I want to start off this post clarifying that I originally wrote the title as Blook Boggers.
Just so we’re upfront about what kind of person you’re talking to here today. π Clearly we’re all in for a TREAT of cohesive thinking from a veteran blogger. Because, why yes, I have been at this blogging thing for 8 years. Yes. Eight years. I’ve been here so long that I’ve watched blogging culture change, seen people come and go, watched the rise and fall of trends and habits and empires and kings. I am now this old gnarled tree in the background, ancient.
(Not dramatic though, clearly.)
But I have to admit, I’ve picked up on some bad habits as a book blogger.
They’re not necessarily bad for “everyone” but they are for meeeee. I don’t even know if I will/can fix these, but I’m going ahead and gently roast myself.
β’ saying books are “over-hyped”
I get why people say this, hence I’ve said it myself. Sometimes you see That Book everywhere and maybe the writing is bleh, the premise is cliche, or you just know way better books exist. And you’re just there like, “WHY π£IS THIS π£SO FAMOUS.”
But I feel like calling things “overhyped” is rooted in this idea that something can’t be good if “everyone” likes it, therefore you’re not an individual anymore. I get it, we crave individuality and excellence and curating things that we love. (Good books! Favourite music! Films we can’t stop talking about!) But at the end of the day — it’s just subjectivity. You hate it. I like it. Or you like it. I hate it. So what? If a book makes a few million people happy, then isn’t that actually nice for them?
I want to just move along and find a book I would die for and hype that up myself. Β―\_(γ)_/Β―
β’ recommending the same books over and over
Disclaimer that this does not apply to me + The Raven Cycle = aka my true love of ever, who I will never shut up about. The reason I am on this green imploding planet is to tell everyone to read it!!!
However, I just feel like every time someone is all, “What’s a good sci-fi book?” My brain is like: we have never read any other scifi but Illuminae because that’s super famous and you remember it.
Me. Always. π Put me on the spot and I only ever remember big titles. And I love those titles, don’t get me wrong. But I want to recommend little titles too!??!?
β’ caustic reviews
Now to be clear: THIS IS JUST ME. I think negative reviews should exist and I think some bloggers write the most hilarious salty reviews that I will snicker quietly to myself about. But for ME, personally, I found that my snarky reviews got like 50 x the traffic and interaction and I could be way too acidic because I knew it made people laugh.
And the internet world is just so???? Built on negativity???? Sometimes I get tired of adding to that. And as a community, often I see way more lists like “all the books you can’t stand!” or “all the authors who annoy you!” and I’m just π I tripped and fell into a Hufflepuff and now I feel life is too short not to be kind.
* None of this is referring to calling out problematic books by the way!
β’ never taking breaks
“Ohhhh,” you say knowingly, “this is why you barely blog now.”
Alright listen up, U LITTLE SQUID. π£ YOU ARE…okay fine, yes you’re right. π Instead of forcing myself to blog and panicking about posts, I’ve been letting myself blog when IΒ can. Instead of when IΒ should. All these “shoulds” are really draining. The only “should” I want in my life is, “I should stop feeling guilty for wanting that book on cover love alone because IT’S BEAUTIFUL OKAY. LET ME LIVE AND LOVE.”
Obviously when you’re doing social media and have an internet presence, online consistency IS key. You can’t just post whenever you want and expect the same results as someone on a dedicated schedule, working super hard at it every day, etc. etc. But since no one is paying me here and I’m supposed to write a book now and then…I want to not be a frantic blogging workaholic for no reason. π€
β’ Reading slumps!
Oh this is a bad habit, alright. It is. Because pre-blogging, I never would’ve said I had a reading slump. I feel like it’s a thing we bloggers suffer from because (1) we’re overloaded with reading commitments, (2) lots of the time we have to read THIS and THIS before THIS date, and that’s slightly exhausting?!, and (3) we are genuinely trying to do too much.
Also…I admit that being told to do something lowers my interest in doing it by 187%.
