Saturday, July 2, 2011

On the Books I Don't Want

This past week I got a surprise book in the mail for review. It fell perfectly within my review guidelines, yet I immediately knew (based on what I'd heard about the book as well as its back-cover pitch), that I wasn't going to be reading it. There was just too much that was going to bother me. I packaged up the book to send on to another book blogger who's been wanting to read it, but while all of this was happening I had a thought, one that's been slowly brewing for a while.

Lately I've read quite a few books that I either didn't finish or finished but wasn't that jazzed up about. I don't get a ton of review books sent to me out of the blue, but I get enough to realize that the books I get out of the blue aren't always ones I'd otherwise read. A lot of times this is great because there's a good chance I wouldn't have read the incredible books The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, and June or The Unwritten Rule. It's just that sometimes it takes a lot to get through a review book; not because the books are badly-written, but just because the particular stories/characters/writing doesn't appeal that much to me personally. There have been quite a few books that everyone absolutely adored while I didn't quite "get it." There have been others I haven't finished or have finished out of a sense of obligation more than anything else.

This isn't right with me. I love reading and I want to keep it fun. The second my blog becomes obligatory work is the second a huge part of my love and joy for reading dies, and I don't want that to ever happen.

I love getting books for review; it's awesome. But I do have to set a few ground rules for myself--

  • I'm no longer going to finish a book out of that sense of obligation, that feeling that I "have" to write a review for it. If the only reason I'm reading a book is to write about it, I'm wasting my time.
  • If there's a book that I know I'm not going to be reading (or sometimes if I don't finish a certain book), I'll do my best to get it to someone who does want to read it -- blogger, author, librarian... someone who might also write a review or talk about it if they like it.
So, if you're a fellow blogger -- what do you do about "review" books you find it hard to get through?

3 comments:

  1. Good for you, Jordyn! That also seems to ensure that the majority of the books you end up reviewing on your blog are the ones that you liked & enjoyed reading. If I can't get into a book, I just stop and I may put, on Goodreads or something, DNF and just what didn't work for me (re: BEAUTIFUL CREATURES. I am like unable to finish that book!)
    I get ARCs occasionally, but the ironic thing is they're almost always unsolicited/rarely the ones I request. I usually send those on to someone else who will want them. Why let a book sit on your shelf untouched, amiright?
    Glad you found a system that works!

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  2. As a friend of yours on Goodreads, I have noticed quite a few DNF books for you lately, and you know what GOOD FOR YOU. To be honest, I feel like life is too short to spend on books you don't enjoy! That said, I'm a complete hypocrite because I can't leave a book unfinished. It's kinda an obsession/compulsion and I need to finish books I've started. I tend to be the same way about series too... hence me reading all five sisterhood books in one week for example, or finishing Twilight books even though I didn't like them. That said, I do get quite a few review books and I don't necessarily review them in a specific order- I pick one up based on what I'm in the mood for, rather than feeling obligated to read one at a particular time (except for book tours, which I am doing increasingly few of). I do like to review all the books I read, but I try to pick up books in the first place that I think I'll enjoy. That said, there are surprises both with good books and bad. I try to send on books I don't want to read or have already read, I don't actually keep ARCs except in very few cases where I loved the book and plan to buy a finished copy later (Between Shades of Gray, for example) but want to hold onto it because I may want to share it with people in my life, or at least until I may the final purchase.

    Woah long comment, sorry for the novella! This is a topic that got me thinking.

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  3. Amelia
    Yeah. It doesn't mean there won't still be negative reviews, but at least the books I review will be ones I liked or was interested in enough to finish. Most of the ARCs (since I don't request many) are ones I wasn't expecting, so it's always like a lovely little surprise (which I love!), but sometimes the surprises aren't books I'm into.

    Zoë
    LOL, yeah... in the past month or so there've been five (FIVE!) DNFs. And those books aren't even BAD... I just got to the point where they so weren't my cup of tea. I do try to read my review books in order of when they come out (at least somewhat... like reading the June books before July, etc.) and sometimes if I know I'm not going to read or finish a book I read the last few pages to see how it ends. Haha, it's not cheating if I'm not going to read the rest anyways, RIGHT? (Because of this I totally know how Forbidden ends. haha. But unlike you I actually keep most of my ARCs... at least the ones I like, which is kind of a lot of them.
    ALSO I LOVE LONG COMMENTS, SO NO WORRIES!!

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