What Kinds of Reviews Do You Write?

I haven't done a discussion post in a while, so I think I shall do one now!

The other day I was browsing through Goodreads, looking for some books to read and browsing tons of my friends' reviews. While in the midst of this browsing I noticed a pattern in types of reviews; some were more detailed than others, some more straightforward, and others more lighthearted. Many readers' reviews fall into a particular category and normally follow an overall format, and I mentally listed these categories that Goodreaders tended to follow.

I'm not saying that there won't be some overlapping in how people write their reviews and in which categories they're in, as most of you will probably be able to relate to several of these. Now, this is just my opinion, and you guys probably have a total different perception of the different types of reviews that exist.

Movie-Book Covers That I Like

It's a well-established opinion in the minds of readers that movie tie-in covers are a definite no-no. I don't think I've ever met someone who has preferred the movie book cover over the original, and for good reason. I mean, some of them are absolutely atrocious and while they're always telling us to not "judge a book by its cover," it's pretty hard to avoid when the cover looks like it was made by a second grader playing around on Paint.

This line of thinking brought up the question: are there any movie tie-in covers that I actually like? I couldn't think of any off the top of my head, so I had to do a bit of digging. I did in fact find a few that weren't a pain to look at, but up until this point I haven't found any that are better than the original.

Emotional Ratings

Let's get this out of the way: I've been guilty of emotional rating TONS of times. I try my utmost hardest to be a fair reviewer, but sometimes there is that one book that you can't help but feel passionately about, whether it be positive or negative passion.

What exactly is emotional rating? Well, according to Summer's Very Important and Very Accurate Dictionary, it's done by book reviewers when all reason is thrown to the wind and emotion is trusted to assign a book a rating.

There's two scenarios: one, a book that you know has bad writing, bad characterization, etc, but you follow what the book made you feel and bestow upon it a 5-star rating. Or, on the other hand, you know a book has a great plot and the writing is amazing but there's that one character that grinds your gears and makes you so angry that you had to give the book 1 star.

While I do do this (quite a lot, actually) in my defense I usually state in my review the goods and the bads regardless of my feelings about the book overall. With that said, I don't bother with reviews for a lot of the non-review books I read, so I wouldn't trust those if I were you. :3

Is It Possible to Read "Too Many Books?"

First of all, happy 2015, everyone! I was going to start off the year posting a book review, but I gave the book one star, and a raging review by me is not the best way to start the new year...

We've all heard this phrase at one point in our lives, whether it be from exasperated friends or annoyed relatives: "You read too many books." I've never taken it as an insult, because hey, reading lots of books is a good thing, right? But from the tone that said person uses, it could be deduced that socially, reading too many books is not, in fact, a good thing.

Not that I actually care about what other muggles think of my reading habits, but this begs the question: Is it possible to read too many books?

To me, I guess it would depend on the person themselves. In my opinion, it is possible for one to read "too many" books. *dodges missiles* Hear me out, though!

I Am Not Oppressed.

Since I'm already annoyed, I've decided I'd let out my anger in the form of a blog post, on a topic that really gets me heated.

Check this out: (click to enlarge)

It's a list of books featuring covers of girls donning Hijabs. That fact in itself is completely fine (yay for intercultural awareness!) but check out the list yourself, and scroll through the covers. Notice a pattern? Most of the girls are either wearing a Hijab (hair covering), Niqab (Hijab with face covering, but eyes show), or a Burqa (complete body covering) and are depicted as being despondent, miserable, and oppressed. Many, dare I say most, of the novels cover the topic of child marriage or something of the like, normally written by a Western author.

Why I'm Stingy with 5-Star Ratings

Well, "stingy" is kind of a strong word, but hey, I'll be the first to admit that I'm prone to dramatics. Eh.

Yes, yes I am, Watson.

The other day, I was going through my Goodreads reviews and noticed how rarely I give out five stars--most of the time going the more safe route and giving the book 4.5 stars. And when I looked at my rating statistics, only 18% of my books are bestowed with the honor of 5 stars, while 26% are given 4 stars.

(In all honesty I believe the 18% to be a bit inflated, because when I love a series, say Harry Potter or Percy Jackson, I give the entire series five stars. So if it weren't for that, the percentage would most likely decline.)

Blogger Me vs. Real Me

This is not my normal type of post; it's not entirely bookish-related, but it does pertain to the book-blogging community.

The other day, I had an epiphany of sorts. I was musing on how ah-mazing it would be to attend BEA and meet tons of book bloggers in the flesh and blood. (No, that choice of phrase is not odd). And based on what other bloggers have said, it seems like a pretty cool experience to finally meet someone you've been interacting with online in person.  

In my highly improbable BEA daydream, I wondered how I would react to meeting other book bloggers. Would I be completely speechless, or would I be as talkative as I normally am?

Why I Suck at Blogging.

Yup. You read the title correctly.

I have been an absolute failure in blogging as of late.

I don't schedule my posts. I haven't been reviewing books as much as I'd like to.

In total, I've DNF'd five books in the past month.

I am way behind on my ARCs.

When I see one of my ARCs, I pretend it's not there and begin another book. (yay for procrastination!)

End of Year Bookish Survey

Thanks to Jamie at The Perpetual Page Turner for hosting this survey!

1. Best Book You Read In 2013? (If you have to cheat — you can break it down by genre if you want or 2013 release vs. backlist)

Fantasy- Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson, Shadow & Bone series by Leigh Bardugo, The Unearthly series

Contemporary/Realistic- Anna and the French Kiss, I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak, Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta, The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

Dystopian/Sci-fi- Cinder by Marissa Meyer, The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa  

Historical Fiction- Out of the Easy and Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Buddy Read Discussion: The Piper's Son, by Melina Marchetta

I had the pleasure of buddy-reading a book written by one of my favorite authors, with the awesome Rashika from Tangled in Pages. We had a great time discussing this wonderful book, and we ended up agreeing on almost everything. Although we thought it was fractionally less... powerful, I guess, as Jellicoe and Looking for Alibrandi, we still loved it immensely.

Actual Rating: 4.75 stars