Category: Book Blogger Hop Page 4 of 6

This prompt was submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver’s Reviews:

If you are listening to an audiobook, do you follow along with the print version?

Gah! No. That would drive me nuts. Granted, the last time I tried that was when I was a little kid—I had a few of those “read along” books that had the super-flimsy and square vinyl records in the back (I distinctly remember one that went along with The Empire Strikes Back, but I had others, too) and one or two on cassette (the only one I can remember is a Disney’s Robin Hood that included a possibly-abbreviated version of “Oo-De-Lally”). But even then, I would read faster than the record/tape and it was too complicated to synchronize.

I had the same problem in school when we’d take turns reading paragraphs/pages out of a book as a class—I’d tune out my classmates and end up a few pages ahead of everyone and get in trouble when I didn’t know what to read when it was my turn. Which has nothing to do with the topic at hand, it just came to mind.

Reading speed aside, if I’m listening to an audiobook, I want to take in the characterizations and voice of the narrator, if I’m reading a book, I want to be immersed in the words and the way it “sounds” in my head. I’d end up spending too much of my mental RAM comparing the audio/print experiences to get anything out of it at all.

I’ve also never tried the whole Whipsersync thing where you bounce back and forth between a Kindle and Audible version of a book. I think that’d throw me—if I start in one format, I’m going to finish in it.

I’d like to see why someone would read along, specifically what benefit they get from it. Hopefully, a few people responding to this prompt do it. It’s such a foreign concept to me, but I’d love to see what it looks like in someone else’s shoes—er, headphones.

What about you?

This prompt was submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver’s Reviews:

Do you listen to audiobooks? If so, do you prefer listening instead of reading?

“Books on Tape” (what people of a certain age grew up knowing audiobooks as) weren’t really something I was much aware of growing up. In college my friends and I would hit up a truck stop on the drive home, you could rent one (like a Videotape/DVD) and return it to that truck stop/another one for a couple of bucks. Those made the drives a little more entertaining—assuming you and whoever you were riding with could agree on one. Most often, the length of the book determined if you’d rent it—why get a book you couldn’t listen to on the way home—or maybe over the round-trip, assuming you weren’t driving home for the summer. It was primarily a service for truck drivers, obviously, but hey, we’d take advantage of it, too. But beyond that? I didn’t listen to them.

But the first time I tried to listen to one outside of that was a disaster. I was working the graveyard shift and there wasn’t a whole lot for me to do—but I figured I could move around and do my paperwork and whatnot while listening. And that worked fine. But when I sat down for a minute between tasks (and there was a lot of that time), the audiobook was like listening to someone read me a bedtime story and I couldn’t stay awake. Which is pretty much the opposite of what I needed at 2 a.m. I really didn’t have time outside of that to listen to one—and I wasn’t taking road trips then, so I didn’t have time for one (and I think truck stops weren’t renting them anymore by that point).

Fast-forward a decade, and I’m working a day job (phew!!) that involved a lot of data entry that I didn’t need to think much about—and I could only listen to so many podcasts in a day before getting burned out. So I tried my library’s Overdrive services, and never looked back. I’m not in that job anymore, but I’ve found ways to keep listening while I work (although I do hit pause when I come to something that takes a little thought, I don’t want to miss anything) and will find time to listen every weekday. I have an audiobook in progress at all times nowadays and have a healthy library of my own titles.

I love audiobooks now and have a decent list of go-to narrators (and have even tried a couple of books I was on the fence about just because of them). I’m not sure that I could just sit and listen to an audiobook like I tried to do at work years ago—I think I’d still fall asleep. But while working, cleaning, cooking, driving? It’s a great way to keep moving on my TBR, try out a new series, or revisit a favorite. I also tend to do better with listening to Non-Fiction than I do reading them—I think I’m just more willing to devote the listening time than the reading time to it. I’m not sure I can explain that.

