The Blog Squad - Part 10

We are a group of three book bloggers situated on different continents but brought together by our love for books and a penchant for talking about them. We’ve joined our forces to create a collaborative series of posts about book blogging and we hope you’ll enjoy the discussions.

A MAGICAL WORLD OF WORDS - AmyNikita

BOOKS.BAGS.BURGERS - Uma K

BOOK REVIEWS BY DI - Di Hewlett

What is your reading schedule like?

At the moment my reading schedule mainly consists of catching up on ARCs that I requested or was contacted about reading, Read-a-thons, and finally a couple of backlisted books/my own TBR pile when I can slot them in.

I’ve pretty much lined up everything that I am reading until the middle of the year keeping in mind the new releases that I’m about to be reading (ACOWAR 2 May!!!!!!!!!) and commitments that I’ve made.

I do leave wiggle room in my schedule for unexpected items and books that I just HAVE TO HAVE but my actual goal is to keep a ratio of -

• 1 review book from a publisher or author
• 1 new release book for myself (these two could be the same book if I’m lucky with ARCs)
• 1 backlisted book from my own TBR

My reading schedule typically consists of review copies and reading them in the order I receive them - and if it’s an ARC that has to be read and reviewed within a time frame, that’ll obviously come first.

Occasionally, I’ll fit in a library book, but only if it’s one I really want to read.  Books I’ve bought myself come last, but sometimes - if it’s one I’m DESPERATE to read - I’ll squeeze it in among review copies.

How much pressure do you put on yourself to meet your bookish goals?

Probably too much? Although I’m learning to let go a little more. I like to review ARCs before release date if possible and I really try to get reviews back to authors about a month after I receive their books, but I have to admit that I fail dismally at that sometimes. My reading schedule was so jam packed last year and I’m still catching up on review copies for past releases that I’ve received from Indie Authors.

My Goodreads challenge this year has just been dismal - I’ve been aiming to hit the 100 book mark for 2017 and all year I’ve been behind. I’m currently behind by 8 books while I’m doing this post. I know I can reduce this number but the fact of the matter is that I’d actually LIKE to hit 100 books (it is called a challenge!) and I need to know where I’m at with that if I am really going to try make the effort to hit that goal. While 100 books might not be a lot for a lot of book bloggers out there when I’m hardly picking anything up under 400-450 pages and I’m busy with a young family AND a full time job it is a LOT for me.

Hmmm...

I don’t really have many bookish goals (except from my Goodreads challenge, obviously, and that’s the whole year. SCORE!), and so I don’t really pressurise myself too much with that.

The only bookish goal I can think of right now is making sure I finish a book within a month. In the next question I explain more about that, but basically I don’t like a book or its review to “overlap” into another month. That’s the only bookish pressure I put on myself.

But if the book I’m reading is a review copy - or an ARC - then I won’t allow myself to put it down until I’ve read a decent number of pages per day. I’ll read the book regularly until it’s finished, and definitely within a month.

How has blogging changed your reading habits?

I’m definitely a more analytical reader now and I find myself stopping to take notes here and there when I remember to.

I also think I read less than I used to! #sadbuttrue Not all my own free time can be dedicated just to reading - there’s the blog to manage, other blogs to visit, posts to prepare and social media to stalk.

My TBR pile is also way more out of control because blogging has led me to visit so many other awesome blogs and read so many amazing reviews of books that I might not have considered in the past!

Blogging about books has definitely made me analyse what I’m reading more thoroughly, and look at it with a critical eye. I also don’t read just any book I want to, because ARCs and review copies come first and I have to find time to review them all.

I’ve also cut back drastically on getting library books.

Because I like to have things “neat and tidy”, I always make sure I never read a book over two months. I like to wrap the month up cleanly by being able to say, for example, “I read Six of Crows in April. I read it and reviewed it then.” So that means I won’t start a new book on like the third last day of the month, because it’s highly unlikely that I’ll be able to read and review it by the time the next month’s rolled in! I don’t like overlapping, so to speak. It’s kinda like a pet peeve for me, but it’s what I’m comfortable with.     

 

If you'd like to read my responses, hop on over to their collab posts!

❤ Book Reviews by Di

❤ A Magical World of Words

We hope you’ve enjoyed our tenth discussion post! Please talk to us and let us know YOUR answers below. What do you think of our responses? If you have any specific questions you’d like us to address in the future, please let us know in the comments section below.

Stay tuned for next week’s questions!