The Book Wheel

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Does Book Blogging Make You Pick Better Books?

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Book Blogging - Better Books

I’ve always been a book nerd. I started reading at three, barreled through Charlotte’s Web in a day when I was 6 (my first marathon reading experience), and never stopped. I won’t lie – I’m not proud of all of the phases I have gone through. I read (and enjoyed) all of the Twilights, was hooked on Nora Roberts for a solid few years, and read so much chick lit that I still have unrealistic expectation of my husband (or so he tells me).

And then I started blogging. Over the past year, I have have many little ‘epiphanies’ about how book blogging has changed my life. I have met some fantastic people, attend more author events, have stepped out of my comfort genres more often, and have tackled some classics I wouldn’t have otherwise read. But the one thing that I’ve noticed is that I pick better books.

Granted, my to-read list is a mile long and I’m on a self-imposed NetGalley ban (not that I adhere to it), but the quality of my list is a lot better than it was PB (pre-blogging). Even when I spend an hour trying to decide which book to read next, I know that it will be a good one. One would think this is a good problem to have, right? I’m not so sure.

Yes, I am picking better books. Yes, I am reading more “sociable” books that other people are reading and can have better discussions. And yes, I am honing my ability to know from the get go whether or not a book’s writing style is for me (for example, I know anything written in Precious-form is a no-no for me).

images-22The downside is that I have been giving out a ton of 4 star reviews. I’m still stingy with my 5’s, but I’m rarely giving 3’s. Whereas I used to have a mixed bag of star ratings, I find that while I’m picking better books, I haven’t quite figured out how to rate them on that scale. But then again, maybe I don’t need to. Just because I’m picking out better books doesn’t mean that the author should lose a star because there’s was only almost as good as the last great book I read. Of course, then I revert back to the whole argument that I should be choosing my ratings based on my own experiences, not the general public’s.

So my question to my fellow book bloggers is this:

Do you think that blogging has made you pick better book?

Have you altered your rating systems? Why or why not?

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Filed Under: Discussions

  • Hmm … I wouldn’t say that I pick better books because of blogging. Actually, when I was hardcore into blogging I was way too picky with books. I’d put books on hold at the library instead of just looking around and seeing what caught my eye. Now that I don’t totally follow the book hype, I browse a lot more and am more willing to try different genres or authors, or just read a whole whack of an author in a month. Blogging has definitely got me to take more chances with books, though, and it has introduced me to so many new authors I might not have otherwise given a chance so that’s great!

    • You know, this post is older and I can see that I’ve evolved since then. There was a time when I knew what the great books were so I had good odds on liking a new read but now I’m back to focusing less on the hype and reading more backlist books, which is leaving me with a lot of so-so books. I guess it all depends on where we are in our blogging “cycle”!

  • I just started blogging, so I don’t know, but I hope I can pick better books in the future. And more importantly: I really hope to discover some new authors, because I’m not to keen on picking up a book from an author I don’t know. Yes, that’s a bad habit.

    • The Book Wheel

      Welcome to the book blogging world! It is a great way to meet new authors and I’ve definitely expanded my own reading habits.

    • Yes, find some blogs around here and these ladies will fill your TBR pile until it topples!

  • Yes! Blogging helps me chose better books! Well, that and thinking I don’t want to waste my life on TV or trashy literature. I want to learn and develop so … I make a conscious effort to choose books that will teach me, or make me think. My blog is about non-fiction books primarily, but I was encouraged to read the classics too by Sarah Reads Too Much, so all in all, I think hearing about what others read has helped me. Also reading what you guys say made me realize it’s OK to say I didn’t like a book or that it was a waster of time. (Brutal!) But it is good to say what you really think, isn’t it? I have learned a lot from you guys!

  • I don’t know that blogging has helped me pick better books — I’ve always been interested in reading books that are considered “good” by smart people — but it’s definitely made me more aware of what books are being talked about and why they are considered good. And I’ve read tons of books in the last year that I never would have heard about or considered reading before I started blogging. Blogging and being part of the bookish community online has also led me to genres that I had never read before, like short stories and essays.

