Bookish Musings - Reviewing: What, How, Why and When..

Bookish Musings is a feature here at Beautiful Bookish Butterflies that allows one of us to share our thoughts and opinions, talk and discuss things happening in the book and blogging community or share a personal book related issue we have. Today, Amanda is talking about how her reading and reviewing habits have changed recently, and how now, she's not reviewing every book she reads.. say what?

Today, as I'm writing this post, it's the 20th August 2014. I have read 8 Graphic Novels, 13 Novellas and 104 Novels in 2014 so far. I've posted 79 book reviews, 5 film reviews and have 24 book reviews planned in advance which takes me up to 3 November. I have a plan, I am organised in my own little crazy way and I've now started asking myself; what do I review?

They were some nice statistics if I do say so, I'm pretty impressed with myself, but anyhow, the point of this post is that I don't know what to review anymore. Without giving too much away, there are some big changes coming Book Badger's way in the New Year which means, if I'm being clever, I cannot and will not plan any posts past the 21st December (when I schedule my Christmas Blogging Break.) I know, you've done the maths - 'Amanda, if you're planned up until November and you're taking a break 21st December, that only leaves you 6 weeks left to plan posts, right?' Right you are you lil' mathematician you. I now have 6 weeks left where I can publish posts until I go poof for a while, and I actually plan to have the two weeks before that break, 7th - 21st December, taken up with seasonal reviews and discussions, which therefore only leaves me with 4 weeks to post whatever the hell I like. This is where the problem lies..


I am reading more books than I have time to review. Most bloggers would not complain about this, they would be dancing and partying until late in the morning with their books in hand, boogying along in happiness, but me? I can't. There is no way I can only read the amount of books I have room left to review, it's impossible, I can't do it, which is why I don't know what to review. I already made the decision quite early in the year that I wouldn't review the graphic novels I read this year on Book Badger; the reviews were shorter than my usual and really, it's more difficult to find coherent words when reviewing something that lacks words itself, (however, The girls at Book Nerd Reviews manage to review graphic novels and comics really well, you should check them out,) so I put to reviewing them on Goodreads instead, which meant more content for my friends and followers on there. I love graphic novels and I love reading them, but there just wasn't enough time or space on Book Badger to spread that love far and wide and it's a shame, because I'd love to encourage more people to read them.

Then very recently, I read The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan and found myself once again, torn. This time, it wasn't about whether I had enough words to review that book, the issue was whether I would have enough space on Book Badger to review not only that book, but the follow two books in the series and I figured, no, I don't have the room, or the time, not unless I started doubling my posts per day, and I really, logically don't have time for that with college on the way. I could have reviewed them on Goodreads instead, but really, something clicked in me and I decided, no, I wasn't going to review these books at all.


That change of heart got me thinking about why I reviewed every book I read. Was it something I felt I had to do, was it something I promised I would do, was it something I really wanted to do and the answer to all of those questions was no. No, I don't have to. No, I didn't promise anyone I would. No, I really don't want to review every book I've read, at least, not always, or not always to the extent that I do. So what has happened to the Red Pyramid? I took it back the library and now have the sequel, Throne of Fire, which I also, won't review. It's a mad decision, a tough decision, but really, it feels like the right decision, I don't know how many people would be genuinely interested in those reviews, I don't know whether people would rather have a collective series review of those books or whether they'd rather I personally recommended it to them, because I know that they would like this book, not lots of other people, but reviewing every book I read isn't part of the plan anymore.

So what do I review, and how should I fill up those four weeks worth of space? By the time we've reached November, my reviews for Vampire Academy, Frostbite and Shadow Kiss will have published, so, do I continue to post the sequels reviews within those four weeks? I'll also more than likely have ARC's by then, with their release dates during or close to those four weeks, do I save the dates for those books? And what of my own books, and library books, which of those should I review in those four weeks? What books that I'll read between now then are worthy enough of those dates? What books do people actually want to see?


Okay, not quite a meltdown, but I am seriously confused as to what I should do now.. If I decided to vary them and review some books on Goodreads instead of Book Badger during those four weeks and in the future, would you go with that and follow/friend me there? If I started doing collective series reviews for trilogies or duologies I've marathoned, would that be better than having two separate reviews or would you rather have them apart so you can actually read them and feel comfortable? Would you rather have a collection of mini reviews each month, with quick snippet reviews on more books? Over the seasonal time of year, what books do you actually feel interested in more, the new releases that you can ask for for Christmas, or some oldies that I'm finally getting around to? I've never really enjoyed it when bloggers ask their readers and viewers what they like, it makes me feel like this is less my blog written for me and more a blog written for you, to me, it's both, but right now, I need you to keep me sane.

How do you decide what to review? Do you review every book you read or do you just review some and if so, how do you choose? Why do you review books? How many books have you read this year? Have I just had a meltdown? Let me know down below..