Thursday, April 12, 2018

Discussion: My Reviewing Crisis

The 2018 Discussion Challenge is hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction & It Starts At Midnight


Last month, I had a bit of a crisis. I was writing a review of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, and I suddenly realized that I didn’t want to do this anymore. I didn’t want to write this review. Or any review. It wasn’t the book’s fault—I really liked the book. I just wasn’t having fun writing the review. It felt difficult and pointless.

I thought I’d just burned myself out with reviews because in the 4 years I’ve been book blogging, I’ve written over 400 book reviews. I figured I just needed a break. So, I took three weeks off from writing reviews.
During my break, I realized that I’ve fallen out of love with reviewing. It has become something that I do just because I’ve been doing it for so long. It’s not fun. It’s part of my routine, and I’ve suddenly lost the motivation to continue following the routine.


This is basically my life.


Why did this happen? I think I’ve come up with a few answers.



I’m typing as fast as I can!


I review almost all of the books I read. When I first started blogging, this wasn’t a problem. Back in 2013, I was reading around 70 books a year, and I didn’t feel overwhelmed by reviewing all of them. As I got more involved in the online bookish community, I learned about way too many interesting books. (See? This is all your fault. You’re too good at recommending books.) My TBR list grew like a monster. The number of books I read every year started creeping up and up. Last year, I read 113 books. This year, I’m on-track to read more than that.

I can’t keep up with reviewing every book. I’m always behind and struggling to catch up on writing reviews. My burnout happened because it finally sank through my thick skull that this isn’t sustainable. I either need to read less or review less. At this point, reviewing less sounds more appealing.


Let’s Pay No Attention To the math behind the curtain


The majority of my reviewing crisis is definitely caused by boredom and overwhelm, but looking at the stats on my blog isn’t helping. I know that blogging isn’t about stats and blah, blah, blah, but when the stats are so lopsided, they’re hard to ignore.
Do you guys want a peek behind the blogging curtain? I know you do. You’re a nosy bunch.
On this blog, I do seven different types of posts: reviews, discussions, Top Ten Tuesdays, book hauls, monthly wrap-ups, weekly wrap-ups, and tags. A book review rarely gets more than 100 pageviews. Most of them get between 50 and 80 views. My most-recent review currently has 67 views.
In contrast, every single other type of post gets between 150-400 pageviews per post. It’s rare that a non-review gets fewer than 100 views. It’s the same story with comments. A review post usually gets between 4 and 10 comments. My other posts get 20-60. My most-recent Sunday Post has 288 views and 50 comments.
I completely understand why reviews get less attention. Not every book appeals to every reader; I review lots of obscure stuff; it’s hard to get creative with a review, so they can be boring. I get it. I’m pretty sure that reviews are unloved on every blog. (If reviews are the most popular posts on your blog, YOU ARE A WIZARD AND PLEASE TEACH ME YOUR MAGIC!) Even though I understand the reasons behind the lower review views, it’s still disheartening.






Cue The Crisis

If you’ve seen my reviews before, you know that they’re not small. I like to be thorough and analyze what I read. My reviews are usually between 700 and 1000 words. One review takes me 2+ hours to write, edit, and format. I try to write 2 or 3 reviews a week. That’s a lot of hours spent on reviews!
Since I’m bored with reviews, I feel like I could be doing something better with my time instead of forcing myself to write them. I could put more effort into my non-review posts. I could figure out what Pinterest is and why people care about it. I could relearn Spanish. I could cook something that doesn’t come out of a box in the freezer. I could join a troupe of playful skiing mimes.



Okay. Maybe no mimes. That's just weird.


Basically, I need to reevaluate how I’m spending my time.




Some Possible Solutions


I don’t want to completely stop reviewing. I just want to cut down on the amount of hours I spend writing reviews. Here’s what I’m going to try:
  • Mini reviews. Obviously, making the reviews shorter would cut down on the time it takes to write them. I’ll try cutting most of them from 1000 words to 200-300 words. I’ll probably review multiple books in a single blog post.
  • Spend my time reviewing books that interest me. It’s actually unsatisfying to review “meh” books. I’d rather save my giant reviews for books that I have strong opinions about. We all like reading glowing reviews or meme-filled rants, right?
  • Ditch the reviewing schedule. Right now, I’m posting reviews every Monday and Wednesday. I’ve been doing that for years, but I don’t have to do it. I can change my schedule whenever I want. I’ll probably start posting reviews less often.