  • Interesting question! I don’t think blogging has necessarily helped me choose better books. I do think it has made me more aware of what books are making a “splash” in the reading world, especially those outside of my usual genres. So in that sense, I am getting a wider perspective on the good books that are available. While I do read a lot of good (and GREAT) books, I also think blogging has caused me to pick some duds in the last year. A lot of that is in the temptation behind ARCs, which thankfully is waning for me. At first, I would take any ARC I could get my hot little hands on, but that lead to several reads that were disappointing for me. Now, I am learning to be more discerning and finding that the quality of my choices has gone up.

    • I agree with Kelly. I think reading book blogs helps me keep abreast of what’s hot or learn about books I might not have otherwise. Usually I rely on what my library has on its new release shelves but they seem woefully behind compared to the pitches I receive. Personally I like the social element that blogging allows. I can easily find someone who has read the book I just finished and we can chat about it.

      • The Book Wheel

        The social element is one of my favorite parts. I’ve met some amazing people who have become great friends in real life (Love at First Book being one of them!)

  • I think I’ve always had better taste in books than most people, but I think that’s because of the fact that I loved reading since I was a child. I have this weird idea in my head, that when people start reading, they start with short books to get into the swing of reading (i.e Mills&Boons!) Thank goodness I never did that!

    However, I completely agree with what you said above. I do pick better books, because I read book blogs and ofcourse there is goodreads too. I choose a book either on recommendation from someone I know has good taste, or based on my current preferences. Book blogging has surely influenced the books I choose and I think my choices are alot more ‘sophisticated’.

    I also read Twilight, but I must defend the books because I feel it’s well written. I loved how it flowed, it’s one of those books that you read in no time. I do not like vampire fiction or witch novels, but I do like the Twilight Saga! (I plan on re-reading it!). I also started reading more classics, post blogging!

  • Allison, what an interesting topic! Yes, I do believe I’ve been picking better books as a result of book blogging, and I have crossed a few genre lines I wouldn’t have crossed before. I hadn’t thought about these things before so thanks for causing me to use the mind cells a bit more than usual on Sunday night. As for ratings, I consciously chose not to give stars on my reviews on my blog. This is primarily due to the disparity between the star ratings found on Amazon, Goodreads and others’ rating systems. I choose to use the words “highly recommend,” “recommend,” or “recommend with reservation because _____.” Most often if I do not wish to recommend a book at all I will say so and say why avoiding any bad reflections on the author. Anything that could be hurtful to an author I don’t include in my review, but will send a gentle email to let them know why I didn’t give one of my top three “recommends.”

    I too am on a NetGalley ban at the moment. My stack is reaching the ceiling!

  • Hmmm…I may need to title a post “My Reading Self” now that it’s catching on! I’ll get right on it 😉

  • I agree that I pick better books now for sure. One reason is that I’m kind of embarrassed to blog about some of the old books I used to read! But also, I have so many good recs from fellow bloggers.

    I also recently thought about my rating scale. I give out a ton of 4s, very few 5s, and less 3s. I decided recently though that if I’m not in love with the book, it’s a 3, and I’ve been better about rating my 3’s. After all 3 means “good” and 4 means “great” and 5 means OMG YOU MUST READ THIS!!!!! I think it’s okay to give a lot of 4’s. After all, most books are really good but not OMG.

  • Blogging has certainly had an impact on what I read. It’s introduced me to many authors I wasn’t aware of previously and some of them were more thought provoking or just more entertaining than the more familiar ones. But I wouldn’t say I am consciously choosing ‘better’ books, just more varied. I’ve also read some duds because I got carried away with NetGalley and ended up with some novels that I wouldn’t have finished if I’d bought them myself.

    I’ve never got into the whole stars or rating thing. We have to do this in our book club and I hate that part of it.

  • Since starting blogging and reading heaps of other book bloggers I have definitely become more aware of books that interest me and I go looking for them – rather than previously browsing the library, big W or op shops for something I might like. A lot of what I now read are because of reading others reviews. I think I’m also now more selective – but because I’m reading more broadly I’m getting a better feel for what appeals to me. For that reason I’m better at selecting rather than reading better books as such. This is a great discussion topic!