But on the whole, I prefer the experience of reading myself, not being read to—not just because I generally stay awake while doing that. It’s easier to stay in a passage and think about it—to flip back and double-check something, etc. Because I’m not multi-tasking I can get sucked in deeper (although some authors/narrators make it so that I’m close enough that I don’t care).

While I’m talking (far too much, I realize) about audiobooks, let me take a moment to say that Libro.fm is my preferred source of audiobooks, check them out!

What about you—are you an audiofile?

This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:

How many books do you buy per month?

I’m not sure I really want to think about this. It’s hard to stay in denial if I produce receipts.

I didn’t do a good job tracking this in the past (it’s easier to live in denial if you don’t track it). But I have pretty decent records for the last two years, and I’m averaging out at 12 a month.

I have to say that’s better than I feared (I am at 10 already for July, but 8 of those came in a set, so I’m not out of control. Really. Right? Please say I’m right.).

That’s a combination of audiobooks, e-books, and physical books. The breakdown for each medium varies from month to month—it’s probably safe to say at least 2 per category and then a mixed bag for the other six.

What about you—how disciplined are you?

This prompt was submitted by Cheryl @ I Heart Fictional People:

What is your favorite movie adapted from a book?

Immediately, I thought of The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II, then Goodfellas jumped to mind. Those three have to be contenders, right? Stardust is a lousy adaptation, but a movie I can’t get enough of. There’s Jurassic Park, of course. I loved the first three of Jackson’s Tolkein adaptations, and I think it’s best if we don’t talk about the others. To Kill a Mockingbird is practically perfect. I was trying to decide among all of these, and wasn’t getting very far. I could talk about great movies that are adapted (I could really talk about movies of various qualities that are bad adaptations), but my favorite? That’s hard to narrow down.

And then I glimpsed a cover…a stupid, ugly, movie tie-in cover of a book I’ve read so many times that the cover could fall off it the next time I open it. I love the book, and the movie is one I can watch and enjoy at the drop of a hat. And how can I not? It’s got a little of everything…fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles…

William Goldman is one of the best screenwriters of the 20th century, and his novels were pretty good, too. His adaptation of his own novel is just fantastic. I could go on for a bit here, but who has that kind of time?

I’d be remiss while talking about this movie to not mention As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes with Joe Layden. Fans of the movie need to read this.

What’s your favorite adaptation?

This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:

What is your reading preference – fiction or nonfiction?

I’ve unintentionally taken a couple of weeks off, thankfully, this is an easy way to come back—because it’s essentially crunching a few numbers. By Non-Fiction, I’m including history, biography, autobiography, memoir, humor collections, essays, science, literary/film criticism, theology…eh, pretty much anything that’s not in the 800s in the Dewey Decimal system (and even some of it). With Fiction, I’m including novels, novellas, short stories, children’s picture books, and comics/graphic novels (other than things like Maus and Persepolis).

It helps that I do a year-end table (and monthly for a while now, too) showing the breakdown by genre, so it didn’t take too much work to tweak it into a Fiction vs. Non-Fiction Graph.

If you ignore 2012 (and I don’t know what I was doing there with only 10% Non-Fiction), I average out at 21% Non-Fiction, 79% Fiction. I’d like to think I read more Non-Fiction than that, but honestly, I’m happy it’s that much.

On second thought, that’s not what the question asked, is it? The question wasn’t “What do you read more of?” was it? It was “What is your reading preference?” There’s little better in the world than a well-written Non-Fiction book. I’ve re-read The Right Stuff and The Last Chance to See innumerable times—ditto for The Big Picture by A. Whitney Brown. The books I’ve listed in Just a Spoonful of Sugar—Non-Fiction to Smile With and Learn From* are a real pleasure to read. A well-written biography is dynamite. And so much of the theology that I read does more for my heart and soul than my mind. I could go on here, but I guess I’m trying to say that I love reading a good Non-Fiction book.

* An updated version is due in a few months, but I’m giving myself a chance to add a couple more entries to it first.

