Well, the weekly link-up I used to participate in on Wednesdays seems to have disappeared (I’d link you, but it’s a blank page now, so there’s really no point!). On the plus side, it gave me a reason to look around for a new link-up or two to try. I’ll be giving Book Blogger Hop a go, and we’ll see how we get on. It’s similar in that it has weekly discussion prompts, but they’re more book focused than the Wednesday posts were. Book Blogger Hop is also a weekly prompt, so you can share your posts on any day you choose during the week. I’m going to have two in a row this week as I’m catching up, so I’ll be posting on Fridays from now on.
This week’s prompt is our method for writing reviews – whether we write them as we’re reading, right after we finish a book, or if we wait a while before writing them to let the book settle. I aim to be one of the first two, but more often than not I don’t find time to write a review right when I finish a book. This means I often forget finer details, can’t remember any passages I might have wanted to refer to and sometimes even forget character names. I never forget my impressions of the book though, and if anything really stood out to me about it that I either loved or didn’t love, that will also remain. Some books I write fairly soon after finishing – within a week – and very occasionally I’ll write the review within a day. Sometimes I have time to write, but it’s a book I need to think over and, if possible, find someone to talk to about it. Recently this happened with Hell of a Book and The Trees. Neither book followed any familiar format, and yet both had a huge impact on me. It’s taken me some time to work through my thoughts, go back and revisit parts, and really think through what I might be missing (though I know there’s still more that went over my head in each). I’ve now written drafts of both reviews, and am letting them sit. This is another common thing – to write a review but then leave it for a while before publishing so I have time to revisit and edit it.
I don’t really think I’m that good at book reviews these days – they don’t get much traffic and I don’t think anyone would really care that much if I stopped doing them. But mostly I write them so I can revisit my reading journey, and so my kid can read my thoughts on books later in life, particularly if I’m not around to talk about them or have forgotten them. I don’t know if it’ll ever be useful for that, but I know I always loved knowing what my grandmother had read (I found some of my favourite books in the shelf she kept of recently finished books in her spare room) and felt more of a kinship with her because of it, though we weren’t really close otherwise. Books can be a great way to connect. I also like being able to go back to my original reaction when I re-read a book so I can see if my opinions have changed at all with the intervening time and experiences. That’s always an interesting thing to do!
What about you guys? Do you write reviews of your books? Do you usually do it right away or do you need time for the book to settle? Do you forget any details if you don’t write it immediately?
The Book Blogger Hop is a weekly blog link-up that gives participants a different book-related question to ponder each week, and allows them to share their thoughts, find new blogs to follow and connect with new readers. The Hop was originally created by Jennifer at Crazy for Books and is now hosted by Billy at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. To see a list of upcoming prompts go here.