  • Blogging has put me in a place where I’m now much more aware of new releases (and which releases are highly anticipated) than I was before, but otherwise I’m not sure it has changed what I read. I do have fewer 1 and 2 ratings on Goodreads than last year, but there’s still half of 2013 left, so I’m not sure that’s indicative of anything!

    I think reading for many years, more than blogging, has helped me me hone my book-picking skills. I rely more on reviews than I did in the past, to preview what I might like or not like about a book, but I base my decisions heavily on the book summary and flipping through the book to see if I like the writing, which is what I did before blogging.

    That said, I have a few friends who seem to consistently pick up books they rate 1 or 2 stars on Goodreads, and seem honestly surprised. Just based on their Goodreads profiles, I want to say something like, “Um, apparently (insert genre) isn’t your thing. Why do you keep reading it?” I have no idea what’s going on there. Lots of optimism that maybe they’ll like the genre eventually?

    Great discussion!

    • The Book Wheel

      Lol. I don’t think I have any friends that read only 1 or 2 star books and that would drive me nuts. I would probably say something, depending on the friend. I’m with you in that I rely more on reviews now, so maybe that’s why I’m choosing better books, too. I’m so glad that so many people responded to this post because I am selfishly learning more about why I pick the books I do!

  • I’m not sure that I’m picking better books, but I’m always very aware of whether I have selected the sort of book that will provide me with an interesting blog entry. If I haven’t then I won’t have material for my blog. When I post less because my reading is lightweight with nothing for me to discuss, I feel that I’ve let myself down. I enjoy lightweight reading, but I also enjoy blogging.

    • The Book Wheel

      Good point! I don’t know that I’ve ever picked a book based on its potential blog material, but that’s a good idea. Maybe I will starting thinking about that before I start! Luckily, I’ve been picking good books lately, so it’s all worked out so far!

  • You know, I was going to say yes, but I’m sitting here looking at my bookshelves. I have 3000+ books and a good chunk of those were obtained before I started blogging so it seems I was picking great books even before I started blogging. Now if I could just get around to reading them all!

    Great discussion!

    • The Book Wheel

      That’s a log of books. MAYBE, just maybe, you ARE picking better books and that’s why you haven’t gotten around to reading the ones from before you started blogging 🙂 But that could also just be my optimistic side that I’m not the only one.

      • That’s a good theory. I wish I would have kept track of when I bought what, but…well, I do have a general idea. I will say that I have quite a diverse selection.

        Hey, even if you are the only one, it’s a good thing that book blogging has broadened your reading horizons, or narrowed, depending on how you look at it. 🙂

        • The Book Wheel

          Thanks for the vote of optimism 🙂

  • I feel that I need to keep up professionally with what is being written by other authors, which means that I often make an effort to read things that I don’t necessarily expect to be good because I think I should “know” about this book or that one. So I can’t say blogging has made me pick better books.

    However, I think blogging has changed how I read nonfiction. I’ve been blogging for 11 years, and I’m very interested in staying on topic and being concise with blog posts. (I don’t review specifically. I write on children’s literature and writing, with some “reader responses.”) I’ve read a lot of nonfiction this last half year, and I’ve found myself very impatient with writers who wander, who spend too much time on examples, and who contradict themselves. I think writing what I call “flash nonfiction” for the blog has trained me to prefer very tight writing.

    I also agree with all those who dislike rating systems for reviews. The number/stars given a book frequently don’t conform to the text of the review–low numbers, quite good review. In the early years of children’s literature blogging, I don’t recall seeing many bloggers who used a rating system. It seems to be a relatively recent innovation.

    • The Book Wheel

      What an interesting take! You’re right – I do find that I’m pickier about non-fiction books now (I’m one of the few that hated reading Devil in the White City, although I look back on it more fondly than when I read it). But even making different choices based on keeping up professionally is a sign that your reading choices have changed. I think it’s hard to write about books and be submersed in them all of the time and not experience some kind of change, whether it’s how we rate things, what books we choose, or how we review them.

