The Reading Challenge Group discussion

Reviewing is something I think is one of the best things about Goodreads. They're usually really useful, and they often play a big part in my decision to read a book.

I know some people review every book they read, straight away. Others kind of block-write them, and some don't do them at all. It's a habit I'd personally love to develop, but I've got such a backlog I've been putting it off for ages!

Do you review every book? How important do you find them? If you could give one tip about writing reviews, what would it be?

I am aweful, never. I do my stars and I am done. I always read them. I think about doing it and I never do.

I write reviews sporadically. Sometimes I don't have anything to say beyond my star rating. Sometimes the other reviews are just so good/on-the-mark that I don't feel I can add anything. And sometimes I'm just too tired and plan to get back to it later. :P

Also, I try to keep my reviews relative short and never retell the story. I know long reviews are quite popular but, unless they are particularly funny or poignant, I just find them annoying. And the trend to add 'gifs' just makes me CRAZY. (Yes, a picture is worth a thousand words... We don't need either in your review!) Since I am usually accessing via smartphone, the inclusion of animation means I won't read your review.

I can't deal with the gifs either! It just totally ruins the review for me, plus they seem really really popular.

I review when I have something to say or if I feel passionate about it. For books which have been reviewed a million times, I usually don't say anything if I don't add to the discussion.
I try to review each book I read, but sometimes I'm not in the mood. I tend not to read reviews before I read a book as I want to make up my own thoughts and opinions, but I like reading reviews after having read a book to see what everyone thinks about it.

For me, Goodreads is a log of my books, and that includes what I thought about them. So I try to review every book, BUT only as long as they're still fresh on my mind. This is why I mostly don't review books I read prior to joining. There are even some books I have read, but I haven't even added to my shelves, because I don't remember enough about them to rate them. (And then there are some books, like Roth's The Ghost Writer, which I read before I joined, and that pissed me off so badly that I just had to leave a flaming bag of po a 1-star review.)

I like reviews. I like witty reviews. I even like reviews that include GIFs if the reviewer deploys them well. The top rated review of the first Fifty Shades of Grey book has GIFs, and I read it from time to time because it's still as funny as the first time.

I would love to write witty reviews, but I learned long ago that I'm just not a witty person. It's better that I don't try. xD

One tip I would give for writing reviews is to think of what you want to say about the book as you're reading it. Then you can write about that, and either correct your first impressions, or talk about why they were reinforced.

In the end, while I enjoy when people click like on my reviews (please keep doing it! :D), they are for me alone. I want to be able to go back to a book in ten years and be able to say what I got from it, how it affected me, etc. I know from experience that if I don't put it down, I won't always remember that.

Never, and I don't think I've read a single review since I joined GR... I just don't find any use in them. Sorry people who write reviews.

Summary reviews annoy me, I don't need to be told 50 times what the book is about...

Occasionally I will write a review but that is generally limited to those books where I feel a star rating just isn't enough to explain my thoughts. However when I do write one, I write it as a quick view...meaning that if someone else does happen to read it, they will be able to get through my thoughts in a minute or less. I firmly believe that when people are reading reviews they are looking for insight on the book or to see how it made people feel rather than a re-telling of the book. I might be wrong on that point and sorry if I am! Long reviews and reviews that give a summary of the book annoy me.

I try to be as honest as possible without spoilers. If I feel that the book was neither here nor there, the stars are enough.

I review every book I read and finish and have been doing that since 2013. I just tell in mine what it is about in my own words and what I thought about it.

It has been ages since I've done a review here. I am something like 30+ books backedup for reviewing starting from about 2 or 3 years ago.

I review every book I read, on Goodreads as well as Librarything and Amazon. I even started a blog, The Thugbrarian Review, where I publish more extensive versions of my reviews. I have branched out and have started reviewing all of the new music releases that I listen to as well. If you really love a book, the best thing you can do is tell people why, this way, more people will support the author, and good writers can continue to write great books

That's really interesting, Joseph! I never thought of reviewing music before!

What kind of music do you listen to?

It irks me that all of the top reviews are the ones with a lot of gifs. Some of them are witty, but I just want to know about the book, not sift through the 10 gifs of your emotions building up to when you read the book.

I used to review my books when I started on goodreads, but lately I've not been in the mood. However, I always try to review books with fewer reviews on them.

*Must now look up the top rated review for Fifty Shades.*

Holly wrote: "That's really interesting, Joseph! I never thought of reviewing music before!

What kind of music do you listen to?"

Hi Holly, I listen to everything from Ambient to Post-Punk, and from Classical and Jazz to Heavy metal. I like all kinds of music.

Renee wrote: "I write reviews sporadically. Sometimes I don't have anything to say beyond my star rating. Sometimes the other reviews are just so good/on-the-mark that I don't feel I can add anything. And someti..."