Let’s Discuss


Most of the people reading this are bloggers, so:
  • Have you ever had a blogging crisis where you felt overwhelmed by the amount of work you were giving yourself?
  • How do you handle reviews on your blog or on Goodreads? Do you have a posting schedule?
  • How do you decide which books to review?
  • Do you prefer reading mini reviews or in-depth long reviews?








44 comments:

  1. This was a great post. I've been book blogging for 10 years so I can relate. I like reviewing books but I have had my ups and downs, that's for sure. I do have a posting schedule because if I didn't, those reviews would not get written! I need deadlines. I like reading both mini reviews and longer ones if I like the blogger's writing style, like yours which is infused with humor.

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  2. You are not alone. At the beginning of this year I also was struggling with writing reviews, and I decided that really only needed to review the ARCs I was reading, not everything else. Since then I have changed to one review per week, and then one "Recent Reads" post every other week or so, which is basically mini-reviews of 4 books I've read recently. It's working a lot better for me, and I think my readers enjoy it more as well.

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  3. UGH. I have recently had the same crisis! I've been SO BORED writing reviews, and recently just haven't ever wanted to do it! I've decided I'm going to just write reviews for books that I had stronger feelings about (and ARCs), because otherwise, I feel like I just have nothing to say anymore.

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  4. I can completely relate! Writing review posts is hard-- and it doesn't help that all that effort is not rewarded by people viewing/engaging with the post. I mean the whole point of writing a book review is for people to read/engage with it, to show them this /awesome/ book you love, or to point them away from this horrible book you couldn't stand.
    The way I've dealt with this is (a) write less reviews-- I write at most one review a week and the past few weeks I haven't posted any reviews (b) write mini-reviews, where I can lump several meh books together and get them out of the way. On the one hand, the absence of book reviews makes me feel like a bad book blogger, but on the other hand, sometimes I just don't feel like crystallizing my thoughts on a book into a succinct post.

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  5. This is such an important post because this has happened to so many of us! You're so right about how tiring reviews can be for such little return. Not that we write reviews to get the absolute most page views, but it does feel good to know that readers are enjoying what you're putting work into! It's baffling to me that Top Ten Tuesday posts, which take maybe 10 minutes to put together, get the most love! I definitely think that getting rid of your schedule could be helpful. I used to post reviews on Mondays without fail, but these days Top Ten and Weekly Recaps are the only days set in stone. It's a huge load off to not have to meet deadlines! I hope you're able to find a solution that works for you!

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  6. Loved this post! In general I don't read many review posts because well, they don't appeal to me unless I've read the book and want to see what someone else thinks or for some reason the covers drawn me in etc. I write reviews not because I HAVE to - since I started out blogging with discussion posts. But because I like to look back on them, it's more a post for me, and if someone else reads it great. If they don't no biggie. I also love collecting things, including my own posts xD

    Something I do though is I have two types of reviews. I have a review which is non spoilery then I have a review and discussion which is as it says, a non spoiler review then after the rating I go into a discussion about the book. So if I'm not wanting to discuss the book I'll go with the review type. If however the book has content in it that I want to talk about I'll switch it to an RD.

    That is pretty much how I sort out reviews, I also review all books I read UNLESS its a book part way though a series and I've not reviewed the others OR I didn't want to take notes haha. Usually though I'll take notes and a review/review and discussion will get written at some point.

    As for solutions - don't look to me. I'm the total opposite of you as you know from reading my post xD I would suggest maybe get rid of the schedule or write them not for the 'readers' as such but more for yourself to be able to look back on if need be.

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  7. as a blogger, I have no schedule or pre-written posts, so whatever comes, comes. I think book bloggers have the hardest time because reviews are hard work.