  • Blogging hasn’t made me pick better books. I read the same genres/books now that I did before I started blogging. I’ve always loved historical fiction and memoirs and I stick with those. It has, however, made me change my rating system. I no longer use ratings on my site at all. I write a review and that’s it.

    • The Book Wheel

      That’s smart. I downloaded the book blogger plugin and went to star ratings again, but I don’t know that I’ll continue with them for the same reason as I mentioned in one of the other replies – I may love a book at one point in my life and hate it if I had read it at another. At least in the reviews we can write about WHY we love/don’t love a book and can put it into context.

  • What a great question! I wouldn’t say it makes me pick better books, but I’m more aware of what type of books are being published. From there I can keep track of the reviews or hype and see if I want to bother picking it up. Maybe in the end being more aware makes one a better reader because you have more options and can skip the dull ones based on the synopsis or friends recommendations. Being aware has also made me stay away from the pulled to publish fan fiction that is very popular as of late. There was a series I loved until I found it had been Twilight ff and it just disappointed me (never mind the author swore he would never write a 3rd book and now there’s a third being published).

    I have altered my rating style. In the past I really wouldn’t write a review and sometimes would just rate it, but now that I write one, etc I think a lot more about the book as a whole. Though blogging has made me more stingy in giving out 5’s. I still on average give out more 4/5 ratings than I do the other ratings (I have yet to give a 1).

    • The Book Wheel

      I don’t think I’ve ever given a 1, either. If the book is that bad, I usually won’t have finished it and won’t review it. I have had some pretty awful books come my way that were rated highly by others, and I have learned that just because I hate a book, it’s not necessarily bad. I do find that I skip the dull books now because I know what I’m getting into thanks to other bloggers. Plus, I think I like some of the 3 star books even more BECAUSE I’ve been warned about certain stylistic things that seem odd.

  • I don’t think blogging has changed my tastes very much, although I like that I’m discovering more newly released books more easily! I also get stuck in rating everything as 4 stars, but that’s mostly just for Goodreads. I don’t like to put star ratings in my blog posts—too complicated for me to deal with right now. Great discussion!

    • The Book Wheel

      Thank you! I am glad I’m not the only one who gets stuck with the 4 stars problem.

  • I really dislike number or star rating systems (even when I rate books on GoodReads, I do it grudgingly) because it’s often way too simple. But I think book blogging has definitely helped me get better at picking out what I will and won’t enjoy reading, which has made it possible for me to enjoy my reading more.

  • I’m totally with Jennifer!

    I do find that I’m picky about the books I read. And since starting my book blog, I’ve even pickier. So it makes sense that we tend to choose books we think we’ll enjoy. Who wants to read/review a book they don’t think will be a good match, kwim? I hate the rating system (for the reasons Jennifer mentioned LOL) and I think as long as the review has good content, that’s what is most credible. Not how many books have how many stars, but… what you SAY.

  • I dont know if it’s made me pick better books – I’ve recently chosen and read a book that I gave a 2* review to – but in having my choice of galleys recently (from netgalley.com) as a book blogger has given me access to some great books – The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan recently got one of my rare 5*. I feel I have been very very luck in the majority of books I’ve read recently have been great.

    It has also allowed me to say “no thanks”, when approached by authors whose book synopsis I didnt care much for. Wasnt bad, but I just suspected that we wouldnt get on very well, and that I would end up giving a not-good-review…..(the only other book I’ve given a low * review to was a christian fiction, and that was because I was entirely the wrong audience for it, and said so in the review).

    • The Book Wheel

      Thank you for responding! I think it’s important to understand that we might not like a book simply because we’re the wrong audience. I don’t know that pre-blogging I would have understood the difference.