I have teens ask me how I read 200 books because highschool is eating them alive and I’m like: in highschool I maybe read 40 books a year?? Or LESS. And then some people have full-time jobs or raise kids! They might read a lot (I admire them!) or not a lot (I think that’s so reasonable!). We seem to have all this guilt and expectations on us. Some of those are self-inflicted, but some are just the whole culture of blogging being about ‘owing’ everyone reviews and our time. I see bloggers “calling out” other bloggers for not hyping up a certain title. And I’m just: what if we haven’t had time to read all these titles yet?! I’m looking at the Goodreads Choice Awards, blinking rapidly, and realising I’ve read less than half of the nominations.
I’m beginning to wish it wasn’t like this!!
I don’t want to have reading slumps, brought on by exhaustion from cram reading or guilt reading. I want to just π€ read and enjoy things when I can.
(I say this, but I’m still trying to figure out to read a lot but not stress. HA. I want to read all the things and not disappoint authors or publishers…I just don’t like all this pressure as well, especially when it’s not paid. This is still a hobby! Much as I dearly love it!)
| what about you?|
tell me some book blogging things you really wish you didn’t do? π any habits or trends you’re against?
Hahaha so true! I never remember anything but like TWO big titles xD and like “Jane Eyre” basically, titles nobody will be surprised about xD I tend to not answer this question unless I’ve opened my Goodreads and looked at the ratings xD it gets tough remembering once you’ve read like 100-200 books a year. We’re only human!
Less than half – at least you’ve read SOME nominations! I think I barely know 2-3 in the whole list xD and I’m not even embarrassed about that anymore. I have other things to do too. Besides, not all new shiny books are good just because they’re new and shiny. Plus my TBR is really too big at this point xD
My current worst habit is “not giving enough fucks”, basically xD I post once a week at the best of times, I only review like 10% of the books I read on the blog (the others just on Goodreads) and I also don’t blog hop anymore because I’ve stopped pushing myself! The only difference is that when I blog hop now I actually enjoy myself. So maybe it’s for the best?
I’m gonna agree about the reading slump thingy. When I started blogging and Instagramming I found my self falling more easily in reading slumps.
SOOO soo so I have a routine. I bring the book everywhere in order to create guilds and pick it up. I succeed sometimes… lesser times xD
Blogging is a lot of work. I have in the past done a monthly round up of the books I read. But it takes so much time to write a couple sentences about each one, put in the cover, and then link the book to Goodreads. So, I haven’t written this post in…months. I’m still reading, but it’s more enjoyable to just read and not have to ‘report’ about it.
Plus I have my own book to write, the two younger kids to homeschool, stacks of books to read. And it isn’t paid work, blogging. so I get you. Maybe you can pick the best one from each publisher that month, and write a short review on them. It does get overwhelming, I’m sure.
Keep eating cake!
Definitely YES to the part about feeling so stressed to read all these books you may not even have an interest in! Now that I work in a library, instead of getting all the new stuff right away, I realize just HOW MUCH is out there, and how LITTLE time I have to read it all! So I’m just going to relaaaaaaaax about it, and simply shelve the stuff where it goes. Exceptions, of course, are made (like the second Call Down the Hawk comes in, it’s MINE!).
All of this is SO TRUE, but at the moment I really relate to the reading slumps! I have a lot of assigned reading from college and so, sometimes I donβt want to read more and thatβs ok. I want to read and actually enjoy it!
I definitely recommend the same books over and over. Iβm pretty sure the whole world knows my favorites by now. Having a massive stack of unread books is also a bad habit I picked up from blogging. I used to acquire a book, read it, acquire a new book. I never had unread ones sitting around.
Wait…Some bloggers call out other bloggers for not hyping up a book? What? Why? Are they…joking?
I actually have trouble writing positive reviews >_< I think it's way easier for me to parse apart why I didn't like something than why I did, for some reason. I wish I wrote more positive reviews, though.
