If you're a book blogger, you likely know what it's like to be constantly behind - behind on your TBR, behind on reviews, behind on posts, challenges, discussions... Heck, just as a reader you may exist in a state of slowly being crushed by your TBR. I myself have 411 books in my bedroom. This is physical copies of books I have not read yet - so not counting books I want to reread and ebooks. This is my "short list" TBR, and started out as one three-shelf bookcase of books that were supposed to be immediately on deck to read next, and then it sort of expanded and grew until I had several bookcases in my room and now there are 411 books... But this book isn't about being crushed to death by Book Mountain! That's a post for another day, haha. Let's talk about writing reviews for all those books.
I try to write reviews for books I've read as soon as possible after finishing them, but somehow I let myself get behind and OH MAN, I am BEHIND. I don't know if I just finished a bunch of books really quickly (maybe? I did weirdly finish three in one day because I wrapped up an audiobook and read two novellas...) or if I just haven't made time to sit and write reviews... But I've got 6 books I've read that I need to write reviews for, and they're sitting there glaring at me and making me feel so guilty. AHH!
I think a part of my problem is that I made a concentrated effort to read more Kindle Unlimited books before my subscription expires at the end of December, and there's no rating system or need for approval to get more ARCs to keep me timely in submitting reviews like with books I get from NetGalley or Edelweiss. So many books I've read this year have been ARCs/egalleys, and I want to get the reviews submitted into NetGalley/Edelweiss/BookishFirst so I can get the points/credit/percentage/rating so they will continue to trust me with more ARCs and egalleys. With Kindle Unlimited, writing reviews just takes up valuable time I could be spending reading more KU books before the clock runs out on my membership, and there's no payoff (for lack of a better word...) for me to take that time to marshal my thoughts and write a review. Because writing even a quick and not very good review takes time, effort, and brain power - ESPECIALLY when you've read a few books since you finished the book in question, and then you have to try to remember which details are actually from that book and what might be from another book you've read since then! (Which is why I try to write reviews before starting another book!!)
Two of my six overdue reviews are ARCs that I will need to write reviews for (and my goal is to finish them today). One is an audiobook I purchased, another is an audiobook from the library, and the other two are Kindle Unlimited books.
What do you think, should I just write the ones for the ARCs and just write off the other four as lost causes?
They were all OK reads - not bad, but not spectacular, or I'd have written reviews by now. I think three of the four of them could be summed up as "Cute, but nothing super special. A predictable but fun read."
Do I really want to spend the effort to find more to say? Or should I just, as Elsa would say, let it go?
Do you write reviews for the books you read? If yes, do you review every book you read, or just books that stand out in some way? How do you decide?
At 27, Winnie is on the verge of becoming an old maid. And she’s just fine with that. In medical school and studying for admission to an exclusive training program, Winnie just needs a few more years to get her life in order before she can even think about getting married.
