Tagged: discussion

Discussion: Posting Schedules

If you’re not a blogger like most of the people reading this are, you probably don’t know how much work goes on behind the scenes to keep a blog organized, especially for book bloggers.  Even small book bloggers like myself with a little over 500 followers are sometimes booked up one or two months in advance!  So how do I keep everything straight and make sure the right posts are published on the right days?

I have print out calendars and actually pencil in the posts I’ll be doing for each day.  Yes, I’ve tried doing this digitally but it doesn’t work.  Having the calendar staring me right in the face helps because I can easily ignore digital calendars.  So every Sunday I sit down and pencil in what posts I know I’ll have to do for the week.  If I’ve sent out a review to an author who requested one, I’ll have to pencil in that review for exactly one week later.  If I’m doing a blog tour, I have to make sure that I have a) read the book,  b) written the review for it and c) make sure I don’t schedule anything else for that day.  Sometimes it’s hard.

So what I want to know is (whether you’re a book blogger or not): how do you keep your posting schedule straight?  Do you have a physical calendar like I do or are you more tech-savvy?  Do you even bother having a formal schedule for your posts or do you just have certain days you know you’ll post and wing it?

Discussion: Reading Dealbreakers

Pretty much everyone reading this here on my blog is an avid reader.  You guys love books, I love books.  I’ll personally read most anything.  But what happens when something is just so bad in a book you can’t stand it any longer?  Why, you put it down of course.  That’s not the point here, though.  The point is: what is that one thing that will always make you put down a book?

Personally it’s racism/sexism/homophobia, etc.  I’m not talking about when authors tackle these issues in their books—that’s something mainstream authors need to do more!  I’m talking about when an author’s views leak into their narrative and ruin the entire book.  If I’m reading a book and the author seems to want to write a manifesto about why white people are superior, LGBT people are evil and/or women are inferior rather than actually telling a story, I’m probably going to throw the book at the wall.  As much as I hate book vandalism, sometimes it’s justified.

There are actually a lot of things that make me want to put down a book, but it’s blatant discrimination on the author’s part that is the one thing that will make me put down a book immediately.  Sometimes books are ‘meh’ but I’ll keep reading because I’m curious to see if it gets better, but any preaching on the author’s part will make me close a book without a second thought.

But enough about me: what are your reading dealbreakers?  Why?  Do you have lots or just one?

Discussion: DNF Reviews

For those of you that aren’t fluent in reviewer-speak, DNF reviews are reviews where the person did not finish the book.  Thus the abbreviation DNF.  DNF reviews are a little controversial in the blogging world and I’ll break down the two main points here:

Against: You can’t really judge the quality of a book if you didn’t finish it.  If you’re going to do a review you should be able to discuss all elements, including major plot points that may appear later on, character arcs, etc.

For: DNF reviews are a useful tool for reviewers to let people know that they gave a book a try but really couldn’t finish it because they hated it, were bored, etc.

Personally, I’m on the fence with this one.  If you’ve gotten half way through a book but can’t physically force yourself to read it anymore, I think a short DNF review is acceptable.  However, if you’ve only read a couple of chapters you should just chalk it up as a waste of time and not leave a review.  After all, you can’t really criticize everything about a book if you haven’t read all of it.

But now I’m curious: What do you guys think of DNF reviews?  Love ’em, hate ’em, couldn’t care either way?  If you’re a reviewer, do you ever write them or would consider writing them?  Why or why not?

Discussion: Print Books vs. Ebooks

I know, I missed my usual weekend discussion post!  I missed it on Saturday due to a little thing called Life.  I didn’t have time to post and I got home late that evening so I figured I would just not post for the day.  Sorry about that.

I think the title of this discussion is pretty self explanatory.  Which do you prefer: print books or ebooks?

Personally, even though I have a new Kindle Paperwhite I prefer print books.  I hate how world maps format on ereaders and print books generally have more character.  What kind of character?  Well, none of my books on my Kindle have that yogurt stain on page 57 or a piece of cat hair that got stuck between the pages years ago.  Yes, paperbacks and hardcovers get damaged but for me that’s part of the appeal: they aren’t perfect and that’s okay.

Besides, when you get an autographed copy of a book your hero once held, there’s no comparable experience with an ereader.  Sure, authors can now ‘sign’ ebooks, but it’s completely not the same thing as knowing that your hero once held that book and took the time to actually sign their name and not copy and paste a signature.  How do I know this?  Well, I’m lucky enough to own a signed copy of I Never Walked Alone, the memoir of my personal hero, Shirley Verrett.  The sheer amount of emotion I felt at realizing I had accidentally obtained a signed copy was unreal.

Enough about me, though.  It’s your turn now: do you prefer print books or ebooks?  Why?  Has your opinion changed over time?

As always, you can engage with either myself or other commentors.  As long as you’re being civil, there’s absolutely no reason for me to moderate this post with a heavy hand.  Have fun!

Discussion: Male YA Love Interests

I’m not sure about you guys, but speaking in broad terms I find that most male love interests for female main characters fall into two categories: the cold, distant but hot jerk or the goofy best friend who’s always stuck by the MC.  Of course this is a huge generalization, but it really does seem to happen a lot in YA today, especially when it comes to my nemesis the love triangle.

Generalizations aside, what I want to talk about is this: what makes a good male love interest in YA?  (We’ll talk about female love interests later this month.)  Do you have a favourite love interest?  Why is he your favourite?

Personally, my current favourite is Po from Graceling.  He’s not a distant jerk but neither is he the goofy best friend either.  No, he’s a mature young man that doesn’t play around when he realizes that his love for Katsa is mutual.  Throughout the story he protects Katsa while realizing that she can also protect herself, decides what he wants out of life and treats Katsa like an equal partner in their relationship.  What a novel idea!