    I write short thoughts about the books I read and that's it, unless is one of those books that needs a longer review.

    but mostly I think you should just go with the flow. it's not the end of the world if you don't write reviews unless that's something you think you need to do. you can talk about a book without actually reviewing it.

    I do prefer to read short reviews unless it's a book I have already read and like some different insights into it but mostly short reviews are better. & I must admit, I have short attention span if a reviewer starts raving about a book and not get to the point.

    have a lovely day.

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  8. 400 reviews? I wonder how many reviews I've written; I'd be too afraid to count honestly. I'm sticking to my review schedule because I crave organization and order, but I definitely sounds like mini reviews are jam. Have you considered doing list reviews or "likes" v "dislikes"?

    You'll find your happy place, I'm sure!

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  9. I get it. Sometimes I totally don't feel like writing reviews. I think that is why sometimes I do more mini reviews. Just to get some quick thoughts out and share them. I also like reading a little shorter reviews. I agree my reviews get the least amount of views, not that anything gets a ton but you know what I mean. Hope you find something that works for you!

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  10. This happened to me last year as well! I took break from blogging for a year and stopped reviewing every book I read. It definitely helped. Now I write review only when I feel truly inspired to do so (positively or negatively), requets minumum ARCs and have no posting schedule. It helps a lot and joy from reviewing and blogging is back :) It also shows on my blog numbers - my reviews may be sporadic but they always get enough views and comments. Good luck with finding your own balance!

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  11. I'm drafted a "self-care" post that comes up next week because unfortunately in March and April I have seen many bloggers unhappy about their blogging. I don't pretend to know the solution. I'm just sharing some tips that helped me. I was going through the same for more than a year and that's why I Stopped blogging, then started another blog then I came back to my current blog and re-branded it. I totally get what you say AJ! I cannot keep up with reviewing all the books I read! That's why I'm only posting maybe one review a month. Then I post maybe two other posts where I group mini reviews. Hope you find a method and rhythm that works for you AJ!

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  12. This happened to me a few years ago and I actually shut down a blog because I was so tired of maintaining it and it didn't feel like "me". I trashed the whole thing and took a break. What I realized in that time was that I was putting ridiculous pressure on myself to do something that no one else really cared all that much about. I decided to create a new, far less serious blog, and just do whatever the heck I wanted. I no longer spend too much time agonizing about writing long reviews that no one was reading anyway. I spit out a few thoughts and try to keep them light and fun. This worked for me. I still review everything I read but now because I want to and I'm having fun with it. The day it isn't is the day I'll reevaluate but I won't ever trash my entire blog again! That was a bit dramatic. Some of my reviews actually get a lot of views, more than I'd ever expect. My top monthly posts are almost always two reviews and a wrap-up or discussion post. My all time top views are 2 discussion posts and a feature written by an author. Do what makes you happy! That's lame advice but it's worked for me.

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  13. I can totally relate to this. I don't spend all that much time on actually writing reviews which may be a whole other problem. I have found myself seeking out books that I don't review such as re-reads just so I can experience a book without writing a review. And you are right in that reviews are not as popular on the blog as other posts. You should make whatever changes feel right. You can always change it again later if you want.

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  14. First of all, very much can relate. Second of all, even though I also write giant reviews, I find that I usually prefer reading ones that are shorter and more to the point...mini-reviews are appealing!

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  15. I'm personally not a fan of reviews, I generally don't read them and I really hate writing them! Literally the only books I review are ARCS, that's it. I feature the other books I read through my weekly wrap ups and the various memes that I do. I give all of my read books star ratings on Goodreads and might include a quick blurb if the book generated an intense reaction from me, but reviews... nope.
    So all of that is basically my way of saying, write what you enjoy. If that means you post less frequently because you're not posting reviews, so be it.

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  16. Reviews are hard to write, and they are not my most popular posts either. I have more success with my Nutshell Reviews. They are shorter and I feature 3 books in each post. There is bound to be something that appeals to someone. Mixing up the format keeps me from going nuts too. In addition, I mix in non-review books with review books. Unless I am featuring a non-review book on the blog, I write a much shorter reaction type review for Goodreads. Shorter reviews seem to appeal to more people too.

