Meme

– Let’s Talk Bookish – #6 Taboo Topics?

11th Feb 20226th Feb 2022 Louise H10 Comments

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly bookish meme created by Rukky @ Eternity Books and is hosted by Aria @BookNookBits. Each Friday, there is a discussion topic for bloggers to write about, this week we will be discussing…

TOPICS THAT CAN’T/SHOULDN’T BE REPRESENTED IN FICTION by MIKAELA @ MIKAELA READS

Prompts: Are there certain topics that can’t or shouldn’t be represented in fiction? If so, why shouldn’t they be? Do you think problematic/controversial issues in society should remain strictly part of the real world, or should they be explored in fiction? Should the ability to write about problematic or controversial topics be limited to certain people?

Censorship of any kind is a slippery slope that I would hate to see any country or society embark on. To that end, I don’t believe any topic can’t or shouldn’t be represented in fiction. What I will talk about, and what can be problematic, is how those topics are presented to the audience.

Whilst I might not be comfortable reading about certain topics/events in a book, that doesn’t mean it should never be included. I have the ability to choose what I read, to close the pages if it is heading in a direction that I am uncomfortable with. Do we ban all thrillers because they contain death? Do we ban all horror books because they contain murder and violence?

I don’t particularly enjoy books that try to moralise, that have underlying “messages” about and for society. Others do look for those things in their reading material, so if it’s there it’s OK and if it isn’t that is also fine. I read for fun and entertainment and am also able to understand the difference between fact and fiction. Books will contain subject matter that in real life would be illegal, unacceptable or just plain wrong. As long as the book isn’t encouraging those actions, painting them as desirable, making excuses for them, who am I to judge?

Should the ability to write about problematic or controversial topics be limited to certain people? Oh my word the idea of that question actually concerns me much more than any book content ever could. Who gets to choose those people and what criteria would they use? I’m shuddering at the very thought!

Meme

– Let’s Talk Bookish – #4 Re-Reads

28th Jan 202223rd Jan 2022 Louise H12 Comments

REREADING BOOKS? by FIVES @ DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

Prompts: How many times is enough? Why re-read at all? Is re-reading just a comforting pastime? Or is there excitement to be relived? What kind of books do you re-read? Do you ever re-read books you don’t like in hopes that it will be better the second time? Were there any books you didn’t like as a child but liked as an adult, or vice versa?

As with so many bookish things, how many re-reads is entirely down to individual choice. Until the first great lockdown of 2020 I had never re-read a complete book. (Perhaps I should qualify that by saying it doesn’t include children’s books I either read as a youngster or read to my own offspring!)

During that period of great turbulence and daily bad news, I struggled to complete a book. Finally, in what felt like an act of desperation, I re-read some books that I had previously enjoyed. So for me, it was most definitely comfort reading.

I generally re-read books that are part of a series, I have a suspicion that is because it’s easier to recall a series of books as opposed to a standalone. The books I’ve re-read come from a period when I was reading at a voracious rate. Turns out when you read a book in just over a day you don’t remember very much of it, so I definitely found it exciting to read the story again.

I don’t finish books that I’m not enjoying, so it is difficult to picture any circumstances where I would even try to finish it never mind read it twice! The closest situation would be when I’ve struggled with a book because it wasn’t the first in a series. In those circumstances, and only if something about the story appealed to me, I might start the series from the beginning and then read the book again at the “correct” point within it.

There is nothing that I would have read as a child that would appeal in any way to me as an adult. The only books I read as a young person that I didn’t like were the few I had to read for school. Who knows if I would enjoy John Steinbeck now? I hated the books with a passion and have very negative feelings around them. Perhaps my adult mind would hold a different opinion but there are so many good books on my TBR list that I would rather give my time to reading those than seeing if “Of Mice and Men” holds any more appeal 35 years later.

Do you re-read books?

Meme

– Let’s Talk Bookish – #3

22nd Jan 202215th Jan 2022 Louise H5 Comments

DO BLOGGERS OWE THEIR READERS AND VICE VERSA?
by RUKKY

Prompts: Do bloggers owe their readers anything? Do bloggers deserve anything from their readers? Do you think there’s a specific etiquette that bloggers/readers should follow when interacting? Do you as a blogger pressure yourself to provide certain things to your readers? Do you do certain things when you read a blog post?

Do bloggers owe their readers anything? Do bloggers deserve anything from their readers?
To my mind, the relationship between bloggers and readers is a symbiotic one. Both benefit from the interaction but neither party “owes” the other in any way, shape or form. As no money has exchanged hands, nor any request been made, nothing is owed on either side.
I’m hoping people read my blog and will interact with my posts but I don’t actively study my stats or worry about hitting a certain number of views/likes/comments per post etc.
In the same way, I do not expect the blogs I follow to deliver specific posts on certain days or times. Do readers actually do that or is it just us bloggers pressuring ourselves?

