We are a group of three book bloggers situated on different continents but brought together by our love for books and a penchant for talking about them. We’ve joined our forces to create a collaborative series of posts about book blogging and we hope you’ll enjoy the discussions.
What makes you add a book to your TBR?
It’s a combination of a lot of factors… But generally I’d have to say that other reviewers are what drive me to add books to my TBR in the first place. Even when it comes to my favourite authors I probably only found these authors on recommendation from someone else. I’m just that sort of reader - I like to know that other people have read the book and enjoyed it before I pick it up!
For me too it’s a combination of factors. I think reviews and recommendations from from other reviewers, either on Goodreads or in the blogosphere is the biggest reason for why my TBR has grown like Jack’s beanstalk! Another big reason why my TBR is currently exploding is that I have a habit of going through book lists on Goodreads and looking for ones that I think I’d enjoy. I also end up browsing on Amazon for hours looking at both book reviews and the prices so I can make a proper wishlist.
What makes you most likely to buy a book?
My favourite authors are definitely autobuys for me - I even pre-order when I can but for some reason I’m not often able to do this on Kobo.
If I pick up the first book in a series and I absolutely love it I’ll pretty much go straight in and buy the next book - even if the first book was a library borrow and I could probably get the rest if I just went and looked - I just like to support the authors that I love and buying their books seems to me to be a great way to do this!
Also if I’ve enjoyed a series by an author previously I’ll probably go and buy another of their books to try, even if it might take me awhile to get to it!
Here too, it’s a combination of factors - premise, cover and money. Premise because I have to actually read the book and not just showcase it prettily on my shelves (I do that at times), Cover because I like to oggle at pretty cover and also ‘cause I #bookstagram; and money because no one’s giving out books for free (Except authors and publishers who actually value my opinion. LOVE you guys.)
If it’s the sequel to a book I’ve already read and loved, it gets moved higher up on my wishlist; same if it’s one of my favorite authors or if the plot makes me want to eat it (I swear I’ve never eaten books).
Are you comfortable with rating a generally disliked book highly? Or vice versa?
Reading is so subjective. What I always try to keep in mind is that a lot of my ‘bad reads’ can just come down to personal preference as will a lot of my ‘good reads’.
I love a lot of book bloggers out there but we don’t have to enjoy the same books for me to respect their opinion. In fact there’s only a couple that I feel have very similar reading tastes to mine. Often I’ve been surprised that people had issues with certain scenes in a book or even with an entire theme in a book that I was never bothered by. No two readers will ever be exactly the same!
If I liked a book I’m going to shout it out there, whether other professional reviewers liked it or not. A book review is simply my own personal opinion and experience with a book and if I found something to enjoy I want to express that because there will surely be other readers out there that can enjoy the same things that I did.
It can be difficult as a book blogger to know that your opinion isn’t aligned with the masses - whether you love a book that no one else seems to (because how could they NOT???) or whether you were disappointed after hearing a million good reviews and all the hype and a book just didn’t meet your expectations… If you can back up your opinion and you aren’t just doing it to be contrary it’s valid and you should OWN it.
I have a LOT of unpopular opinions and let’s face it, we all do because we’re not all potatoes. My unpopular opinions are mostly me not loving a book that almost everyone else seems to adore. And while it’s scary to admit to a group of chocolate lovers that you don’t like chocolates (I belong to the chocolate-loving group mind you), I think it’s perfectly okay! Isn’t that why we rate and review books? To get our personal opinion about it heard?
Also, rating seems much easier compared to reviewing when it comes to unpopular opinions. It’s VERY scary. Okay so I’m not a fan of the Throne of Glass series. (Don’t you dare throw things at me!). Like I LOVED books 1 and 2 but the series just spiralled down for me after that. While I’ve rated the series, I haven’t written a review for books 3, 4 and 5. Why? Because it’s scary as hell writing a negative review for an extremely loved series and I honestly don’t know how to go about with it! All you guys who aren’t scared or intimidated by the task, you’re awesome and really brave! I do plan to write those reviews soon but *gulp*
Come check out my answers over at their collab posts!:
We hope you’ve enjoyed Part 18 in our series of discussion posts! Please talk to us and let us know YOUR answers below. What do you think of our responses?
If you have any specific questions you’d like us to address in the future, please let us know in the comments section below. Stay tuned for next week’s questions!
