As some of you may know, and for those of you that guessed based on my blog's title, I do dog-ear my books. What you might not know, is that I occasionally mark my books in the margins in addition to using an obscene amount of sticky notes. If I fold the top corner, it means that's the page I'm on. If I fold the bottom corner, it's a page I want to reference later. The sticky notes are for when I have more thoughts than the margins can hold, and need additional space for words. Are you hovering over the unfollow button right now? 😉 Fear not! Your books are safe. I only do it to my own.
I'm getting sidetracked, but it's also kind of relevant? When I'm reading, I am completely absorbed in the story, and I like to keep track of my thoughts as I move through the book. Once I'm finished reading, I feel compelled to spew those thoughts from my fingertips as quickly as possible. As time passes, my immediate thoughts and feelings fade, even with my excessive note-taking. I want to write my reviews when I'm caught up in the emotions a story elicited, whether they're good or bad. I feel like it adds another layer of authenticity to my reviews, because you not only get my thoughts, but the feelings it evoked from me as well. I'm not saying you can't have those same feelings later on, but they never feel as powerful when I wait to write a review. They're still there -- just dulled -- and it's difficult to re-enter the same emotional state from before.
There are times when I cannot immediately write a review and schedule it, which is why I usually keep a notebook lying around. I'll basically write an outline of my review and the key thoughts and feelings I had while reading the book, and then I can refer to that outline later when I have a chance to sit down and type it all up. Sometimes I'll even write the entire review by hand, if I'm really caught up in what I'm thinking.
There's only one other reason I'll let a book sit unreviewed for a few days: I don't know what to say. When I love or hate a book, it's easy to explain why. It's when I feel neutral about a book that I have trouble. That usually means it was good enough to finish, but not one I would recommend or read again. Those reviews are so difficult to write, because what else can you say? "I liked it, but it was just okay." Why was it just okay? "It didn't really speak to me?" I feel like those reviews start to sound repetitive, and that's why I've started doing mini reviews for those titles. I can say very little and still feel like I've reviewed the book properly.
What about you? Do you like to write reviews when you're in the moment and swimming in feelings, or do you like to sit on them for a few days until your thoughts and emotions settle? Which path leads to a more productive and coherent review?
I used to write them within 24 hours of finishing the book, but now, with my schedule change at work, I have no time during the week. I bang them all out on the weekends now. It's not that bad, because I am mixing in more non-review books, and I just capture thoughts and whatnot for those (usually). I did like writing them right away, because I thought I better captured my emotions, but they are still there. It's exhausting writing that many in a row, though.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that's very time-consuming on the weekends! I have to stay up late after the kiddos have gone to sleep, so I can work on my reviews uninterrupted. If I try to do it while they're awake, I'm constantly losing my train of thought. :) I do like the idea of knocking them all out at once though, and it's great that the emotions are still there. <3
DeleteI takes notes on my laptop as I read. I read at my desk with my laptop open so I can listen to my playlist and take notes for the review. As soon as I'm done reading I write the review as I go over my notes so I don't forget anything that I wanted to remember.
ReplyDeleteYou listen to music while you read? That's not distracting? If the kid's are watching something in the background, or they're just being loud in general, I can usually tune them out. However, if it's music I've set up to play while I read, I can't concentrate on the words! Crazy, right? I like the idea of typing your thoughts as you think them, and then writing your review afterwards.
DeleteI find it more distracting if I'm not listening to music when I read. I always listen to music when I'm on my laptop doing any writing so maybe I've just gotten used to it.
DeleteInteresting! It's like background noise. I think I've gotten use to the chaos that is my life right now, so those noises don't really distract me. Music on the other hand... it's something I want to be present for, so it pulls me out of the story.
DeleteI think it has depended mostly on how busy I am - lately it's been a few days!!!
ReplyDeleteI hate being too busy to write a review as soon as finish a book! I can't stop thinking about the things I want to say, so I'll end up writing on everything in the house. I have to go back and collect them all when I'm ready to write my review! When you have a great thought, it's impossible to keep it in. :)
DeleteI tend to write my reviews within a day of finishing the book, though may not post them right away. My reviews are more about characters and impressions than anything else, so I want to write when my feelings for the characters are still fresh in my mind.
