
ReplyDeleteIf there are lots of reviews already, I usually abstain :)
ReplyDeleteI'd post my review no matter the number already up. But I just started with LT and so far I've put up only a few links to my blog reviews.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your 250th! Like I said, you are my source for book reviews so I read this everyday. So, chatterbox, keep on reviewing.
ReplyDeleteLike Beth, I share my thoughts no matter how many others have. I want to share in the conversation. ;)
ReplyDeleteI also post my review no matter how many others there are. I don't see anything wrong with adding my voice to the zillions of other voices out there, even if it means it's not likely to be as helpful. I still wrote it, so it might help someone out there.
ReplyDeleteI never thought about not posting a review if there were hundreds posted...but I am usually bad about posting reviews on LT anyways.
ReplyDeleteI've never thought to check to see how many reviews a book has before I post mine. I'll be sure to look next time.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't matter to me how many reviews are already posted on LT; I post mine, too. I've met some like-minded LT readers by posting my reviews of popular books.
ReplyDeleteIf I found a book I reviewed had that many opinions already posted on LT, I'd probably just pare mine down to a few very pithy sentences. And still add it in.
ReplyDeleteI would probably post my review anyway, no matter how many were there already. I haven't posted too many on LT though, mostly just my ARCs. I need to do better.
ReplyDeleteJoy - Congrats on hitting 250! I just passed 100. :)
ReplyDeleteI use LT similarly to my blog - more of a record for myself, rather than thinking about adding my review to the other 400, I'm doing it for me and anyone who happens to read and gain anything from my review.
Wendi
Here's my Thinger!
I post a full review on my blog, and an excerpt of that review on LT.
ReplyDeleteAll the books I've read (for myself) have been reviewed since I started my blog in May. Only a handful of my children's books are reviewed.
My full answer is here.