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Cheating on My Blog: Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella
I have a new review up at All About Romance for Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella. Check it out!
I know I haven't been reviewing so much for AAR in the last few years. There are a number of reasons. First, I was terribly burned out on romance, and nothing was really impressing me much any more. I felt like a killjoy giving B-'s and C's to books everyone was raving about, books other reviewers were DIKing or designating Best Romance. I had developed a callous toward the genre and nothing seemed to be penetrating; I didn't think that was really fair to readers who might think I was enthusiastic generally and was just panning specific books.
Second, I just couldn't read any more mediocre books. If you review, you have to finish books - crappy books, uninspired books, cliché books. You have to read all of the crappy, uninspired, cliché pages. This wasn't so bad when I wasn't burned out. It wasn't even so bad when I was still reading 15-20 books a month. If I was reviewing 4 books and they all stunk, well 4 out of 15 isn't too damaging. But when Max came, my reading time disappeared. I was reading 6-8 books a month. If you read 4 mediocre books for review and only 8 for the whole month, that means half of your reading is really forced, assigned reading. My hobby became a chore. It got to the point that when I received my review books I'd think, "I wonder which of these stink the least?" The excitement wasn't there.
Also, since I was reading so much less I was discovering fewer new authors, fewer buried treasures. I didn't feel like I had anything great to share. It seemed less important to review books when what I was doing, generally, was panning lesser-known titles for non-priority books. C- reviews probably no one was reading anyway.
I started blogging about books here mostly when I read books that weren't really within AAR's spectrum: non-narrative nonfiction. Or when I had a more negative opinion about a book already reviewed there (I feel like such a killjoy posting a second, more critical review, like I'm somehow "negating" the first review or dimming the celebratory mood.). Or if I wanted to talk about another book by an author I'd already overreviewed there (Seidel, Cabot, etc.). Recently I've been writing reviews of my favorite romances, most of which (so far, all of which) have reviews at AAR. It may not be important that there's another "DIK" review of The Windflower out there on the internet, but it was important to me to be able to write down my feelings for such a beloved book. My Top 100 Romances list just felt unfinished without including my comments about this wonderful book. #1 with no attached review? That was just wrong. It is my eventual goal to have reviews written for many more on my list, the top 25 at the very least.
All of these factors account for why I've reviewed so much less at AAR. But despite all of this, I haven't really taken myself completely out of the reviewer's ring. I keep hoping that I will make more author discoveries and be able to share them there or that I'll unslump someday soon.
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