For some reason, I can't fathom, I was going through a reading slump. Then I picked up a historical romance, Captured by Desire by Kira Morgan and simply breezed through it. Maybe at times, we all need such easy reads to sustain us. I don't know. I do read romances once in a while. Sometimes in between reads, sometimes, I am in a roll!
Today I got up at 4:30 AM and finished another historical romance, Swept Away by a Kiss by Katharine Ashe. It too is a historical romance and finished pretty fast. I also signed for the Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon, which is on October 9-10, 2010. I am thinking of signing up for being a cheerleader too.
What do I read next? Never Wave Goodbye by Doug Magee seems like a good option. Will start it after sometime and intend to finish it today only. It being a sunny day, I don't think I will go anywhere.
BTW, I had talked about Raksha Bandhan, a festivals for siblings, in my last SS post. I have posted pictures of it on facebook. You can check those out there, http://www.facebook.com/gautami. But first you have to connect with me as I don't have it open for all.
Some days ago, I wrote that I followed 546 via my google reader. Even I was amazed to see so many. The next couple of days I spent checking out my reader and culled those blogs which did not interest me. I found a lot of YA/Paranormal/Chick Lit blogs. And removed those. I removed 238 blogs. And added a few too. Now my reader is manageable and I don't have mark everything read! Now I am able to check out each post.
I made some interesting observations. You may or may not agree with me. These are my viewpoints and no one has to agree with me.
I found that those blogs which have lot of blinking stuff almost always belong to YA bloggers. Some of those take ages to load and when they finally do, many of those hurt the eyes to read.
And those blogs which have substance are mostly uncluttered. They really don't need distractions. The content is enough to hold our interest.
I also found that eclectic is a misnomer! Book bloggers are using it to describe their blogs which contain, YA/Paranormal/Romance/Chick Lit/Contemporary fiction....otherwise known as YA of all those genre!
Is it just me? Feel free to discuss. But do stop short of abusing me!
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21 comments:
I agree about the use of eclectic, there are only a few blogs that I feel really fit that category.
And I haven't figured out why some blogs take forever to load I will see if it is what you say.
I can't believe the amount of YA blogs, I want to find more mystery, thriller, suspense blogs.
I am laughing about the cluttered blogs, I can honestly say I don't think they have a clue.
Welcome back out of your funk :)
I'm intrigued with the profusion of YA blogs. Here's my explanation: Younger people are more familiar with technology and, thus, are more likely to start blogs. What do younger people read? YA.
Or so my reasoning goes.
I have proudly finished The Three Musketeers and it is the subject of my Sunday Salon. I'd love to have you stop by.
I think Readerbuzz may be right about why there are so many YA blogs. But I also believe that many bloggers lean towards YA becuase they feel a pressure to post reviews which makes them select faster reading.
I think you're right about "eclectic" too. We need some sort of "industry standard" that a blog has to meet before it can be considered eclectic. Say, seven identifiable genres per quarter.
I'm sure your google reader feels much more manageable now! Readerbuzz and CB James both have valid points about YA blogs. I don't read much YA, so haven't really noticed the increasing numbers.
Oh I agree with everything you've said :) It seems like so many YA blogs, because they read different "types" of YA, categorize themselves as eclectic, even though it's really all just YA. I don't mind some YA once in a while, but sometimes I'm really just looking for "eclectic" blogs.
WOW...that was a lot of blogs in your google reader. I have about 250 and try to keep it at that. I don't read YA so I really don't follow YA blogs for that reason, although I am sure there are lots of good ones out there.
Hope u r having a great weekend, and a good week to follow as well.
I have been in a reading slump too. Like you, the easier books that capture my attention quickly seem to help.
I also prefer blogs that are simple in design and high on content. If there is too much going on I get annoyed and quickly move on to another blog.
I agree completely with your last point. Ive come across quite a few blogs that describe themselves as eclectic but then on the blog they state that they mostly review YA. How does that work?
Welcome back from your reading slump and what a great idea to clean the google reader. I ought to do that myself, although I don't have quite so many blogs there as you had. I am not good at reading or visiting blogs at all, but I try to keep up a little bit from time to time.
I don't read a vast amount of YA, so I mostly skip the YA blogs. As a result I don't really have an opinion on how they describe themselves! I do dislike slow loading blogs with lots of flashy elements; I avoid those at all costs, to be honest.
I need to cull my reader too - I don't follow a lot of YA blogs because those aren't the books I tend to read. That said, the YA bloggers I DO follow don't have cluttered, blinking blogs!! *laughs* But I do agree - the simple formats generally have some of the best writing.
I can so relate to falling into the light reading when you are in slump. I'm not in a slump, but when things are stressful for me, I generally select the books in in my stack that are the light reads (Chick Lit, mysteries, suspense-thriller). I don't read much, if any, romance...but I can see the appeal (and actually when I was younger I read a lot of romance).
Have a great week!
My Google Reader has so many entries in it that I'm actually scared to open it!
I agree with previous comments that people seem to be focusing on YA these days as they are quick and easy to read. Don't get me wrong I love to read YA but I couldn't read every single book one after the other. Sometimes you need some substance.
I have neglected my poor book blog of late and am trying desperately to get caught up on reviews. These days I only review the books that I've been sent by PR and authors, and that is not why I started my site, I want to review the books that I've read for fun too as a catalogue of my reading journey.
As others have said, I am glad you found something that pulled you out of your reading slump.
I read a lot of YA but only review half of what I read because most of those in my blog circles are not YA readers and probably don't care about those reviews and I am okay with it!
Those are good observations. I have sometimes to go through and remove subscriptions from my reader, too. it gets out of control quickly.
I am so very impressed that you manage to cull that many blogs from your overflowing reader. I NEED to do that --- but I have this very warped sense that when I "unsubscribe" I am hurting someone's feelings. Silly, huh?
Great news that you are out of a reading slump. I hope to begin some fun reading (and reviewing) soon.
Molly, I know exactly what you mean (from both sides of the issue), and I don't think your feeling is silly or warped. The only time I don't feel bad about clearing out a blog is if it's one with tons of followers--someone who won't even notice I'm gone. Meanwhile, I try really hard not to follow a blog unless I'm sure I'm interested--better to never follow than to follow and then dump later.
When the tables are turned, I try to tell myself the follower who stopped following just wasn't interested in the types of books I read . . . but it's still hard to not take it personally. I can't help but wonder if it was something I said. ;)
I recently started book blogging though I am an old hand at blogging. I recently went through the Australian Book Blogger directory,added everyone on it and have been slowly weeding out blogs that just post review after review of paranormal/ya/romance content. That's not to say I don't enjoy some of these (indeed I think all bar one book I have reviewed this year is YA)but I like a bit of variety in my book blog reading.
hmmmm.. Good points really. I really don't know how I will categorize mine anyway.. I read all kinds of books. :)
YA blogs// yes.. loads of them.. but i like a few of them too :)
I hope you are over your slump :)
I like YA books and YA blogs, but can't stand paranormal books. That being said I do read at least one blog that's got a mix of paranormal and other genres because I like the blogger (and her reviews of non-paranormal books).
I couldn't read YA exclusively though. I read three YA books last week on vacation and completely burned myself out on the genre. I am planning to go on a bit of a non-fiction binge for a while.
Thanks for the comments. Will try to get back to all of you.
Frankly speaking, anyone is welcome to remove me from their reader or un-follow me. I don't really mind. Why should I? To each his own.
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