Let’s Talk Bookish: Reviewing Books
Hey, everyone! I hope you’re all doing well. Today I have a discussion on reviewing books. I haven’t posted a review in over a month, which I really should fix. Maybe this discussion will spark my brain to write more reviews.
Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @ Eternity Books and hosted by Aria @ Book Nook Bits where we discuss various topics and share our opinions. Today’s topic is Reviewing Books (suggested by Rachel @ A Bookworm’s Paradise).
Prompts: What makes you want to review or not review a book? Do you review every book you read? Are some books harder to review than others? Do you review books you disliked? If you’ve ever written a ranty review, have you regretted doing so afterwards? Do you delete reviews that are “outdated” or don’t follow what you think of the book now?
I definitely don’t review every book I read. I read too many books to review them all in an orderly fashion. Out of the 37 books I’ve read so far this year, I reviewed 9 of them, which is around 24%. I’d like to increase that number, but the books I’ve been reading don’t spark my interest to review them.
Which brings me to my next point: how I decide what books I review. My most basic answer is that I review the books I have things to say about. Some books I have a lot of different thoughts about, others I don’t. I want my reviews to be detailed so I chose to talk about the books I want to.
There are books that are definitely harder to review than others. Sometimes, I don’t know where to start when writing the review; either I loved it so much I don’t know what to say first or I just don’t know how to organize all my thoughts. I usually end up with a similar format for my reviews: brief plot summary, characters, thinks I liked, thinks I disliked, overall thoughts, rating. I feel like it’s a natural way to make the review flow.
I don’t normally do negative reviews–I prefer to talk about books I like. However, I have done a few reviews for books I disliked. I try to find things that I liked in any book, even if I didn’t like the book as a whole. With my reviews, I always put what I liked near the beginning. That helps me not feel so bad when I post a negative review.
I haven’t deleted any reviews off my blog as of yet. I don’t think I will either. I haven’t had any changing opinions to books I’ve posted reviews for. A lot of my earlier posts don’t get much traffic, which is completely fine with me because they are . . . not my best work.
In general, I review the books I want to. Sometimes I’ll start a review and then realize I don’t really know what to say and end up deleting it. Other times, I won’t expect to review it but after reading it, have so much to say. It usually all comes down to what I have to say about the book.
How do you decide which books to review? Do you review all the books you read?
10 Comments
Lily Yu
I’m so used to reviewing books that I now feel like I need to review every book I read. And I’ve already read 100+ this year. 😭
Lotus @ Pages of Starlight
Wow, you’ve read a lot! Yeah, I always feel a need to write a review for a book, even if I don’t have much to say on it.
Aster Marie
Great discussion! I personally try to only review books when I really want to share my thoughts on them. Otherwise, I’d simply be forced to review every story I read (even when I have nothing to say!)
Lotus @ Pages of Starlight
Yes, agreed! I don’t want to review a book if I don’t have anything to say about it. The review would be pretty boring.
Suhani
Ahhh I LOVED reading your thoughts on this!! I definitely can’t review all the books I’ve read either, and yes I completely agree with you- I only post full-length reviews on books I have things to say about!! I usually write mini reviews if I can to just to keep a track of my thoughts!!
adored this!! <3
Lotus @ Pages of Starlight
Mini reviews are great! I’ll do them sometimes if I have things to say about a book, but not as much as I would for a full length review.
Thanks for reading!
Anoushka
bdbfsdvbdsfvh I LOVE THIS DISCUSSION!! i definitely dont review every single book i read because that kind of doesn’t feel humanly possible?? although i’ve been wanting to this year BUT AM FAILING MISERABLY SO. but i DO try to write short reviews for every book BUT MAYBE THAT DOESNT ALWAYS WORK. i usually review books i have very very strong opinions about (so like either the ones i WHOLEHEARTEDLY HAVE FALLEN IN LOVE WITH or hate enough to burn down the world) because it kind of makes the reading part of it more interesting, at least in my opinion?? PLUS RANTING IS FUN
Lotus @ Pages of Starlight
Thank you!! Definitely, I read too many books to do that. I haven’t been writing as many reviews as I would like, and I would like to change that. Yes, agreed! I want reviews to be interesting.
reader@work
I like to write a review of quality, so I end up reviewing my backlist books only if I am not indifferent to them. But ARCs are another story. I am thankful most of the ones I receive have been amazing tho!
Lotus @ Pages of Starlight
Yes, definitely! Books I’m indifferent towards don’t usually get a review.