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  17. If you're not using your reviews to show off your writing skills to potential employers, you can probably shorten them quite a bit. I think you write good reviews, but they shouldn't be taking over your free time.

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  18. That GIF kills me. I just had to start with that cause I laughed. But on to your topic- yeah I get it. Reviewing every book is tough, and time consuming, and I definitely read more now since blogging. And yes the # of book read goes up every year, seems like. Great point! At what point is it NOT sustainable for us to keep the pace? And do we want/ need to?

    I see a lot of people doing mini- reviews now, and I'm going to do a few of them. You're so right- the amount of time we put in vs # of views for book reviews isn't always worth it. I've thought about only doing reviews for books I'm really excited to talk about, but haven't decided. And I don't actually mind long reviews, and sometimes I like to write em too, but I guess mini or long, if it's a book I'm interested in I'll definitely read it. Anyway... good luck with whatever you decide!

    Oh and I highly recommend Pinterest as a complete time suck (ha ha) it will eat your life. I lost two hours to it last night just scrolling through pics.

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  19. I definitely understand this. I try to have a schedule for reviews, but I don't force it. I'd like to review at least 2 books a week, but you know what. Sometimes it just doesn't happen. And that's ok!! This week the only book I read and reviewed was a novella. But I'm perfectly fine with that.

    Can I say I'm a bit jealous? Lol. My blog has been around for 2 years more than yours and you have double the amount of reviews I do! Lol. I have I think around 225-250 reviews. I don't review everything I read though. I review most, but not all. Some books I just don't know what to say about it.

    I like the idea of mini reviews. I've toyed around with the idea but I feel like I'd have a hard time condensing my thoughts. I was thinking right now maybe I'd start with mini reviews for novella's or short stories and work my way up from that. I seem to have better luck condensing my thoughts on those compared to full books at the moment.

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  20. I can definitely relate to your review crisis! I don't particularly enjoy writing reviews, and they do perform worst in terms of page views and comments, but they seem like such a staple of book blogging that you feel as if you have to do them.
    I was having this crisis a while back and decided to start doing the mini review thing, and do two or three books per post and condense my reviews down (although I'm not very good at keeping my mini-reviews mini...they've been creeping up to about 600 words each!). It's been working for me so far, so I can definitely recommend that approach! Best of luck with it! :)

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  21. I think on some level, all books bloggers can relate to this. I've been there and done the 'forced / highly scheduled' blogging, and in many ways it does suck the fun out of book blogging. I'm a firm believer in re-evaluating when something doesn't feel right, as you are here, and finding what does work for you.

    With the vast number of books you read a year, reviewing each and every one seems like madness to me (ha!), but that's probably because I only review books I absolutely love and want to shove at other people to read.

    I personally don't have a preference to long or short reviews, however I will say that I do tend to not read posts if they have multiple book reviews in the one - with the exception of this being wrap up style posts.

    I'm not a big stats person, but from my minimal knowledge, review posts tend to be some of the least viewed posts in the community as a whole.

    I hope you find what works for you, and bring that reviewing joy back!

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  22. Great post! I think you could definitely cut down on reviewing for a while? Since my hiatus I've taken on a much more relaxed attitude towards my posts. I try to publish more discussions or participate in memes instead of trying to squeeze out x reviews per week. So take it easy for a while! Don't force anything on yourself.

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  23. I've never enjoyed writing reviews as they seem to take me hours to do. I'm still going to do them though but I like to complain about it! I went through a recent crisis where I had to evaluate both my blogging and reading but I seem to have come through it ok, other than not reading anything much recently. I don't have a schedule for reviews, just doing it when I feel like it. If I have little to say on a few books I do a post with several mini reviews but most are full length. I prefer reading longer reviews as the blogger has more to say and I'm more likely to get a good idea of what the book is about. I do review everything I read.