Now, I did say “there’s little better in the world than a well-written Non-Fiction book.” Chief among that “little” would be a well-written novel. My preference is definitely fiction—my practice reflects my preference.

The danger in writing these Book Blogger Hop responses in a pretty stream-of-consciousness fashion is that it ended up taking me 421 words and a bar graph to get to the point rather than saying, “Fiction,” and moving on.

What do you want for nothin’? A Rubber Biscuit?

What about you—what’s your poison?

This prompt was submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver’s Reviews:

What is your method for writing reviews – do you write immediately after reading, wait a few days, or write as you are reading?

Write as I’m reading? Wow. There are people who do that? I hope some of the responses to this prompt are people talking about how they pull that off, I’d like to see that. Occasionally, I’ll leave myself a note along the lines of, “be sure to mention _____”—sometimes that will end up taking the form of a phrase or maybe a sentence or two—and those almost always never make the posted write-up. I might be more efficient if I could write about a book while reading (obviously not simultaneously…but that would be super-cool, I’d probably have to pop the same pills as Eddie Morra to pull that off).

Occasionally, I’m so excited and/or provoked enough that I start writing a post minutes after reading a book. And I have been known to close a book and start writing straight away because I have a Book Tour stop the next day, sure, let’s be honest (I’ve gotten much better about that lately…I think).

Typically, though, I like to give myself a day or two to let the thoughts marinate—what parts of the book do I want to talk about? What do I want to say about those parts? Are there things I want to emphasize? Things I want to downplay? Did I actually enjoy this or that aspect? How much energy/time do I want to expend on the book? Once I start writing, that goes out the window—I’ll end up spending more of both than I budgeted if I get on a roll/think of something new I wanted to talk about. Or, like with In a House of Lies last week, I realize I just don’t have anything interesting* to say.

* For the sake of discussion, we’re going to posit that I have anything interesting to say ever.

What about you?

This prompt was submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver’s Reviews:

Do you use the Kindle app on your phone or iPad for reading e-books?

Primarily, I use my phone’s Kindle app to look up/verify a quotation or character name, etc. I really don’t like reading things longer than a typical Facebook post on my phone.

But if I’m stuck somewhere waiting for something and didn’t think to bring a book/would’ve caused problems to walk in with a book, sure. That includes:
Doctors’ waiting rooms
Long lines at a gas station/car wash
Hospital labs
School orchestra concerts (when my kids weren’t on stage)
Jiffy Lube/Tire Shop waiting rooms
School plays (only during intermission or before it started, I promise!)
Family get-togethers
That one time when I forgot my wallet when I took my wife out for her birthday, so she drove home and back so we could pay for dinner…

There was one time when I was stuck somewhere for a couple of hours without my Kindle and I finished my paper books, so I had no choice.

Huh. I guess when you look at it like that, yeah, I guess I do use my phone app to read. This ended up going somewhere I didn’t expect when I started.

What about you?

This prompt was submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer:

Do you drink tea or coffee while reading?

Yes.

Phew, that was easy. See you next week!!

Seriously, yes, I’ll drink tea or coffee while drinking. Or water. Or an adult beverage. Or…okay, that’s pretty much it, right? There aren’t a lot of other options. I don’t have a go-to beverage while I’m reading–pretty much whatever is on hand, or what I’m in the mood for at the moment.

This is something I’ve thought a little about (which I admit is odd, who spends time thinking about drinks?). A couple of years ago, I wrote a little about Dryad Teas Dresden Files varieties. I still like the idea of teas based on fictional characters and would like to find some more, just to try. Anyone have any recommendations?

I also wrote a post called Pairing Potent Potables with your Perusals of Prose, where I tried to think of perfect beverage/literature combinations. I’ve tried a couple of times to update it, but haven’t found anything that worked.

So, yeah, I have committed DWR, and will do so again, without compunction.

What about you?

