The Book Tempting Confession

I remember sitting in my house 20 years ago once and saying wow I have twelve books that’s a lot to catch up on…these days its more shelves and shelves.

Now usually I like a TBR pile – I’m a mood reader and having lots of available choices are part of the fun and it is nice to remember ooh I have that to read. But I always used to joke I have so many books in case of national disaster… dear reader I did not eliminate my TBR pile during the pandemic. Like everyone work went strange especially as in my workplace we adapted to working from home and the projects I was on needed a lot of setting up. The last two years I’ve read more than I’ve ever have before and yet the pile is still there. I’m being honest here not going on a book-buying freeze and as a reviewer there are ARCS; I’ve done my annual check through the shelves eliminated duplicates; removed books I’ve no idea why I picked up and let go those reads I honestly know I will never read again or hold no nice memories for me, but I need to work on Mount TBR this year.

Three reasons have come around

1 – Practicality – I have a certain amount of book space and this is looking creaky. I don’t want an entire house of unread bookshelves meaning all my pictures and natural light go. I need to get through some stuff or next year there will be painful pruning required

2- I hit 45 – I can no longer deny I am not middle aged and having some books over ten years waiting feels wrong. There are going to be decades of books (hopefully) to come so let me be kind to them too.

3 – Abandonment - I heard this podcast and there was a comment that kindles are where books go to die. I love my e-reader it is great for reviewing and was a useful way to multi-task last few years too but I’m conscious I’m not fully aware whatso in there anymore. I’ve found a load of good novellas I’ve not got round to. This feels a bit silly, so some digital tidy-ups are also needed for this womble.

And that’s why you may find over this year a lot of older stuff coming up in reviews. A good TBR I heard is like a vineyard you need to know when the crops are ready; keep them healthy and know when to harvest them. Mine felt a little overblown and what kind of book tempter would I be if I didn’t do that to myself as much as I do it to yours?

Halfway through January and so far 12 reads done

6 -ARCs

6- Purchases

Next week is ARC heavy due to a big number of releases all at the same time but a few gems to come or in progress. Yes, I do read several books at once! Hopefully, I can keep this up. Tell me in the comments what are your thoughts on TBRs

Is there such a thing as a bad book?

This week I read this great article by Matthew Claxton at this link Unsettling Futures - Colouring inside the lines of the genre | Revue (getrevue.co) now this feels very much targeted at authors but I completely agree with the idea read lots of types of books. I totally want authors who finding the market is not giving the story they want to tell us that story that is in their heads. That’s how genre thrives. Well worth your time.

What I found more interesting and got me thinking is the comment is that the community doesn’t like to flag bag books. Having a think about this and I’m not sure that is true. Firstly, you will always see some books get a bad review but more importantly its not really for bloggers to have to go into each read and say so. Speaking personally, I have two types of bad reviews.

Books I find using offensive stereotypes are for me the hugely problematic ones I will blog about– A recent example was Stranger Times I reviewed this year. Another is before the Coffee Gets Cold where I found this super cosy time travel tale to be full of sexist attitudes to women getting out of line. Those reviews come from me being pretty much angry. Not always a great state to have and interesting both books have sequels already – have I turned a few potential readers away or a I just a demented bitter womble. But those are books I find actively harmful and think you dear reader should be warned about.

The more common bad read commits the only sin of being boring. Insert A goes into slot B and I feel absolutely nothing. The moment the book goes the memories begin to fade away. Now in those cases I will probably decide to review or not based around was it on netgalley or not. I don’t expect every book to shatter the paradigm but at least give me a hook in ideas, prose, character or setting that is what makes me happy I’m not greedy

Why does Netgalley get a casting vote? Basically, this online review tool has a guide for how good the blogger is for reviewing. A low score means you probably won’t publish any reviews, and this limits what you can request in the future. Its in my interest to ensure a blog comes out. Whereas something that isn’t I’d probably not do so. You’ll spot these reviews and I think you’ll tell my enthusiasm and calling out of predictableness suggests not a read many will want.

So, let us say this boring generic book isn’t on netgalley why wouldn’t I warn people about it. Well, I don’t want to waste an hour of my life writing it up frankly these reviews are a chore to write up and I am not paid to do it – my free time is precious. I’ve a pile of other stuff to read and also effectively this review is only saying I didn’t enjoy the book. That’s where reviews we need to remember are subjective so what if Runalong The Shelves didn’t enjoy it? I can see this was competently written went through editors and beta readers and failed for me to deliver much. I started the blog to talk about good books not mediocre ones and I suspect that is the same for many bloggers we would much rather say - READ THIS one in a very busy marketplace than call a boring one out. If word of mouth sells best then I’d rather focus on the ones you want to promote is my view. I’m not going to change a writer or publishing house saying what this book does wrong. Books I do not enjoy including The Martian, Harrow The Ninth and The House In The Cerulean Sea – all these books incidentally regardless of my opinion have huge fandoms and sales. This is simply showing my tastes are not universal so I can all them out on style, plot and character but I’m aware that’s me not everyone and I’d rather that week write five reviews on good books rather than basically say this week I picked a bummer. I just can’t really say these are bad books the offensive and problematic ones are where I draw lines.

For me the genre is massively healthy and doing interesting things and that is what I am more interested in talking about and for there is a tonne to get to. If you think every book isn’t working for you then my basic advice is you may need to read a different genre for a bit; or rely on the books of the past. It is not the genre it is your current reading tastes I’m afraid that are the problem. But one thing I’ve learned in my years reading is the tastes will always keep changing. Who knows what next year will bring? That’s the fun of book blogging for me. So do you enjoy bad book reviews?