Same here!! When I dislike a book it’s easy for me to say the characterization was inconsistent, the side cast was underdeveloped, the pacing was poor, etc. When I love a book I’m just like o_o everyone plz read this plz
I am guilty of pretty much all of these, yeah? But I will say, I am super happy that I abandoned the “never taking breaks” one and I hope you are too. It’s the only reason I can still do it at all, tbh. The pesky kids and the even peskier full time job… yeah. The snark is tough because I do love to snark sometimes, but 9 times out of 10 I tone it down because I feel too guilty. Because a human person who probably isn’t evil poured their soul into the thing! Now, sometimes, the snark cannot be helped, the filter just… vanishes. But I agree about too much hate in general. When I do hate a thing, I try to be like, fun-snarky and not evil-snarky, so there;s that.
I get you on the negative reviews! I have yet to write one myself, and while I know they are needed, I can see why adding to the negativity isn’t the best. Taking a break is so necessary!! I think we all need to be reminded of that xx
Yeah before I started blogging I didn’t know what slumping was and wouldn’t even worry about it. I used to read a bunch of books at the same time and take like 6 months to finish them. And still I considered myself an avid reader. And now? I can’t even believe what a slow reader I was. Taking 6 months to finish a book is unheard of. XD Blogging has definitely changed my perspective on reading. Now it feels pretty competitive, which can be a good thing because I like challenging myself and I’m glad I’m reading a lot more than I used to, but it can also be really stressful if you feel like you can’t keep up. :/
I agree you can’t be 150% all of the time. I’m looking at my blog schedule and I didn’t get any ARCs that I have to read for next week, and I could get a READ NOW title and I’m thinking… “It’s NaNoWriMo, I’m skipping next week.” There’s only so much you can do, right?
But it’s good you know what works for you.
And I’m not voting in all of the Goodreads Choice categories because some I haven’t read in. You think you spend almost all day every day looking at books that you’d be familiar with them, but nope! Cookbooks, humor, poetry, picture books? No clue! On the other hand, I’ve probably read at least half of the YA Fantasy category.
I have really been beating myself up this month because I haven’t been keeping up with blogging, but I agree sometimes you need to take a break. Great post!
I love everything about this post. It’s nice hearing these things coming from a “blook bigger” whose been around a while. As someone who has literally just started, it’s nice to get these thoughts.
I feel the last one SO. HARD. Being told to do something also makes me not want to do it. I was in a huge slump this year – reading and posting both – because the obligation was just sucking the fun out of everything. I didn’t even want to do it anymore. I’ve still got a list of books I HAVE to read, but they’re all published now because I’ve procrastinated all year, but it feels so good to just read what I want! I’ve actually been enjoying more books now. I haven’t had a book under 4 stars in months, which has never really happened before.
I also quit posting on Instagram (which is TERRIBLE for my stats ugh, I’ve lost 2k followers this year oops) because I just didn’t have the drive to do it anymore with rep & promotion responsibilities. I dropped all my rep gigs and stopped agreeing to things and now I’m finding that I actually WANT to do it again! I’m at the point where I quit caring about stats and HAVING to post, and just do what I want with reading, blogging, and Insta. It’s so freeing!
You are literally the reason I read The Raven Cycle (and Maggie Stiefvater books in general). I have no complaints. :’) I recommend the same books all the time too – I think everyone who reads my blog can name my favourite superheroes…
“Alsoβ¦I admit that being told to do something lowers my interest in doing it by 187%.” This is literally me. In school, I wouldn’t read the books I was assigned, because my brain went MEH the moment someone told me to read them even though I was using pretty much all of my free time to read.
My bad blogging habit is… not to blog haha I got overwhelmed by life and lost interest, but when I let my blog die, I realized I missed it too much. You’re definitely right that you can’t expect the same results when you’re not blogging consistently, so I’ve made my peace with just doing it for myself and not expecting any results even though obviously I’m happy when people read my stuff. I think like you said it’s very important not to stress ourselves out over a hobby! I see so many book bloggers talking about feeling guilty about not having read this or posted about that and I’m like… it’s fine. No one’s angry at you. Read what you want, blog what you want, it’s your time. I’m glad you’re taking it easier! I think it helps to be consistent and to keep enjoying it instead of burning yourself out. π
I feel like I am being called out one some of these… π
I am trying so hard to not be so caustic because it can be so easy to just be snarky sometimes. But then sometimes I feel like some people just take it way too far and end up being straight-up insulting, and that’s when it needs to be dialled back. Thankfully I don’t see this in book blogging, but a lot of movie reviewers on YouTube can be horrifically caustic to the point of making their reviews into personal attacks.
