The last time I posted was for the read-a-thon, which was almost a month ago! Though I usually never post more than once or twice a week, I have been woefully neglecting my blog and everyone else's as well. Even though I've continued to read, I haven't posted reviews or spent much time visiting other blogs. As the weeks have passed, I have felt more and more guilty, and I've gotten further and further behind. So...I need suggestions of how to catch up! I have 11 books to review. I really enjoyed most of them, but I am really slow at writing reviews, even if I try to keep them short, and even if I use the different question and answer formats. What are some ways that you write a quick review? Do you review EVERY single book you read? Do you feel guilty if you read a book, but don't review it?
Also, I just got back from a wonderful vacation with my husband to the beautiful Maroma Beach in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. My Google Reader has almost 300 posts! I'm going to try to read some of the posts, but I'm going to have to mark most of them as read and start fresh. Hopefully I will be better in the upcoming weeks about visiting and commenting on blogs, though work will be extremely busy, and everyone is busy during the holidays!
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I'll leave you with a picture from my vacation, and I look forward to reading your suggestions!
10 Comments:
That beach looks so enticing! Certainly better than the rainy, gray weather in New York right now. With regards to the reviewing, take your time with it. I tend to write reviews during and soon after I finish a book, but that' just me.
What a gorgeous picture! I can't wait to hear about your trip. :)
In terms of suggestions, I've seen people post a list of books they need to review and ask others for questions you can answer instead of writing a full review. Also, you could write really mini-reviews (you can do it--I have faith in you!)--try to do a summary of the plot in a sentence or two and then short thoughts?
Or, you can scrap em and start fresh. You can procrastinate even further and come clean my office for me! LOL...kidding (sort of). Ohhhh--or you can use your coupons to HPB and get new books to read and review! I'm not helping--I know.
Trish--I think for at least a few of the books, I'm going to write review of only several sentences. I am really good a procrastinating too! In fact, I went to HPB yesterday! I only bought one book though--The Zookeeper's Wife.
Katherine--It was a very nice beach! It is pretty cool here in Texas too, but I'm sure not nearly as cold as NY! I usually write my reviews right after I finish as well, but I didn't do that for 2 books or so, then with the read-a-thon and my vacation, I find myself SUPER behind!
Hi Laura! wow, beautiful picture.
It's great to see you posting again :)
As for catching up, I'd just hit the "mark all as read" button on Google Reader :P And you can ask people to ask you questions about those books, like Trish said, and use them to do mini-reviews. But no need to feel guilty if you just decide to forget about those 11 books and start anew!
Nymeth--I think I will ask for questions about any books for which I don't write a review. Especially since several of them are quite popular, and many people have probably read the books already!
What a beautiful photo! I am glad you had a nice time, Laura, on your trip.
I'm not sure my review habits will help in your situation. I tend to write my reviews immediately after finishing a book--or at least a rough draft so I can capture my thoughts (I don't always have the best memory and notes help me with that). I won't start a new book until that's done. And I do review every book I read.
I think mini reviews is a good idea in your case. Maybe even a list of the books with a one or two sentence review. My husband's fond of one sentence reviews. He used to do those all the time on his old website with the comic books he read.
We are leaving for that area of Mexico this week. We are staying at the Occidental Grande X Caret. My parents are treating to celebrate their 50th anniversary!!! So excited. I must get a pedicure this week since my tootsies haven't seen the light of day in a while.
As for your book reviews...I would suggest jumping onto the Thursday Thirteen bandwagon. Go to www.thursdaythirteen.com for details. But basically do a Thursday Thirteen on your blog with 13 mini-book reviews. Indicate which books definitely deserve a more detailed look and then do one every other day or so.
I'm glad you were gone vacationing and not for some other reason! I missed you around the cyber joint.
And I think I'm going back to checking blogs the old fashioned way. I miss actually visiting each blog and I tend not to leave comments when I'm using a reader.
cjhy
Ooh.. very pretty picture! Mine's not a book blog, so I only review the books that I truly loved. And I never feel guilty :)
I LOVE that photo!
Want to BE there!
-- Cipper --
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