Hey, everyone – this is Becca, with a new post we are doing here on Adventures in YA Publishing. It’s similar to the Question of the Week, but geared toward the bloggers of the book blogging world. What do they like? Don’t like? Consider this the reader’s side of the publishing coin and the writer’s inside guide to what bloggers look for in the books they end up loving and shouting about into the interwebz. Twice a month, I’ll be sending out a question to bloggers, and I’ll be posting their answers right here! Stick around for the epic giveaway at the bottom too! Want to be a part of our book blogger panel? Leave your blog name and contact details in the comments below! We’d love to have you!
Question of the Month:
“Do you think there’s a difference in the way book bloggers read after they’ve been blogging for awhile versus how they read when they’re just starting out?”
“It’s hard for me to answer this because my obsession with reading and blogging kind of went hand-in-hand. People are usually surprised to hear this, but I didn’t start reading until I was in my 30’s. I mean, at all. I always thought I hated reading because the books we were forced to read in school were so boring. If I had spent half as much time reading as I did figuring out ways to NOT read, I probably could’ve gone through the library! The story of how I started reading is interesting, involving Harry Potter and Twilight, of course, but I’ll save that for another time. The end result was that I almost immediately started a book blog, and it pretty quickly became a huge part of my life. Now I see it as kind of a symbiotic relationship. Reading spurs on my love of blogging, and blogging keeps me going back to books when it might be easier to just watch TV or a movie. I do think blogging effects my choices sometimes, but I really try to only read what I want to read, because if I don’t, the magic of blogging is lost anyway.”
– Andye, Reading Teen, Twitter: @ReadingTeen
**
“I think there’s absolutely a difference, especially if you’ve been blogging for a decent amount of time. As a reader, I would pull books from the libraries as they interested me but drop them just as quickly. I knew what I liked, but I couldn’t tell you in detail what did or didn’t work for me in a book. I just knew.
As a blogger, I have to work through what did and didn’t work in a story every time I write a review. I’m pickier about what I read, and I can often tell if a book won’t work for me within the first few chapters. Even when I read for fun, I can’t switch off that part of my brain now. Being a blogger makes me reading less carefree, but I think the critical skills I’ve gained will help my experience in the long run.”
– Shae, Shae Has Left the Room, Twitter: @ShaelynCerie
**
“There is a HUGE difference in my reading now! It’s not a bad thing and I am in no way complaining but, I read on much more of a schedule.
I have to organize my TBR by blog tour or release dates so sometimes it have to read priority books first. I’m learning that this sometimes can be slightly annoying so, I’m making sure to leave enough time for a pleasure read in between a bunch of required reads. Weird… Required read sounds like high school, only waaaayy better! I used to read about a book a week and thought that was fast. (Psshaw right?!) Now I can bang out 2-3 books depending on length and what life throw at me that week. I have tried the speed reading thing some bloggers do and that just isn’t for me. I miss too much and feel like I can’t enjoy the story. I’m at a comfortable pace now.”
-Britt @ Please Feed the Bookworm, Twitter:@kalebsmome
**
Absolutely! In both good and bad ways. 🙂
For me, when I first started to review books, I sometimes took days to read my book. Then as if I were
chatting to a friend, I posted a few rambling reactions and that was it.
As I had my husband critique my reviews, I started to become more organized about the process. I never picked up a book without a pencil in hand. I also never spilled any of my thoughts to paper without first thinking about what I most liked and disliked about the book.
This has trained me to to become more professional about my reviews. It has also made me more aware for my own writing of will and will not work in a story. So, there have been positives.
However, reading has also become more of a chore. For a time, I stopped being able to pick up a book without thinking of it in terms of plot, character, setting, and other literary elements.
Somewhere along the line, I decided that this isn’t how I wanted my reading experience to be. The notebook disappeared. I began to allow myself to have tangents about how a book personally effected me, a controversy surrounding a book, or some other focus. This helped me to stop having this constant itch to analyze everything I read. Still, it’s been a slow process, retraining myself to simply get lost in a book.
From what I read of other long-time bloggers, many of us seem to experience go through similar phases. I imagine it happens any time that one tries to turn a hobby into a commitment. Which is what book bloggers do!
**
Sound off below! Do you think there’s a difference in the way bloggers read after blogging for a while versus when they started out?