  • Isi

    I think that, in general, I’m not choosing better books than the PB time… I just can say that I read much more, but in the end, I found the same % of books that I love and the same of books that I don’t like.
    About the scores, I agree with you: it’s too difficult to rate a book, and I usually put very few 1s and 5s, but a lot of books are in the middle, and when you rate 2 books with 4/5, it’s obvious that between then they should have other kinds of ratings like “a little bit more than four, a little bit less; almost five”, etc!!
    It’s complicated! 😀

    • The Book Wheel

      That’s interesting that you pick the same kinds of books! I guess you just already picked good ones 🙂

  • I can relate to most all of the above. Read my first book straight through when I was about 8 years old (Ribsy, by Beverly Cleary…and played hooky from school to do it)! In high school I went through a Danielle Steel phase, reading only her books and nothing else (later in life I did a small Nora Roberts stint as well). Oh and when I had my first baby I bought every thin, little trashy romance novel with a baby on the cover that I could find (I don’t admit this often, but when I do, I hurry to add that I no longer own them). Read all of the Twilight books in a week and a half and loved them as well.

    I’m not sure if I’m picking better books though. Maybe that’s it, but it seems that blogging this past year has exposed me to many different authors, genres, and writing styles. It’s almost like it has both expanded and refined my tastes…and in that respect maybe I am picking better books because I know my reading self better.

    Then again, I’ve never been overly picky. I often hear people not like a book because of its writing style or structure and that doesn’t happen to me often – and I rarely see it until someone points it out and sometimes not even then. If I am into the narrator and/or the storyline, I’m usually good to go. It’s mostly storyline that catches me. So I think my not-so-pickiness causes me to give very few 2s or 3s. And I pick my nonfiction/help type books on current relevancy of the title, so I tend to give those 5s because the topics are things I’m currently looking for.

    • The Book Wheel

      Thank you so much for such a thoughtful comment! To be honest, I didn’t even know they had trashy romance novels with babies on the cover, so I learned something new from that confession! That’s good that you’re not overly picky because it means that you’re more open-minded. I’m not too picky, but I am about certain things (like I mentioned in the post above). Now I know to stay away from those types of books and, in effect, pick better books.

      You hit the nail on the head that you think you picked better books because you know your “reading self” better – great insight!

  • GREAT discussion post Allison! This is such a great question. Blogging has changed my reading a bit. I’m reading the same types of books but I’m not reading them on a whim anymore which I truly miss. (That’s why I’m trying to clean up my tbr/Netgally/review piles now)

    As far as rating books…ack. To be honest? I don’t like rating them. I don’t use a rating system on my blog and I wish I hadn’t started giving star ratings on Goodreads. Once in a while I’ll give a book a rating that I’ll change my mind about later. I’ll read something while I’m emotionally compromised and give it 300 stars 😉 Later on I’ll realize that I didn’t like it as much as I thought I did. Make sense?

    I’ve seen people say that if bloggers only review 4 and 5 star books they start to doubt their taste and ability to be objective. I don’t know about that. I’m pretty good at picking out books that I like. If it’s a cruddy read I’ll set it aside and not review it. I don’t want to review a bad book just to keep my blogging street cred high, lol.

    Ok, wow, babbling done!

    • The Book Wheel

      Thank you! I agree with you – people think if you always give great reviews that you aren’t very objective. But now that I know my reading self better (thanks to Jennine for that awesome phrase), I know what I will and won’t like.

      I completely understand what you mean about loving a book at one point and not later. I mean, I LOVED Jane Green when I was recently single and waiting for Mr. Right, but now that I’m married to Mr. Right, those books drive me nuts and I want to shake the women in them. So sometimes I”m embarrassed that I gave them such GREAT reviews, but…. that’s how I felt at the time. But I’d hate to be judged by that particular genre now.

      Make sense?

  • Book blogging has definitely diversified my reading (joining book clubs/discussions has led me to read books that I wouldn’t normally choose to read on my own), but it hasn’t made me read better books necessarily. I haven’t changed my rating system at all. I was always pretty picky about these things to begin with.

    • The Book Wheel

      Good for you for sticking to your guns! I’m starting to learn (from these discussion posts) that pre-blogging I just wasn’t as established in my reading tastes, so blogging has done more for me than the ‘established’ ones. Which is interesting, because I’ve been reading my whole life and if you told me a year ago that I didn’t know my ‘reading self’ (again, thanks Jennine), I would have vehemently disagreed with you!

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