ReplyDeleteYes! Characters and impressions are a big part of my reviews too. It's hard not to loose some of those details when you wait to write a review, so I try to get down anything that's relevant in case I can't write one right away. :)
DeleteI always write the review as soon as I finish a book. It's fresh in my mind and, like you said, I'm feeling all the emotions- good or bad. On the rare occasion when I don't write it right away I find my reviews feel quite different to me, so I know that it makes a difference in how I review a book. Does letting it percolate a while make my review better? I don't know, different maybe, but better? Hard to say, but I still prefer doing it right after. :)
ReplyDeleteI know exactly what you mean! I always re-read my reviews until they sound like I want them to, and I typically struggle more when it's for a book I waited to review. It really DOES sound different, and the entire review feels more mechanical and less emotional. That doesn't mean the words are any less true, but I feel like they're missing that essential emotional component that really snags someone's attention. I think they should be able to feel how you felt about a book, simply by reading your review. I definitely prefer reviewing right away! Give me all the feels!
DeleteIt's one of the reasons why I love your reviews so much, Lindsi, your feelings about the story are there.
ReplyDeleteI have to write my reviews straight away too. They're not always published on my blog immediately but I have to get my feelings down about the way the author wrote their tale; I'm continually reading and have found that if I don't write the review straight away, my thoughts blur with the next book.(This is why I can't really read multiple books at the same time.)
I know what you mean about it being more tricky to review books that are just OK. Sometimes it's hard to pinpoint why a story doesn't make more of an impression; it's usually because it's lots of little things that seem inconsequential taken on their own but when you put them all together it leads to a story just being "meh".
Thank you so much, Flora! I'm happy my feelings translate well into reviews. :) Like you, I don't always publish my reviews right away, but like to get my initial thoughts/feelings down and out of the way. I can always go back and polish it later! I've always read multiple books simultaneously, and haven't struggled with separating my feelings, but I can see how they might overlap if I waited to review them all at the same time.
DeleteI usually write a draft review when I finish just to capture all those fresh thoughts and feelings and then when I have more time I'll tidy it up (because sometimes the initial thoughts/feelings aren't that coherent!), sort out the graphics/formatting and then schedule. If I don't, I struggle horribly to remember what I want to say and to put any feeling into it so I end up not writing a review. :/
ReplyDeleteAs for writing in books/dog-ear corners... I don't judge you. I'm a bookish monster too. ;) Although, I discovered something amazing today: see through post its!!!!
More often than not, my notes are gibberish within days of writing them! Haha! They're words and thoughts that were relevant to my current emotional state, and if I wait too long to write my review, they lose their coherency. I try to always review the books I read in some capacity, but it's a struggle when I wait too long.
DeleteYay for bookish monsters! See through post-it notes?? That sounds amazing! I recently saw transparent tarot cards, so you can see the different ones as they overlap. It's supposed to visibly tell a story, which I thought was interesting. <3
I used to write reviews immediately after I finished the book, but I don’t have time for that anymore. Now the books pile up, and I write reviews in batches. I’d like to get back to reviewing them quickly. My reviews are better when the book is fresh in my mind.
ReplyDeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
How is it reviewing them in batches? Do you feel like your reviews still capture your initial thoughts and feelings, or do they seem watered-down? It's probably not obvious to anyone else, but seems super noticeable to us (the writers, not readers or other reviewers). Like Greg was saying earlier, it's like I can feel a difference in my reviews when I wait to write them.
DeleteI tend to wait a little while before I write mine, but I will sometimes put notes down mid-way through reading it. I think this is mostly because I try to structure my reviews in a relatively unbiased way, and then write my personal opinion at the end. If I wrote them right away, it would be ALL about feelings, haha. But if something really bothers me, I make a note of it to talk about later.
ReplyDeleteAren't your reviews supposed to be biased? Since they're your personal thoughts and feelings? Unless your reviews simply state facts about the books... which I fully support! Sometimes I just want to read what a book's about without anything spoilery, and sometimes feelings can result in readers expecting something specific.
DeleteI use sticky notes when I'm reading, too, to highlight places that I think are important or will be useful when writing a review. I need to write my reviews pretty soon after I read a book, because I just forget things so quickly! And it's definitely easier to write a review when I have strong negative feelings about a book. If I loved it, often it's hard to find the right words and if I was just kinda meh on it, I don't often have a lot to say!
ReplyDeleteYes! If I wait too long, my feelings become jumbled! I'll be able to recall how I felt about the book as a whole, but not necessarily why, or what prompted those feelings.
DeleteWhat I usually do (unless I'm REALLY pressed for time, which doesn't happen often, since I review very few ARCs) is review right after reading the book, but only after reading it twice. I feel like I've absorbed the story properly only if I read it more than once. So, technically, I both review right after reading (or I would be lost) and after sitting on the book for a while! I know, in regard to your question, that's like cheating LOL.