I'm with you Renee, short and sweet and I really do not want to give anything away, just show my enthusiasm for a good book.

I review every book I read for my own personal records, but I don't always make my reviews public by posting them on Goodreads. When I do make them public, it's usually because I either know someone who is interested in the book, or I feel that people SHOULD be interested in the book, or I just feel strongly about the book in one way or another and want to share my opinion with others.

Quite often my reviews are just a few words to say whether I liked the book or not, but sometimes I get a little gushy if it's a book I really loved or a little ranty if it's a book I hated, and other times I can get carried away with quotes if it's particularly well-written.

One tip - I agree with many of the comments already made, that you don't need to summarize the book in a review for Goodreads. If you're writing a book report for class or a professional book review for a magazine or something, sure, by all means, summarize the thing. But every book on Goodreads tends to have a summary right there on the book's main page, and when all of its reviews also give the summary on the very same page, it gets a little aggravating. Just share your thoughts on the book, using everyday speech patterns but as little foul language as you can manage, and put your spoilers behind a spoiler tag.

I tend to write reviews for only those books which I find especially good or exceptionally bad.

I am trying to get better about writing reviews. Initially I was a little intimidated by the fact that many reviews sounded like they were written by professional critics; however, as others have mentioned, I quickly began to find the overly verbose a tad exhausting. Especially those that included lengthy summaries... ugh, quit!!

Ultimately I felt that I should contribute since I read other's reviews so often, ya know, give something back. Also, I wanted a record of my thoughts on past reads that I could easily access. I try to keep them pretty brief.

Being new to GR and the world of reviewing, I did go overboard trying to review every book that I read. Also, my reviews tend to be long although I try to stick to a structure, which includes personal feelings, characters, story or plot and of course writing.

I try not to write lengthy reviews for every book but restrict them to those books that have had an impact on me or those that I definitely don't want people reading.

However, I am trying to get out of the habit of reviewing all books and sticking to reviewing only the important ones - but like all habits, this one is really hard to kick!

When I write reviews (books, CDs, DVDS whatever) I usually start off with a quote from what I am reviewing. It at least gets me into the mood if nothing else. If I have picked a good quote it will give the reader an idea of the style of the book (or album whatever). From then it varies as to how/what I write. Sometimes I go into great detail about it and have to include spoiler tags, other times I just give my views opinions on the piece. Sometimes I give a little background of the author or how I discovered the piece I'm reviewing sometimes I don't. I usually try to write brief, but not too brief reviews. I also try not to drag on and on. As I said my reviews vary in style and also in length.

I like the idea of a few words to sum'up my thoughs about a book, even if I didn't think it was THAT good. It's like : a book equals a review.

But I never speak about the story and I never do spoilers. I just give my impression about the atmosphere, the writting, my general opinion. Always in brief review.

I write a review for every book I read, but they are probably the shortest reviews in history! I never go over a sentence or two, and they are usually even shorter than that.

Finally got round to reviewing a book! Finally!

Congrats Holly! Which book did you review?

I review just so I can remember my thoughts on the book later. I usually include quotes I want to remember and I try not to include too much detail on the plot. The only books that I don't review (much) are ones that I've read in the distant past and am only including for 'historical' purposes.

Since around August I'm trying to write reviews for every book I read, but they are more likely a simple collection of my thoughts about the book than a professional review. I'm mostly doing it to get some English practice 'cause I can't use it at work and I don't want to forget what I learned once. :)

I only have a handful of reviews, which is terrible. My ratings reflect how I felt during and after reading a book, or how it's impacting my life (made me fall in love with a genre, an author, or reading in general, for example). I don't think a simple star rating communicates that very well.

I was initially intimidated by these reviews that seem ready for publication, then I realized...I usually skip them because they give too much away, spend too much time talking about things other than the book, or generally waste a lot of space & time being something other than a regular person's opinion of a book.

I am satisfied with the very skimpy reviews that have one or two lines, as long as it touches on what matters to me (heroine is soooo whiny, needless graphic sex every other page, terrible editing/formatting, etc).

I also take the time to 'compare books' with a reviewer if they've given a book I'm interested in a poor review. If we tend to share similar ratings, then I feel I can trust their opinion. To me, that is more valuable, and less time consuming, than a lengthy review.

And I don't mind the gifs. I can usually tell if I'll hate a book by the number of gif-laden reviews. Saves me even more time.

Holly wrote: "Reviewing is something I think is one of the best things about Goodreads. They're usually really useful, and they often play a big part in my decision to read a book.

I know some people review eve..."

I tend to go through the bad habit of doing big reading splurges but not being in the mood to review the books. Then I can go through reviewing splurges later. I especially hate doing that with series - you get them mixed up if you wait to review five books in a series at once.

I review every book I read.

I review any book that I have something to say about - positive or negative - when time allows. Sometimes I write a review some time later, due to time constraints.