Before I really get into this, I feel like I should go into a little bit of back story on myself. I haven't always been the most avid reader. I'm not someone who reads 100 books a year and I'm not someone who's loved reading for my entire life. I've always enjoyed reading, and yes I did/do think of it as a hobby.. however, I used to read in phases. I'd read a few books in a span of 3 weeks and then not pick up another for months. That's just how my life has been. Because of that, I haven't always had the same process for choosing books. If a book stood out to me or if I had heard a lot about it, I would read it. And, that was that. Those were much simpler times.
A few months before I started my blog (which has only been up and running for a few months now), I got really into BookTube. If you're someone who reads my blog often, you'll probably notice that I mention BookTubers a lot and that's because I still spend a ton of time watching bookish videos on YouTube. One day within the next year I'll be starting a BookTube channel, but there are a lot of things that need to happen before I can reach that goal and feel comfortable starting my own. And, I'm getting off on a tangent. The point is that in watching so many BookTubers, I started hearing about a lot of the same books. And, these books were intriguing me. I found that I was suddenly gaining an insane TBR list. So many books, so little time!
All of that kind of brings us to today. I still have a massive TBR pile, but the amount of books I read per month has also increased greatly. I've taken reading from a minor hobby of mine to a major one and I'm really excited about it. That being said, I've also started my blog and heard about more and more interesting books along the way. It's sort of a vicious cycle that I'm sure you're all familiar with. Step one: Hear about a book from a blog or vlogger. Step two: Go out and find that book, read it. Step three: Enjoy the book (or not), and express my feelings about it in an outlet (my blog). Step four: Most likely inspire someone else to read that same book while at the same time finding more books to read. Step five: Repeat. And, that's just the way it goes here in the bookish community.
The point of all my rambling is that the main way that I find out what books I'm interested in or want to read is from other people who have read them. BookTubers are probably my main source of book lust and they provide a never-ending outpouring of books to add to my TBR. Now, let's get a little more specific. I watch a lot of book videos, and I would say the vast majority of Book Vloggers read almost entirely YA books. That means that the books they're talking about or recommending are catered to what I'm interested in. It's pretty rare for me to hear someone rave about a book and then decide that I don't want to read it (unless it's very contemporary and I'm just not in the mood.) However, I can definitely get turned off from a book if I hear someone I trust (like a BookTuber or blogger that I follow) ranting about why they didn't particularly like it.
Along that same line, there's the wonderful world of Goodreads. I typically have trouble getting excited about a book if it has a rating lower than 3.5 stars on Goodreads. I know that's kind of a bad habit, and I'm trying to break it.. but it's hard! A book has that rating for a reason. Yes, I know there are tons of flaws in the star rating system but that doesn't mean I can't still use it as a resource. The fact of the matter is that if enough people gave a book 1-2 stars I probably won't like it. And, if enough people gave a book 4-5 stars I probably will like it.
Finally, before I finish up, I want to touch on the topic of covers. I know they tell you not to judge a book by it's cover, but you kind of have to. It's just the same as being attracted to people. If someone isn't your type or doesn't please you aesthetically, you're not going to go up to them initially to start a conversation. It's just the same with books. If I see a really gorgeous book, I'm much more inclined to read the back and most likely purchase the book. For the sake of adding some images to this post, I'm going to show a few books below that I know I was initially drawn to based on the covers.
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| These were the first three books that came to mind when I thought about books with covers that pulled me in. It's no surprise that I'm attracted to eerie looking black and white covers. XD |
Ahh I have that problem too. Anything below a 4 for me on goodreads really pushes the book down on my TBR list. And this is really bad because how am I supposed to know what I think of it?
ReplyDeleteI tend to read the more hyped up books.
I am with you on the Goodreads pre-screening. I tend to look more at the written review to see why the person didn't like it and if it's something I think will also bug me, but if the overall rating is less than a 3, I am VERY wary.
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely a cover snob - but I also try to look past them sometimes. I'm always scouring catalogs months before books come out to plan what I'll read the next season but then I also love seeing what other friends are reading and finding out about books that way.
ReplyDeleteI also get really discouraged if a book has an average rating lower than 3.5 but I try to remember that lots of people love what I don't. And sometimes I hate a book that everyone else loves so I still make up my own decision if the book sounds good enough.