I'm not trying to start anything but...Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that a lot of the book reviews on the challenge aren't so much like reviews? A title, a one liner or merely the back cover blurb do not a review make, people. We want to know what you liked or disliked about it. Hence the word "review".
I may not always have the time to write a long descriptive review or am not always as passionate about some books as others, but I try to always at least convey my feelings about the books I review.
I know that a lot of folks read faster and in higher quantities than others but still, make a little effort. Give me some idea of why I should or shouldn't read the book you've just read. I read the reviews to find new books or to decide if a book I've been eyeing is worth a read. If there isn't an actual review to read, that isn't very helpful.
But maybe I'm just be a grumpus. *sigh*
Hi Jana ....
I think some of the newer bloggers have just signed on and are catching up their backlists .... as we're almost into May you can imagine the daunting task that is ... I know of a few that are just blogging the minimum until they catch up
and if all some people can do, is the title, author and line, well what can we do? .... I'd rather have that and an increase in the book counter than not have that and less books for the cause
~~ KatherineT ~~ I'm a Harlequin Addict, and I'm proud of it!
~~ Quiet Canadians ~ 2008 Book Challenge Blog
On the subject of reviews and newbies
I think we're just going to have to lead by example. There are a LOT of newbies joining up as we promote the challenge beyond our community walls. Lorie had flyers I had made with her when she went to the RT Convention and Wayne will be doing the same when he goes to Slam Jam at the end of this month.
There will also undoubtably be some folks joining up thru the NCFL site and promotions they are running. So I think I'll just continue to gently remind folks that the more you put into the reviews, the more you personally will get out of it, and also that folks like to use the reviews to plan out their attacks of the everdaunting TBR pile.
Jayne
Community Manager
"We cannot really love anybody with whom we never laugh"—Agnes Repplier
Hey Jayne ....
when you get a chance, can you pop over to the Tire Kicking forum? ....
thanks!
~~ KatherineT ~~ I'm a Harlequin Addict, and I'm proud of it!
~~ Quiet Canadians ~ 2008 Book Challenge Blog
To add on to what Jayne has said,
but first . . . we sort of had this discussion back in ?Feb?. Anyway, it is frustrating. BUT, as I look at the number of books that we've read and the number that we need to get to, we need to take as many readers as we can get. SO, I'm willing to overlook the non-reviews b/c I want us to hit that 100,000. Some of the newbies have looked around and said (I presume), "Hey, this is kind of a neat place. I'm going to introduce myself" and have started asking questions and poking around and stealing ideas from the blogs and reviews that they've seen.
Others, I assume, will just pop in, get enough book review fields completed to submit it successfully and go back to their regularly scheduled lives.
We can try to make them feel more welcome by asking questions and hoping that they even see them . . .
And now that I've re-read your entry, you're not even talking about the people who leave the comment field blank! Well, the ones who are at least putting in something, even if it's just copied back cover blurb, might actually answer questions if we ask them.
And now for the adding on to what Jayne said: with summer coming I expect to see more people as all the teachers around here successfully get their colleagues participating for the summer. Let's just try to welcome them and hope they respond but again, some people are only doing this b/c they want to help get us to 100,000. And that's okay . . . we NEED them. We just need to be patient to find out which ones will stick around and become part of the community. :)
Penn, sorry that's not what you want to hear
Join the 2008 Book (Reading) Challenge!!! It’s for a good cause and it’s FUN!
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Thanks
I appreciate the comments. I just needed to vent a bit. I guess I've been around too darned long. I need to get a life. LOL
I don't get to read every blog or discussion so I didn't know this had been discussed before. I just periodically go to the challenge blogs and scroll through to see if I can find anything interesting--which is frustrating when there isn't anything to really read to find interesting.
I really want us to make our goal, too, so I'll shut up and read.