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  24. You are not alone (cue sappy Michael Jackson song). I review *most* of the books I read (but not all) and it’s a time-consuming process. Sometimes I enjoy it and sometimes I feel like I’m rehashing the same words and feelings and format over and over again (yawn). So I *try* to shake things up by occasionally using different formats. Sometimes I do mini-reviews (two books per post with short and to the point reviews), sometimes I do bullet points, sometimes I do a more general What I Liked and What I Didn’t Like type review. Reviewing doesn’t seem as monotonous that way. Even so, I’ve never understood why review posts are like the red-headed step child in the blogging world. I enjoy reading reviews. Am I the lone wolf? If it’s a book I’ve read (or am interested in), I’m excited to find out what others thought of it and what they got out of it. But even if it’s something I’m not interested in and will likely not read, I still find it interesting to see what the book is about and what the reviewer generally thought. You never know when something new might strike your fancy.

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  25. I recently started doing A LOT more mini-reviews for just this reason. I don't want to feel like I'm forcing myself to write a review! I only do regular reviews for books that I really WANT to write a lot about nowadays (or if I'm doing a tour). Otherwise, the mini-reviews make me happier. I'm also just plain blogging less lately. That stressed me out at first, but I'm learning to accept that I just can't do everything!

    Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

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  26. You are so not alone! And wow, reviewing every book you read sounds exhausting. I started my blog fairly recently because I thought forcing myself to write book reviews would help me to approach my reading in a more thoughtful and intentional way (I was like a machine before and often got book hangovers). Although I love reading and reading culture, from the get-go I never particularly liked writing reviews. It was like homework I assigned myself! Of course I started to burn out (even though I've only been blogging for a few months and have only written like 5 reviews ha ha), so I've decided to lower the bar a bit for myself. Now I will only write a review for one of the few ARCs I get or a book I feel really strongly about, and honestly, I know they're nowhere as good as some of the other ones I've seen. I don't have time to come up with my own synopsis (mine are straight from Goodreads), and I don't write a lot or know how to use a lot of the cool words (my husband makes fun of me and says I just need to throw in something like "good sense of place" to sound like I know what I'm talking about). I focus more on how a book makes me feel and my own personal experience with it rather than try to make some grand statement. That's really about all I can do now! I do try to write little blurbs for most of the books I read on GR, and I'll use those blurbs for mini-reviews on The Sunday Post. I homeschool my two kids, so many weeks all I have time for is The Sunday Post! I think I'm going to try and push myself to do mini-reviews on The Sunday Post each week, and then once a week either do a review or some sort of list or discussion post, but only one of those things since even posting twice a week is pushing it for me.

    As far as reading other bloggers' reviews, for me shorter and informal is better. I admit that I only read reviews for books I have read, want to read, or I know the blogger tends to have the same taste as me. For example, I hate all YA books but I follow a couple YA bloggers just for their awesome discussion posts, so I automatically skip their reviews. I'm a big fan of lists and mini-reviews!

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  27. It's good to see your honesty here and to realise that this is a pretty universal situation for us book bloggers!
    I'm quite happy to review every book I read, but it's because fixing my mind to write those couple of paragraphs means I stand a far better chance of remembering that I have already read a book when I see another copy in a book swap! So I guess my reviewing motives are less about viewers though it's always inspiring to see a post suddenly become popular.
    Blogging is all about the enjoyment though so if you're not enjoying 'having' to review every book, don't do it!

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  28. I went through this a year or two ago, and I made the decision to only review something I really felt like reviewing because it just drains you otherwise. If I really love something, I usually mention it a bunch of times in various other posts (weekly wrap ups/discussion posts, etc) so I'm still able to discuss the finer points of the books with people which is really why I started blogging in the first place at all anyway. I've also started mini reviews for the first time this year - they are 100% for me because I've found I'm forgetting a lot more of the books I read since I stopped reviewing them 😂

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  29. I know how you feel. Reviews are hard to write and add pressure to something that was enjoyable. I write mini reviews and longer ones but none as long as yours. My TBr is enormous and for every book I read I seem to add a new one. I still try to review most books I get but write them as soon as I finish reading. Makes it fast and easy without all of those notes. I hope you find your balance.

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  30. Well, if it makes you feel better, your stats are way higher than mine! If I write a MG review, I'll probably get 20 views. YA get more, but a high number would be 80. Only discussion posts possibly break 100 views.

