This article was inspired by the Let’s Talk Bookish topic hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books and Dani @ Literary Lion and this week February 26-March 4, 2021, suggested by Mini @ Book and Corner:
How has blogging affected your reading?
Examples of questions you can answer: “Has blogging affected your reading in a positive or negative way? If so, how? Do you think the pressures to produce content can result in a bad relationship with books? How do you balance blogging and reading? Do you think you would have started blogging if it weren’t for books or vice versa?”
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…
Has blogging affected your reading in a positive or negative way? If so, how?
Neither and both, to be honest. On the one hand, if I wasn’t blogging, I wouldn’t be getting all these ARCs to read and review. Now, I’m the type of person who takes on responsibilities very seriously. So, if I’ve asked for an ARC and I’ve been given permission to read it, I am going to move heaven and earth to finish that book and get a review out on time (meaning: as close to the publication date as I possibly can). That puts some pressure on me to read more, especially if I’ve got a whole lot of ARCs to read in one month or if I’ve gotten a particularly long ARC to get through before the publication date.
On the other hand, I’m not changing what I read because of my blog, and I’m not going to be forced to read certain books because of some new or popular literary trend. I’m retired, remember. That means I’m old, and settled in my ways, and I don’t want to change (no new tricks for this old dog). So, I will read what I want, and how I want to read them, and if that makes me a bad person, or just a cranky old woman, then so be it! I’m not sure if that is positive or negative or neutral! You tell me.
Do you think the pressures to produce content can result in a bad relationship with books?
No, I do not! My relationship with books remains the same. Mind you, pressures to produce content can result in a bad relationship with the damned calendar! Now that I’m retired, I’m trying to make sure that I post three times a week. But I don’t like posting on consecutive days (I always feel that people will get sick of seeing my posts and not bother to read them)! So, I might not have a review ready for at least one of the posts. That means I have to go looking for something to write about – including discussion topics like this one, or any of the memes or lists or other discussion ideas! My regular readers also know that I’ve even gone so far as to post some of my original poetry. All of that has nothing to do with my relationship with books and creating content, but just creating content in general. (By the way, I like to schedule as many posts as I can, and well in advance, if possible. That’s pressure I put on myself, I guess. It is also a way of making sure that if I go on vacation, or get busy with things, or lose my internet connection for any reason, my blog will go on without me!)
Do you think you would have started blogging if it weren’t for books or vice versa?
I’m not sure how to answer that question. I started blogging because I realized that all those PPC (pay-per-click) “content sites” that were unsustainable, and I had to give them up. That left me with a whole bunch of articles I’d written, and nowhere to put them. Also, I didn’t want to stop writing, so I started a blog, but I wasn’t sure what direction I wanted it to take. When looking over all my articles, I realized that I liked writing book reviews more than writing about anything else (and those articles were the most underappreciated on those PPC sites), I decided to use my blog to house and highlight them in particular. (That also means I have bunches of old film reviews, as well as product reviews, and articles about practically everything under the sun (even politics), all of which will probably never see the light of day again.) So I didn’t start blogging because of books, and I didn’t start reading because of my blog. I’ve always read books, and I wanted somewhere to post my writing, and the two just came together. Does that make sense?
So… what do you say?
Do you think blogging has affected the way you read or vise versa?
This post is also my 4th 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 March 2021 Link Up page and Giveaway can be found here.
The Chocolate Lady's Book Review Blog 
Neither and both seems like a great answer to this question. I definitely agree when it comes to my own blogging/reading experiences.
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I think blogging has impacted my reading in both ways. It has introduced me to A LOT more books I want to read. That’s awesome, but it’s also completely overwhelming. My “Must-Read” Pinterest board has around 600 books on it right now! I can only read 70-100 books a year.
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You still have a “must read” board there? I gave mine up a while back. I just post my reviews there now. Of course, I only read about 60 books a year so…
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I started blogging over 15 years ago about nothing in particular. Then I happened onto book blogs, and since I’m a reader, I thought “I can do that” and I did. Then I found out about ARCs and I really chased them for a while. ARCs moved to NetGalley about the time I got my first Kindle and I gradually quit chasing them and just requested NetGalleys.