Do you think there’s a specific etiquette that bloggers/ readers should follow when interacting? Do you do certain things when you read a blog post?
I do hugely appreciate those readers who stop by and show my blog some love; common courtesy has me responding to all comments that people are kind enough to leave. I will try to leave a written response, though sometimes I only have time for reading and “liking” their comment. I do think if a fellow blogger regularly comments on your blog posts you should repay the courtesy every now and then.

Do you as a blogger pressure yourself to provide certain things to your readers?
I hope I provide some measure of entertainment to my readers but I certainly don’t pressure myself, though I know some bloggers do. It makes me quite sad to think perhaps bloggers must sometimes (frequently?) not enjoy what they are doing – blogging should be a fun activity, not a burden. I think we sometimes need to remind ourselves, and one another, of that.

Happy blogging!

Meme

– Let’s Talk Bookish – #2 Book Embargo

15th Jan 202230th Dec 2021 Louise H6 Comments

DO BOOK BUYING BANS WORK FOR YOU?

JILLIAN @ JILLIAN THE BOOKISH BUTTERFLY

Prompts: The book community is full of consumerism. People want to not just read their favourite books, but own them as well. Sometimes this can get…a little out of hand. How do you control your spending/buying books you don’t have time to read? Does setting a book buying ban work for you? How long do you usually ban yourself for?

When I first read the title I at first thought of censorship! Then I read the prompts and realised it was about controlling one’s spending habits 😂. The TL;DR answer is yes, overall they do work for me.

I’ve always bought, borrowed and read books since being a small child, the library was virtually my second home. My own books always lived in boxes underneath my bed, as there was no way on God’s green earth that my mother would consider covering the very pretty and very expensive wallpaper in my bedroom with bookshelves. Then I went to University, where my books continued to live in boxes, followed by living in shared rented accommodation when I got my first job. So the books remained in their boxes.

Which all in all is a very long-winded way of saying that I’ve never had bookshelves with lots of books on, so I don’t feel that pull to own a physical copy of a book, In fact, the only paper books I’ve bought in years – other than those for my children – have been for book signings.

That doesn’t preclude me from being easily lured by an e-book on sale and because my lovely little kindle (and the cloud) can store thousands of books I do have an obscene number of unread purchases on there. So last year I pledged to only buy the published e-books of arcs I had read (because author’s need to be paid for their work) or for books, I intended to read immediately. So far I have bought three books that I haven’t read, one was for a group read on Goodreads that I just didn’t have time to join in with, the other two were both less than a pound each.

I ignored many more sales by reminding myself not only of all the unread books I’ve bought because they were on sale but also that the books will go on sale again sometime in the future. When that didn’t work I looked at the loooooong list of books I already need to read. Whilst I didn’t quite manage to hit “net-zero” (purchased books = read books) it was a massive reduction on the previous year where I ended up with 25 books I’d bought but not read. So I would say that, in the main, my book buying ban is working. It’s a permanent ban, but only for books I don’t have time to read right now. The book is highly unlikely to disappear from sale, so it will still be there if I do end up with some free reading time. (Lol – like that will ever happen when I have a Netgalley account)

Meme

– Let’s Talk Bookish – #1 Reading Goals

8th Jan 202230th Dec 2021 Louise H3 Comments

2022 READING GOALS

by DANI

I try not to set too many goals, just because if I don’t hit those self-imposed targets it messes with my reading and blogging mo-jo. It’s silly really because I am the only one making it into unnecessary pressure, but that’s how it is. I end up feeling very negative if/when I stray from my original plans, even if they clearly aren’t right for me. Much like my plan to read 3 or 4 Non-Fiction books this year. Blogging wise I’m just hoping to maintain posting several times a week, along with visiting other blogs regularly and commenting when I can.

This year I set a target of 150 books on Goodreads, I’m a couple of books off that so might reduce it to 140 next year. Much of what I read is around 200 pages long and takes anywhere between 2 and 4 days, depending on how much time I have, how motivated to read I am and whether the book is gripping or not. I used to read many more books each year. At the time I was so proud of having a stupidly high number until I realised I couldn’t remember 99% of those books – not even when I re-read my reviews for them. It was the result of belonging to too many author/PR company arc teams. Unlike Netgalley these arcs would need to be read and reviewed by a specific date and would often only appear on my kindle a few days before that said date. There were times when I had to read three arc books in three days – no one got a fair deal with that situation.

Generally, I try to think less in terms of “resolutions” and more of “hopes” – it feels less like a failure than if I don’t achieve/keep them up. I will carry over last years plan of reading books from my TBR list. In a bid to do this I’m joining in a monthly challenge so am hoping to clear at least 12 books from the list. It’s a start 🤣! There are also a couple of book series I would like to finish, though this means buying more books, so that decision is still being mulled over.

Something else I’m considering is re-reading several book series, though to have time for that I need to limit how many arcs I apply for. And therein lies the crux of my problems – an inability to say no to arc books. Whilst I HAVE reduced how many I read each year, it still dominates my reading time – around 80% this year. I would love to reduce this to under 50% in 2022.

The last plan I have for 2022 is to read at least one library e-book each month. The success of this will depend on being able to find books I want to read, as there isn’t a great deal of choice on Borrowbox.