ReplyDeleteI tried taking notes, but it was tedious and pulled me out of the story. So, I only write down a few things occasionally (along with the page number they relate to) in order not to forget them.
And I don't blame you for dog-earing...I WRITE in my books (well, with a pencil lately, but it used to be a pen when I was younger!).
I forgot to add, I post my mini-reviews on Goodreads right after I finish a book for the first time, so they're pretty much the only impromptu reviews I write...
DeleteYou read ALL of your books twice? Even the books you don't like?? Have you always done this, or is it something you started recently? I want all of the details! How did I not know this?! It is sort of cheating, since you technically do both... ;) I love taking notes! Especially when something really stands out. I can see how that would be distracting for some people, but I never have trouble jumping back in. Psh -- I write with pens! In my experience, pencil marks are very light and fade with too much handling.
DeleteI only review books on Goodreads after they've gone live on my blog. I didn't realize your Goodreads reviews were different from your blog posts. Interesting!
DeleteI've always tried to read my books twice before I reviewed them. And yes...I mean ALL my books. It's not as daunting a task as you may think though...I read far less new books than the average blogger LOL.
DeleteMy GR minis get replaced by the full reviews as soon as I manage to write them, so they're not different at all!
It's definitely daunting! Especially when a book is hard to get through (dense, uninteresting, etc.).
DeleteI really need to start writing reviews as quickly as I can, because I know there are things I forget to include when I wait. I tend to go from one book to the next though, so sometimes it's tough to find time to really sit down and write my thoughts. I should try writing notes throughout - see if that helps more!
ReplyDelete-Lauren
www.shootingstarsmag.net
I like to jump from one book to the next too, which is why writing notes is very helpful. It keeps my thoughts separate and allows me a window of time before needing to write my review. I'm always worried I'll forget something important, so I make sure key words and phrases are written down to job my memory. :) Let me know if it helps you!
DeleteI usually write a review on Goodreads right away unless it's the wee hours of the morning, ha ha. I then copy paste it to Netgalley, Edelweiss, and Amazon. As you know I very rarely review on my blog, but when I do it's usually weeks later and a bit more involved than my GR reviews. 📚
ReplyDeleteI am going to be rereading some classics this year and I have been buying used paperbacks to annotate, and you have given me some great ideas. Thanks! 🙌🙌🙌
The wee hours of the morning are when I typically write my reviews, since I like to wait until the kids are asleep. ;) You'll have to take pictures after you annotate a book so we can all see! <3
DeleteLike a lot of people are saying - reading so many books gives you book amnesia where you can't remember the name of the main character etc. So I try to do it ASAP. I do a quick brain dump on Goodreads and often use that as the basis of my review.
ReplyDeleteHaha! I don't think I struggle with book amnesia, and can readily recall the gist of the books I've read, but the small details that make or break a reading experience tend to blur together after awhile. If I want to list specific reasons for loving, liking, or disliking a book, I need to write those snippets down right away (or at least mark where they are in the book).
DeleteI do both. I jot notes as I go and write basic thoughts. But sometimes a full review is just not there yet and takes up to a week. It usually comes to me when I'm about to fall asleep lol
ReplyDeleteI'm a HUGE fan of post-it notes!
Karen @ For What It's worth
Post-it notes are the best! Especially for big thoughts and feelings. I typically have a notebook nearby for when I've finished a book, since that's when my immediate opinions are formed. As long as I have those notes, I can go back later and use them to refresh my memory and flesh out a review.
DeleteThanks for sharing, Lindsi. I enjoyed reading about your review process.
ReplyDeleteI would love to write my reviews right away, but it takes me time to collect my thoughts. Since I'm a plotter, I'm more productive when I write out my incoherent thoughts into my BuJo, then type them up into a more organized form. Now that I'm back in school, I have several packed days of classes and work, so schedule-wise, I don't have the time to write blog posts until the weekend, which is not always when I finish reading a book.
Thank you! What is a BuJo? A lot of people seem to be busy during the week, and cram all of their reviewing in on the weekends. I feel like that would be blogging overload for me. ;)
DeleteI'm horrible about taking notes when I read. I basically just read the book and then try to review as soon as I can because I just do it off of memory. It's not the best, I know, but I doubt I'll change my reading habits anytime too soon.
ReplyDeleteNicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction
It's so hard to change our reading habits (even the bad ones), haha. It's like we've honed our methods as much as we're able to over the years, and then some sort of routine just sort of sticks. ;)
Delete