Does being a blogger affect my reading? Yes, I’m much more knowledgeable about books that are coming out than I was pre-blogging. Sometimes the type of ARCs available to me does affect me reading habits–but I don’t read genres I don’t like just because ARCs are available.
Does blogging make reading seem like work? No because I’ve decided my blog is a hobby. I don’t request more NetGalleys than I can read. If I don’t want to blog, I don’t–sometimes for weeks. Does this affect my readership? Sure. But since my blog is a hobby and not a business, oh well.
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Great answers. I’ve yet to get to a stage where I don’t feel like blogging – in fact, I’m enjoying it more and more. But I could see leaving it off if I have nothing to say!
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Glad to hear the pressures to produce content haven’t affected your enjoyment. I do sometimes get stressed about it which I think affects mine. I’m getting better at relaxing though 🙂 Great post!
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I’m not really a book blogger, but I blog once or twice a month about the books I read the previous month. I probably read more books because in the back of my mind I know I want/need that material for my blog the first of the next month. I often speed up my reading near the end of a month in order to finish a book before the last day of the month. I don’t think blogging influences what I read. I never read a particular book just so I can blog about it. I’m writing a novel, but I increasingly find that reading consumes my time. There are so many good books I want to read and not enough time to read them. I love reading the blogs of book bloggers/reviewers. I get many ideas for books I want to read (or don’t want to read) from book bloggers.
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So the answer is yes, but not much! Thanks!
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I started blogging because I started writing my own books and blogging seemed a good way to expand my audience (although, I’m not sure how much that has really helped). Initially I blogged about a variety of topics — travel, family, humor bits etc. Gradually I began adding book reviews and now they are predominant on my blog.
Reviewing hasn’t changed my reading. If I don’t like a book, I move on to another. I only review the books I can be positive about.
What has changed my reading over the last few years is writing my own books. I no longer have patience for books that are poorly written. Recently, I reread a book I loved and thought was great when I was younger. Now I see how poorly written it was — all telling rather than showing. So disappointing.
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Of course, it isn’t necessarily the case that the more you read the more critical you become, but yes, writing your own books can make you more critical of other writings, as well as your own! I keep thinking I’ll write this novel I’ve had in my head and then… when I see what I’ve written, I get so disheartened that its crap!
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Oh, you mustn’t give up. Your first draft is a lump of unformed clay. It’s getting the basic ideas down. It’s when you do your rewrite(s) that the story is polished and formed into a novel. Perhaps start with a very rough outline knowing that you will make many changes and additions as you rewrite, edit, rewrite, etc. Do you have someone who can be a writing partner? I had one and that was so valuable. We sent chapters back and forth asking questions and making suggestions. We went through this process as many times as needed refining the writing, correcting typos etc until we were satisfied with the end result and then we published.
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No, I don’t have a writing partner… maybe I should look for someone to help. I do know many authors now. Hm…
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Reading for pleasure and reading for review will always be different for me now that I blog about books. Also the more that I read the more my critical eye goes into mini editor mode.
With a review request list this does focus my reading, so that I will be reading books that I wouldn’t have picked up, if I only read for pleasure.
I like being able to request ARCs and I enjoy discovering new to me, authors via other blog recommendations. I now read genres that I wouldn’t have tried and I now read a lot more books each year. So yes blogging has changed the way I read.
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When I started to write this, I wasn’t sure, but yes, it has done to some extent!
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I wouldn’t be a blogger if it weren’t for book blogging as I don’t know what else I would want to blog about. I do find myself thinking about blog posts sometimes while I read. Like, what will I rate this book, or which bloggers do I think would like this book.
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True… those things are now always in the backs of our minds when we read now.
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I think knowing what you like to read and what you don’t is an important part of a satisfying reading life! I’m growing more picky every year! Great discussion post Davida!
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I’m sometimes conscious that I’m choosing a book because I think it’d be good as the subject of a blog post, which is a bit silly because it’s not as if I’m obliged to write a review of any particular book I read. But I’ve always read a lot of books.
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I need to think about that.
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Yes, I had to think about it a bit too…
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