This article was inspired by the Let’s Talk Bookish topic hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books and Dani @ Literary Lion and this week January 15-211, suggested by ME:
Bookish Memes: Are they worthwhile or are they worthless?
Examples of questions you can answer: “How many bookish memes do you participate in? Do you enjoy working on them? Do you interact with other people’s weekly meme posts? Do you feel like the amount of interaction you get makes the time spent on the posts worth it?”
Disclaimer:
These are my personal opinions. I do not expect anyone to agree with anything here, and in fact, I’m certain that many will disagree and/or even hate many of the things I’ve written below. Sorry about that, but you are always welcome to express your own opinions – be they contrary or comparable – in the comments section below. With that out of the way…
How many bookish Memes do you participate in?
Not that many, I believe. My favorite is #6Degrees of Separation which is a monthly meme that happens on the first Saturday of every month, and I’m totally faithful to that one. I sometimes participate in the Tuesday memes – both #TopTenTuesday and #Top5Tuesday, but I don’t do them every week, only when the inspiration hits me. Then there’s my own #ThrowbackThursday meme, which I schedule for the Thursday before #6Degrees. Other than that, there are these posts – Let’s Discuss and Let’s Talk Bookish, which again, I only do when I feel inspired or need a filler – but I don’t really consider them to be memes, per se. I’ve also done a few other real memes like the Wednesday ones (such as Waiting on Wednesday), Teaser Tuesday, and First Line Friday, but very rarely.
Do you enjoy working on them?
Yes, I do actually. I particularly love doing the #6Degrees one, even though that’s the hardest one to write – it takes some thought. As for the others, they’re mostly easy to do so they are fun when you want to put something up and you don’t
Do you interact with other people’s weekly meme posts?
I certainly try to interact with others when they do theirs, but I must admit that because of my recent move, things have been hectic, so I’ve been a touch derelict with my interactions lately – please forgive me. Once this new place is all set up and I don’t have boxes to empty and pictures to hang up, I’ll be better, I promise!
Do you feel like the amount of interaction you get makes the time spent on writing these posts worth it?
I actually have found that these posts get very good traffic to my blog, and I’m always seeing an uptick in visits and likes when I post them. Not all of them garner me a whole lot more comments, although #6Degrees and these discussion posts always do see more of them. So yes, I do think it is worth it to do these memes, and I never feel like I’ve wasted my time when I’m getting some kind of writing done!
So… what do you think?
Do you think we’re wasting our time with all these bookish meme posts, or are they a worthwhile way to interact with other bloggers and keep our creative juices flowing between book reviews?
This post is also my 1st entry for the 2021 Discussion Challenge, hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight!
Their sign-up post for 2021 can be found here (please consider this my sign-up post).
Their January 2021 Link Up page and Giveaway can be found here.
The Chocolate Lady's Book Review Blog 
I love #6 degrees as you know, but besides that I do very few memes, and I read very few. I think they do generate traffic but for me most of them are ultimately unsatisfying. The occasional Top Ten might interest me if the actual topic does, but these memes are never-ending and so many are weekly which is just too frequent for me to manage keeping up with reading. There’s no way I could keep up with writing them.
I have my own Monday Musings, but I don’t regard that as a meme as it’s not something that I set up for other people do too. It’s my little weekly column.)
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I’ve seen those… and I’ve even thought of doing one myself (but I’d obviously link back to you if I did)!
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I participate in memes whenever I can remember to prepare a post. They are not a top priority for my blog.
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I agree that memes are great IF they’re something you’re already interested in. I used to do the 6 Degrees meme, and I really enjoyed that one. I’ll confess that I just kind of forgot about it when I got busy. I also appreciate TTT when it’s a topic I like. Those posts do tend to bring visitors. The key is to participate in memes that you like and don’t worry about the rest!
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Very true!
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As you know, I too like Six Degrees and I do a couple of other memes as well, but only occasionally. I use memes for variety and TTT sometimes have some good prompts. WWW works well as fillers, when I don’t have time / energy to write reviews. When I started blogging, I had no clue what I was doing most of the time and I found memes a useful way to get to “meet” other bloggers.
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Yes, they do help us connect, so they can’t be a total waste of time.
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I tend to do my own, except for the 6 Degrees one, which I don’t do every month but always enjoy reading other people’s. I quite like the WWW ones to get a peek at what people are reading, though I don’t do them myself. Actually anything with books lists is good for generating comments I find, since it gives people a choice of things to discuss. My TBR Thursday post is the one which probably generates most consistent viewing and commenting on the day, while my Tuesday Terror posts, on vintage horror short stories, for some reason generate a phenomenal amount of google traffic long after posting day. I’ve never understood the reason for that…
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Interesting. And go figure Google traffic. There’s one review I have from 2013 that gets traffic ALL the time – practically every day I get hits for that one, and I have NO idea why!
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I participate in several bookish memes, but I am like you Davida, not every week. If there is a topic that calls to me on Top Ten Tuesday, then I participate. Again, if there is a new book coming out by a favourite author and I have just found out, then I will post Waiting on Wednesday etc. They do tend to get more traffic, especially if you link to the person who hosts through linky etc. I do visit those types of posts to see what others are reading and if those books interest me. I just started doing Six Degrees of Separation this month and hope to continue, it does take more time, but it gets me thinking about books I read and loved in the past. Great post Davida and I hope things get settled for you soon. Moving is always so busy.
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I hope you continue with Six Degrees too… I love it! Thanks about the move… fingers crossed things will straighten out soon!
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I’ve never really done them, but I don’t know why not!
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I’m still relatively new, and I found the bookish memes to be a great way to introduce me to other members of the community. I found a lot of great blogs to follow and I think it brought some traffic to my site. And I agree that I think they are fun to write, though I’ve only started with the WWW Wednesday meme. I plan to pick up some others as well. Thanks for the insightful post!
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You’re welcome!
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Ok…I see now that you have one post for two memes! So the discussion challenge can be whatever?
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Right!
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Sorry I was thinking out loud!!! 😂😂😂 but I want to participate some this year!
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You are welcome to join as much as you like!
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I do some memes and I do see that they drive additional traffic! I actually prefer memes that require some thought and I don’t enjoy memes that only list book covers that are blue (for example). Overall I think it’s good to provide a variety of posts….followers like them and I enjoy a break from reviews!
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I actually intend to give this one a try in 2021!
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Question: is Discussion Challenge different from Let’s Talk Bookish??? I went to Discussion challenge post and didn’t see any topics listed. Is it weekly or monthly?
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The discussion challenge has no topics, just a way to encourage discussion posts on our blogs – but everyone is free to discuss whatever they want. Let’s Talk Bookish gives people discussion topics for every week as a way to give bloggers ideas for discussion posts.
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As I have just finished typing up one that will be posted tomorrow…lol… I do think they are worth it. Those are the ones where I have the best discussions, I learn something about my followers and they learn something about me. We might not all like the same genre of books, but we are all interested in each other as people who live life with all of its craziness and who happen to love the written (or spoken) word. ❤️
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Excellent point!
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I enjoy doing Waiting On Wednesday, largely because it helps me notice/remember/plan for the upcoming books that appeal to me 😊
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I have my response to this one scheduled for Saturday because we have Classic Remarks on Friday, but I basically said I don’t really do memes. We used to do some, and I think they did get decent views, as you mention, but I don’t find most of them that interesting to write anymore.
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Fair enough.
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