This prompt was submitted by Heather @ MM Romance Reviewed:

Do you post negative reviews?*

* I don’t see 99% of what I post about books here as a “review.” I still see Reviews as something that a professional does, in a professional manner. I’m an amateur who writes in a very casual manner. But I know I’m pretty much alone in this point of view, so for the sake of this post, I’ll use the commonly accepted usage.

There are books that are bad. Those need to be recognized as such. There are books that don’t appeal to a reader for whatever reason. Those should be acknowledged and discussed—hopefully with an eye to the positive as well as the negative. It’s okay not to like things. I personally think it’s a little strange how much some people enjoy not liking things, but that’s not for me to judge. I tend to prefer liking books, life is more enjoyable that way. But sometimes I just can’t. And that’s good. That’s the way it ought to be in this world of differences.

If I invest the time to read something, then you’d better believe I’m going to write about it—I need stuff to write about to keep this thing going.

Less pragmatically, I write to help me think about a book–and if those thoughts end up in a negative place, then I’m going to write a negative post.

But more importantly, if readers of my posts are to take me seriously when I say, “I think this is good,” or “I recommend it.” They should know that there are things I don’t think are good, things I don’t recommend. It’s easier to gauge how much weight to give a positive take on a book when you know how they react dimly to something.

Sure, I get that some bloggers don’t want to do anything negative—either because they’re inherently or deliberately encouraging, they think there’s too much negativity in the world already, or they’re firmly in the “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all” camp.* I get it, I understand it, and support their decision. Still, when deciding if I’m going to read a book I’m on the fence on, they’re not likely to sway me.

* Back on my personal blog years before I started this one, I posted a response to the Spider-Man “One More Day” storyline that consisted of 3 pages of line breaks to make it very clear how much there was that I couldn’t say anything about. Sticking to the letter of the law, but trashing the spirit.

And, as almost always comes up in a discussion like this—sometimes someone will read a negative post that I or someone else writes and say, “I can see where they might not like X, but it sounds interesting to me.” I know I’ve read books that other bloggers have trashed because of something they said.

Do you promote those reviews if you post?

I’m not sure that I promote posts at all—I know I ignore Facebook’s repeated suggestions to pay for promotion. Do I share them on social media sites? Sure–I tweet the links and post them on Facebook. I post the reviews to Goodreads, StoryGraph, Hardcover, LibraryThing, and whatever other bookish sites I’m using/trying. If that counts as promotion, then yes I do. Why wouldn’t I?

What about you?

Book Blogger Hop

 

This prompt was submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver’s Reviews:

Do you finish reading every book that you have slotted for a review?

Step One in answering this is determining what the question means by “slotted.” Really, every book I pick up I plan on blogging about—the whole point of this endeavor is to keep me from treating books like disposable items and to think about them.

Once or twice a year, though, I just can’t finish a book because of time or interest. But those are books that I’ve told myself I’d blog about, so I’m not sure that counts as “slotted” (I don’t count them like that).

On the other hand, there are books that I’ve told others I’d blog about. If we’re talking about a NetGalley or Book Tour book, then yes, I finish it (sometimes I sacrifice sleep or mood to do so, but yeah, I’ll finish it). If it’s a book I agreed to blog about that an author/publisher/publicist sent me, then yes—that’s the deal I make with them: if they provide it, I’ll read it and talk about it. No matter what I think of it.

There’s been one exception to that—an author sent me a Space Opera trilogy. I read 2.3 (or so, I don’t remember exactly) of the books, and had pretty positive things to say about the first two. I wasn’t crazy about the third, but I was curious about where the story was going to end up and had faith in the overall plot. Then everything fell apart and I just had to stop, I couldn’t force myself to continue.

That was almost five years ago, however, and I’ve been doing this for about 9 years. I figure I can make one exception to my rule. I don’t have real numbers, nor do I have time/inclination to get them–but I figure I’m north of 99% on completion.

This, I guess is just a long-winded way of answering, “Yes.”

What about you?