And I am 100% guilty of recommending the same books over and over again π I thought there was only so many times I could recommend Leviathan, Uglies, and the Lois Lane trilogy but I always come back to it.
All so relatable!!! Especially feeling stressed about having so much to read. ARCs (or at least, the PILES I end up with) are so hard to keep on top of! But I do love and enjoy the challenge of pushing myself to read more, thank goodness XD Audiobooks have been a life saver this year for me keeping up with my goodreads goal, that, and being realistic and not setting my goal too high considering I’ve been working full time!
The reading slump comment is very on point. It’s hard to remember this is a hobby sometimes π
Not saying No to review requests when I should and overloading myself with deadlines. Not able to read books I purchased. Chasing stats! That’s all I wish I didn’t do. As you said it’s tough to find time to read all those books we see in community and there is always that self-inflicted guilt why I haven’t read that yet. I mom of 1 year old daughter and half of the time I don’t have enough time to read, not even blog hopping. At first it was hard not to look at stats and going a day or two without reading but now looking at her growing everyday, I don’t regret it. I still managed to read 75 books this year and it’s satisfactory for a slow reader like me.
Oof, yes, I have so been guilty of making myself feel bad about not reading enough, especially this year with me being in approximately 1,732 musicals and going away to college. xD I hadn’t thought about the wording of overhyped books either until you pointed it out, but it’s true! I hate when people are grumpy about a book or movie just because everyone else likes it. Nobody is cool simply because they don’t like certain authors or series.
Being a blogging veteran as well, I agree with you so much with not taking breaks and just blogging at your own pace! I think it’s a new trend that being salty and negative is the new IT thing for bloggers at the moment. It’s entertaining but I’m also kind of meh about it.
You speak the truth! lol
I really don’t like saying over-hyped book anymore because it actually made me feel guilty from time to time when I really enjoyed that book. Like you know .. it’s not ‘cool’ to like things EVERYONE likes … which is such a weird sentiment? I really had to pull myself out of thinking that way, I’m already insecure enough about writing reviews, don’t need to add this, too. π
I barely write really negative reviews which could be 1) I’m fairly easy to please 2) I know what I like and 3) I feel sooo guilty doing it! But I have these phases where I absolutely adore!! reading snarky salty rant reviews!
And omg! Yes! The Goodreads Awards this year … I read barely any?? That’s why I didn’t vote for any because most categories I read one if one at all … Can’t really compare then π
And I actually read way more now then I did before I started blogging and yes, sometimes it can be reaaally stressful, but I love it. My Slytherin heart gets to set high goals that I can actually achieve (not like all the other life goals π) and I just got over the 80% mark on NetGalley!! I’m so proud of that! I worked two years on that!!
Also, I found out today that I’m very predictable in recommending everyone Three Dark Crowns series and Vicious.
Although I’m nowhere near as experienced as you or other bloggers, I sympathize with you here, Cait. The first one really got me, too! I’ve always questioned the validity of something being overhyped, not from where you’re coming from–although it makes a LOT of sense–but also in that… Isn’t an ‘overhyped’ book what we want? Don’t we want fellow writers and authors to succeed in the literary sense, so much so that their books go on to turn into screenplays, miscellaneous merchandise, and so on? Don’t we WANT people to be reading more? I do hope though you start to take more breaks. No one should ever question how you get to read so much (although I am a bit envious). I get to about 70 books a year and I find that if I stuck to a tbr list, I would never be able to do it. #moodreader Anyway, I hope you continue to have a lovely week and I can’t wait for your next post!
I feel so bad if I have to think of recommendations and like only am able to recommend 3 books π
I think a bad habit of mine is not reviewing the books after I read them π it’s always like anything from a month to like 6 months…