    But I agree that reviewing every book read is difficult! I read many books and I certainly don't review them all--I'd be overwhelmed if I did! I don't review more specialized books I assume our audience won't be interested in, to start. And if I'm just busy or something, I also give myself permission to not write reviews during that time.

    I have tried mini reviews, thinking it would be a good way to review more books and save space on my blog for other types of posts than reviews. Views for the mini review posts don't exceed views for regular reviews and they tend to get less interaction. Maybe your audience will be different, but I was definitely surprised. I thought more books to choose from when responding would give more opportunities for commenting.

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  31. This is an amazing post and I'd be lying if I said I've never been intimidated by all the reviews I've had to write and still have to write. I write long reviews too but I must say while i've been in blogging slumps I don't think it was because I didn't enjoy writing reviews, it was because I regarded blogging as a job. I recently changed my review format to help me. I used to write extremely 'professional' reviews and realized that's not what I actually wanted to do. I wanted to just talk about my feelings regarding a book. So I ditched the stringent format and started 'talking' in my reviews.

    I also stopped having a schedule. It only made me feel pressured. Now i write reviews my way whenever i want and it's made the process a lot better :) I like both kind of reviews by the way! :)

    Uma@Books.Bags.Burgers.

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  32. I have definitely had a blogging crisis, back when I had a week when pretty much every teacher decided that we need to do a project or essay. I didn't even have much time to read, never mind write reviews.

    My schedule is still quite busy, so I try my best to post a review every week on Friday and then do an occasional TTT post. Works for me so far! For the books that I don't feel like writing a full review for, I usually only give a star rating on Goodreads or post a two sentence review on there.

    Oh, and I definitely prefer mini reviews, but that's mainly because I like to read a book without knowing (ideally) anything about what's in it. Short reviews usually don't have much explanation of the plot in them, which I greatly appreciate for that reason :D

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  33. I might not be much help because I'm at a point where I still love reviewing. But when I started my blog, I never planned to review every book. As I've been blogging longer, I've found myself reviewing more and more of the books I read, but if I read a book that I feel meh about and don't want to review and it's not a review copy, then I just don't review it. So I do think you should give yourself a break and not worry about reviewing books if you just don't feel like it. But I feel this post in the sense that I need to figure out how to make my review posts easier. I always include too much info, and it takes more time, but I don't want to get rid of any of the info... Idk. Dilemma lol.

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  34. There are definitely times when I don't feel like reviewing a book I just read (and I have to review it right after I read it or else I forget some things). It shows too, I think, when I write the review even when I'm not feeling it. I usually try to power through and write the review anyway. Maybe I shouldn't do that? But I just don't like having read a book and then not putting a review up for it, especially since my reading time is so limited these days.

    --Sam @ Sharing Inspired Kreations

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  35. I only write reviews when I finish a book and have something I want to say about it. Your reviews are nearly the only ones I ready though, because I find your book choices and thoughts interesting. You rarely just summarize a book, and you are very specific in your comments. Obviously you need to do whatever makes you happy, but I'd vote for doing occasional reviews of books that really inspire you to write about them.

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  36. I totally know what you mean. I think mini reviews and also random reviewing with no schedule are both good ideas. Reviewing takes so much time. It should be fun, not a chore so taking time off is also good.

    I had a blogging crisis after like 8 years of blogging, I left blog-land. I shut it down for a while. At one point my blog posts were stolen and all re-posted on some spam site so that was the last straw for me. Seeing my reviews and my pics on some spam site.

    Now that I am back, it's been two years back, and I don't put pressure on myself and am much happier with it. I used to do ALOT of review requests, and blog tours, and guest posts and promoting and it got overwhelming. I started to re-evaluate that part of book blogging because why do so much work, and spend so much time, for no pay really? I was posting daily, promoting authors. I'd go away on vacation but have to schedule my posts for the week ahead of time so my blog was still going while I was away. I don't do that anymore and I am very selective about book review requests.

    It's all about balance. Now, if I want to review a book, I will, if I don't, I won't. No pressure.
    Just do what makes you happy. :)

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  37. I used to write a review for every single book I read, but now I can't keep up. I do still write a few lines and most never make it to the blog - I write my mini reviews for myself. The main reason I started reviewing was to remember what I read, after all. But you could always do more mini reviews or just write about the books you feel the urge to review. If you don't like it any more, you don't have to do it!