Jana's Off-site blog
I actually didn't mean to dis you
but re-reading my entry, umm, it didn't come across as friendly as I meant it. Of course, it doesn't help that I forgot to say that in February I was still of the mind-set that they should write SOMETHING (in other words, I agreed with you). It's only recently that I've said to myself, "You know what? They might have lives and what really matters is hitting our goal!" Anyway, I meant to say all that in my first reply and my missing brain syndrome kept me from actually doing it LOL. And I wasn't alone in February -- most of us agreed with you. But now I think we just need to welcome anyone who's reading. :)
As for finding interesting things, I've bookmarked people's blog pages (yours is one!) and every week or so I check in on everyone. It's better for me right now than RSS feeds or tracking through "my friends" here. Anyway, you could try that. My browser lets me set up folders, so I have 3 "eHQ" folders and just "open all in folder" when I do it. Then I go get my coffee while all those pages load LOL.
FWIW,
Penn
Join the 2008 Book (Reading) Challenge!!! It’s for a good cause and it’s FUN!
Come find my teammates and me at The DFWPlus Blog!
upside and downside
I guess there are two sides when looking at this, this is increasing the # of book on the counter but then you have no clue as to whether it is a book that I should get(like I don't have enough books).
I find myself using back blurbs right now on some books because they are so short(some only 3,000 words or less)
Christa ~ Quiet Canadians ~ 2008 Challenge Blog
My Shelfari Page
If I were to just give title and author I might make my own
total a lot higher, but I get the impression that my blogs attract
give you a goal to strive for 
some of the readers and encourage some of you to try books you might
not otherwise read and also
So what do you think, should I keep up my blog as it is or give y'all the diet version?
but I'm not really a diet kind of gal
May's Member of the Month
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To My Dearest Gnat
You are just fishing for compliments!
"Perhaps what the average member of a group is capable of doesn't limit what a given individual can accomplish." -- Boston Globe, letter to the editor
March's Member of the Month!
Why should I fish for compliments
when you're around to cut me down to size!?
May's Member of the Month
Dream Team 2008 Challenge blogs
I think we should ......
lead by example as Jayne suggested above ..... if WE keep up what we're doing, hopefully others will see and try to do the same ....
sometimes writing a review is a breeze for me ... and other times the words just won't come and I'll struggle ... and it's not because the book is hard to review, it's just my silly lupus brain some days ..... lately I've been more airhead than usual and I've been tempted to just copy the cover blurb for the description ... in fact, I was going to but then the cover blurb wasn't quite right so I felt compelled to but it in my own words
Sadhbh, if you have time and the desire to write reviews, please do ... although I don't read all your reviews (simply not enough hours in my day to do that! ) ... I do enjoy the 70 - 80% that I do read :)
~~ KatherineT ~~ I'm a Harlequin Addict, and I'm proud of it!
~~ Quiet Canadians ~ 2008 Book Challenge Blog
Back cover blurbs
I do actually copy the back cover blurbs just for convenience but I always add my own thoughts about the book. Sometimes it is a struggle to describe my feelings. Especially if it was just a ho-hum book. You know, not great but not awful.
Sadhbh~LOL Just keep doin' what you're doin', hon.
Penn~No, it's okay. I knew you weren't dissing me. It's all cool.
Jana's Off-site blog
Sometimes life gets in the
Sometimes life gets in the way of writing a review and it is necessary to use the shortest method (ie. the back blurb) in order for the book to get counted. One of those things happened to me earlier when my computer crashed and I had trouble getting a new one and getting it set up. Another occurred last week when my brother had heart bypass surgery and I felt the need to be there to support his wife. I now have 15 books I need to review now and I want to do a good job on them but they are not getting done. I am now back home and will try to get them reviewed. I guess my point is we don't know why people review their books the way they do.
ELLEN TOO
A true teacher is a person who, at the end of the school day, still likes children!
I am not the prolific
I am not the prolific reader that some of us are.
However, I read over 20 books per month and I have little time to blog. So, I tend to do a synopsis of the back blurb and then write a short paragraph of how the book impacted me. But when I'm really short of time I get frustrated even doing this much. Then there is the whole, 'why bother no one is reading them' mentality because it is rare that I find any comments. I've been around since the beginning of February--it took me at least a month to even begin to find my way back to places I had visited earlier. I still stumble around, sometimes lost, sometimes with a little more purpose. But one thing I have discovered, there are some people that write great reviews. Those are the ones I remember and go back and visit.
Nancy
sheandeen@gmail.com