BOOK BLOGGER HOP

Jennifer @ Crazy-For-Books is the original creator of Book Blogger Hop. It was first created in March of 2010 and it ended on December 31st of 2012. It was relaunched again on 15th of February 2013 by @ Billy@Coffee Addicted Writer. Each week the hop starts on a Friday, and ends the following Thursday. Weekly prompts are posted in advance on the website featuring book related questions. This is an amazing avenue to find new book bloggers, learn more about them and make new friends.

This week’s prompt :

What is your method for writing reviews – do you write immediately after reading, wait a few days, or write as you are reading? (submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver’s Reviews)

Writing Reviews is what I do mostly on my blog, and because it makes up for majority of my content, I try to write reviews for all the books I read. I have a simple method of writing reviews and I make sure they are spoiler-free. For my review I start off by giving a brief intro about the details pertaining to the book and then go for a brief summary of what the book is about. After the synopsis, then I will discuss the themes, characters, plot/pacing, structure, writing, and world-building/magic system(for fantasy). With each of these aspects discussed further by giving my thoughts on what I liked and disliked about them, it gives the readers a brief idea about the book and can help them decide if they want to pick it up or not. I also sometimes like to add in GIFs to my reviews to make them more fun and interactive. I like to recommend the Usually when I recommend a book I make sure to add the highlights, the selling points, and also the intended audience for it. This way the book is likely to be noticed by someone who might be interested in the genre or the themes. Finally I summarize and add in a rating to close off the review. I like to make sure my reviews are always constructive and respectful. I don’t particularly care for negative reviews where people like to bash the book or the author, even though this has garnered more attention and there is a market for it. If I have a criticism, I like to make sure the readers understand it is just my opinion and not an objective fact. And also just because a book didn’t work for me doesn’t mean it might not work for anybody else. Once my review is live, I like to read other reviews on Goodreads and find out what others thought about the book. Reading other people’s reviews before I write one is not something I like to do, mainly because it could possibly shape my thoughts unconsciously. ?

If anyone’s interested in knowing more about my review writing process you can check out my blog post here – CLICK HERE . I pretty much follow these steps, sometimes combining a few.

Initially when I started my website, I used to read a book and review it straight after. This was to ensure I didn’t miss out anything important and also to make sure that the content will stay fresh in my mind. With all the books I read then, reviewing later would normally lead me to forget about it or delay it, especially when my TBR was big. But the problem with writing reviews right after finishing them, my feelings and emotions would be too strong and so it was difficult to think about things critically. My new strategy is to write a review after a few days (within 2 days max) of reading the book. The reasoning behind this is to let the story simmer for a bit and also give me the time to settle in with my thoughts. This way I will have a better grasp on how I feel about the book and not just the initial feeling or excitement that I would experience with each new book. I don’t think writing a review while reading a book is possible for me because it wouldn’t be a coherent one and will get confusing with the constant stream of thoughts. I like taking notes/impressions though, which I like referring to when I write my reviews.

Now however, throughout the pregnancy and after having my baby, I haven’t been as active, so writing reviews have taken a backseat to just me reading books. So at this point I have a few reviews that are pending. It’s a good thing I have written a condensed version of my thoughts on the books I read, or else I would have a hard time penning my thoughts.

What are your strategies when it comes to reviewing books? Do you guys have any particular strategy you like to strictly follow for your review writing process? I would love to know!