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  38. Yes, I'm in a constant reviewing crisis. I have no solutions, but I definitely don't review most of the books I read. I need to come up with a more consistent plan of what does and doesn't get reviewed so I don't have to face the stress of it.

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  39. So much yes. Like I don't know if I could agree more. I was like you, used to review almost everything I read, but then I started to read too much! Now, I review pretty much only review books (and I will fully admit that a big part of why I still request review copies is because if I don't *have* to post a review... I won't- so it's actually the way I make myself still write SOME reviews). But yeah- they definitely get lower views no question. And sometimes they're downright painful to write- I actually just wrote one where I was like "sorry for the crappy review but I have no feelings about this". And no one wants to read that over and over, right?

    I have no schedule, and I don't review books I read for funsies, unless I really want to. Mini reviews are definitely my friend. And yes, I think I am in the midst of a blogging crisis right now, actually. I just get angry that I have to be bothered with it at all, which is sad.

    Also please do not become a skiing mime. Extra also, if you figure out Pinterest, let me know, I don't get it either. Third also, you should try a fandom! How about... The 100???

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  40. I have been having a similar crisis for the last few months. Basically, I just want to read, and write my own book. But because I got so behind on ARCs, I feel an obligation to get those read and either reviewed or send feedback. But I just don't really want to review as much as I used to. Like you, I read some really random historical stuff. It's interesting to me, but not everyone else and I get it. I have been exploring the short review route too, and will probably do that going forward, once the ARCs are done. I'd rather save the big reviews for books I loved, much like you - unless the book is about a subject I love that the author got horribly, horribly wrong. THEN, yes, I will write a scathing review. But otherwise, I'm kind of over it.

    Skiing mimes are weird. Don't do that.

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  41. Eeep I'm sad but I do understand! I mean, I sometimes don't feel like reviewing as much anymore?! I think it's because I'm trying to not do negative reviews, being an author now, and I do miss it. 😂 (I FEEL BAD FOR SAYING THAT.) And since I'm not reviewing EVERYTHING like I used to, sometimes writing reviews is a bit of a "woaaah how do I do this again" moment. I still love it, but I can't deny it's depressing how little views the posts get on blogs?! For being BOOK bloggers, reviewing is like the worst thing we can do according to our stats.😂 UGH IT'S FRUSTRATING. Even when I have giveaways with my reviews they do so badly!?? Someone tell me the magical wizardry behind this too I'd love to know.😂

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  42. Yup. Been there done that. I post reviews every day (although sometimes I do back date posts). 365 to 366 reviews per year for the last decade. Here's what I've given up over that time: ARCs and egalleys, most weekly meme type posts, and giveaways. They were all stressing me out. I have gone from having everything I'm going to read and review scheduled for months in advance to having nothing scheduled, to where I am now which is somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. I also give myself time to write about stuff that interests me: like my road narrative project. As far as stats, I know I have a core daily readership even though comments happen most frequently on the Monday meme post. I also have a second base of users through social media (primarily Twitter) and Google searches.

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  43. So much yes! I'm not here yet but I can feel myself ramping up to some kind of similar crisis and have trying to figure out what to do. How do I talk about a book in a way that kind of counts as a review but isn't actually a review in a way that would be informative and fun? Because it's not like I don't want to talk about books it's just that I want to shake things up a bit but I just don't know how. Plus there's also the problem with how do I review a book that I just don't have all that much to say about it? I'm absolutely no help but I understand so maybe that helps?

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  44. I think this is a great post. I think we all have mixed feelings about writing reviews, because like you said, they are often among the least-viewed posts. I like to read reviews for books I've already read, to see if the reviewer felt the same way I did, and I tend to have more to add to the conversation; also, books that I might be reading soon or look particularly interesting.

    I don't review every book I read. That would be too much; I've cut down reviews to one day per week, and sometimes I do mini-reviews. I still think reviews are important, but am always looking for ways to make them more interesting.

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